Commerce Benefits Group

Online Reporting Instructions

 

 

Glossary of Terms at end of document.

 

 

 

Last Revision: 02/25/2004

 

**To access CBG’s online reporting you must first request a user name and password from your Client Service Representative.

 

Once your user name and password have been provided, you can gain access by going to:

 

http://www.commercebenefitsgroup.com

 

Once there, click Client Services in the left menu bar.  Next click Online Reporting from the options list.  This will take you to the online reporting login screen (Fig. 1).

 

 

Fig. 1

 

Now enter your user name and password that were provided to you, and click Log In.  The Volume, Language, and Time Zone fields will already be populated, and do not need to be changed.

 

You will be automatically taken to the listing of available reports (the actual report listing may differ from those shown here), (Fig. 2)

 

*****IMPORTANT NOTE:  Many of the available online reports are run from an extracted report database that is 1 business day behind the live claims system.  As an example, if a claim is paid on a MONDAY, this claim will NOT appear on a report until TUESDAY.  Please keep this in mind when viewing these reports.

 

For a sample and description of what each report will provide, click the Report Descriptions link on the top toolbar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fig. 2

 

From this point click the underlined link of the report you wish to run to bring up the report request screen.  Example: to run a Census Report By Group, single click the underlined words “Census Report By Group” on the report listing.

 

You will now be at the report parameters screen (Fig. 3)

 

Fig. 3

 

 

 

 

The Parameter options will differ for each report, but below is a list of rules and definitions to follow when requesting any online report:

 

  1. The first two fields on every online report are the User Name and Password.  These are the same as you used to login to the online reporting system, and MUST be entered for data to display on your report.  If these fields are left blank, or you enter the incorrect user name or password, you report will show no information.

 

  1. Date Fields.  Most reports require some sort of date range to extract the data.  All Date fields need to be typed in the following format:  yyyymmdd (20031217) for December 17th, 2003 as shown in Fig. 3 above for the Today_Date field.

 

  1. Group From and Group To.  These fields are required and should be filled in with your CBG assigned group number(s) for which you wish to run the report.  The User Name and Password restrict what group numbers can be accessed, so it is not possible for one client to see another’s data.

 

  1. PHI is the option to show Private Health Information.  If “Y” is chosen, the report will display the SSN of the employee on the report.  If “N” is chosen, the report will either display a certificate identifier, or no identifier at all depending on the specific report.

 

  1. PrintToExcel is an option to format the output of the report so that it will be easily exported to an Excel spreadsheet (detail on this function later) in single rows.  If “Y” is chosen, the report will format itself for Excel export.  If you chose to print a report after choosing “Y’ the report will NOT fit on a printed page.  If “N” is chosen the report will format for a printed page.  Not all reports have this option for specific Excel formatting, but any online report can be exported to Excel as explained later in this document.

 

  1. Optional Fields:  These will vary per report.  In this example (Fig 3.)  there are the following:  Social Security, Underwriter, State, Insurance Product, and Product Tier.  These types of fields are filters, or criteria that will narrow the results of the data the report displays.  For example if the state ‘OH’ is entered on this report, the Census will only return employees that live in the state of Ohio.  In most cases, the optional fields are not needed, and you can simply clear that field.  If you do not clear those fields, the report will filter on whatever data you have left or entered on those optional fields.

 

  1. Fields that have default values for example purposes should be kept in the example FORMAT should you change the parameter.  Example:  (Fig. 3) The State field has ‘OH’ filled in by default including the single quotation marks around the word OH.  If you change the state to CA for California, then you must still use the single quotation marks ‘CA’.  If the field example does not have quotes or other characters, then enter your criteria the same way.  In short, format any parameter field just like the default criteria that is displayed when the parameter screen first displays.

 

Ad-Hoc Parameter Formats:

 

 

 

How Do I know if the parameter is Ad-Hoc?

 

            An ad-hoc parameter is identified by an arrow icon after the parameter box .  Here is a picture of what the icon will look like:

 

Here is an example of a parameter that is NOT ad hock:

 

Notice the  parameter box does not have an arrow after it. 

 

To use the ad hock functions below, click the arrow button referred to above.

 

 

 

What can I do with an ad-hoc parameter?

 

1.      Ranges

a.       The parameter can search a range of values.  This can be done by separating your range of values with a hyphen (-).  Here are a couple of examples:

                                                                                       i.      20040101-20040201

                                                                                     ii.      G56-G58

2.      Staggered Values

a.       The parameter can search a list of provided values that are not in order.  An example of when you might want to use this is if you want to run a report for 3 different days that are not in order.  Each value is separated by a pipe ( | ).  Here are a couple of examples:

                                                                                       i.      20040101|20040108|20040115

                                                                                     ii.      G56|G59|G63

3.      Exact Match

a.       This parameter will search for an exact match on your criteria.  An example would be when you only were looking for a specific date, or a specific group.  Each value is surrounded by single quotes ( ‘ ).  Here are a couple of examples:

                                                                                       i.      ‘20040101’

                                                                                     ii.      ‘G56’

4.      Partial Match

a.       This parameter will search for a partial match on your criteria.  This would be good for looking up a name that you did not know the spelling for, or pulling an entire year.  Here are a couple of examples:

                                                                                       i.      Sm

1.      This would pull anything starting with Sm in the name

                                                                                     ii.      2004

1.      This would pull all dates starting with 2004

5.      Logical Operators

a.       This will allow the user to specify >, <, <=, >= operators.  This would be good for pulling all dates greater then a certain date, or a range of group numbers that were greater or less than a specified group number.  Here are a couple of examples:

                                                                                       i.      >=’20040101’ – pulls records with a date greater than or equal to 20040101.

                                                                                     ii.      <= ‘G56’ – pulls records with a group number less than or equal to G56

 

 

Once all parameters have been entered click the Submit button in the lower right corner (Fig. 3).  This will run the report immediately and take you to the report results screen (Fig. 4).

 

*** Some reports take longer to compile than others.  The average is 1 minute or less for a single group running for a one month period.  Some reports may take up to several minutes to compile before all pages are available to be printed or exported.  In Fig. 4 you can see a report that has completed.  You will know it has completed if the Download and Print options on the top toolbar are highlighted WHITE.  If they are still a dim green color, then the report has not yet completed all pages.  The web screen will continue to refresh itself to see if the report is complete.  Once the Download and Print options are in White the report is complete.  You may then perform any of the following options: (continued on next page)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fig. 4

 

Finished Report Options:

 

  1. View pages using the First, Prev, Next, Last, and Goto buttons.
  2. Change zoom level by clicking the dropdown list next to the current zoom level.  Shown as 100% in Fig. 4.
  3. Search the report for specific items. Click the Search button and a new toolbar will open (Fig. 5).  Follow the instructions on screen to search a specific field.  Click on a field in the actual report windows that you want to search in, then enter the search keyword in the Value box on the search toolbar.
  4. The Download option (Fig. 6) is a very useful tool.  This will allow you to export the report to and Adobe PDF file or export the data to Excel for further manipulation.  The Excel export option does have a limit of 300 pages.  If a very large report is needed in Excel, please request it from your account contact.

-     To Save as a PDF, choose which pages you wish to save, then click Save PDF.  This will allow you to save the PDF file to your local hard drive.

-     To Export to Excel, choose which pages you wish to save, then click Export Table.  This will open a new window with the data in an Excel sheet (Fig. 7).  You can then go to the File menu and choose Save As to save the sheet to your local hard drive.

  1. The Print option will open a separate window and allow you to print the report to your local printer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fig. 5

 

 

 

 

 

Fig. 6

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fig. 7

 

When you are finished with the report, click the “X” next to the Help button on the report menu bar (Fig. 4).  This will return you to the Parameter screen.  To run the same report with different criteria, simply enter the new parameters in.

 

To go back to the Available Reports Listing to find another report click the Documents button on the left toolbar.

 

To exit online reporting, click Logout on the top menu bar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

 

 

 

Class / Plan – This is the benefit plan the patient is assigned to in our claims system.  Please contact your client representative for a definition of the plan codes used for your group.

 

Coverage Type – Coverage type is the level of family coverage the employee has for that specific product.  Code definitions below:

 

                CODE:                    Description:

                N                             Single

                C                             Employee + Child

                S                              Employee + Spouse

                F                              Family

 

 

Filter – A filter is defined as a criteria element entered at the time of the report request that will dictate what data is pulled onto the report.

 

Example:  If the a report has an available STATE filter, and the user enters “OH” for Ohio in this filter field, the report will only return records for the state of Ohio.

 

 

Insurance Product – This refers to a coverage type that a report may be filtered or grouped by.  The standard codes used in our system are listed below.  The “Code” itself is what the report will use.

 

                CODE:                    Description:

                MM                        Major Medical

                DE                           Dental

RX                          Prescription          

                VI                            Vision

                WI                          Short Term Disability

                LT                           Long Term Disability

 

 

Tier / Product Tier – The rate tier associated with the product’s coverage.  This will vary by client.  Please contact your company contact to determine what tier, if any, your reports should include.