Work Flow |
Once the known information is entered into the program (e.g., practice and provider information, established patient information, insurance information, etc.), typical use of the program could be as follows:
Handling a New Patient You've opened the program and have the Scheduler displayed. You are waiting for something wonderful to happen. A new patient calls for an appointment.
Select the date of the appointment, then click an appointment time slot, Add Appointment, or press F8. The Appointment Entry window opens.
Since this is a new patient, you skip the Patient field and enter the caller's last name, first name, etc., entering as much demographic information as you can to start out with.
Assign this patient to a provider.
Now right-click the Note box and select Insert Date and Time or press CTRL+D to insert the date and time stamp. Then enter patient condition and insurance information here, such as whether the caller is the subscriber, a listing of the benefits, the caller's or patient's Social Security Number, the insurance Group No., plan name, plan phone number, date of birth, etc.
Armed with this information, you can call the insurance company at a later time and get all the insurance information you'll need to send claims.
If the patient is in pain or has another reason for needing to see the dentist sooner than the first available appointment, add the patient to the ASAP list by clicking the Place on ASAP List box.
If you know the reason for the appointment, such as a new patient exam, click Add From Multicode in the Options bar. Select a Multicode for these related procedures that has already been created. This Multicode might include a general exam and X-rays. Save these changes. Notice that the icon in the Scheduler, next to the new patient's name, is a small human figure. This indicates a new patient for whom no permanent record has yet been created.
A few days before the appointment, open the Appointment List screen, sort by the date of the appointment, find all appointments that day with a status of Unconfirmed or 0, and call those patients to remind them of the appointment and confirm that they will be coming in. When finished, change each status to Confirmed or Left Message, as appropriate.
When the patient comes to the office, you create the permanent patient file. Right-click the appointment and select Create the patient file from the Speed menu. You can also click the appointment once and choose Create the patient file from the Patient Information section of the Options bar.
The Patient Information window is opened, where you get all the other information necessary for the complete file, such as marital status, gender, alerts, etc.
If setting the patient up for recall appointments, select the insurance-defined time period, then choose Plus 1 day. This ensures that the patient's next visit will be covered by insurance.
Open the Insurance Information tab to be sure you have all the information you need. You probably already obtained this information when you called the insurance company last week, based on the information contained in the Notes field of the initial appointment. If you don't have the insurance information and need to create a new insurance carrier record, click the Lookup icon next to the Primary Insurance field and then press F8 or select New Insurance Plan in the Options bar.
Enter all the information needed to create the new insurance plan record. See Insurance Information for complete instructions on setting up insurance plan records.
When complete choose Save Changes. Then Close Screen. This returns you to the patient record so you can select the insurance plan.
Be sure to click Assignment of Benefits so the insurance company pays you, not the patient.
When finished in the patient record, click Save Changes. This returns you to the Scheduler.
Since the patient is in the office for the visit, right-click the appointment and change the status to Ready.
The assistant waiting in the back office sees on the computer screen that this patient is ready and invites the patient to come to the back office.
When the patient has received his or her care and is ready to check out, again focus on the appointment and right-click the mouse to change the status to Complete.
Up pops the Post Appointment Transactions window. Post selected transactions or click Post All to send transactions to the Ledger. Back in the Scheduler, notice that the appointment is now gray in color, to show that the appointment has been completed. If you had marked the appointment for recall, you are asked immediately to set or approve the next appointment.
To enter a patient payment, highlight the appointment and then open the Ledger in one of three ways:
Choose New Patient Payment or New Family Payment in the Options bar, enter the amount paid by the patient, and save changes. The Ledger shows a new transaction in green, the patient's payment.
You can now create a claim by choosing that option in the Options bar, or wait until the end of the day and create all claims at the same time in the Claims screen.
Handling Claims Open the Claim page by choosing the Claims option in the taskbar. There are various other ways to open this screen, depending on the page currently open in the program. For example, in the Patient Information screen, choose View Claims in the Options bar.
Click Create Claims or press F8 to be sure all transactions have been connected to a claim. A message shows how many claims have been created or lets you know all transactions are already connected to claims.
Double-click a particular claim to view it.
If you need to view a different claim form, use the Change Form option at the top of the ADA Form tab.
The top box of the claim lets you choose the type of transaction: Actual claim, pretreatment authorization, or EPSDT/Title XIX. The default is Statement of Actual Services.
The majority of this information comes from entries made in the program.
If you are attaching X-rays, open the Claim Information tab and enter that in the Enclosures section.
Make any adjustments necessary, then click Save.
Choose the claim or claims you want to send. If printing a single claim, choose the Print Selected Claims option in the Option bar. If you want to send more than one claim (but not all that are ready to be sent), highlight the desired claims by holding down the CTRL key on the keyboard and clicking each of the claims you want. Then click Print Selected Claims.
If you are sending claims electronically, be sure each claim has been designated as an electronic claim (not paper), and choose Send E-Claims or Send Selected E-Claims.
Finishing Touches Set the next appointment and print a Walkout statement for the patient.
On the Walkout statement, manually highlight the next scheduled appointment and hand it to the patient.
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