Neos categorizes individuals or companies as Contacts, which can be added to a Case/Intake as a Party or Provider. This article describes the difference between Parties and Providers and how to manage contacts in the Address Book.

All contacts (individual or company) in your firm's Neos are contained in the Address Book, (formally Browse Providers). Contacts within the Address Book can be a Provider and/or Party or simply a name (not affiliated to a Case/Intake or Provider).

Every contact should only be listed once in the Address Book. If a contact exists in more than one entry, data on the Provider and the Case(s) where the Provider is associated can become inaccurate.

A duplicate name can include a name that was entered once as a Party and then entered as a Provider. Another example is if a Party is added to a Case, saved, then deleted only from the Case. Other staff may unknowingly add a new Party to the Case with the same name. This results in two entries of the same name (only one linked to a Case).

Use the Address Book to identify duplicate names. You can do this by sorting the grid by Full Name or by Address to find duplicates names with different IDs. Investigate any duplicates to determine which name record will be retained and which will be deleted.

To correct these issues, use the Replace Contact option in the Contact. This process replaces all occurrences with the selected name so that there is only one name in the Names directory.

The Party Tab organizes information about parties in a case. Parties can be a person or company.

When a person or company is added as a Party to a Case, they are added to the Address Book and by default as a Contact (without a Provider Role).

Parties that do not have a Provider Role in their Contact will not show any Provider fields in the details pane.

The Party's Provider Card is accessible from the Address Book or from the View Contact button in the Name Results Preview.

Changes made to the Party details (e.g., Phones, Addresses, Online Accounts, DOB, etc.) are automatically reflected in their Contact.

While changes can also be made directly on the Contact, you must first select and save a Provider Role. In Neos, Parties are contacts in a Case (i.e., Providers), which is why a Party will display in the Address Book.

However, Providers (i.e., names and contact details of people and organizations) are not always Parties in a Case. For example, Providers may be used in a Case (use List Provider Usage) on different tabs (e.g., Negotiation, Counsel, Insurance) but may not be listed as a Party of that Case.

Providers

The Address Book stores the ID, full name, aka name, default address, billing rate, and batch number of people and organizations that have provided a service in a Case, such as doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, adjusters, police departments, judges, lawyers, and referral sources. These types of contacts are deemed as "Providers".

On the Contact of a person or company, the Provider checkbox can be selected, which will display additional Provider-related fields to save.

Providers are stored using two code mini directories to standardize information for input in the Role and Specialty fields: Provider Role Mini Directory and Provider Specialty Mini Directory. Name details entered on the Provider will automatically update those fields of the Party Tab in a Case.