Configure authorization settings

Authorizations are the therapy hours a payer approves for a learner. BCBAs record them and follow how fast they are used: see Manage a learner's authorizations. Two clinic settings decide whether parents see those numbers too, and how a session's time is counted against them. They apply to every learner of your clinic.

Before you start

• Only org owners see these settings, and only in the web app. Both are in the Authorizations card of Settings > Organization.
• Both switches save as soon as you turn them. There is no Save button and no confirmation.
• The Clinic Timezone at the top of the same card decides which day a session counts on: see Set the organization's name and timezone.

Let parents see approved hours

1. Open Settings > Organization.
2. In the Authorizations card, turn Parent Visibility on or off. It is off for new clinics.

The message Parent visibility updated appears. If saving fails, Failed to update parent visibility appears and the switch goes back.

While it is on:

• Parents see an Approved Hours card on their dashboard in the parent portal on the web. It opens a page that shows, for each child and each active authorization, the funding source, the hours used and left, and the end date. The parent mobile app does not show authorizations.
• Parents get an email when an authorization is ending soon or nearly used up.
• Parents never see a label your staff typed, the notes, or who made changes.

While it is off, parents see no hours and get no reminders. Your staff's own notifications about authorizations do not depend on this setting.

Choose how sessions use up hours

In the same card, turn Consume Scheduled Hours on or off:

• Off, the setting for new clinics: a session uses up hours from its actual start and end times. Where a time was not recorded, the scheduled time counts instead.
• On: a session always uses up its scheduled times, whenever it actually started and ended.

The message Consumption time basis updated appears. If saving fails, Failed to update consumption time basis appears and the switch goes back.

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What happens next

• Parents see the change the next time their page loads. Nobody is told about it.
• After you change Consume Scheduled Hours, ABACare recounts the used hours of every learner's active authorizations in the background. For a short while, the numbers can still follow the previous setting. Completed authorizations keep their totals.
• How sessions count as used or scheduled, and which warnings BCBAs and org owners get, is described in Manage a learner's authorizations and Monitor authorization use across your learners.
• No history of either change is kept.

Related guides

• Manage a learner's authorizations
• Monitor authorization use across your learners
• Set the organization's name and timezone
• Set auto-complete and editing of submitted sessions