The ThirdPartyRequest class is used to request answers to questionnaires from multiple sources. It allows a user to define which questions require answers from multiple sources, to request these answers from the sources, and to record the third party answers.
Since third parties usually only answer portions of questionnaires, the functionality provided to record third party answers does not use the IEG questionnaire scripts, but rather comes with its own set of pages that an application user can access in order to record the third party answers.
Note, however, as part of creating the IEG questionnaire scripts, question aliases can be entered for each question. Question aliases are used to reword questions for third parties. For example, questions regarding a person's health can be reworded for a doctor to reference more specific medical information. For more information on IEG and questionnaires, see Questionnaire Integration with IEG2.
There are two entities which are used to store third party request information. The ThirdPartyRequest entity contains the information relating to the actual request made to a third party to provide answers to specific questions. A ThirdPartyRequest record can be the parent to a number of ThirdPartyRequestQuestion records. Each one of these records stores information about a specific question to be answered by the third party in the third party request.
The following table describes the business processes that make up the ThirdPartyRequest Class:
| Business Process | Description |
|---|---|
| viewThirdPartyRequest | Reads the details of a third party request. The details include the list of questions and answers associated with the third party request for a determination. |
| createThirdPartyRequest | Creates a third party request. The types of a third party request are Customer, Third Party, Third Party Medical. A third party request is created for the third party type based on the question alias types given in the IEG script. A third party can be either a case participant or non-case participant but registered user. If the third party is not a registered user, then an option is provided to specify the third party details. |
| sendThirdPartyRequest | Modifies the status of the third party request to 'Sent'. It is important to note that this process does not actually send the request, as it is not aware of where the request should be sent to or how best to send it. It is up to the system integrator to determine where that information is sent to. |
| cancelThirdPartyRequest | Cancels a third party request. |
| getThirdPartyQuestionAnswerDetails | Reads a third party request and its associated question and details. The questions and answers are returned in an xml format. |
| recordThirdPartyAnswers | Records the third party answers. The status of the third party request is changed to 'Answers Received'. Consolidation details are modified for the determination questionnaire. If automatic consolidation is enabled for the determination, then consolidation indicators are set to true for the recorded third party answers. |
| editThirdPartyAnswers | Modifies the third party answers. The status of the third party request is changed to 'Answers Received'. Consolidation details are modified for the determination questionnaire. If automatic consolidation is enabled for the determination, then consolidation indicators are set to true for the recorded third party answers. |
| createTPRQuestions | Creates the third party questions. The third party questions included are unanswered questions, unconsolidated questions and consolidated questions. The status of the third party request is set to 'Not Sent'. |
| readThirdPartyRequest | Reads the details of a third party request. |
| editThirdPartyRequests | Modifies a third party request. Questions are added or deleted based on the user selection for the third party request. |