Why a session was declined

Your organization checks every session against the learner’s authorization, your assignment and the payer’s rules before it can be submitted. A session that fails a check is Declined, and the reason appears at the top of its General tab.

Some reasons you can fix yourself in Note, by changing the session’s date, time or location. Most need your office to change something in Chorus. This page covers both.

How the check works

1. When a session is scheduled or changed, it’s Pending validation, then Validating while your organization checks it.
2. It passes, or it’s Declined with a reason. One session can fail more than one check.
3. When you or your office fix the cause, the session is checked again.
4. Once it passes, open Settings and tap Sync now. The session becomes Ready to submit when it has its data and note.

Note

For office staff: in Chorus, a failed session shows a red banner on the encounter and the encounter service. Validation Failures in the clinical area lists every failure. Saving a fixed record re-runs the check. To re-check without changing anything, open the encounter service and click Rerun Validation.

Date and authorization

“Encounter Service date is not within authorized date range”

The session’s date is before or after the dates of the authorization service it’s linked to. This also happens when the authorization service has no end date.

• In Note: if the date is wrong, edit the session and correct it.
• Office: check the authorization service’s dates, or link the session to the authorization it belongs to. The learner’s contact page lists their coverages and authorizations.

Exceeds authorized units

The authorization service allows a set number of hours or units per week, per month or per authorization period. Every scheduled and submitted session on that authorization service counts toward it, whoever the provider, including future sessions that are already scheduled.

• One unit is usually 15 minutes. Weeks run Sunday to Saturday unless your organization changed this.
• Sessions dated before the authorization service starts still count against it if they’re linked to it.
• The hours bar in Note shows your assignment, not the authorization. A session can fail this check even when your bar has hours left.

Fix: shorten or cancel sessions so the total fits. The office can see every session that counts on the learner’s calendar. If the authorization itself is wrong, the office corrects it.

Exceeds assigned units

You’ve been assigned a set number of hours with this learner per day, week, month or assignment period. Your scheduled and submitted sessions together are over it. This is a separate check from authorized units, and a session has to pass both.

Fix: shorten or cancel sessions, or ask your office to change your assignment.

Session length

“Encounter service exceeds MUE Limit”

MUE is the most units of a service a learner can receive in one day. It counts every provider’s sessions for that service on that day, not just yours.

Fix: the office checks the day on the learner’s calendar and shortens or moves a session. When several providers see one learner, their schedules need to fit together.

“Encounter service duration exceeds the maximum units allowed”

This one session is longer than the service allows per session.

Fix: shorten the session. The limit is the maximum units on the service’s insurance plan benefit, multiplied by its unit of measure.

“Encounter service duration does not meet the minimum units required”

This session is shorter than the service requires.

Fix: correct the session’s times if they’re wrong. The limit is the Min Units Required on the insurance plan benefit.

Overlaps and supervision

Patient/Practitioner overlaps with another encounter

You, or the learner, have another session at the same time. Only these overlaps are allowed:

• a supervision session (Direction of Technician) during a direct treatment or group session,
• for the same learner,
• at the same location, or with one of them over telehealth.

Fix: change the times so they don’t overlap, in Note or in Chorus. If it’s a supervision overlap that should be allowed, check that both sessions use the same location (see below).

Supervision does not fully overlap direct care

A supervision session has to take place entirely during a direct care session with the same learner, at the same location or over telehealth.

• Times: the supervision session can’t start before or end after the direct care session.
• Location: both sessions have to use the same location record. Two locations can look the same but be different records. For example, a learner can have two entries called “Home” with the same address. Pick the identical entry on both sessions.

Fix: correct the supervision session’s times or location in Note and sync, or ask the office to fix it in Chorus.

Overlapping Direct Care Session was not yet Submitted

Your organization requires the direct care session to be submitted before the supervision session that overlaps it.

Fix: the provider of the direct care session submits it in Note. The supervision session is then checked again.

Provider and learner

Practitioner does not have required credentials

The service requires a qualification that the provider doesn’t have on file, or the qualification has expired. For example, the service may require a Behavior Technician or BCBA qualification.

Fix: the office adds the qualification, or updates its expiration date, on the Qualifications tab of the provider’s contact, then re-runs validation.

Patient is not a participant of the encounter

The service requires the learner to be present, but the learner isn’t listed on the session. This can happen when a participant was removed, or when the service was changed to one that requires the learner.

Fix: the office reactivates or re-adds the learner as a participant on the encounter.

Time limits and EVV

Encounter Service is not within Grace Period

Your organization requires sessions to be submitted within a set number of days, and this session is past it.

Fix: if your organization approves the late submission, an admin overrides the failure.

Visit not verified (EVV)

If the learner’s plan requires Electronic Visit Verification, Note has to record the real start and end time and the location. You see one of these reasons:

Reason	What happened
Exact start or end time was not tracked at time of service	Start Session or End Session wasn’t tapped on the day of the session.
Location was not tracked at time of service	The session wasn’t started or ended on the day, or the device didn’t have location access.
Start or end time does not match the start or end time tracked at time of service	The session’s times were edited after it was started or ended.
Location is too far from the approved service address	The device was outside the allowed distance from the service address when the session started or ended.

To avoid it: tap Start Session and End Session on a phone or tablet at the session, with location access turned on for Note.

Fix: if your organization approves the session anyway, an admin overrides the failure.

Overrides

An admin in Chorus can override a failure so the session can be submitted. Use this when the organization has approved the exception. The failure stays on record, and the session shows a yellow banner instead of a red one. Overrides can be done one at a time on the encounter service (Related → Encounter Validation Failures), or in bulk from Validation Failures.

Still declined after the fix?

1. Open Settings, tap Sync now, and wait for it to finish.
2. Ask your office to open the session in Chorus and click Rerun Validation.
3. If the reason doesn’t make sense for the session, email help@chorus.cloud with the session’s date, the learner, and the reason shown.

Related: Session statuses · Sign and submit a session · A provider can’t see a learner or session