Red error screen, a page that won't load, a breakdown that won't submit — when Stratus stops working the first thing you want to know is whether it's you or it's us. There are three quick checks worth doing, and then we want to hear from you. Don't sit on it waiting to see if it clears.
Three quick checks
1. Is it one thing or everything? Click through to another tab — Patients, Appointments, Breakdowns. If every tab throws the same error, that's a different problem from one patient's breakdown failing to submit. Both are worth reporting; knowing which one you've got helps us a lot. If someone else in the office is on Stratus, ask whether they're seeing it too.
2. Is your practice software connection healthy? On Patients, look for the sync badge in the row of filters above the table; on Appointments, it sits next to the page title. If it says Sync failed or Connection failed, or the time on it is hours old, the problem is the connection to your office rather than Stratus itself. Check that the computer running your practice software is on and awake — that is the usual cause. If it says Connection failed, message us straight away — that one needs us to reconnect it. Force Full Sync next to the badge tells the next scheduled sync to pull everything rather than only recent changes; it won't restore a dropped connection on its own, and it doesn't start a sync immediately.
3. Is there a banner on screen? If we already know about a problem, we post a banner near the top of Stratus. It doesn't appear by itself — someone here has to put it up — so no banner doesn't mean nothing is wrong.
If the problem is that a breakdown won't submit
A breakdown that won't submit is usually a missing detail rather than a fault, and the Submit Breakdown button greys out rather than explaining itself. Check these four things on the request:
The insurance needs a policy or member number. This is by far the most common blocker. If the insurance record has no policy number, the button stays greyed out. Add the policy number to the patient's insurance first, then request the breakdown.
An insurance has to be selected from the Select Insurance list.
An NPI has to be selected from the Select NPI list.
The patient needs an upcoming appointment, or you'll be asked for an appointment date on the form.
One more that isn't a fault: if a full breakdown is already running for that same insurance, the button is greyed out and a message reads A full verification is already in progress for this insurance. Wait for the first one to finish rather than submitting again.
If it submits but then comes back failed: the most common cause is missing patient details the insurance company needs to identify the person — usually a date of birth on the patient, or on the subscriber when the patient isn't the subscriber (a child's record often looks complete while the parent's is missing a birthday). Check both, fix what's missing, and resubmit.
If everything above is filled in and you still get an error, that's one to send us — see below.
Then tell us
Use the chat bubble at the bottom right of any page. If you can't log in, the chat bubble won't be there — email [email protected] instead, or book a time from the Help page if you can still load it.
Include as much of this as you can:
What you were doing. "Submitting a full breakdown," "opening the breakdowns tab," "logging in."
What you saw, word for word. If there's an error message, type it out or send a screenshot — even the parts that look like gibberish. Those bits tell us the most.
One example. A patient name or a breakdown you can point us at beats a general description every time.
When it started, roughly. "About 20 minutes ago," "since this morning."
Who else it's happening to. Just you, everyone in the office, one computer, or all of them.
Whether it happens every time or only sometimes.
A screenshot with the whole browser window in it is the single most useful thing you can send.
What happens next
We check it. If it's affecting more than your office, we'll be on it already and we'll tell you so. If it's specific to your account, the details above are what let us find it quickly rather than asking you a round of questions first.
And if a patient is in the chair right now, say that in your first message. It changes how we handle it.