This is a brief over view of the flow of PracticeMaker®5 from patient data entry to billing. This is not meant to be a tutorial but rather show you screen shots and our way of thinking. Remember, this software was designed by a physician to increase productivity with the least amount of effort.

The Patient's Module

Below is the Summary screen. The important points about this screen are as follows:

• The Patient Name, Demographics and Communication fields are grouped together for easier reference.
  
• The thumb icon next to specific fields (such as Facility and Primary Doc) takes you directly to the related database for more information about that record!
  
• The patient can have three outside providers linked to their record (Primary Doc, Referring Doc, and Other Doc).
  
• At the lower left is the patients unlimited diagnosis list ("99" means the diagnosis is either inactive or from another doctor).
  
• The diagnosis Code field's pop-up list can be populated with those diagnoses specific to your practice!
  
• Two Notes fields are located in the lower right section of this screen. The larger yellow field is for private notes. The smaller peach section is for a "pop-up" note. When you search for and find a patient's record, the first 200 characters of this note pop-up for you to see!

Below this is the Billing Info screen. It has been organized to follow the expected data entry sequence. Immediate help is available in each section by clicking the small help icon located in the right upper hand corner of that section.

• The top section is for Guarantor Information. If needed, the patient is assigned a guarantor if other than the patient (such as with a minor or student still in college). For convenience, PracticeMaker® assumes the patient is the guarantor thus saving time in data entry. Because multiple patients may have the same guarantor, a Family Balance is generated when these patients are all linked to the same guarantor.
  
  
• The middle section is for Insurance Information. A patient can have unlimited insurances with inactive insurances assigned a Billing Priority # of "99" (With PracticeMaker® NEVER delete an old insurance information, just change its Billing Priority to "99"). To quickly review an insurance carrier's record click directly on its Code highlighted in pink. To just edit the Subscriber ID or Group simply click in the respective field. To view or edit the entire record click Edit.
  
  
• The bottom section is the Billing Information section. There are fields for Prior Authorization Numbers, Copayments and Discounts. If the patient is in a post-operative period the date when the period ends is shown (autocalculated by the way!). Once all information has been entered simply click either the Create Patient Invoice or Create Insurance Invoice button!
  

 

On each of the screens in the Patients Module, you can click on the green Ledger tab and instantly see the patient's ledger. Our ledger screen shows "real time" totals. This means the totals on the bottom are generated as needed, not once a month as with other systems. When you print a ledger you can print a complete or limited ledger. The limited ledger can show just one insurance carrier's bills for any specific time period.

The Billing Module

This is the Charge Entry screen. The claim below has already been sent to insurance and paid. Here are the main features:

• Diagnoses are assigned to the invoice using either "drag and drop" or on block by clicking the Fill Dxs button in the blue area on the right.
  
  
• Charges are entered in the single row of fields above the first scrolling list and brought down with the green down arrow. This checks all fields for correct information to insure proper billing. To correct a charge just entered click the red up arrow to edit the information.
  
  
• Payments received at patient check out are entered in a similar fashion using different fields in the lower section.
  
  
• At the lower left of the screen you can edit or enter the Primary Recall Information for this patient!
  
  
• In the middle lower section you can see the Eclaim related status of this claim, and to the right of this the Batching status of this claim. Insurance claims and patient statements are typically sent in batches!
  
  
• The yellow Memo field is a private note field!
  
  

The PhoneBook Module

The PhoneBook module stores all the following record types:

• Contact: This is for phonebook entries that do not fall into the other categories
  
• Employer: This is helpful if you are doing workers compensation cases
  
• Facility: This section has your office information, as well as information on any location you either see patients at or refer to (such as an MRI facility).
  
• Pharmacy: This record has fields for the pharmacist name and fax number so you can fax prescriptions!
  
• Personnel: Anyone in your practice who uses PracticeMaker® has a record here. You assign access privileges to each "user" in the area of "Admin", "Delete", "Inventory" and "Dispensing" actions.
  
• Providers: The provider screen is below. Each provider can be assigned up to three addresses and each member of a practice can be linked together based on the Prac Title in the Address section! The second graphic below shows you where to put the provider names for each practitioner. Provider number slots 7 to 22 can be named anything you want. The first six cannot be changed!

• Vendors: If you deal with vendors, companies you purchase products or services from, their information is put here!
  

The Insurance Module

This is the Insurance Carrier Entry screen. There are many time saving features in this module.

In the Provider Number Links and Notes section (bottom left) you select which of the 26 provider numbers this insurance wants to see for both the Provider and Consultant. In this example, Medicare wants to see the doctor's Medicare provider number, but the Consultant's UPIN! If you have a group practice, put the group's provider number in the Group field.

In the Billing Information section (upper right) you have these features...

• The Cycle feature, located in the Billing Information section, allows you to decide how many months old an insurance's claim is before the software automatically rebills the claim. When you age your accounts this feature occurs automatically!
  
• The Del Age field tells the software how old this carrier's claims have to be before than can be deleted!
  
• The Affiliate field allows you to group related insurances together so we can produce special reports.
  

In the Electronic Claims Submission section (lower right) you have the ability to assign the carrier its electronic claims receiver (ECS # if Pri) as well as other fields that properly route claims to the correct insurance company (the NAIC code specifically).

The Claims  Printing Module

When you are ready to print insurance claims, this is all you do...

• Click the button on the main menu of the Billing Module. This finds all outstanding paper claims and sends them here.
  
• After all claims are prepared, you get the screen below. If your printer is loaded with the proper claim forms, all have to do is click the correct button. In this case there are 8 HCFA fill-in forms to print.
  
• You can also view, sort or reprint any of the claims by clicking on the Reprint Screen which gives you the second screen below!
  

The Appointment Scheduler

The Appointment scheduling module allows each provider to have a totally customized schedule. Here are some features...

• Each day's appointments is a scrolling list.
  
• To see a different provider's schedule just select the name from the list. It's that easy!
  
• To see list view of any day on screen, click either the Current button, to view only the selected provider's appointments for today, or the All button, to view all appointments all provider's for that day!
  
• Once a patient is selected in the Patients Module to make an appointment, his or her name appears in the section which below says Selected Patient: No patient selected. You then select the visit type from the Visit Type pop-up list and then click on the appointment time you want to schedule.