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Migration from Patient Demographics Endpoints to Insurance Versioning Endpoints

Comprehensive guide for migrating insurance from legacy Patient Demographics API insurance endpoints to the new Insurance Management System

Key Dates and Deprecation Timeline

  • Summer 2025 — New Insurance Policy Endpoints POST, PUT, DELETE /patients/{patient_id}/policies were released
  • October 31, 2025 — The insurances section of the PatientDemographics resource (/api/2.0/patients/{id}) will be deprecated. You must migrate to the new endpoints before then to avoid disruption.
  • November 2025 & Onward — You cannot rely on the legacy PatientDemographics insurance fields to update or retrieve insurance data.

Introduction

Note: The information in this guide specifically pertains to the insurances sub-property within Patient Demographics request objects. Other properties of Patient Demographics endpoints remain unchanged.

Definitions & Terms

Legacy Approach

The Legacy Approach refers to the original API patient demographics endpoint (/api/2.0/patients/{id}) and its insurance management methodology. This approach treats insurance information as a sub-property of patient demographics and only supports complete replacement of all insurance records with each update. Any modification to insurance information results in creating entirely new records, with no ability to update individual insurance entries in place or maintain a versioned history of changes.

Versioned Approach

The Versioned Approach refers to the new Insurance Management System that is provided by a dedicated microservice with a set of specialized insurance endpoints. This approach enables granular control over individual insurance records, supporting in-place updates, record swapping, deactivation, and complete version history tracking. A key requirement of this approach is that you must first GET the current insurance information before making any modifications to ensure you have the latest version of the data.

PatientInsurance

A PatientInsurance was used in the legacy system to identify a patient's insurance coverage. It served as the primary data structure for storing insurance information as part of the patient demographics endpoint, containing all insurance-related data in a single record tied to the patient.

Policy

A Policy is used in the versioned approach to represent a patient's insurance coverage in the microservice. It is a first-class citizen with its own unique IDs and complete lifecycle management, enabling granular control over individual insurance records and supporting versioning, updates, and historical tracking.

Enabling Insurance Versioning

Elation uses feature flags to control functionality across our system. The Insurance Versioning feature flag is enabled on a practice-by-practice basis and controls access to the new insurance management capabilities.

When Insurance Versioning is enabled for a practice:

  • New UI Access: Users can access a new insurance management interface that displays historical versions of Policy models managed by the Insurance Management System
  • Enhanced Functionality: The practice gains access to granular insurance record management, including in-place updates, record swapping, and complete version history tracking
  • API Behavior Changes: The legacy patient demographics endpoints (/api/2.0/patients/{id}) begin to support id fields (PatientInsurance IDs) in insurance objects, enabling in-place updates instead of complete replacement

When Insurance Versioning is disabled:

  • Legacy UI Only: Users continue to use the existing insurance management interface
  • Standard Legacy Behavior: All insurance updates through the patient demographics endpoint result in complete replacement of insurance records
  • No Version History: No historical tracking or in-place update capabilities are available

The feature flag primarily affects the user interface experience and the availability of advanced insurance management features, while the underlying API endpoints remain functional regardless of the flag status.

Deleting vs. Archiving

The key difference between the two systems is how they handle record removal:

PatientInsurance Models (Legacy System):

  • Can only be deleted (permanently removed)

Policy Models (Insurance Management System):

  • Can be archived (preserved with history) or deleted (gone for good)

Why This is Changing

We are introducing new dedicated insurance endpoints that will replace the insurance sub-property within the patient demographics endpoint. Let's examine the limitations of the current approach and how the new Insurance Versioning system addresses these challenges.

Legacy API (/api/2.0/patients/{id}) limitations:

  • Only supported complete replacement of insurance information
  • Any change created a new record with no "in place" updates
  • No versioned history tracking
  • Led to billing confusion
  • Limited auditability
  • Difficulty supporting accurate claims

Insurance Versioning improvements:

  • Ability to update individual insurance records
  • Support for swapping insurance records
  • Deactivation of individual records
  • Complete history retention
  • Reduced billing errors
  • More reliable insurance management
  • Better alignment with industry record-keeping practices

What Changes for You

Old Flow (Patient Demographics Endpoints)

  • Updating insurance information meant sending the entire insurances array in a PUT /api/2.0/patients/{id} request.
  • Every change replaced all insurances; any not present were deleted, and new ones were created
  • Insurance card images were managed through patient insurance priority (primary, secondary, tertiary) rather than direct Policy IDs

New Flow (Insurance Versioning Endpoints)

  • It is now necessary to check the latest state of insurances before performing operations.
    • GET /patients/{patient_id}/policies - Get the list of policies
    • GET /patients/{patient_id}/policies/{policy_id} – Get a specific policy by ID
  • Use new endpoints such as:
    • POST /patients/{patient_id}/policies – Create a new insurance policy
    • PUT /patients/{patient_id}/policies/{policy_id} – Update an existing insurance policy in-place
    • DELETE /patients/{patient_id}/policies/{policy_id} – Deactivate (archive) a policy, preserving history
  • Insurance card images are now tightly linked to Policy IDs (no more issues with "orphan" images). The new policy-based endpoints work directly with Policy IDs:
    • POST /patients/{patient_id}/policies/{policy_id}/card-images – Upload insurance card images
    • GET /patients/{patient_id}/policies/{policy_id}/card-images – Get insurance card images
    • DELETE /patients/{patient_id}/policies/{policy_id}/card-images/{image_rank} – Delete specific insurance card image

What's Backward Compatible

For now, the legacy PUT /api/2.0/patients/{id} endpoint remains available for insurance updates. With the new Insurance Management feature:

  • If you include a PatientInsurance id for each insurance object in insurances, Elation will update that record in place.
  • If you exclude the PatientInsurance id, a new record will be created.

Any insurance record not present in the submission is archived and moved to historical (not deleted). When using the original patient demographics endpoint without providing PatientInsurance IDs, associated insurance card images are automatically migrated to the new Policy records to ensure continuity.

Key Migration Gotchas

  • Do not manipulate the PatientInsurance "id" field directly; provide it to update, omit to create new.
  • When using the original patient demographics endpoint without PatientInsurance IDs, insurance card images are automatically migrated to new Policy records.
  • Practices with Insurance Versioning enabled will reject insurance card uploads without a Policy ID, returning 422 errors.
  • PUT of an empty insurances array on legacy endpoints will archive (deactivate) all policies.
  • Fields required for /policies (some must be passed even on update): patient_dob, patient_first_name, patient_last_name.

Syncing Flows

The following sections go much deeper into how the legacy PatientInsurance model is modified via the original API patient demographics endpoints, and how those modifications translate into the new Policy models managed by Insurance Management System.

Note: The following is optional documentation and shared so that you can better understand how the two APIs are currently supported. This is only necessary to understand if you are using PatientInsurance IDs with the Legacy endpoints. It may also be helpful in understanding how data flows between the new Insurance Versioning UI and the legacy UI.

In the following discussion we're going to use the acronym IMS to represent the Insurance Management System.

Key Decision Points

The major difference between these scenarios is whether you provide PatientInsurance id values in your insurance objects. Providing a PatientInsurance ID allows the system to update existing records in place, preserving associated data like insurance card images. Omitting PatientInsurance IDs forces the creation of new records, which archives the old ones, but when using the original patient demographics endpoint, insurance card images are automatically migrated to maintain continuity.

flowchart LR
    A[Patient Demographics Update] --> B{Has PatientInsurance id?}
    B -->|Yes| C[Update in-place]
    B -->|No| D[Create new record]
    
    C --> E[Preserve existing Policy]
    D --> F[Archive old Policy]
    
    E --> G[✅ Images remain linked]
    F --> H["✅ Previous Policy Images Migrated (Legacy endpoint only)"]

Insurance Management System to Legacy System Synchronization

sequenceDiagram
    participant API as API Client
    participant IMS as Insurance Management Service
    participant EventStream as Event Stream
    participant Legacy as Legacy System
    participant DB as Legacy Database

    API->>IMS: POST/PUT/DELETE /patients/\{id\}/policies
    IMS->>IMS: Process Policy Change
    IMS->>EventStream: Publish Policy Event
    Note over EventStream: Event contains policy data and change type (create/update/delete)
    EventStream->>Legacy: Consume Policy Event
    Legacy->>Legacy: Transform to PatientInsurance format
    Legacy->>DB: Update Patient Demographics
    Note over Legacy,DB: Legacy PatientInsurance records are updated/created/deactivated
    Legacy-->>IMS: Event Processing Complete

Legacy System to Insurance Management System Synchronization

sequenceDiagram
    participant API as API Client
    participant Legacy as Legacy System
    participant EventStream as Event Stream
    participant IMS as Insurance Management Service
    participant DB as IMS Database

    API->>Legacy: PUT /api/2.0/patients/\{id\} (legacy)
    Legacy->>Legacy: Process PatientInsurance Changes
    Legacy->>EventStream: Publish PatientDemographics Event
    Note over EventStream: Event contains legacy PatientInsurance data
    EventStream->>IMS: Consume PatientDemographics Event
    IMS->>IMS: Transform to Policy format
    IMS->>DB: Create/Update Policy Records
    Note over IMS,DB: New Policy records created or existing ones updated
    IMS->>IMS: Migrate Card Images
    Note over IMS,IMS: Only migrated if PatientInsurance is not provided in legacy flow
    IMS-->>Legacy: Event Processing Complete