Claims Printing Main Screen
This section has the following topics:

• Different For Types
• Form Alignment
• Printing Claim Forms

This module opens to the screen below. You can tell how many of each type of form remains to be printed. Only non-printed claims appear in the count for each form type.  Insurance claims needing paper printing are sent here in several ways to be discussed later.

Think of this module as being a kind of "print queue". All invoices that need to be printed are sent here waiting for you to print them on their correct forms. When claims are first sent here they are flagged for printing, totaled depending the form type they print on, and the the totals displayed in the Click to Print Form section (as seen below). Once a claim is printed, the original invoice in Billing is stamped with today's date (in the Print Dates field) and the record "unflagged" so it does not print again. Records will stay here until you delete them. The last person who quits out of PracticeMaker® will be asked to delete any printed claims.


Different Form Types
There are seven different printable form types in the Claims Printing module. The names of each form type, numbered 1 to 7, are stored in the PickList module. You can rename them if you wish. The numbers cannot be changed. The supplied form names and definitions are as follows:

1. HCFA fill- For printing onto a pre-printed HCFA form. There is a version of this form for laser and inkjet printers. The one used is based on which printer is chosen under Printer.
2. HCFA Complete- For Laser printers. It will print the complete HCFA form on a blank sheet of paper. It can be printed with a high-quality Inkjet printer (300 dpi or better), but was designed for a laser printer.
3. Blue Shield- Many states supply the provider with their version of a claim form. The layout comes designed for the PA Blue Shield claim form which is no longer being made.
4. Vision- The Blue Shield form (form 980C 10/89) for vision practices.
5. ADA Laser- A specialized form for dental practices. Like the HCFA laser, it is designed for printing onto blank paper. Can also be used with high-quality inkjets.
6. Medical Assistance- For submitting to Medicaid (you will need to customize this for your state).
7. Champus DD- A specialized form for submitting to Champus.

Form Alignment
Not all printers print the same. You will likey have to spend some time aligning the fields to print inside their correct spaces on the HCFA 1500, or other claim forms. Aligning of the fields is not included in technical support and is considered custom work. However, with a little practice you willbe able to accomplish this yourself. PLease refer to the section Editing Layouts for instructions.


Printing Your Forms
If you haven't already done so, you need to align (edit) your forms before printing the first time. Please refer to the section Editing Layouts before proceeding.

In order for claims to be printed, you first need to go to the Billing Module Main Menu and click on Batch Paper Claims. You get the dialog box below. Click Please start.


This finds all unprinted paper claims and sends them here for printing. For those interested, only claims that meet the following parameters will be sent here:

• Claim assigned to an insurance
• Balance > 0
• Bill Date (also called As of...) is today or before
• ECS# is zero (means NOT sent electronically). This number is assigned to an Insurance in the Insurances Module.

If there are no claims to print you get the dialog below which tell you your choices (top is Windows and bottom is OSX).


If you elect to "Reprint" a previous day's paper claims, click Reprint. You must be sure, however, the claims you want to be are NOT already in Claims Printing as they may have been printed and not deleted from inside this module. If you are sure, at the next dialog (top is Windows, bottom is OSX) enter the EXACT date to reprint. This searches the Last Print date and any found records are sent to Claims Printing.



To print your claim forms do the following:
If you are not already there, go to the Menu screen of Claims Printing

• Use Sort Select to choose how you want the printed forms to be sorted. Carrier is the best way so you can stuff your envelopes more efficiently.
• Select the Printer Type you are using. This will switch the layouts used. Just make sure the printer selected is the same as the printer you will be using. 
• There are different layouts for Inkjet printers (which have a smaller printable area) and Laser printers (which can have a larger printable area).
• Make sure you have enough forms in the printer to accommodate the number of claims to print. PracticeMaker® adds up how many unprinted claims there are for each form type.
• Click on the form type button (such as HCFA Fill-in above, which by the way has 6 claims to print) that you want to print.
• At the Page/Print Setup dialog select the printer to print with. If you are using Apple’s Laserwriter printer driver with OS9, be sure to select Paper: US Letter. This insures the largest printable area.
• At the OSX Page Setup dialog it should look like the one below, with the Paper Size being set to "US Letter", and the first orientation button gray.

• If you need to cancel printing click the Cancel button and a dialog appears confirming the cancel.
• Once printed, the claims are flagged as “deletable”. This means that when you close PracticeMaker® (actually the last person to quit using PracticeMaker®) you will be asked if you want these printed claims to be deleted. Select Yes. You can always send them here again. There is more about the delete status of a claim later in the Reprint section.

last updated 9/2/2004