Before you can submit visits, you first have to to create a client on Loula.
You may create a client clicking the the Create Client button on the Home page or on the Clients page.
To create a client, you will be taken through the following steps:
Basic Information
Insurance Card
Insurance Subscriber
Additional Insurance
Client Details
Review & Create
What you need to collect from your client
Before you create a client on Loula, make sure to collecting the following information from your client:
Required fields:
Client's Legal Name
Date of Birth
Health Plan Name
Whether the specific plan they have is Medi-Cal or Commercial
Member ID
Group ID (if applicable)
Front of client's insurance card (photo or scan)
Insurance cards are required. If your client is still waiting for their card or has lost it, use this guide to find alternative forms of documentation.
Back of client's insurance card (photo or scan)
Sex (as recorded on medical record)
Home Address
Phone Number
Email Address
Estimated Due Date or Pregnancy End Date (i.e. date of delivery)
Optional fields:
Client's preferred name
Client's pronouns
Client's race/ethnicity
⚠️ For all clients, especially Commercial clients, you need to ask who the client has their health insurance through.
If the client's insurance is through someone else (i.e. spouse, parent, etc.), you will need to also collect the Insurance Subscriber information:
Subscriber's Legal Name
Subscriber's Date of Birth
Subscriber's Member ID
Subscriber's Group ID (if applicable)
Subscriber's Sex (as recorded on medical record)
Subscriber's Phone Number
Subscriber's Address
⚠️ For all clients, you should also ask the client if they have any additional insurance coverages.
If they have an additional plan, you should collect the following information and add the plan in the Additional Insurance step:
Health Plan name
Member ID
Group ID
Front and backs of client's insurance card
Insurance subscriber
Subscriber's Legal Name
Subscriber's Date of Birth
Subscriber's Member ID
Subscriber's Group ID (if applicable)
Subscriber's Sex (as recorded on medical record)
Subscriber's Phone Number
Subscriber's Address
Create client: a step-by-step guide
Basic Information
For the first step of this flow, you will need to
1. Fill in the following fields:
Client’s First Name
Client’s Last Name
Client’s Date of Birth
Client's Sex
Client’s Health Plan
Depending on the health plan selected, there may be a few follow up questions (see below)
Client’s Insurance Member ID
At this step, answer if the client’s insurance card includes a Group ID. If it does, provide the Group ID.
If the Health Plan selected has both Medi-Cal and Commercial plans, you will be prompted to indicate if the client has a Medi-Cal plan or a Commercial plan.
When you are done with this step, click Next.
It’s important to get this information correct or else there will be delays in verifying your client’s insurance.
Plan-specific questions
If you selected Health Net
You will be asked to confirm whether or not Molina is listed on the client's insurance card
Loula cannot currently accept Molina clients
If you selected L.A. Care
You will be asked to confirm whether or not Blue Shield is listed on the client's insurance card
If so, the client must be created as a Blue Shield of CA Promise Health Plan client
You will also be asked to select which specific L.A. Care plan this client has
L.A. Care PASC-SEIU Homecare Workers Health Care Plan
L.A. Care Medi-Cal
L.A. Care Covered
L.A. Care Medicare Plus (HMO D-SNP)
Doula services are not covered by this plan
Insurance Card
Note: If the client you inputted already exists in our system, you will be taken instead to the Shared Clients step. You will be prompted to Add client instead of creating a client.
Upload:
The front of the client’s insurance card
The back of the client’s insurance card
Insurance Subscriber
Note: If your client only has a Commercial plan, you will go directly to the next step — Client Details.
On this step, select the Insurance Subscriber.
The Insurance Subscriber is the person who holds the insurance policy. You may select one of four options:
Client
Client’s spouse
Client’s parent
Other
‘Other’ may be applicable if the client is in a domestic partnership or if the client has any other dependent relationship to the insurance subscriber.
If you’ve indicated that the insurance subscriber is Client’s spouse, Client’s parent, or Other, you will be prompted to provide:
Subscriber's Name
Subscriber's Date of Birth
Subscriber's Member ID
Subscriber's Group ID (if applicable)
Subscriber's Sex
Subscriber's Phone Number
Subscriber's Address
When you are done with this step, click Next.
Additional Insurance
On this step, indicate whether or not the client has another insurance plan in addition to the health plan you have indicated.
Always ask if your client has any additional insurance. This is especially relevant if your client has a Medi-Cal plan.
For example, your client may have a plan via their employer, their spouse, or their parent. Or, the client may receive veterans benefits and have an additional health plan through TRICARE.
If you’ve indicated that the client has additional insurance, input or upload:
Insurance name
Type in the full name of the client's insurance in the look up field. If you can't find the health plan in the lookup, use the support chat bubble on the lower righthand corner, and we'll locate the correct plan name for you.
Front of Insurance Card (Upload)
Back of Insurance Card (Upload)
Member ID
Group ID (if applicable)
Insurance Subscriber - if the Insurance Subscriber is someone other than self, you will be asked to provide:
Subscriber's Name
Subscriber's Date of Birth
Subscriber's Member ID
Subscriber's Group ID (if applicable)
Subscriber's Sex
Subscriber's Phone Number
Subscriber's Address
When you are done with this step, click Next.
Client Details
The final step before you review what you’ve inputted is to input additional client details.
Provide the following information for the client:
Client's Preferred First Name (optional)
Client's Pronouns (optional)
Client's Address
Client's Phone Number
Client's Email
Client's Pregnancy Status
Select Prenatal or Postpartum
Estimated Due Date (if Prenatal is selected)
Pregnancy End Date (if Postpartum is selected)
The Pregnancy End Date for many cases is the date the client delivered (i.e. the baby’s date of birth). If the pregnancy ends in an abortion or miscarriage, the ‘Pregnancy End Date’ is the date client this miscarriage or abortion occurred.
If the client is already postpartum, please ensure the Pregnancy End Date is accurate!
We use this date to calculate when the client is eligible until for doula services. Clients are eligible for doula services for up to a year after their pregnancy ends.
You will also be asked to provide the following:
Whether or not a client is a referral (Y/N)
Client's Race/Ethnicity
This field is required, but you may select Not sure/Decline to identify
In this step, you will also be prompted to attest that you understand the client must consent to electronic communications if you want to bill for them on Loula.
Learn more about the client's consent to electronic communications here.
When you are done with this step, click Next.
Review & Create
Review the information you have provided.
If you want to edit any information, use the Edit button. When you click the button, you will be taken back to the step the Edit button corresponds with.
If you've clicked the Edit button, use the Next button at the bottom right of the page to continue through the remaining steps. Make sure to fill in any additional fields that may appear as a result of your edits.
To create the client, attest to the following two statements:
I have not billed for this pregnancy independent of Loula
I confirm that the information inputted is accurate and matches what’s on the client’s insurance card.
Then, click Create client.
Client Profile and Insurance Verification
A Client Profile has now been created for this client.
Your client's insurance verification is now under review. It may take up to 3 business days to verify your client's insurance. Once we have an update on your client's insurance, you will receive an update via email.
Currently, we are manually verifying your client’s insurance information. It maybe take up to 3 business days to verify your client’s insurance.