Impact of Setting a Patient as Inactive
Patients can be marked inactive in Patient Setup > Demographics by unchecking the Active checkbox. Inactive patients are hidden from most day-to-day workflows, but their chart and history are kept. A patient can be made active again at any time by checking the box again.
This article covers the main known impacts of making a patient inactive. It is not a complete list. Other screens, reports or integrations may also treat inactive patients differently. If you see something unexpected, contact Support.
- Before inactivating a patient, check for upcoming appointments or open balances. The patient can't be found from scheduling or the EHR search once they're inactive.
- If a workflow doesn't behave as expected for a patient, check whether the patient is inactive before reporting an issue.
- Temporarily re-activate a patient to perform necessary actions that are not available once the patient is set to inactive.
At a Glance
| Area | Impact |
|---|---|
| Chart, documents, claims, billing history | ✅ Kept |
| Patient search (most screens) | ❌ Hidden |
| Patient Setup search | ✅ Still found |
| Patient Portal | ❌ Not eligible for new access |
| Reminders and outreach | ❌ Stopped |
| Automated eligibility (270) checks | ❌ Skipped |
| Connect reports and decision support filters | ❌ Left out |
| MIPS reporting | ✅ Not affected |
What Stays the Same
- All chart data, documents, claims and billing history are kept.
- The patient can still be found in Patient Setup search, so they can be reviewed or reactivated.
- The patient can still be selected in the Claim Submission Report patient filter.
- Recall Search still lists the patient and shows them as inactive.
What Changes
Patient Search
The patient will not appear in patient search on these screens:
- EHR (Beta) patient search
- Scheduling: Appointment, Add Appointment (including mobile), Check In/Out
- Recall Setup
- Document Reconciliation
- eDocument Save
- EHI Export
- PaySimple Credit Card
- Claim Modify
- Decision Support Intervention Feedback Report
In the EMR Portal and Schedule patient search, inactive patients are hidden by default. Users who have the user setting to include inactive patients turned on will still see them.
Patient Portal
- The patient is not eligible for new portal access and is left out of mass portal key generation.
- Authorized representatives are not listed when sending new portal mail.
Reminders and Outreach
- No appointment call reminders
- No intake reminders
- The patient is not included in the Updox patient sync
Eligibility
- Automated eligibility (270) checks for appointments are skipped.
Reporting
- The patient is left out of these Connect reports: Lost to Follow-up, Hospital Discharges, CKD ED Status and Multiple Diagnosis.
- The patient is left out of decision support patient filters.
- The active patient count in Patient Setup goes down.
Integrations
- External API patient verification fails for inactive patients.
- Their appointments are not returned to web-service appointment feeds.
MIPS Reporting
Not affected. MIPS includes patients based on qualifying claims (encounters) with a date of service in the reporting period. Making a patient inactive does not remove them from MIPS:
- Patients seen in the reporting year still count in MIPS quality and Promoting Interoperability measures, even if they're made inactive later.
- Making a patient inactive cannot be used to exclude them from MIPS reporting.
Auditing
Each change to the Active setting is recorded in Patient Demographics History, with the old and new value.
