Carriers and plans are totally different. You can have 50 plans that use the same carrier. However, When creating a NEW plan you have to type in the carrier name or go to the drop down. The drop down makes no sense to have as an option as it just shows you already existing plans that have been created. So typing in the Carrier name and address gives you a high chance that you are typing it in a little different than before and can create duplicates. I mean how do you know you are not creating a duplicate carrier? It would be nice to start with a plan name and then have a drop down of ALL carriers to choose from? Here you can have your list of just carriers ,not attached to existing plans, that you have already made with the PID, address and everything? BOOM! no chance of duplicates. And here you can see the difference between carriers. YOu can see if there are two bcbs of MT but with different phone numbers or addresses.
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When you have a new plan to add and the insurance company is one you already have, you don't have to create a new profile every time. 1st thing is to make sure the employer is already in your system if not l add it. If the insurance is Cigna simply select any current Cigna plan that has correct payor ID, address, phone # etc. Go into the insurance profile and change the employer and then remove the plan name, and group and fill in with the new plan name and group#. Everything else will already be created and correct. then click ok and the a window pops up do you want to edit existing plan or add as new and select add as new.