Who Is the Security Administrator on Your Office Ally Account?
Short answer: Log into your security administrator account. It is a separate login, your username followed by underscore and capital SA. Confirm that you are the security administrator on your own account. Confirm the primary email address on the account is still your email address and that the notifications are still coming to you. If a billing company or an outside consultant helps you, verify this specifically rather than assuming.
Why this is the account that matters
The security administrator account is what allows users to be added and removed, what allows credentials to be reset, what allows payment settings to be changed, and what controls where account notifications are sent. Nothing about daily work requires it, so most practice owners have never opened it.
If a billing company or a consultant set your account up for you, the honest answer to who holds it might be that you do not know. That is worth finding out today rather than on the day the relationship ends.
The steps
Log into your security administrator account. This is the separate login, your username followed by underscore and capital SA.
Confirm that you are the security administrator on your own account.
If a billing company or an outside consultant helps you, verify this specifically. Do not assume.
Confirm your primary email address on the account is still your email address.
Confirm the notifications are still coming to you.
Confirm nothing else in the account has changed.
Do it now rather than later.
Why the email address is the part not to skip
Verifying that you are the administrator is the obvious check. Verifying where the notifications go is the one that protects it. Notifications are the alarm system. If the primary email on the account points somewhere other than you, changes can be made and you are structurally unable to find out about them. Check who the administrator is and check the email address in the same sitting, because either one alone leaves a gap.
The mistake this prevents
Assuming you hold an account you have never logged into. It was set up once, often by whoever was helping at the time, and it has never come up since. The person or company holding that account controls user access, credential resets, payment settings, and notification routing on a practice they do not own. None of that requires bad intent to become a problem. It becomes a problem the day a relationship ends, a biller retires, a company is acquired, or an email address goes dead, and the practice discovers it cannot get into the account that governs its own billing. The check costs two minutes. The alternative is a support case you open at the worst possible time.
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Marie Matteson, MS, is a healthcare consultant, educator, and Office Ally specialist with more than 30 years in healthcare, emergency medicine, and practice management. Helping you understand what's really going on.
All patient information referenced here has been redacted. This content is educational and is not billing, legal, or coding advice. Always follow your payer contracts, your practice policies, and current coding guidelines. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Office Ally.
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