The Medicaid Data report now includes sessions where a student was marked Absent in Daily Data. This helps providers and administrators keep a complete record of scheduled services and avoid accidentally billing for sessions where the student was not present.
When will an absent session appear in the Medicaid Data report?
An absent session will appear in the report when a student is marked absent from Daily Data using either of these workflows:
1. Mark All Absent
Use this option when all students in a scheduled session block were absent.
A warning popup will appear to ensure
From the scheduled session, click Actions, then select Mark All Absent. Choose the appropriate Reason for Absence, then click Mark Absent.
All students in that session block will appear in the Medicaid Data report with an absent status.
2. Mark an Individual Student Absent
Use this option when only one student in a session was absent.
During an active therapy session, click the student’s name, select the Actions button next to their name, then choose Mark Absent. Select the appropriate Reason for Absence, then click Mark Absent.
Only that student will appear as absent in the Medicaid Data report. Other students in the same session will continue to display their logged service types.
Data loss warning
When marking students absent, you may see a warning before saving.
This is because marking a student absent will permanently delete existing goal notes, service types, and student notes for that session or full day.
Review the warning carefully, select the reason for absence, and check the confirmation box before clicking Save. This helps prevent accidental data loss before the absence is recorded and sent to the Medicaid Data report.
How absent sessions appear in the report
When a student is marked absent, the Medicaid Data report will automatically complete the following fields (see screenshot attached).
The Notes field pulls directly from the Reason for Absence selected when the absence was recorded.
Why are the Service Type and Notes fields locked?
For rows where Service Type = Absent, the Service Type and Notes fields are read-only in the Medicaid Data report.
This means these fields cannot be clicked, typed in, or manually edited from the report view. Locking these fields helps protect billing accuracy by preventing users from manually overriding absence information in the Medicaid report.
How do I change an absent entry?
To change an absence, return to the original session in Daily Data and update the student’s attendance status there.
For example, if a student was marked Absent but should be marked Present, update the attendance status in Daily Data.
Once the student is marked present and service information is entered, the Medicaid Data report will update to reflect the new service type, and the row will no longer be locked as an absent entry.
Important notes
If a group session has mixed attendance, the Medicaid Data report can show different statuses for students in the same session. For example, one student may show Direct Service while another student in the same session shows Absent.
If an absence is saved without a specific reason, the Notes field may remain blank, but the field will still be locked in the Medicaid Data report.
If Mark All Absent is used for a group of multiple students, each student will appear as a separate row in the Medicaid Data report for that date and time.