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8000

Version 12
User Guide

5137 Golden Foothill Pkwy Ste 110 - El Dorado Hills, CA - 95762

Sales 800-456-2622

Technical Support 800-464-1740

www.fortesystemsinc.com
Forté Systems Inc. Software License Agreement
Please do not open the sealed packet/envelope containing the licensed Software until you have care-
fully read and understood this agreement.
Breaking the seal on the licensed Software indicates your understanding and acceptance of all of the
conditions of this agreement. If you do not agree with them, Forté Systems Inc. is not willing to license
the Software to you and you should promptly contact Forté Systems Inc. for an RMA “Return Merchan-
dise Authorization” number and return the unopened licensed Software complete with packaging, man-
ual and all other materials to Forté Systems Inc. with your invoice/statement and your money will be
refunded*.
*Shipping and handling charges are non-refundable.
Note: The “Software” is defined as the current version of software licensed to you. Any previous
license for previous versions are revoked.
Grant of License. This is a license agreement and NOT an agreement for sale. Forté Systems Inc.
licenses you to use the Forté Systems Inc. Software only as permitted by this Agreement, and it retains
all rights not expressly granted to you.
Copyright. This Forté Systems Inc. Software is a proprietary product of Forté Systems Inc. and is pro-
tected by U.S. copyright law and international treaty. Forté Systems Inc. retains title to and ownership
of the Software, including the enclosed copy and each copy that you are authorized by this Agreement
to make.
Scope of Rights; Restrictions on Use. You have the non-exclusive and non-transferable right to install
the Software onto the hard drive or other mass storage device of a computer at your office, at home
and/or on a portable computer, and to use the Software on any of those computers. However, neither
you nor anyone else may use the enclosed Software on more than one computer at a time. The Soft-
ware is only licensed to be used at one physical location. If the Software is desired on more than one
computer at a time, additional licenses or a LAN license must be obtained for each concurrent use on an
additional computer. Additional recurring fees may apply for Internet connection, data hosting or other
Internet-related products and/or services.
You may make no use of the Software for other than its intended uses that are directly related to the
internal business operations of a single employer, and you may make no use thereof to offer the bene-
fits or services of the Software to third parties, whether such arrangement is in the nature of a service
bureau or an out-sourcing service or any other similar service or business. Use of the enclosed Software
by or on behalf of another entity or employer other than the license holder is prohibited.
In addition:
• You may copy the enclosed Software only for backup or archival purposes, provided each such copy
contains all of the original copy's proprietary notices and is kept in your possession. Makers of
unauthorized copies of the Software may be subject to civil and/or criminal penalties. Please report
any encountered unauthorized copies to Forté Systems Inc. immediately.
• You may not copy the written documentation that accompanies the Software.
• You may not rent, lend, lease, grant a security interest in, sublicense or otherwise transfer rights in
the Software.
• For users of the shareware or Trial software, the license extends only through the end of the
shareware or trial period, respectively.
• You may not modify, adapt, translate, disassemble, decompile or “unlock”, reverse engineer, reverse
translate, or in any manner decode, customize, or attempt to discover the source code of the
Software for any reason. You agree to indemnify Forté Systems Inc. for any claims related to
modifications you make to the Software. No part of this software or documentation may be
reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a computer retrieval system, or translated into any
language or computer language, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic,
optical, chemical, manual or otherwise, unless a specific license or authorization is granted in writing
from Forté Systems Inc..
• This license allows full use of the software as long as payment obligations are fulfilled. For users with
a balance the license extends only through the next payment due date. After receipt of payment,
the user will receive a “license extension” to extend the license to the next payment due
date. If payments become delinquent, the license to use the software will be suspended and
support will be withheld until the account becomes current. In addition, the software itself
may cease operation (without loss of data), in which case, a “license extension” will be
required.
• Forté Systems Inc. reserves the right to revise documentation and/or software without
obligation to notify any person of such revision. Specifications and descriptions are subject
to change without notice. Items displayed in manual or help files may only be
representative.
• Any agents, employees, distributors and dealers of Forté Systems Inc. are not authorized to
make modifications to this Agreement, or create additional warranties binding on Forté
Systems Inc.. Accordingly, additional statements such as dealer advertising or
presentations, whether oral or written, do not constitute warranties and should not be relied
upon.
• You may transfer this license to one other party on a permanent basis by transferring this
copy of the Agreement and at least one unaltered copy of the Software and all
documentation to that party. The other party must agree to this same Agreement. In that
case you must either transfer to that party or destroy all you other copies of the Software,
and you must permanently remove the Software from your computers' hard drive or other
mass storage devices and you may not retain any copies of the Software for your own use. A
License Transfer fee may apply - please call Forté Systems Inc. for details. Licenser reserves
the right to refuse support or service on products deemed to be obsolete or no longer in
production.
Limited Warranty. Forté Systems Inc. warrants that the original magnetic media on which the
Software is distributed is free from defects in materials and workmanship. Forté Systems Inc.
will replace defective media at no charge, provided you return the item with dated proof of pur-
chase to Forté Systems Inc. within 90 days of date of purchase.
Warranty Disclaimer. THE SOFTWARE AND DOCUMENTATION IS DELIVERED TO YOU AS IS
AND Forté Systems Inc. MAKES NO WARRANTY AS TO PERFORMANCE, MERCHANTABILITY,
EASE OF USE, OR FITNESS TO ANY PARTICULAR USE. FURTHER, Forté Systems Inc. DOES NOT
WARRANT THAT THE OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-
FREE. THE WARRANTY DOES NOT COVER ANY ORIGINAL MEDIA THAT HAS BEEN SUBJECTED
TO ALTERATION, DAMAGE OR ABUSE. ANY LIABILITY OF LICENSER IS LIMITED TO ORIGINAL
MEDIA REPLACEMENT ONLY. Forté Systems Inc. AND ITS SUPPLIERS DO NOT AND CANNOT
WARRANT THE PERFORMANCE OR RESULTS LICENSEE MAY OBTAIN BY USING THE SOFTWARE
OR DOCUMENTATION. Forté Systems Inc. AND ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE NO WARRANTIES,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS, MERCHANTABIL-
ITY, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Limitation of Liability. IN NO EVENT WILL Forté Systems Inc. OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE
TO LICENSEE FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING
ANY LOST PROFITS OR LOST SAVINGS, EVEN IF A LICENSER REPRESENTATIVE HAS BEEN
ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY THIRD PARTY.
SOME STATES OR JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCI-
DENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, OR THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRAN-
TIES OR LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IMPLIED WARRANTY MAY LAST, SO THE ABOVE
LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY. IN ANY EVENT, Forté Systems Inc.’s LIABILITY IS LIMITED AND
IN NO CASE SHALL THE LIABILITY EXCEED THE LICENSE FEE PAID FOR THE RIGHT TO USE
THE LICENSED SOFTWARE.
Copyright © 2007, Forté Systems Inc.. All Rights Reserved. Forté Systems Inc. and the Forté
Systems Inc. logo are registered trademarks of Forté Systems Inc.. Other trademarks are the
property of their respective owners.
Forté Systems Inc. 3941 Park Dr Ste 20-140, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762 USA
TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I — SYSTEM SETUP


Setting Up Your System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Hardware Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
VGA Display Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Additional Items or Services Required for Some Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Other Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
8000 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Installing 8000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Network Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Converting from Older Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Registering your Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Setting Up Clinic and Doctor Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Creating Multiple Databases (Paramount users). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Setting up Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Managing Fee Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Editing Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Setting Up Agreed Pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Importing Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Setting up Contact Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Entering a Doctor’s Reference Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Understanding and Setting Up Case Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Creating Case Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Database Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Attaching a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Detaching a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Copying a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Backing up a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Restoring a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Changing the SQL Server Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
About Software Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Reinstalling 8000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Customer Training and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Getting Started with 8000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Logging In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
About 8000 and This User Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
About the 8000 Home Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Viewing and Sending Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Managing Your Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Managing Personal Appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Using Your Rolodex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Using “My Corner” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Entering Data in 8000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

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Calendar Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Working with Lookups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Working with Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Using ChiroBrain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Customizing 8000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Customizing User Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Changing General Display Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Customizing Daysheet Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Setting Calendar Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Customizing Posting Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Customizing Security and Setup Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Setting Up Automatic Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Defining Rules-Based Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

PART II — WORKING WITH PATIENT FILES


Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
About the Patient File Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
About the Patient File Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Working with the Patient File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Retrieving a Patient File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Basic View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Advanced View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Creating a Patient File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Cloning a Patient File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Adding Information to the Patient File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Adding a New Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Using the Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Using the Patient Minder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Attaching an External File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Using the Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Adding an Alert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Capturing the Patient’s Special Occasions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Adding Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Entering Patient Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Entering SOAP Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Creating and Using Saved Words and Phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Printing a Patient File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Managing Patient Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Importing or Exporting Patient Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Validating Patient Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
Viewing the Patient Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

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PART III — TRANSACTIONS AND BILLING
Working with Transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
About the Ledger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Changing the Posting Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Working in the Ledger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Adding a Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Editing a Transaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Recording Inventory Used by a Patient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49
Booking an Appointment from the Ledger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Adding a Charge from the Edit Appointment Screen (Paramount users . . . .50
Tagging Transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Using the Sales Tax Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Archiving, Unarchiving, and Deleting Transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Printing the Transaction History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Creating an Estimate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Using One Touch Billing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Working with Co-Pay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Using the Co-pay Estimator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52
Posting Payments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Posting a Payment or Refund for an Individual Patient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Posting Multiple Payments for Multiple Patients (Speed Posting) . . . . . . . . 53
Posting Payments Against Particular Transactions (Line Item Posting) . . . . 54
Processing Third Party Remittances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Writing Off Balances Globally. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Working with Daysheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
About the Daysheet Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56
Viewing Daysheet Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Working with the Practice Diary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Printing the Daysheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Editing Daysheet Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Editing Patient Totals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Viewing Various Totals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
About Monthly Aging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Working with Billing Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Working with Electronic Claims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Generating a Quick Claim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Generating Batch Claims. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Processing Insurance Claims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Customizing Error Check Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Including Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Working with NPI Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
Using NPI Numbers in Your Claims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Generating an Individual Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Generating Batch Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
Selecting Specific Case Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Viewing Claims and Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Viewing the Patient’s Billing History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Viewing the Claims Filing Cabinet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Recording a Past Claim or Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Working with Outstanding Claims and Tracer Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

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Producing Attorney Inquiries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Applying Liens to Patient Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Resetting Visit Counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

PART IV — OFFICE AND PRACTICE MANAGEMENT


Working with Patient Appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Setting Up the Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Working with the Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Viewing the Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Viewing or Printing Schedule Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Using the Appointment Opportunity Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76
Using Appointment Reminders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Working with a Patient’s Appointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Finding a Patient’s Appointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Finding an Open Appointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Adding an Appointment (Quick Entry) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Adding or Editing an Appointment (Full Entry) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Scheduling Multiple Appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Using the Walk-in List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Moving (Rescheduling) a Patient’s Appointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Checking Patients In/Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80
Posting a Transaction from an Appointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Opening the Patient’s File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Creating a Patient File from a Non-Patient Appointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Checking a Patient’s Insurance Eligibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81
Using the Clinic Control Center (Paramount users) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Checking In a Patient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Moving a Doctor to a Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82
Editing the Original Appointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Checking Out a Patient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83
Closing the Clinic Control Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Communicating with Patients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Sending Letters to Patients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
Printing Labels and Envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Generating Merged Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Creating a First Visit Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Recognizing Special Occasions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Sending Email Messages to Patients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Creating Clinic Newsletters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Calling Patients (Paramount users) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
General Practice Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Forecasting Financial Outcomes and Patient Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Viewing Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97
Setting Goals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Gathering Demographic Information About Your Patients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Recalling Inactive Patients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Working with the Prospecting Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

viii
Searching for Prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Adding a Prospect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Importing Prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Creating Mailing Lists and Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Sending Merge Letters to Prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Exporting Prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Creating a Patient File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Sending Information Via Mobile Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Maintaining Inventory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
About the Inventory Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Adding or Editing a Vendor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Adding a Product Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Adding or Editing Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Viewing a Vendor’s Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Creating a Purchase Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Creating a Receiving Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Viewing Inventory Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Working with the Policy Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Working with Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Working with Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Using Third-Party Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Managing VIP (Gift) Cards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Monitoring When Key Tasks Are Completed or Overdue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Viewing Software Usage Analytics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Viewing the Supervisor Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

PART V — WORKING WITH REPORTS


Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Working with Standard Reports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Using the Wellness Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Generating Financial Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Marketing Success Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Case Type Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
CPT Payor Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Payment Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Transaction Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Two Year Statistics Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Procedure Code Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Using the Retirement Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Generating a List of Patient Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Working with Clinic Totals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Account Balances Report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Aging Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Interest Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
ASH Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Opening or Editing an ASH Report . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Generating an ASH Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Generating a Provider Status Change Request Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Using ASH Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Printing ASH Reports and Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Accountant’s Review Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

ix
California Workers’ Compensation (CAWC) Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Credit Card Transaction Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Working with Custom Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Working with the Report Writer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Brief and Narrative Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Working with Worksheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Working with the Search Report Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Using the Wizard to Create and Run a Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Using Advanced Mode to Create and Run a Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Saving Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Saving Search Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Retrieving Saved Search Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Exporting Search Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Printing Search Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Printing Forms for Patients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Viewing the Report Minder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

x
PART I —
System Setup

The System Setup section includes information that will help you to get up and running
with 8000:
• Setting Up Your System -- including information about system requirements and
installation, setting up your 8000 implementation (e.g. clinic and default doctor
information, fees, contact lists, case types), and maintenance issues.
• Getting Started -- logging in, understanding the 8000 interface and the home page,
and conventions for entering data.
• Customizing individual options that can be set differently for each user logged in and
apply to all computers the user logs in to. These include display, calendar, daysheet,
and posting options; setting up functions that should happen as a result of another
action (e.g. automatically opening the First Visit Package when you save an
appointment); and setting up groups of workflow tasks for a particular process (for
example which tasks are required when you have a new patient).
Setting Up Your System

System Requirements

Operating System
• Windows 2000 SP4+
• Windows XP (home or professional) SP2+
• Windows Server 2003 SP1
• Windows Vista SP1

Hardware Requirements
The minimum system requirements for computers are:
• Pentium 4 Class or equivalent processor 1 GHz (2 GHz recommended)
• 512 MB RAM (2 GB recommended)
• 1 GB free hard drive space for workstations, 5GB for servers
• CD-ROM drive
• Super VGA 1024x768 video adapter and monitor (1280x1024 recommended)
• Sound card and speakers or headphones
Additional hardware such as Uninterrupted Power Supply units and backup devices also help with the
smooth functionality of 8000. If you are using other software programs on the same computer, we rec-
ommend that you add more processing power or memory to prevent slow operation or memory error
messages.

VGA Display Settings


8000 requires a minimum of 1024 X 768 pixels as well as 16-bit color for the display settings. Always
use the Microsoft Small (standard) Fonts mode for proper program display. Larger or other non-stan-
dard font modes will not display data properly.
The following Windows Regional Options are required:
• US English
• “$” currency
• “MM/dd/yyyy” date format
• “h:mm:ss tt” time format

Additional Items or Services Required for Some Features


• Some Internet functionality may require Internet access and payment of a separate fee to a service
provider.
• Network adaptor appropriate for the type of local-area, wide-area, wireless, or home network you
wish to connect to, and access to an appropriate network infrastructure.

Printers
8000 supports all Windows-compatible printers—check your setup through the Control Panel to ensure
the printer and printer driver are working correctly. Dot matrix printers must be able to print in graphics
mode.

3
Setting Up Your System

Other Software
You can launch third party software, such as Microsoft Word, Internet browsers, Microsoft Notepad, and
Microsoft Calculator, from within 8000. For optimal merging of letters, you must use WordPad or
Microsoft Word. Other word processors may be used; however, their use in merged letters has not been
verified. Microsoft Notepad is used for editing text files.
Please note that the operation of these software packages is not covered in this documentation —con-
sult the manufacturer's documentation for instructions on using these programs.

8000 Installation

Installing 8000
Note: Make sure the computers where you are installing 8000 meet all system requirements as
defined in “System Requirements” on page 3.
1. Insert the 8000 CD into the CD ROM drive. If the InstallShield Wizard doesn’t start automatically,
choose Start»Run and type X:\setup.exe where “X” represents the drive letter of your CD ROM.
2. Select the type of installation:
• Single Computer or Network Main Computer (server) — use to completely install both the
application and the database. Use this if only one computer will be used, or on the server for a
network installation.
• Network Workstation — you must run the Network Main Computer installation on the server
before installing on the workstation(s).
• Database Only — use on a database server or to simply install the database only on a
workstation.
3. Follow the instructions on the screens that follow.
Note: The installation process should automatically share the “Data” folder with the name of
“PM_<product>_DATA”; for example, PM_CHIRO_DATA, PM_HEALTHPRO_DATA,
PM_OPTI_DATA, or PM_DPM_DATA as applicable. If this auto-share fails you must set it up with
this naming convention.

Network Installation
If you are using multiple computers connected together to access a common database, you must pur-
chase the network version of 8000. All computers must be able to access the available resources of the
other machines on the network. Consult your network administrator for further assistance.
Each installation includes a local “configuration.xml” file which stores the instructions for how that
machine connects to the database, such as the server name and database name. The server name can
be either the name or the IP address of the computer where SQL server is installed and the database is
set up. If the connection is a local machine, the name would be “localhost” (the IP address for a local
host is 127.0.0.1). If a workstation connects to a different machine for the database, the configuration
file would contain the name (or IP address) of that machine.
This IP reference allows a user to connect remotely to a database, assuming that firewalls are either
disabled on the database machine, or proper ports are set up as exceptions (port 1433 is used for the
SQL Server engine). If an Internet gateway is used, advanced network settings are required to allow
certain port requests to get through the gateway and have it forwarded to the proper machine.
The configuration.xml file is defined during workstation installation; if any of the details in the
SQLServer section change, you can edit this file rather than uninstalling/reinstalling 8000.

4
Setting Up Clinic and Doctor Information

Converting from Older Versions


Note: Be sure all versions of 8000 running on any workstation are closed.
Conversion from V11 to V12 is automatic and you can disregard the following procedure. If you are
converting from an earlier version, follow the procedure below:
1. Choose Start»All Programs»Forté Systems Inc.»<product name>»Conversion Utility.
2. Because the conversion utility is not launched from the main module, you may be prompted to login
if security is enabled, and then the permissions for data utilities will be enforced based on your
security group.
3. Select the version you are converting and click Next.
4. Select the path of the installation you are converting and click Next.
5. If an older version was selected, data integrity check will be run. Click Next.
6. During conversion a progress bar and grid indicates what is being converted and the status.
Note: The conversion process from V11 to V12 takes approximately 10-15 minutes, but if you are con-
verting from an earlier version the process can take between 2 and 4 hours. A progress indicator
will show you how much data has been converted. You cannot use the 8000 application until
conversion is complete. Do not cancel the conversion.

Registering your Software


The first time you run 8000 after installation (only required once in a network environment), you are
prompted to register your software. On the Registration screen enter your account number, name,
address, clinic name, and the CD key.
This information is transmitted to Forté Systems Inc. to validate the key information entered and unlock
the purchased features.
If you purchased multiple site licenses, use the User Options to define the clinic name and address and
assign doctors to the site. For more information, see “Customizing User Options” on page 25.

Setting Up Clinic and Doctor Information


During installation the Setup Wizard prompted you to enter the name and contact information of the
clinic, as well as information about the default doctor.
This information can be changed at any time; choose Utilities»Setup Wizard.
The Setup Wizard also allows you to define the areas that you want the Artificial Intelligence system to
report on. For more information, see “Monitoring When Key Tasks Are Completed or Overdue” on
page 109.

Creating Multiple Databases (Paramount users)


You can create multiple databases to store data. All of these databases will share the same clinic name
and address information unless you bought additional site licenses. A doctor can only be assigned to
one site, so other doctors would have to be created to use additional site addresses. For information
about setting up site licenses, see “Customizing User Options” on page 25.
To create a new database, choose File»New»Database. You are prompted for a name for the new
database, then the new database will open and you are prompted to complete the Setup Wizard to add
the doctor-related info (tax ID, email, phone, etc.) for the primary doctor (see “Setting Up Clinic and
Doctor Information” above).
To open a different database, choose File»New»Database. Choose from the list of available data-
bases.

5
Setting Up Your System

Setting up Fees
Fees are set up in the Fee lookup (for more information, see “Working with Lookups” on page 19).
• Choose View»Fee Schedules, or press F3 in the Ledger (opens the fee schedule associated with
that patient).

Managing Fee Schedules


Fees are assigned to fee schedules. To create a new fee schedule, edit any fee and click Modify List.
If you have accessed the fee lookup from a patient’s posting screen, it is limited to the fee schedule
associated with that patient (which is determined by the patient’s case type). To link a fee schedule to a
particular case type, see “Customizing Posting Options” on page 27.

Editing Fees
You can determine the order in which fees appear in the Fee Schedule. Fees include a billable check
box; if a fee is defined as unbillable, it is posted as normal but is not printed on a claim, even if both
Charge and CPT code are present. If a fee is considered taxable, be sure to specify the Sales Tax
Amount in the User Options; see “Customizing Posting Options” on page 27.
A fee can be assigned to a particular doctor or provider, or you can have 8000 prompt you to enter the
doctor number whenever you use this fee. If you want to be prompted to enter the doctor number for
all fees, instead of changing each fee entry you can set that globally in the User Options; for more
information, see “Customizing Posting Options” on page 27.
Fees can be assigned a Quick Code which makes it fast and easy to post transactions. For example,
when posting a charge in the Ledger, you can simply enter the quick code for the charge in the Quick
Code/Fee Code field. For more on posting transactions, see “Working in the Ledger” on page 49.

Setting Up Agreed Pricing


If you know how much a particular insurance company will pay for charges in your fee schedule(s), you
can define this “agreed pricing” as part of your fee lookup.
When a charge is posted from the fee schedule, 8000 checks if agreed pricing has been set up for the
patient’s insurance company, and posts the price into the Agreed Pricing column on the Ledger.
Note: There is no other verification made on amounts entered in the Agreed Pricing column; it merely
provides a visual reminder so you can later check to see if you were paid what the insurance
company said they would pay for that procedure.
When you post a payment using line item posting, you are alerted if the amount you entered in the Amt
Paid column is different from the defined Agreed Pricing amount.

6
Setting up Contact Lists

To set up agreed pricing:


1. On the Fee Lookup, click Agreed Pricing.
2. If agreed pricing has already been defined for an insurance company and you want to edit amounts,
select the company and click OK.
or
If you are setting up agreed pricing for an insurance company for the first time, click Add to select
the company from the Insurance lookup, and then click OK.
3. All fees in all fee schedules are listed; where applicable enter the agreed pricing for this insurance
company.

Importing Fees
You can import fees only when you have opened the fee schedule from a patient’s Ledger.
1. In the patient Ledger, press F3.
2. Click Import.
3. Select the fee(s) that you want to import into the patient’s fee schedule, then click Select.
Any fees that you import will be available to all patient’s who use the same fee schedule.

Setting up Contact Lists


Contacts are the people and companies set up in 8000 which may be used by more than one patient
file. These include doctors, insurance companies, attorneys, referring doctors, service facilities, and
employers. They are set up in central lists that can be accessed from lookups in the appropriate areas
of the patient file, insurance claims, and letters (for more information, see “Working with Lookups” on
page 19).
You can view or print these contact lists in business cards or phone list layout. Choose the appropriate
list from the View menu.

7
Setting Up Your System

You can view other contact lists by choosing from the drop-down list at the top. The second drop-down
list allows you to switch views (Business Cards, Detailed Address Cards, or a phone list). Each view can
be printed as it is displayed (e.g. as a phone list or in business card format). To edit the complete con-
tact information, double-click on the record.

Entering a Doctor’s Reference Numbers


You can add a doctor’s social security number, license number, and other identification numbers. To
enter a doctor’s personal identification numbers for particular case types, while editing a doctor’s infor-
mation, click View Doctor Case Pins and then add a new case PIN to the Doctor Case PIN lookup.
Note: The PINs have largely been replaced by the use of the NPI system (see “Working with NPI Num-
bers” on page 65) and the CMS 1500 08/05 form. Case PINs are only included on the CMS 1500
12/90 form.

Understanding and Setting Up Case Types


A patient file’s case type determines how it is treated in many areas, including reports, claims, and
patient statements. For example, a posting with a case type C (Cash) will not be included in when gen-
erating a billing list. To link a case type to a fee schedule, see “Customizing Posting Options” on
page 27.
There are a number of basic case types that are included in 8000 and are found in the Case Type
lookup. For more on working with lookups, see “Working with Lookups” on page 19.

Code Description Effect in CMS (HCFA) Form

BS Blue Shield - Not Medicare • Enters “yes” in the Assignment field.

C Cash

COL Collections (Cases with collec-


tion problems)

MM Medicare • Checks the Medicare option in Box 1.


• Enters “yes” in the Assignment field.
• Enters information from Visits to Date
field in Box 19. This information over-
rides any information entered in the Rs
for Loc Use HCFA-Box 19 field.

PI Personal Injury (auto or other • Checks Box 10b or Box 10c.


accident) • Enters information from the patient file
Illness Date field in Box 14.

WC Worker’s Compensation (work- • Enters “yes” in Box 10a.


related injury) • Enters information from the patient file
Employer field in Box 4, unless you
override it.
• Enters information from patient file Ill-
ness Date field in Box 14.

Warning: Though you can add, edit and remove case types from the Case Type lookup, you should
not edit or remove these pre-programmed case types. When you edit a case type, all
patient files containing that case type are updated.

8
Understanding and Setting Up Case Types

Creating Case Types


When creating a new case type, it is best to begin with an existing one and then add to it. You need to
be careful of how codes interact with each other. For example, the case type NA, automatically enters
certain information in the CMS (HCFA) form. If you created a new case type “ETNA,” 8000 reads this as
a form of the “NA” case type and would enter information for that case type in the CMS (HCFA) form.
Here are some examples of case types you can create:

Code Description Effect in CMS (HCFA) Form

- Inhibits interest charges. The code


should appear after a regular case type
code.

+ Forces one procedure line per line in Box


24.* The code should appear after a reg-
ular case type code.

A Assigned (indicates that you will only


accept the assigned insurance payment).

DP Dependent (inhibits the printing of state-


ments for dependents who are linked in
the Family screen).

MC Medicaid • Checks the Medicaid option in Box 1.


• Enters “yes” in the Assignment field.
• Enters “Signature on File” in Box 13.

MM** Same as Medicare (MM) with exception • Leaves Box 11d empty.
(see next cell)

MMNA Same as Medicare (MM) with exception • Combination of MM and NA


(see next cell)

MMX Same as Medicare (MM) with exception • Uses second insurance from patient file.
(see next cell) • Enters “no” in Box 11d, except in Wash-
ington state, where it is blank.

MP Posts the regular monthly amount in the


Header screen and then prints it on the
monthly statement

NA This code should appear after a regular • Enters “no” in Box 27


case type code. • Leaves Box 13 blank.

NAS This code should appear after a regular • Enters “no” in Box 27.
case type code. • Leaves Box 13 blank.

NR Stops the patient from appearing on a


recall list. This code should appear before
a regular case type code.

NS • Enters “yes” in Box 27.


• Leaves Box 13 blank.

PR Private insurance patients

* By default, 8000 prints two procedure lines per line for Box 24. If you prefer to have one procedure line
per Box 24 line, use a “BS” or “MM” case type, or add a plus sign to any other case type.
The + has no effect on the CMS 1500 08/05 form, which only allows one procedure per line.

9
Setting Up Your System

Database Maintenance
All database maintenance is done at the server level. 8000 uses an application called Database Utility
for backups and other database maintenance processes. The Database Utility enables you to detach,
attach, restore and backup your Forté databases. Database files have an .mdf file extension and are
found in the Data folder of the Forté folder.
Note: If you are moving the database to another machine, you will also need to edit the configura-
tion.xml files on all machines that need to connect to it (see “Network Installation” on page 4).
If you are just moving the database to another folder on the same machine, this is not neces-
sary.
• Choose Start»Programs»Forté Systems Inc.»8000»Database Utility.

You cannot detach, restore or backup a database if it is in use. Ensure that all users have logged out of
8000 before attempting any of these operations.

Attaching a Database
Note: A database can be attached even if 8000 is in use
1. In the Database Utility screen, click Attach.
2. In the MDF file or database to attach field, browse to the database you wish to attach. If it is a
valid database file, the Logical Database Name field is populated. Click OK. The database is attached
to the database engine

Detaching a Database
When a database is detached from the database engine, it can then be copied or moved safely. This is
helpful when you want to move a database to a different server or machine or wish to copy a database
and store it as a backup file. A database cannot be accessed when it is detached; it must be reattached
before it can be used again.
1. In the Database Utility screen, click Detach.
2. Select the database to be detached and click OK.

Copying a Database
1. Detach the database as described above.
2. In Windows Explorer, locate the .mdf file of the database you wish to copy (in the Data folder of the
Forté folder.
3. Copy and paste it in a new location.
4. Reattach the database.

10
About Software Updates

Backing up a Database
You should perform a backup once a day, and store all backups in the same secure location, preferably
one on a different hard drive or partition from 8000. You should also save backups with the default file
name, which includes a date stamp. This will make it easy to return to a particular day’s backup if nec-
essary.
1. In the Database Utility screen, click Backup.
2. From the Databases on the server list, select the database you want to backup.
3. Click the browse button beside Backup database file name and location.
4. In the Save As screen, navigate to the folder in which you want to save your backup files.
5. To save the backup with the default file name, click Save.
Note: If you want to save your email messages (sent and received), you should also backup your
email database, which is located in the same folder as the application database.

Restoring a Database
The Restore function is useful if a database has become corrupted or damaged in some way. Restoring
a database returns the present database files back to a recent backup version. It is important that you
be sure that you restore the correct file, as once a file is restored, it overwrites the information in the
current database file.
1. In the Database Utility screen, click Restore.
2. Click the browse button beside the Restore database file name and location field.
3. Navigate to the backup copy of the database file you want to restore.
4. Click Open.
5. Click OK. You are prompted to confirm that you want to replace the existing database with the
backup copy.
6. Click Yes.

Changing the SQL Server Password


1. In the Database Utility screen, click the arrow beside the Make Modifications button, and choose
Change SQL SA Password.
2. Enter the new password.

About Software Updates


You can be sure that you always have the most up-to-date version of 8000. It checks the website daily
to see if an update is available. If there is, you are asked if you want to update your system. This
update notification screen includes the highlights of the release, and a link to view the full release
notes. If you confirm that you want to update, your default web browser opens at the download page.
Each local system is checked against the server each time 8000 is launched, and updated if necessary.

Reinstalling 8000
If you need to re-install 8000, first uninstall 8000 and Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine, and also
remove the entire 8000 installation folder (usually c:\program files\forte). Then run the installation pro-
gram as described on “Installing 8000” on page 4.
Note: Before uninstalling, you should perform a backup of your database(s) (see “Backing up a Data-
base” on page 11).

11
Setting Up Your System

Customer Training and Support


You can receive training on the 8000 through telephone training as well as the training tutorial series.
Please contact us for rates.
Telephone support is available Monday through Friday from 7:00AM to 5:00PM PST. The telephone
number is 800-464-1740, or see our website: www.fortesystemsinc.com.

12
Getting Started with 8000

Logging In
The default user name is MASTER, password SECRET. This is the “super user” with full administrative
privileges. If you have added other users, you should change the default user name (or at least the
password) to one known only to the person who should have access to everything.
If another user is currently logged in, choose File»Logout, and then log in with your own user name
and password.
If you have forgotten your password, click Forgot your password? You will be prompted to enter your
user name and the answer to your secret question that was set up when your user ID was created.
For more information about setting passwords and secret questions and answers, see “Customizing
Security and Setup Options” on page 28.

About 8000 and This User Guide


The 8000 billing and practice management system provides your practice with easy to use and inter-
connected features for storing patient files, flexible appointment scheduling, posting charges, easy
insurance billing, notes, statistics, and reporting.
The software is sold in levels of complexity, starting with basic patient file management and billing, and
then increasingly adding more powerful marketing and practice management features. Similarly, this
manual has been grouped into parts that reflect this structure:
• Part I - System Setup
• Part II - Working with Patient Files
• Part III - Transactions and Billing (including posting charges and payments, working with daysheets,
and generating claims and statements (individual or batch))
• Part IV - Office and Practice Management (including scheduling appointments, communicating with
patients, maintaining inventory, marketing functions, and other features that help you to run your
practice and 8000 implementation efficiently)
• Part V - Reports (including standard and custom reports).
Note: Any feature that is available only at a higher level is identified in parentheses in the section title;
for example, “Creating Multiple Databases (Paramount users)”.

About the 8000 Home Page


The main 8000 screen is your starting point for all other functions, and contains the following elements:
• The menu bar and toolbars allow access to many of the 8000 functions. To see what a toolbar icon
represents, hold your pointer over it.

13
Getting Started with 8000

• Tabs provide access to the Home page and to any open patient files.

The Home tab opens to the Message Center, but you can select a different view in the bottom left cor-
ner to view your tasks, personal calendar, rolodex, or your personal “My Corner”, which is a place to
store pictures, play music or games, or use the Time Clock (if installed) to keep track of and calculate
your work hours. For more information about Time Clock, contact Forté.
If you prefer to have these views represented by smaller icons at the bottom, click the arrow at the bot-
tom and choose Show Fewer Buttons. You can also choose which views you don’t want to use at all.

Viewing and Sending Messages


The Message Center allows you to send and receive internal messages from other users, or send email
messages to patients or other contacts. Incoming email messages can be attached to a patient’s file.
The Message Center is refreshed every XX minutes depending on your Email Settings; to force a
refresh, click Send/Receive.
Note: Messages can also be sent to a recipient’s mobile device; for more information, see “Sending
Information Via Mobile Technology” on page 102.
The left side of the Message Center window shows the folders and actions. The middle pane lists the
messages in the selected folder, and the right pane displays the content of the selected message. You
can select a message in the middle pane and move it to a different folder. To create a new folder, right-
click in the Folders area.

14
About the 8000 Home Page

The first time you create an email message you are prompted to enter your email settings (SMTP
server, email address, and display name). To change these settings, click Email Settings. If you don’t
know your SMTP/POP3 settings, check with your Internet Service Provider.
• To send an internal message to another user, click New Message. In the message window, select
the user(s) in the To, Cc, or Bcc fields as appropriate (to create a group of users, click Manage
Groups in the message window, enter a name for the group, and assign the users to it). Enter a
subject and your message, then click Send. You can also close a message without sending it, and
you will be prompted to save it in your Drafts folder.
• To send an email message to an external contact or a patient, click New Email Message. In the
message window, click To (or Cc or Bcc, as appropriate). Choose From Contacts to retrieve an
email address from your address book (or manage your address book entries or groups), or choose
From Patient File to open the Patient Lookup form; retrieve the patient as described in “Retrieving
a Patient File” on page 35. Enter a subject and your message, then click Send. You can also close a
message without sending it, and you will be prompted to save it in your Drafts folder.
• To attach an email message to a patient file, right-click on the message and choose Send to
Patient Notes. The Patient lookup screen appears; retrieve the patient as described in “Retrieving a
Patient File” on page 38. Once you have selected a patient, the text of the message is copied to the
patient notes.
• To reply to a message (both internal and email), select the message you want to reply to and then
click Reply. Enter your reply and click OK to send it to the recipient.
• To forward an email message to another user, select the message you want to forward and then click
Forward. Enter a message if necessary and click OK to send it to the recipient.

Managing Your Tasks


The Tasks view shows the view options and task actions on the left, and the tasks are listed on the
right. Current tasks are displayed in black text, overdue tasks in red, and completed tasks in grey with
a line through the text.
Note: The “MASTER” user can view tasks for any user selected from a drop-down list above the task
list section.
• To add a task, double-click in the empty row at the top of the tasks list, or click New Task. Enter
the subject, start and due dates, and change the status if applicable. To create a recurring task, click
Recurrence and select the pattern (how often) and range (how long). Click Save & Close.
• To quickly mark a task as Completed, select its checkbox in the task list (alternatively you can open
the task and change its status).
• To delete a task, open the task and click Delete.

15
Getting Started with 8000

Managing Personal Appointments


The personal calendar on your home page allows you to track personal (non-patient) appointments. For
information about patient appointments, see “Working with Patient Appointments” on page 73.
The calendar includes a navigation calendar on the left (dates shown in bold have appointments) and
the appointment view on the right.
• To view the previous or next day (or week or month, depending on the view), use the arrows in the
top left of the appointment view.
• To jump to a particular date, click a date in the navigation calendar.
• To change the view between daily, weekly, or monthly, click the appropriate option at the top of the
appointment view.
• To add an appointment, double-click on the appointment slot or click New Appointment. Enter the
subject and start and end times. To create a recurring appointment, click Recurrence and select the
pattern (how often) and range (how long). Click Save & Close.

16
About the 8000 Home Page

Using Your Rolodex


The Rolodex allows you to maintain a list of personal contacts.
Choose a view on the left. To add a contact, click New Contact, then enter the name, phone number,
and any notes.
Tip: If you anticipate sending email messages to this contact, be sure to also add them as a contact in
the Message Center.

Using “My Corner”


My Corner is a place to store pictures, play music or games, or use the Time Clock (if installed) to keep
track of and calculate your work hours. For more information about Time Clock, contact Forté.
• To add or change an image, right-click on one of the image placeholders at the top and choose
Browse. Locate the image you want to add to this space and click Open.
Note: These images are specific to your user ID and will not be included on any other user’s home
page.

17
Getting Started with 8000

• To manage your music playlist, right-click in the Playlist area and choose Add File or Clear List as
appropriate.

Entering Data in 8000


Data in 8000 is entered in fields, and selected from lookups and calendar fields. All text is automatically
spell-checked. Words spelled incorrectly are underlined in red; right-click on the word to correct, auto-
correct, ignore, or add to the dictionary.

Fields
Fields are used to enter information into screens such as the Patient file. Some fields include a browse
button, this indicates that the information entered here can be selected from a lookup. For more on
lookups see “Working with Lookups” on page 19.
Most screens including the patient file include a number of required fields. For example, the Last Name
and First Name fields are required in the Patient file. If you leave any required fields blank, when you
attempt to save or exit the screen, a message will alert you to that fact, and the blank required fields
will be tagged with red exclamation marks.

18
Entering Data in 8000

Calendar Fields
Dates are entered in a Month/Day/Year format. You can also choose a date from a calendar that
appears when you click the down arrow next to the field.

Working with Lookups

Lookups are lists of choices for a field. They are accessed through a browse button . Browse buttons
appear throughout the application. Some lookups can also be accessed from the View menu in the main
8000 screen.
In most lookups you can search for, add, edit, and delete items from the lookup. Items can be deleted
only if they are not in use in a patient file. You can delete multiple lookup items by selecting all the
items you want to delete.
Note: You can add a doctor to the Doctor Lookup, but you cannot delete a doctor; you can only make
them inactive.
You cannot add, edit, or delete a patient in the Patient Lookup. For more on working with patient
files, see “Working with the Patient File” on page 35.
You can print lookup lists and also make lookup items active or inactive. This is helpful if you do not use
certain lookup items but do not want to delete them. In a lookup, you can choose to display all lookup
items, or only active or inactive lookup items.

To view active, inactive, or all lookup items:


• To view only active lookup items, click Active Records.
• To view only inactive lookup items, click Inactive Records.
• To view all lookup items, click All Records.

19
Getting Started with 8000

To search for a lookup item:


1. Enter all or part of the item you want to find in the search field at the top right of the lookup form.
2. The search looks in all columns by default; to limit which fields are searched, click the arrow to the
right of the field and select/deselect the fields as required.
3. Click the magnifying glass icon. The icon changes to an X to indicate that the lookup is now showing
a subset of the total records. To return to the full lookup list, click the X icon beside the search field.

To select a lookup item:


• In the Lookup, select the lookup item you want to add to a field, and click Select. The lookup item is
added to the field you are working in.

To add a new lookup item:


1. In the Lookup, click Add. In the New screen, enter a code, description and any other required
information for the lookup item. You can also determine if the lookup item will be active or not.
2. Click Save.

To edit a lookup item:


1. In the Lookup, select the lookup item, and click Edit.
2. In the Edit screen, make any changes to the code, description and any other required information
for the lookup item.
3. Click Save.

To delete a lookup item:


• In the Lookup, select the lookup item, and click Delete.
Note: You cannot delete lookup items that are in use in a patient file. If this is the case, the delete but-
ton will be unavailable.

To make a lookup item active or inactive:


1. In the Lookup, select the lookup item you want to make active or inactive, and click Edit.
2. In the Edit screen, select or deselect the Active checkbox.

To filter the lookup list to show only certain lookup items:


1. In the Lookup, enter the search criteria in the row below the relevant column header, and then press
ENTER. The lookup list displays only those lookup items that correspond to your search criteria.

2. Press to remove the filter.

To import diagnosis codes:


• Click Import to locate the code set file.
Note: Available only in the Diagnosis Lookup.

20
Entering Data in 8000

Working with Tables


Much of the information in 8000 is organized in tables. There are a number of ways to organize the data
in these tables. These settings are linked to your user ID and will be remembered the next time you log
on to 8000.

To sort columns:
You can sort the contents of column in ascending or descending order. Click the column header you
want to sort. An up arrow in the column header indicates that the column has been sorted in ascending
order, while a down arrow indicates that the column has been sorted in descending order.

To resize columns:
You can usually resize table columns to show more or less information, as desired. Move your cursor
over the column division in the heading area and, when the cursor changes, drag it in the appropriate
direction.

To customize which fields display:


You can customize which fields are included in all table grids. To change the display back to the default
settings, right-click on the grid’s title bar and choose Reset to Default. If the grid you are viewing has
a print option, the print output will reflect which fields are hidden or shown.
1. Right-click on the grid’s title bar (column headings).

21
Getting Started with 8000

2. Select or deselect the fields to appear, or choose Customize.


3. If you chose Customize, use the buttons to add or remove fields, or to change the order that they
appear in. When you are finished, click OK.

To add information to a table:


Some tables behave like fields and allow you to enter information or choose from a list of information.
The table then lists the information you entered.
For example, in the Generate Billing List screen, you can choose to bill only those patient accounts with
specific case types. The table in the Case Types area of this screen is enabled when you click Select
Cases by Type. In the row below the table header you can type a case code below the Case Type col-
umn header and choose from lists below the Include/Exclude and Type column headers. When you
press ENTER, the information you have entered in the first row is moved to the next row and the first row
is cleared.

22
Using ChiroBrain

Using ChiroBrain
If you are more visually inclined, you may prefer to use the ChiroBrain as your central workspace.
• Choose Tools»ChiroBrain.
ChiroBrain organizes the ChiroSoft functions in four “lobes”:

• Analytics & Metrics (Parietal Lobe):


• Practice Wellness Information (see “Using the Wellness Center” on page 115)
• Automatic Reports Setup - opens the Report Writer for the currently selected patient file; if no
patient files are open you are prompted to select one (see “Working with the Report Writer” on
page 122)
• Software Usage Analytics (see “Viewing Software Usage Analytics” on page 111)
• Practice Financial Statistics and Practice Doctor Statistics - open the Clinic Totals and Daily Totals
screens respectively (see “Working with Clinic Totals” on page 119)
• Program Diagnostics - opens the Software Analytics report (see “Viewing Software Usage
Analytics” on page 111).
• Executive Control (Frontal Lobe):
• Clinic Manual and Master Clinic Process - opens the clinic’s policy and process manual (see
“Working with the Policy Manual” on page 106)
• Forecasting (see “Forecasting Financial Outcomes and Patient Levels” on page 96)
• Compliancy - checks that your installed version is the most current, and allows you to download
any updates
• Retirement Tracker - opens the Retirement Tracker report (see “Generating Financial Reports” on
page 116)
• Security - opens the User lookup, where you can add, edit, and remove users depending on your
permissions.

23
Getting Started with 8000

• Billing & Collections (Occipital Lobe):


• All Billing - opens the Insurance Billing List (see “Generating Batch Claims” on page 62)
• Related Reports (future implementation)
• Accounts Receivable (see “Account Balances Report” on page 120)
• Posting - prompts you to select a patient file, then opens that patient’s Ledger (see “Working in
the Ledger” on page 49)
• Collections - opens the form for generating a list of outstanding claims and printing tracer letters
for each outstanding claim (see “Working with Outstanding Claims and Tracer Letters” on
page 69).
• Marketing & Outreach (Temporal Lobe):
• Patient Outreach - opens a central location for several patient communication functions: create
merged letters (see “Generating Merged Letters” on page 86), a first visit package (see “Creating
a First Visit Package” on page 89), a clinic newsletter (see “Creating Clinic Newsletters” on
page 91); or use the search report generator to analyze data in the patient files (see “Working
with the Search Report Generator” on page 123)
• Gathering Market Research (see “Gathering Demographic Information About Your Patients” on
page 98)
• Patient Satisfaction (future implementation)
• Special Occasions - opens the Special Occasion wizard to print labels and letters to recognize
your patients’ special occasions (see “Recognizing Special Occasions” on page 90)
• Marketing Success - opens the Marketing Success report (see “Generating Financial Reports” on
page 116)
• Patient Referrals (future implementation).

24
Customizing 8000

Customizing User Options


The User Options screen enables you to customize many aspects of 8000. These settings are linked to
your user ID and are stored in the database, so your settings apply regardless of which computer you
might be logged in to.

Changing General Display Options


• Choose Tools»Options, then click General.

• To have grids and reports display with alternating row colors for more visual distinction, change the
settings in the Report Settings area.
• To define the areas that you want the Artificial Intelligence system to report on, click Setup. For
more information, see “Monitoring When Key Tasks Are Completed or Overdue” on page 109.
• To see any related alerts when you open a patient file, choose Show Alerts when opening accounts.
This does not affect vendor alerts in the Inventory screen.
• To include icons on buttons and/or tabs, select the appropriate check box.
• If you use WritePad, set the export file options as applicable.
• Identify the user who receive messages from the Instant Ad Expert website (if defined at the
website).

25
Customizing 8000

Customizing Daysheet Options


• Choose Tools»Options, then click Daysheet.

• The daysheet normally prints as a single report with all doctor information combined. If you prefer
to have each doctor’s charges, credits, adjustments, etc. printed separately, select Separate
Daysheets for each Doctor. This setting determines the default, but when you print the daysheet you
have the option to change the setting for that printout.
• Select Prompt for Practice Diary Entry if you want to be able to record notes about the daysheet
when you print it.
• Specify the number of copies to produce whenever you print the daysheet, and settings for the
deposit slip if you choose to print one along with the daysheet.

Setting Calendar Options


• Choose Tools»Options, then click Calendar.

• Change the default calendar display settings which control if the schedule should open
automatically, whether you view the schedule by doctor or room; define what the rooms are called,
and specify the appointment intervals shown. All of these can be changed temporarily when viewing
the calendar from the right-click menu.

26
Customizing User Options

• Define options that apply to appointments specifically, including the warning time, and appointment
status codes and types. In the appointment type list, right-click on any row to set it as the default
type for new appointments.
• Set the clinic, doctor, and room schedules:
• Use the Regular tab to enter the regular schedules for each day of the week. To mark a specific
day as Off, enter the word OFF into the first start time.
• Use the Exceptions tab to enter hours for holidays or other days when the regular hours do not
apply.

Customizing Posting Options


• Choose Tools»Options, then click Posting.

• Define options for the posting screen display (color code positive/negative values in green/red or
leave them black) and output (i.e. if you use Safeguard Ledger Cards, transactions are printed as
they are posted).
• Specify the information used for calculations:
• Estimate Co-pay - the Co-Pay Estimator appears if the patient has a Fixed Co-Pay or Co-Pay
Percentage entered in their patient file (except C, WC, A, and PI cases).
• If you want 8000 to prompt you to enter the doctor number for all fees (instead of defining each
fee entry individually in the fee schedule), select “Ask treating doctor number when posting”.
• For Cash accounts, force the patient portion to be equal to the total balance, so when you print a
statement (that prints the patient portion as the amount to collect), it reflects the true amount
due.
• Click Configure to link fee schedules to case types.
• Enter the percentage of sales tax to be calculated on any fees deemed taxable (see “Setting up
Fees” on page 6.
• If you select the “Use treatment plan…” option, 8000 checks the Used/Recommended values in the
patient file (Insurance tab, Co-Pay section) and displays a warning (when the posting is saved) if the
number used exceeds the number recommended.
• If your clinic uses CareSwipe for credit card processing, click Setup to enter your Store ID and Store
Key.

27
Customizing 8000

Customizing Security and Setup Options


• Choose Tools»Options, then click Main.

• To change the default passwords for Master and User, in the Security area, click System
Passwords. An individual user can change their password by clicking the browse button during
login.
• To set up a new user, in the Security area, click User Setup. In the User lookup, you can add, edit,
and remove users depending on your permissions. Use the Security Group Setup to define the
access permissions for various functional areas of 8000. Each security group can have different
permissions, and each user is assigned to a security group.
• To change site licenses, click Site License Setup. In the Site License Setup screen, you can add,
edit and delete doctor’s site licenses.
• If you use Direct EDI claims submission, click Claims.X12 Setup to configure the claims files. For
both Direct EDI and Direct SecureClaims submissions, you must also identify the Rendering
Providers.
• If you use a third-party word-processor or time clock application other than WritePad or TimeClock,
click the buttons to browse to the .exe file that launches the application(s).

28
Setting Up Automatic Features

Setting Up Automatic Features


Automatic Features allows you to define a function to happen as a result of another action. For exam-
ple, when you save an appointment, automatically open the First Visit Package.

To define triggered actions:


1. Choose Tools»Automatic Features.

2. On the left side, select the event that you want to associate a subsequent action with.
3. Click Add.
4. Select the feature that you want to be triggered when the selected event occurs.
5. If necessary, repeat to add multiple triggered features to the same event.
6. Click Save.

Defining Rules-Based Tasks


Use Rules-Based Tasks to set up a template of workflow tasks for a particular process. For example, a
New Patient template might include the following tasks: create a new patient file; book the initial
appointment, book a follow-up appointment, etc. Whenever you have a new patient, you would run the
template. The first task in the template is created in the task list of the person assigned to it. When that
task is completed, the next task in the template is created in the task list of the person responsible, and
so on until all tasks defined in the template are completed.

To set up a template:
1. Choose Tools»Rules Based Tasks.
2. Click New and enter a Template Name.

29
Customizing 8000

3. Click Add to define the first task.

4. Enter a name for the step, and select the user responsible for this task.
5. Enter the subject line which will appear for the task created.
6. Optionally, define the time periods for the Due Date and Reminder Date, and any notes.
7. Optionally, click Notification to define a message to alert someone (e.g. a supervisor) when the
task is completed, or if it is not completed within a specified number of days after the due date.
8. Click Add to create the next task in the template’s workflow.
9. Use the Move Up, Move Down, or Remove buttons to rearrange the order of the tasks as
necessary.
10.Click Save when you are finished.

To run an existing template:


1. Choose Tools»Rules Based Tasks.
2. Click the browse button to retrieve the template.
3. Click Run. The first task is created in the assigned user’s task list.

30
PART II —
Working With
Patient Files

Use the patient file to store demographic information about a patient, as well as infor-
mation about the patient’s insurance, employer, etc. A patient file is sometimes also
called an account. You can:
• create new patient files or clone existing ones
• create multiple cases for the same patient
• attach text files, images, or audio/video files to a patient file
• set up alerts to warn about a patient’s special situation or emergency condition
• capture the patient’s special occasions for mailings
• enter patient notes and SOAP notes
• import and export patient files
• see an overview of the patient’s accounting condition
Introduction
Use the patient file to store demographic information about a patient, as well as information about the
patient’s insurance, employer, etc. A patient file is sometimes also called an account. You can:
• retrieve patient files (see “Retrieving a Patient File” on page 35)
• create new patient files (see “Creating a Patient File” on page 36)
• clone existing patient files (see “Cloning a Patient File” on page 37)
• create multiple cases for the same patient (see “Adding a New Case” on page 37)
• attach text files, images, or audio/video files to the patient file (see “Attaching an External File” on
page 37)
• set up alerts to warn about a patient’s special situation or emergency condition (see “Adding an
Alert” on page 38)
• capture the patient’s special occasions that can be used for mailings such as birthday or anniversary
greetings (see “Capturing the Patient’s Special Occasions” on page 38)
• enter patient notes and SOAP notes (see “Adding Notes” on page 38)
• import and export patient files (see “Managing Patient Files” on page 41)
• view the patient’s Header information, which is an overview of the patient’s accounting condition,
including insurance co-pay, treatment plan visits, visit history, and case totals (see “Viewing the
Patient Header” on page 43).

About the Patient File Screen


The Patient File screen consists of the following elements:

➊ A sidebar that allows you to perform common patient-related functions.

➋ Tabs containing the patient’s demographic information as well as information about the patient’s
cases, insurance, diagnosis, and attorney.

➌ Tabs containing a patient checklist, patient minder, and photo.

➍ A map area used to correlate data entry with the HCFA, NYWC, or UB-04 form.

33
About the Patient File Screen

For information about using the patient checklist, patient minder, photo, or map, see “Adding Informa-
tion to the Patient File” on page 37.


About the Patient File Tabs


Enter the patient’s basic information in the following tabs.

Tab What it Shows

Patient demographic information about the patient and the


patient’s employer (name, address, contact information,
etc.)

Cases list of the patient’s current and past cases including doctor
name, case type, and initial complaint

Insurance • information about the patient’s insurance company and


coverage; for each Insurance Type (primary or second-
ary), complete the fields for each Insurance Data Type
(Insurance, Insured, and Co-Pay); fields for Utilization
Review and Attorney are display only and are populated
from the Insurance Company lookup table
• you can check the patient’s insurance eligibility on the
Co-Pay sub-form; for more information, see “Checking a
Patient’s Insurance Eligibility” on page 81

Dx list of patient’s current and past diagnoses, as well as any


temporary disabilities or work restrictions
Note: Change the print order of the diagnosis to specify
which slot on the HCFA form it should appear in.
Also, a print order other than “Inactive” allows the
diagnosis to be copied into the SOAP notes (see
“Entering SOAP Notes” on page 39).

34
Retrieving a Patient File

Tab What it Shows

Attorney information about the patient’s attorney

Ins Form information as you would like it to appear on insurance


forms, includes a button to open the UB-04 form

Custom any other information you want to keep track of, such as
blood type; double-click on a field name to change it.

Working with the Patient File

Retrieving a Patient File


There are two ways to open an existing patient file:
• Use the search box at the top of your home page.

If there is only one match, the patient file opens. If there is more than one possible match, they are
presented in a separate grid. Double-click on the patient you want to open.
or
• Use the Patient Lookup form as follows:
1. Choose File»Open»Patient File
or
press F5.
2. The Patient Lookup appears. There are two views for patient lookups: Basic, which provides several
common fields to search by, and Advanced, which allows you to enter search criteria. To switch
between the lookup types, click the link in the lower left corner.
Note: The Basic view only retrieves patient files with active cases, while the Advanced view will
retrieve patient files with both active and inactive cases.

Basic View
• To open a recently opened file, select the name from the Recent Patients list and click Search.
• To search using the basic fields, enter the first few characters in any of the fields and click Search.
If there is only one match, the patient file opens. If there is more than one possible match, they are
presented in a separate grid. Double-click on the patient you want to open.

35
Working with the Patient File

Advanced View
The field at the top serves two purposes: enter your search criteria, or click the drop-down arrow to see
a list of recently opened patient files.

• To open a recently opened file, select the name from the list at the top and click Open.

To search for a specific value:


1. Either select the field in the Search in list (top left), or click the column in the table.
2. Type the first few characters of the entry in the field at the top (e.g. “kra”)
3. The list goes to the first entry that matches what you typed (but you can still scroll up and down
through all records). If you want to filter the list to only include records that match what you typed
(e.g. the list should only show records that contain “kra”), press ENTER.
4. To sort the list, click a column name (and again to reverse the order).
5. When the desired patient file is highlighted, click Open or double-click to open it.

Creating a Patient File


1. Choose File»New»Patient File.
2. Optionally, use the Alternate ID field to store other Account ID information; for example, to match
the numbering in a paper filing system.
3. Assign a doctor and a case type to the patient file. The case type determines how the account is
treated in many areas, including reports, claims, and patient statements. For more information, see
“Creating Case Types” on page 9.
4. If you have a USB card reader, you can retrieve the patient’s name, address, birthdate, and sex
directly from the patient’s driver’s license.
• Click Automatic Entry (above the Last Name field) and scan the license when prompted.
• Click Accept to post the information into the patient file, or click Close to return to the patient
file and enter the information manually.
5. Complete the fields on each tab as applicable.
6. When you are finished, choose File»Save Patient File (to keep the file open) or File»Save &
Close Patient File. If any information is invalid or incomplete, you will be taken to the first invalid
field to correct it.
Note: You can also close the patient file without saving any changes; choose File»Close Patient File.

36
Cloning a Patient File

Cloning a Patient File


There are two levels of copying a patient file:
• “Basic” copies just the demographic portion of the Patient tab (Name, Address, Telephone #, Sex,
Marital Status, etc.).
• “Full” copies the entire patient file and the cases you select.

To clone a patient file:


1. Choose File»Clone Patient File, then choose either Basic or Full.
2. If you chose Full, the patient’s cases are displayed. Click on a case to highlight it (hold the SHIFT key
to select multiple cases), then click OK.
3. In the new patient file, edit the fields as required and save the file.
A Patient Note is added to the new file, indicating that it is a clone of file xxxx.

Adding Information to the Patient File

Adding a New Case


You may need to assign multiple case types to a patient, for example if the patient was first entered
with a Case Type of PR (Private Insurance), but then had a WC (Work Injury) case.
1. Choose File»New»Patient Case.
2. Select the Doctor, Case Type, and complete the lower set of insurance-related tabs.
When you save the patient file, the case is added to the Cases tab at the top and all cases can be
accessed from the same patient file.

Using the Checklist


• Click the List tab in the upper right section of the patient file and answer Yes or No for each option.
• To change the checklist options, double-click anywhere in the List tab.

Using the Patient Minder


The Patient Minder area displays the number of appointments this patient has missed (No Shows),
rescheduled, or cancelled, and the percentage of each compared to the total number of visits.
• Click the Pt Minder tab in the upper right section of the patient file.

Attaching an External File


1. Double-click the Photo tab in the upper right section of the patient file to add a photo of the patient,
or click the Record Center icon in the toolbar to attach any other kind of external file to the patient
file.
2. In the Record Center, select the Record Type (if you opened from the toolbar icon), click Add a File,
and locate the file to be attached.
3. To view a file, double-click on it.

37
Working with the Patient File

Using the Map


As you click in various fields on the patient file forms, the corresponding section of the map is high-
lighted.
Conversely, if a claim was rejected based on missing information, you can click the area of the map that
reflects the missing information identified by the insurance company and 8000 will highlight the field(s)
required. If the information does not come from the patient file, a message will provide more detailed
information on where that information is found.
You can choose to show the HCFA\CMS 1500 12/90 or 08/05 form, the NYWC form, or the UB-04 form.

To change the map:


• Right-click in the map area and choose the form you want to display from the list.

Adding an Alert
1. Click Alerts in the Patient File sidebar, then click Add.
2. Enter the alert message or choose one from the Lookup table.
Note: The Alert screen appears every time the patient file is opened; to turn this off, clear the Show
Alerts when opening accounts checkbox in the User Options (see “Changing General Display
Options” on page 25).

Capturing the Patient’s Special Occasions


Capture any special occasions that you might want to acknowledge throughout the year, such as anni-
versary, graduation, etc. The Special Occasion tool will check here as well as the patient’s date of birth
on the patient tab to print labels and letters. For more information, see “Recognizing Special Occasions”
on page 90.

To capture special occasions:


1. Click Special Occasions in the Patient File sidebar, then click Add.
2. Enter the date, select the occasion type, and optionally enter any notes about it.
3. Click Save, then click Close.

Adding Notes
If the patient file has multiple cases, be sure to open the case that the note will relate to.
Tip: Set the tab that you use most (Patient Notes or SOAP Notes) as the default; right-click on the tab
name and choose Set as Default.

Entering Patient Notes


1. Click Notes in the Patient File sidebar.
2. On the Patient Notes tab, enter a new note in the top section, or select an existing note from the
bottom section to edit.
Tip: To check your spelling after you have finished entering the note, click Spell Check. If you want
8000 to check and correct any errors while you are typing, select the Auto Correct check box at
the bottom.

38
Adding Notes

Entering SOAP Notes


Note: If the patient file has multiple cases, be sure to open the case that the notes relate to.
1. Click Notes in the Patient File sidebar and choose the SOAP Notes tab.

2. To remove a note, select it at the bottom and click Clear, then Save.
3. Select an existing note at the bottom to edit or clone, or use the following steps to create a new
note.
4. Enter the vital statistics and any additional information required in the fields at the top.
5. Use the sliders to mark the patient’s Pain Level and the Frequency Level of this pain.
6. In each of the four SOAP sections, enter your notes or click … to retrieve a saved word or phrase.
For more information, see “Creating and Using Saved Words and Phrases” on page 40.
Tip: To check your spelling after you have finished entering the note, click Spell Check. If you want
8000 to check and correct any errors while you are typing, select the Auto Correct check box at
the bottom.
7. In the Assessment section, click Paste Dx from Pt. File. The print order of the diagnosis (on the
Diagnosis tab of the Patient File) must be set to a number other than “Inactive”.
8. Enter any medications in the Prescribed section and any other prescribed tests/treatments in the
Ordered section.
9. The Print button allows you to print the SOAP Notes, any prescriptions (you are prompted whether
you want the header to include “Voluntary formula permitted”), lab orders, and radiology requests
(these last two options both print whatever is entered in the Ordered section, but the header will
change accordingly). You can select dates or a range of dates for the Notes.
10.If you do not expect any further information to be added to this note, choose Close Note.

39
Working with the Patient File

Creating and Using Saved Words and Phrases


When you click the browse button in any of the SOAP sections, the bottom of the screen changes to dis-
play the lookup options. You can enter any data in either the list or buttons, but generally you would
use the buttons for words/short phrases and the list for longer text entries. To return to the list of
notes, click Hide.
Note: The list and buttons available are different for each of the SOAP sections.

To edit the phrase list:


• Click Edit List and make any required changes.
Tip: Include a space at the end of each line.

To add a phrase from the list to the SOAP notes section:


• As you are entering the note, double-click on the required phrase in the list to insert it at the cursor.

To edit a button:
• Right-click on a button to edit its label and contents.

To add the text from a button to the SOAP notes section


• As you are entering the note, click on a button to insert its associated text at the cursor.
Tip: Place the mouse over a button to see what word/phrase it contains.

40
Printing a Patient File

Printing a Patient File


1. Open the patient file that you want to print.
2. Choose File»Print Patient File
or
Press F12.

3. Select the sections of the patient file that you want to print.
4. Choose whether you want to include all sections even if they have no data, or hide any blank
sections.
5. If you anticipate printing the same sections for the patient’s currently displayed case, click Save
Defaults for <casetype>.
6. Click Print, then click Print again in the Print Preview window.

Managing Patient Files


You can import patient files that have been saved in a text file from other systems, or export patient
files as encrypted records that can be imported by another system running 8000. Accounting informa-
tion and balances are not included. Exported files can optionally include patient notes or alerts.
You can also check all patient files for missing information, which is very helpful when importing files
from other systems.

Importing or Exporting Patient Files


A medical record cannot be imported unless the user has version 9.5 or newer software. If the receiving
(importing) office does not have this version, it may be downloaded from the Forté web site (http://
www.fortesystemsinc.com) as a complimentary trial version. Be sure to provide this information to the
user prior to transfer. The trial copy cannot be used for exporting.
To import patient files from other systems:
• Choose File»Import Patients.

To export an encrypted patient file for use by another 8000 system:


• Choose File»Medical Record Transfer, click Export then click Start.

To import a patient file encrypted by another 8000 system:


• Choose File»Medical Record Transfer, click Import then click Start.

41
Working with the Patient File

Validating Patient Files

To check for and fix missing patient file information:


1. Choose Utilities»Validate Patient Files.
2. Select the fields you want to validate, or click Select All.

3. Click OK.
Note: The validation process may take several minutes. The window remains open during the vali-
dation process so you can see the progress; if you wish to stop the process, click Cancel.
4. When the scan is complete, a report shows which patient files are missing data.

5. Double-click on any entry to open the patient file and correct the missing information.

42
Managing Patient Files

Viewing the Patient Header


The patient header gives a complete overview of the patient’s accounting condition, as well as relevant
dates.
To access the patient header, in the patient file, click Header in the Patient File sidebar.

Area What it Shows

Balance Totals Shows the total charges, credits, and adjustments for the current
month, year, and case. These are read-only in the Header; all charges,
credits, and adjustments must be entered in the posting screen (see
“Working in the Ledger” on page 49).
Note: Balance totals for Charges, Credits, and Adjustments are calcu-
lated based on posting date, not on the date posted; for example,
a charge entered today with a posting date of 2007 would only be
included in the Case totals, not the Month or Year totals.
Note: This balance is incremented by account charges but not when
insurance is billed.
The patient’s portion is calculated when each transaction is posted; this
is the amount assigned to the patient (co-pay amount or monthly pay-
ment).

Dates Shows dates of most recent charge, statement, exam, patient payment,
insurance payment and claim. These dates are set by entering charges
and payments.

43
Viewing the Patient Header

44
PART III —
Transactions
And Billing

Transactions are charges, adjustments, payments, and other items. Transactions spe-
cific to a patient are displayed in each patient’s Ledger. All transactions entered for
patient accounts in one day are compiled in a daysheet. Transactions also appear on
printed statements and (if they have procedure codes) on claim forms, itemized state-
ments or electronic submissions.
The billing functions allow you to create claims and statements individually or in a
batch, or submit claims electronically. After billing, transactions are “tagged” so they
are not included in future bills. After posting payments, 8000 can track outstanding
claims and produce tracer letters.
Each patient’s overall account information is available in the patient file header.
Working with Transactions

Introduction
Transactions are charges, adjustments, payments, and other items. Transactions specific to a patient
are displayed in the Transaction History area of the patient’s Ledger. You can also create an estimate for
a patient or related party. For more information, see “Working in the Ledger” on page 49.
All the transactions entered for patient accounts in one day are compiled in a daysheet. For more infor-
mation, see “Working with Daysheets” on page 56.
Monthly aging identifies past charges and ages them accordingly. For more information, see “About
Monthly Aging” on page 58.
Transactions also appear on printed statements and, if they have procedure codes, on claim forms,
itemized statements or electronic submissions.

About the Ledger


You can add or edit charges, payments, and adjustments in the Ledger. You can also quickly book or
change the patient’s next appointment. To set posting options, see “Customizing Posting Options” on
page 27.
To access the Ledger, in the patient file, click Ledger in the Patient File sidebar, or choose
A/R»Posting»Charges.
The Ledger contains the following elements:

➊ Posting-specific toolbar
➋ Transaction History table where all transactions for the patient are displayed.

47
Working with Transactions

➌ New Transaction table where new transactions are entered.

Changing the Posting Date


If you need to post transactions for a past date, you can change the posting date.
1. Choose Tools»Set Posting Date.

2. Select the new posting date and click OK.


Note: All new postings will be entered under this new date until you change it back to the current date.
A warning indicator appears in the top right of the Ledger, and you will also receive a warning message
each time you start 8000 if the posting date is different from the current date.

48
Working in the Ledger

Working in the Ledger

Adding a Charge
1. Click Fee Schedule (or press F3) to choose a procedure from the Fee Schedule screen
or
Enter the Quick code for the procedure in the Description field in the New Transaction table in the
Ledger.
Note: If agreed pricing has been set up for the patient’s insurance company, the price is posted into
the Agreed Pricing column; for more information, see “Setting Up Agreed Pricing” on page 6.
2. Save the patient file to add the charge to the Transaction History table.
Paramount users can also add a charge from a patient’s appointment screen. For more information see
“Adding a Charge from the Edit Appointment Screen (Paramount users” on page 50.
For information on setting up fees, see “Setting up Fees” on page 6.
If the co-pay option is selected in the Posting options screen, when you save a transaction, the Co-pay
Estimator screen appears. For more on this screen, see “Using the Co-pay Estimator” on page 52.
For more on setting posting options, see “Customizing Posting Options” on page 27.
For information about sales tax on taxable fees, see “Using the Sales Tax Calculator” on page 50.

Editing a Transaction
1. Click Edit Posting, and then make any changes to the transactions in the Edit Postings screen.
2. Click Save to commit your changes to the Postings screen.
An audit trail of all changes to posted transactions will appear in the current daysheet, even if edited
transactions were not for the current day.
If the change to a posted transaction affects information that does not appear in the daysheet, the
edited transaction will not appear in the daysheet. You can run a Transaction report to see these edits.
For more on Transaction reports see, “Transaction Reports” on page 117.
You can also tag, delete, and archive transactions; for more information on these topics see “Tagging
Transactions” on page 50 and “Archiving, Unarchiving, and Deleting Transactions” on page 51.

Recording Inventory Used by a Patient


1. Click Inventory. The Product Lookup screen appears.
2. Choose the product you want to update inventory for, and click Select.
3. Enter the number of units of the product used for this patient, and click OK.
Product units attributed to a patient are posted as new transactions. The selling cost of the item is
added to the patient balance.
Product units are also deducted from the overall clinic inventory. For more information, see “Maintaining
Inventory” on page 104.

49
Working with Transactions

Booking an Appointment from the Ledger


The patient’s next appointment is displayed in the top right corner of the screen.
1. To change this appointment, or to book an appointment if none is currently scheduled, click the
calendar icon or double-click the appointment time (or “<None Scheduled>”, as applicable).

2. Change any of the default entries as applicable, and enter any CPT codes for pre-posting.
3. Click OK.
The appointment can be viewed or edited from the calendar as described in “Working with Patient
Appointments” on page 73.

Adding a Charge from the Edit Appointment Screen (Paramount users


You can also add a charge when working in the Appointment screen. In the Pre-posting area at the bot-
tom, enter the Quick Code (or use the lookup to select one). After the appointment, when the patient is
checked out, the fee codes will already be in the Ledger, but you can still edit or add codes at that time.

Tagging Transactions
Charge transactions that have been billed or claimed should be tagged to ensure they are not rebilled.
This is particularly important if you are using an automatic billing list. For more on automatic billing
lists, see “Generating Batch Claims” on page 62. If you later need to rebill this transaction, untag it.
• In the Edit Postings screen, select the transaction(s) and click Tag or Untag as appropriate.

Using the Sales Tax Calculator


If a tax percentage is specified in the User Options (see “Customizing Posting Options” on page 27), the
sales tax will automatically be calculated for fees identified as taxable (as defined in “Setting up Fees”
on page 6). However, you can modify the amount calculated before committing the values to the Led-
ger, and/or allocate the tax to the patient portion of the charges.

50
Working in the Ledger

When you click Save after entering the fee code(s), the tax calculator appears. Change any amounts as
required and click OK.

Archiving, Unarchiving, and Deleting Transactions


Transactions are archived either automatically at the end of the month during monthly aging or manu-
ally in the Edit Posting screen. Archived transactions can be re-billed, edited, or used in patient state-
ments. Archived transactions are not removed from the system, but are given a “history” type and
stored in a separate folder. They are removed from the Ledger, but can be viewed in the Edit Posting
screen. Unarchiving transactions restores the transaction to its original “current” state.
Deleting a transaction removes the transaction from the system completely.

To archive, unarchive, or delete a transaction:


• In the Edit Posting screen, select the checkbox to the left of the transaction you want to change, and
then click the appropriate button.

Printing the Transaction History


To print a list of all entries in the transaction history, click the Print icon in the Edit Posting screen and
specify the range of dates to be included in the report.

Creating an Estimate
An estimate is a statement-type document but uses non-posted charges. It also does not contain any
payment-required information. Items included on an estimate are not posted to the patient’s account.
1. In the Ledger, choose Tools»Create Estimate.
2. Click Fees to select items to add to the estimate, or click in the first line of the grid and manually
enter items and their charges.
3. When you are finished, click Print to view and print the estimate, or click Save to retrieve the
estimate at a later date.

51
Working with Transactions

Using One Touch Billing


The Ledger has a One Touch Billing icon in the toolbar that can generate either a claim or a statement
(use the arrow beside the icon to set the default).

When you click One Touch Billing, a statement (or claim, according to the default) prints without any
further intervention required. Both statements and claims will use the settings that were previously
saved in their corresponding setup screens. Statements will use the Today's Transactions options to
determine what transactions to print.
For more information, see “Generating an Individual Statement” on page 67 or “Processing Insurance
Claims” on page 62.

Working with Co-Pay


You can define co-pay details in the patient file on the Insurance tab. The Co-Pay area shows the
patient’s insurance plan deductible, applied charges, co-pay percentage, limit, fixed amount to be
added to the patient’s portion for each visit (this overrides the co-pay percentage), insurance applied
charges and regular payment amount due on each month’s statement.
For more information about the patient file, see “Working with the Patient File” on page 35.
For more information about insurance claims, see “Working with Billing Functions” on page 61.

Using the Co-pay Estimator


The Co-pay Estimator screen appears when you have set posting options to estimate co-pay.
• If the patient has paid or will pay today, click Yes. You will then be prompted to process the
payment. For more on billing patients, see “Working with Billing Functions” on page 61.
• If the patient has not paid and will not pay today, click No. You will be prompted to specify why the
collection was not made. You will also be prompted to print the co-pay letter.
If a collection was not made, the associated transactions will be saved with a “!” at the start of the
description, and your initials at the end of the description.

Posting Payments

Posting a Payment or Refund for an Individual Patient


1. Retrieve the patient file and open the Ledger.
2. Click Post Payment and choose the appropriate payment type tab from the Payment Form.
3. Enter the required information for that payment type.
• If the payment type is Cash, Pt Check, or Credit Card, specify if the payment should be applied to
the balance only or applied to the patient portion.
• For VIP card payments, swipe the card. The amount will be deducted from the card and the card’s
remaining balance is shown. If the card does not contain enough credit to cover the amount due,
the patient can either top up the gift card (see “Managing VIP (Gift) Cards” on page 109), or
apply the amount available and then post another payment of another type.

52
Posting Payments

• For credit card payments or refunds, enter the credit card information (or swipe the card if you
have a card reader).
If you use CareSwipe (the CareSwipe options must be configured in your User Options; see
“Customizing Posting Options” on page 27), you must click Process with CareSwipe to connect
to the CareSwipe site and process the transaction before continuing. If the card is denied, you
are prompted to try a different card or to return to the payment form to select a different
payment option.
If you do not use CareSwipe (or have not configured it in your User Options), the payment will be
posted as a normal posted entry and you will have to process the credit card transaction
manually.
4. Click OK. The new payment is added to the New Transaction table in the Ledger.
5. Click Save to add the payment to the Transaction History table.
Note: You can also enter a payment when viewing a claim in the Billing History; for more information,
see “Viewing the Patient’s Billing History” on page 68.

Posting Multiple Payments for Multiple Patients (Speed Posting)


Speed posting enables you to quickly post payments for a number of accounts without opening multiple
patient files. You can enter multiple payments for multiple patients and post them all at once.
• Choose A/R»Posting»Speed Posting
Once you have entered information for one payment, click Record to ensure that payment will be
entered into the system. Recorded payments are listed in the Speed Posting screen.

To enter more than one payment in the Speed Posting screen, as you complete one payment, select the
Post Another Payment checkbox, and click Next to record a new payment.
Click Finish to post all the recorded payments.

53
Working with Transactions

Posting Payments Against Particular Transactions (Line Item Posting)


Line item posting allows you to quickly enter payments against particular transactions. A payment can
be applied to multiple transactions and even multiple patients.
1. Choose A/R»Posting»Line Item Posting.
2. In the Posting Options screen, enter the payment date, amount, type, and a receipt number if
necessary, then click OK. The Line Item Posting screen opens.

3. Retrieve the patient whose transactions this payment is to be applied against, and enter a date
range for the relevant transactions.
4. Select the transaction to apply the payment against and enter all or part of the payment amount in
the Amt Paid column. Repeat as necessary if you are splitting the payment across multiple
transactions.
5. When you are finished, or if you want to apply any remaining balance of the payment amount to
another patient’s transactions, click Apply. (If you are applying payment to another patient, repeat
steps 3 and 4.)
6. When the Remaining Amount is reduced to zero, click:
• Record and New -- to record this payment and enter a new payment amount (starting over at
step 2)
• Record and Close -- to record this payment and close Line Item Posting.
Note: You will be alerted if agreed pricing has been set up for the patient’s insurance company and the
amount you entered in the Amt Paid column is different from the defined Agreed Pricing amount.
For more information, see “Setting Up Agreed Pricing” on page 6.

54
Writing Off Balances Globally

Processing Third Party Remittances


8000 can process remittance files from major insurance carriers, or retrieve payment directly from
SecureClaims, and apply payments to the appropriate patient files.
Note: Remittance files must be in ANSI 835 format.
1. Open any patient file.
2. Choose A/R»Posting»Payments.
3. Click the Remittance tab.
4. Click the browse button to locate the remittance file and click Load File, or click Retrieve from
SecureClaims as appropriate.
5. Once remittance data has been parsed, a screen displays which patients payment has been received
for and the amounts.
6. Click OK to process the payments against each patient file as applicable.

Writing Off Balances Globally


Automatic balance write-off allows you to write off balances that are under a certain value for all
patients or based on case type.
1. Choose Utilities»Automatic Balance Write-Off

2. To check all patient files for balances to write-off, select All Cases.
To check only certain cases for balances to write-off, select Select Cases By Type and then:
• In the first Case Type cell, enter the case type that you want to include or exclude
(Tip: Decide which would entail the least amount of entries; e.g. check only these three case
types, or check all case types except these two).
• In the Include/Exclude cell, choose the action from the drop-down arrow (appears when you click
in the cell)
• In the Type field, choose Exact (to reference exact matches to the case type entered) or Inside
(to reference any case types that include the text entered).
• Repeat to add other types that should be included or excluded.
3. Enter the amount of balances that should be written off.
4. Enter a description to appear in the transaction history of the patient ledger to reflect the write-off.

55
Working with Transactions

5. Click Write-Off (you are prompted to confirm). When all applicable balances have been written-off,
a report displays the patient files affected; use the options at the top to print the report or copy it to
the clipboard to paste into another application.

Working with Daysheets


Daysheets keep a financial record of the day, and provide an audit trail for accounting purposes. A day-
sheet shows all postings made since the last daysheet was cleared (typically, daysheets are printed and
cleared each work day). Totals, graphs and other statistics are updated when the daysheet is closed,
giving a quick and easy way to properly close the financials.
Be sure to print and clear your daysheets each working day, to ensure that weekly, monthly and year-
to-date totals are correct.
For more on customizing daysheets, see “Customizing Daysheet Options” on page 26.
• Choose A/R»Daysheet.

About the Daysheet Screen


The Daysheet screen contains the following elements:

➊ List of the day’s transactions


➋ Tabs with various statistics/totals etc.

56
Working with Daysheets

➌ List of Doctors and their new patients counts for the day

Viewing Daysheet Information

To view totals for a specific doctor:


• In the Daysheet screen, choose a specific doctor from the Filter list. The Daysheet screen changes to
show that Doctor’s totals.

To find information:
1. Click Find, and then enter the text you area searching for in the Date, Description, or Amount
fields.
2. Click OK. The screen changes to highlight the first line that matches your search criteria.

Working with the Practice Diary


Depending on your User Options, you may be prompted to record any notes about this particular day-
sheet in the Practice Diary. To view this information, print the daysheet.

Printing the Daysheet


To print daysheet information, click Print.
The daysheet is sent to the printer, and you are prompted to save and reset the daysheet. If you choose
yes, the daysheet is cleared for new day.
Depending on your User Options, you may also be prompted to record any notes about this particular
daysheet in the Practice Diary (see “Customizing Daysheet Options” on page 26).

57
Working with Transactions

Editing Daysheet Information

To edit daysheet lines:


1. Choose Edit»Edit Lines.
2. In the Edit Daysheet Lines screen, double-click the transaction you want to edit (or select it and click
Edit).
Note: This shows all daysheet activity even if the daysheet has been filtered first.
3. Make the necessary changes and click OK.
Warning: Be very cautious about making edits - deleting a line in the daysheet removes it entirely
from the system, and from the audit trail. Deleting a line that contains financial transac-
tions will leave discrepancies in financial balances. Never edit a daysheet to do financial
edits on a patient file, but only to correct a damaged file.

Editing Patient Totals


• Choose Edit»Patient Counts. Select a doctor in the Patient Counts screen, and click Edit to make
changes to the doctor’s patient counts.

Viewing Various Totals


• To view, add, or edit daily totals, choose Tools»Daily Totals.
• To view, add, or delete provider totals, choose Tools»Provider Totals.
• To retrieve monthly daysheet totals by year, choose Tools»Totals. In the Totals screen, click
Monthly Totals by Year, choose a year from the list, then click Retrieve. You can filter these totals
by doctor.
• To retrieve weekly daysheet totals, choose Tools»Totals. In the Totals screen, click Weekly
Totals, enter a starting date, then click Retrieve. You can filter these totals by doctor.

About Monthly Aging


8000 automatically ages past due amounts – last month’s charges move to 30 days old, 30 day bal-
ances move to 60 days, and so on. Credits are always applied to the oldest aged amounts.
The Aging screen is accessed from a daysheet (Tools»Aging) or by choosing A/R»Aging from the
main toolbar.

58
About Monthly Aging

The Aging screen includes two tabs:


• On the Monthly Aging tab, Propel and Paramount users can add interest to aged accounts, by case
type. You can choose which aged accounts to add interest to, the interest rate, and the minimum
amount of interest to add to aged accounts. A common practice is to wait for insurance to pay, then
change the patient’s case type to Cash and add interest if they are then delinquent.
Note: A dash (-) anywhere in a patient’s case type inhibits interest charges for that patient.
Warning: If you are uncertain about reversing interest, be sure to back up your data before doing it.
For more information, see “Backing up a Database” on page 11.
• On the Other tab, you can generate reports specific to aging and interest. For more on aging and
interest reports see “Aging Report” on page 120 and “Interest Reports” on page 120. You can also
start automatic archiving and reset all patient year totals to the current month’s total.

59
Working with Transactions

60
Working with Billing Functions

Introduction
You can use 8000 billing functions to:
• work with a clearing house to submit claims electronically (see “Working with Electronic Claims” on
page 61)
• generate claims for one or several patients (see “Generating Batch Claims” on page 62)
• generate statements for one or several patients (see “Generating Batch Statements” on page 67)
• print notes to accompany patient claims (see “Including Notes” on page 65)
• produce outstanding claim and tracer letters, attorney inquiries, and liens for patient accounts (see
“Working with Outstanding Claims and Tracer Letters” on page 69, “Producing Attorney Inquiries” on
page 69, and “Applying Liens to Patient Accounts” on page 69)
• reset visit counts for medicare patients (see “Resetting Visit Counts” on page 70)
• view past claims and statements (see “Viewing Claims and Statements” on page 68).

Working with Electronic Claims


To use electronic claims, you will need to set up a relationship with a clearing house which will actually
process the claims. Clearing houses send the claims to payors, either electronically or in paper form.
Electronic claims are created in a file called “claims.fil” for transmission to the clearing house. Claims
sent electronically have an “E” prefixed to their description in the Claims History so they can be identi-
fied.
Note: Forté recommends Secure Claims. For more information see www.secureclaims.com, or choose
Billing»Secure Claims.
Information required by the clearing house must be defined in the User Options; for more information,
see “Customizing Security and Setup Options” on page 28.

Generating a Quick Claim


• Click Claim in the Patient File sidebar.
• To generate a claim for all current untagged (unbilled) procedures, click Choose all current
untagged procedures up to today.
• To proceed directly to the Insurance Claims Setup screen, click Change setup, dates, tagged,
printers etc.
For more on billing and generating claims, see “Generating Batch Claims” on page 62.
Once the claims have been generated, you are prompted to chose whether to tag all billed charges or
cancel the process, leaving the charges untagged.
For more information about tagging, see “Tagging Transactions” on page 50.
Tip: See also “Using One Touch Billing” on page 52.

61
Working with Billing Functions

Generating Batch Claims


You can generate a batch of claims for multiple patients. To generate an individual claim for a specific
patient, see “Generating a Quick Claim” on page 61.
Before you begin, be sure all necessary transactions have been entered for each patient’s visit and that
all patient and insurance information is in the patient files. All patient files must be closed before you
start the billing process.
When you generate batch claims, you can either generate a new list of accounts to be billed, or use the
last list that you generated (e.g. if you had the wrong paper in the printer), or rebill certain accounts
(e.g. outstanding bills marked for rebilling; for more information, see “Working with Outstanding Claims
and Tracer Letters” on page 69).

Processing Insurance Claims


1. Choose Billing»Insurance Billing.

2. Click one of the large buttons on the left to define the list of accounts to be billed (Generate new
list, Use last list, or Rebill accounts).
3. If you are generating a new list:
• choose which doctor to generate claims for (or choose All Doctors), and indicate if you want to
check for errors on the account
• specify a minimum amount to be billed
• to exclude charges older than x days, enter the number of days in Over Max Days
• to include or exclude specific case types, enter the case type in the first cell of the table, then
select include or exclude, then specify whether it should be an exact match or if case types
should be included/excluded as long as they have the text anywhere in their name. For
information on case types, see “Understanding and Setting Up Case Types” on page 8).
• choose how you want to sort the list
• click Next to continue.
Tip: If you frequently generate a list with the same filters, click the Save icon at the top to save your
settings for future use; the next time you need to generate the same kind of billing list, click the
Load icon to retrieve the settings.

62
Generating Batch Claims

4. On the next screen, review the list (print it if necessary) and make any desired changes. If you want
to add an account to the list, either enter the account number or click the browse button to retrieve
it from the Patient Lookup, then click Add.
5. Click Next to continue.
6. If you specified (on the first screen) to Check For Possible Errors, the Error List tab displays any
errors found for a patient account.
• Double-click on a patient to open the patient file and correct the errors.
• To view or change the error conditions, click Error Setup; for more information, see
“Customizing Error Check Rules” on page 65.
• When you are finished, click Next.
7. The Process Insurance Claims screen opens. It includes six tabs; complete the information as
applicable.

Tab What You Can Do In It

What to Bill Choose whether to bill only untagged (unbilled) claims or all claims (if
rebilling from a patient file). You can specify the maximum dollar amount
of each claim to generate in this process, and the account to begin pro-
cessing with (useful if your printer failed or you ran out of forms part way
through the claims process).
If you choose to bill tagged (claims that have already been billed) as well
as untagged charges, the Re-Bill Date Range area is enabled. Here you
can choose whether to regenerate all claims, including archived ones, or
just those within a particular date range.

Who to Bill Specify whether you want to bill any combination of primary claims (first
insurance company or other payor), secondary claims (second insurance
company or other payor), or tertiary/attorney claims (attorney copy or
third insurance company or other payor).

Form/Output For paper claims, choose the form to be generated.


Note: NPI numbers are only included on the CMS 1500 08/05 form; for
more information, see “Working with NPI Numbers” on page 65.
For electronic claims:
• Choose the type of image file or one of the direct e-billing types.
• If you chose Direct EDI or Direct Submission to SecureClaims, click the
applicable Setup button to enter information required by the receiver
(the Direct Electronic Claims options must also be configured in your
User Options; see “Customizing Security and Setup Options” on
page 28)

Printer Specify printer settings if you are generating paper claims.

63
Working with Billing Functions

Tab What You Can Do In It

Setup Set options for various claim forms. You can choose to:
• print the total paid in HCFA Box 29
• add the claims to the Claims History (set by default)
• charge the Medicare Lab Fee
• print payor addresses after the claims have been printed - this can be
used to print labels
• include the description as well as the ICDA code in HCFA Box 21:
choose Show Descriptions in Box 21 to print only as much of the
description as can fit the box, or choose Long Descriptions for Box 21
to print the full description but limit the spaces available for other
diagnoses (can only fit two diagnoses with long descriptions)
• use four digit years (printed without spaces, e.g. 01022007) for Medi-
care (MM) cases only or for all claims
• include WritePad ChartNotes (third-party software)
• to see the previous list of addresses, click Last Address List
• show totals for just the page or for the entire claims in HCFA Boxes 29
and 30

Configure Choose what information is to appear in specific boxes on the CMS


(HCFA) form. You can:
• choose whether to show “signature on file” in HCFA Boxes 12 and 13,
or leave those boxes blank.
• choose a place of service - if a place of service has been indicated in
the patient file or Ledger, that will override a place of service chosen in
this screen
• choose a type of service and whether it is measured in days or units
• choose who to the claim should be paid to in HCFA Box 33

8. To see how the billing information will appear on the claim form, click Preview. The form
used is based on your choice on the Form/Output tab. The procedures being billed are listed
at the bottom of the Preview window; if you remove any, the preview is updated to reflect
the new claim information.
Note: This option is only available for paper claims using the CMS1500 form, and electronic
claims using the HCFA/CMS Image file.
9. When you are ready, click Process Claim(s). While the claims are being processed, you can
click Stop Processing at any time -- the current claim will finish, and you can resume
where you left off.
10.When processing is complete, you are prompted to tag all submitted claims.

64
Working with NPI Numbers

Customizing Error Check Rules


Claims processing can include checking accounts for errors. The error conditions are applied based on
case type, and can be viewed and changed.
1. On the Error List tab of the Insurance Billing List, click ErrorSetup.

2. Select a case type. The list on the left displays the checks that are available, and the list on the right
displays the checks that are applied to accounts with this case type.
3. Select a check and click the appropriate button to add it to or remove it from the Active checks list.
To reset the error checking to the defaults, click Reset.
4. If Report days is included in the Active checks list, indicate the maximum number of days should
exist between WC/PI Reports.
5. If X-ray years is included, indicate the maximum number of years that should exist between x-rays.
6. Repeat for other case types as necessary.
7. Click Save.

Including Notes
After generating claims you can print all patient notes for each claim printed. This is useful when notes
must be attached to claims.
• After you finish generating bills, choose Billing»Automatic Notes. 8000 generates the notes for
the patients in the last billing list.

Working with NPI Numbers


A National Provider Identifier (NPI) is a unique 10-digit identification number issued to health care pro-
viders by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The NPI replaces the unique provider
identification number (UPIN) as the required identifier for Medicare services, and is used by other pay-
ers including commercial health care insurers.
All individual Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) covered health care providers
(including physicians, nurses, dentists, chiropractors, physical therapists, etc.) or organizations (includ-
ing, hospitals, home health care agencies, nursing homes, residential treatment centers, etc.) must
obtain an NPI for use in all HIPAA standard transactions, even if a billing agency prepares the transac-
tion. Once assigned, a provider’s NPI is permanent and remains with the provider regardless of job or
location changes. Other health industry workers who provide support services but not health care (such
as admissions and medical billing personnel, housekeeping staff, and orderlies), do not require an NPI.

65
Working with Billing Functions

The NPI must be used in connection with the electronic transactions identified in the HIPAA. In addition,
the NPI may be used in several other ways:
• by health care providers to identify themselves or other health care providers in health care
transactions identified in HIPAA or on related correspondence.
• by health care providers on prescriptions (however, the NPI does not replace requirements for the
Drug Enforcement Administration number or state license number)
• by health plans in their internal provider files to process transactions and communicate with health
care providers.
• by health plans to coordinate benefits with other health plans
• by health care clearinghouses in their internal files to create and process standard transactions and
to communicate with health care providers and health plans.
• by electronic patient record systems to identify treating health care providers in patient medical
records.
• by the Department of Health and Human Services to cross reference health care providers in fraud
and abuse files and other program integrity files.
• for any other lawful activity requiring individual identification.

Using NPI Numbers in Your Claims


NPI numbers can be printed in four different boxes in the CMS (HCFA) form. Your billing requirements
determine where in 8000 you need to enter the NPI number.
Note: To see NPI numbers your claim form output type must be set to HCFA/CMS 1500 08/05. For
more information, see step 7 in “Processing Insurance Claims” on page 62.
To access the fields from the HCFA map, open the patient file, right-click in the map area and choose
HCFA Map (08/05).

Box Where to add the NPI Number in Notes


8000...

33A In the Doctor List screen, click Edit. The NPI number can also be entered for the
For more information, see “Setting primary doctor in the Setup Wizard when
up Contact Lists” on page 7. 8000 is first started.

24J In the patient file. Click Box 24J in Not all insurance companies require that the
the HCFA map or enter the number NPI number be entered in box 24J. If the
in the top section of the Ins Form majority of the insurance companies you
tab. deal with do require the number, enter the
or NPI number directly into the fee schedule.
In the fee schedule in the NPI col- This will ensure that every time a charge is
umn. In the Fee Lookup screen, click posted from the fee schedule the NPI num-
Edit. For more information, see ber will automatically appear in the correct
“Setting up Fees” on page 6. field on the claim form.
or If only a few insurance companies require
the number or if you have multiple doctors in
In the posting screen in the NPI col-
your practice, you should enter the NPI num-
umn. For more information, see
ber directly into the patient file.
“Working in the Ledger” on page 49.

32A In the patient file. Click Box 32A in Not all insurance companies require that this
the HCFA map or enter the number box include the NPI number.
in the Other Service Facility section
of the Ins Form tab.

66
Generating an Individual Statement

Box Where to add the NPI Number in Notes


8000...

17B In the patient file. Click Box 17B in Used for the referring doctor’s NPI number
the HCFA map or enter the number only.
in the Referring Doctor section of the
Ins Form tab.

Generating an Individual Statement


1. Click Statement in the Patient File sidebar.
2. Choose which types of transactions to include in the statement, the payment amount, which doctor
or clinic the payment should be addressed to, the type of form to generate, and any message to be
added to the statement.
3. Click Today’s Transactions (and then choose either Print or Preview) to limit the statement to
today’s transactions,
or
click Print (and then choose either Print or Preview) to generate a statement for all other
transactions.
The statement is added to the patient’s statement history; for more information, see “Viewing the
Patient’s Billing History” on page 68.
For more information about patient statements, see “Generating Batch Statements” on page 67.
You can also generate and upload BillFlash statements.
Tip: See also “Using One Touch Billing” on page 52.

Generating Batch Statements


You can generate a batch of statements for several patients at once. To generate a statement for an
individual patient, see “Generating an Individual Statement” on page 67.
Before you begin, be sure all necessary transactions have been entered for each patient’s visit.
• Choose Billing»Monthly Patient Statements. When generating a batch of patient statements you
can choose to:
• generate statements for all case types, specific case types, or all accounts. For information on
using case types, see “Understanding and Setting Up Case Types” on page 8.
• specify a minimum balance or patient portion for patient accounts, otherwise statements will be
generated for patients with a zero balance.
• sort the patient statements by account or patient name and add or remove patients from the
statement list.
• bill for transactions entered from a specific date
• specify the form type for the statement
• enter a message to be included on each patient statement
• specify when and to whom the payment is due
Statements are added to each patient’s statement history; for more information, see “Viewing the
Patient’s Billing History” on page 68.

67
Working with Billing Functions

Selecting Specific Case Types


When generating a batch of statements you can choose specific case types using advanced filters.
1. In the Monthly Patient Statements screen, choose the Select Case Types Using Advanced Filters
option.
2. Click Add to include a new row in the table.
3. Enter a case type in the first cell in the Case Type column.
4. In the second column, select Include or Exclude.
5. In the third column, select how to determine if a case is of that type; for example, if the case type
entered in the first column must be an exact match, or can include any cases that start (lead) with
that case type, or include any cases that have the case type within the description.

Viewing Claims and Statements


There are two options to view past claims: the Billing History provides a list of all claims for a single
patient, while the Claims Filing Cabinet holds a copy of all processed electronic and paper claims, for all
patients, that you can view or reproduce at any time. You can also re-submit electronic claims from the
Claims Filing Cabinet.
For example, if you sent a claim to Company X, and they said they never got it, you can go into the
Claims Filing Cabinet and re-print an exact duplicate of the claim that you originally sent. However, if
you just wanted to know how much that claim was for, you could use the Billing History.

Viewing the Patient’s Billing History


The Billing History screen allows you to view all of a patient’s past claims and statements in descending
order. The first unpaid claim is at the top of the list. You can view details of a claim, print the list of
claims/statements, or print tracer letters.

To view a patient’s billing history:


1. Click Billing History in the Patient File sidebar.
2. Specify if you want to just view claims, statements, or both.
3. To view the details of a claim, either double-click on a claim in the list or select the row and click
View Bill.
4. To remove a claim from the history list, select the row and press the DELETE key.
5. To print whichever history you are currently viewing (Claims, Statements, or Both), click the Print
icon and choose History. You have the option to limit the print to a particular date range. The
history appears in a preview window where you can print or copy it to the clipboard.
6. To print tracer letters, you must select Claims or Both (not Statements), then click the Print icon and
choose Tracers. For more information, see “Working with Outstanding Claims and Tracer Letters” on
page 69.

Viewing the Claims Filing Cabinet


1. Choose Billing»Claims Filing Cabinet.
2. Enter the date range, and then click Go. All claims processed within the specified date range are
included in the list.
3. To view an image of a claim imposed over the applicable claim form, either double-click on a claim in
the list or select the row and click Claim. When you are in claim view, you can use the Back and
Forward buttons to view other claims in the list.
4. To resubmit a claim electronically, select it and choose File»Append to Claims.fil File (from either
List or Claim view).

68
Working with Outstanding Claims and Tracer Letters

Recording a Past Claim or Statement


You may want to record old claims or statements in a patient’s billing history, for example from a previ-
ous system or from a paper system. Claims added in this manner will not be available in the Claims Fil-
ing Cabinet for future reproduction.
1. In the patient’s Billing History screen, choose Add»Claim (or Add»Statement, as applicable).
2. Enter relevant information and click Save.

Working with Outstanding Claims and Tracer Letters


You can generate a list of outstanding claims, and print tracer letters for each outstanding claim.
Tracer letters are addressed to each payor or attorney and formally request the status of the unpaid
claim. The letter indicates the date the claim was sent, dates of service, diagnosis and other pertinent
information about the claim.
You can also print individual tracer letters from Claim History. For more on Claim History, see “Viewing
Claims and Statements” on page 68.
Claims are included in the outstanding claim and tracer letter list if they have no record of amount paid
and date paid. If they have a zero amount paid but show a date paid, they are not included.
1. Choose Billing»Outstanding Claims.
2. Define how you want to filter the outstanding claims, for example by date, by doctor, and/or for a
particular doctor.
3. Select the type of output you want. If you want to rebill the outstanding claims, select Add to rebill
list. The claims are included in the Rebill accounts list in the Insurance Billing screen. For more
information, see “Generating Batch Claims” on page 62.
4. If you want to print tracer letters for the outstanding claims, select if you want to be able to choose
individual claims to print letters for, or print letters for all outstanding claims without being
prompted. Optionally enter a message to be printed at the bottom of the letter.
5. Click OK.

Producing Attorney Inquiries


You can print general inquiry forms to send to a patient’s attorney. Attorney inquiry letters request
information about a patient’s case.
• In the patient file, choose Billing»Attorney Inquiries.

Applying Liens to Patient Accounts


You can apply a lien to a patient account that has outstanding claims.
• In the patient’s file, choose Billing»Liens.
Here you can choose to create a plain paper lien or a state of California Green Lien Rev 2/91. The wiz-
ard takes you through the steps necessary to create and print that type of lien.

69
Working with Billing Functions

Resetting Visit Counts


You can reset selected Medicare visits to zero or, if a Propel user, reset all or selected client visits to
zero.
• Choose Tools»Reset Medicare.

Propel users can choose from:


• Reset selected client visits resets the number of treatment plan visits used by the clients whose
cases match the case type to 0.
• Reset all selected client visits recommended resets the number of treatment plan visits
recommended for clients whose cases match the case type to 0.
To only reset counts for particular case types, select the case type filter.

70
PART IV — Office
And Practice
Management

This section includes information that will help you to run your office and practice more
efficiently:
• Appointments -- manage patient appointments, print the schedule, print forms or
routing slips for patients, or post a transaction from an appointment, or use the
clinic control center to monitor the status of patients from arrival to check out
(Paramount users only).
• Communicating with Patients -- use the call log to track the length and details of
your calls to and from patients; send letters, including merge letters that include
information from the patient file, and letters to recognize special occasions; use the
Message Center to send email messages to patients who have an email address
listed in their patient file; and create a newsletter using one of the provided
templates which can be printed or sent by email.
• General Practice functions -- gather practice and marketing data to identify areas for
improvement; identify and contact inactive patients; manage prospective patients
and create mailing lists; keep track of your office and treating inventory; manage an
online manual for your practice policies and processes; set up and track VIP gift
cards; and set up 8000 to alert you to overdue tasks and identify missing
information in your patient files, system problems, and required/suggested
maintenance actions.
Working with Patient Appointments

Introduction
You can view or edit appointments in three places:
• Your 8000 home page lists your non-patient appointments for today (see “Managing Personal
Appointments” on page 16)
• The patient’s ledger allows you to quickly add or edit the next appointment (see “Booking an
Appointment from the Ledger” on page 50).
• The Calendar screen (described in this chapter) provides functions to manage patient appointments.
In the calendar you can:
• view appointments by the day, week, or month (see “Viewing the Calendar” on page 74)
• print the schedule, or print forms or routing slips for patients (see “Viewing or Printing Schedule
Information” on page 76)
• add, edit, or reschedule appointments (see “Working with a Patient’s Appointment” on page 78)
• open or create a patient file, or check a patient’s insurance eligibility (see “Working with a
Patient’s Appointment” on page 78)
• post a transaction from an appointment (see “Posting a Transaction from an Appointment” on
page 81)
• use the clinic control center to monitor the status of patients from arrival to check out (see
“Using the Clinic Control Center (Paramount users)” on page 82).

Setting Up the Calendar


The following default calendar options are set in the User Options:
• display options (view by either doctor or room), intervals
• appointment status and types (appointment status colors are not editable)
• clinic, doctor, and room working hours.
Tip: To quickly access the User Options, right-click on the calendar and choose Options. For more
information about defining these options, see “Setting Calendar Options” on page 26.
You can override the display options for the currently logged-in user; right-click and choose View
By Doctor, View By Room, Interval, or Options.

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Working with Patient Appointments

Working with the Calendar

Viewing the Calendar


• Choose Tools»Calendar, or click the calendar icon in the toolbar.

The calendar includes the appointment view in the main part of the screen and a navigation pane on
the left.
• Dates shown in bold have appointments. To jump to a particular date, click a date in the navigation
calendar. You can also use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move to different time periods and/or
dates (depending on your current view).
• Use the options in the bottom left to view the schedule by doctor or by room (and pick which
doctors/rooms you want to view).

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Working with the Calendar

• To hide the navigation pane, click the thumbtack in the top right of the pane title. The pane title
appears as a sideways tab on the left. To view the navigation pane temporarily, hover over this tab.
To restore it permanently, click the thumbtack again.

• To switch to a daily, weekly, or monthly view, use the tabs at the top of the calendar. The Week tab
shows a 7-day week, but you can view a 5-day work week by choosing View»Work Week. When
you use the weekly or monthly view, a list at the top provides access to other doctors.

Each appointment entry shows the color-coded appointment status (e.g. Scheduled, Tentative, Can-
celled, etc.) and the appointment type (e.g. Office Visit, Consultation, Treatment, etc.). These are
defined in the User Options (for more information, see “Customizing User Options” on page 25).

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Working with Patient Appointments

Viewing or Printing Schedule Information


You can view or print various information at the schedule level:

To view/print this… Do this…

today’s appointments • To view, click the Lists icon and choose All.
• For a formatted version that you can print, click the Print
icon and choose Appointment List.

no shows • Click the Lists icon and choose No Shows

the day’s schedule, including • Click the Print icon and choose Current Day’s Sched-
empty time slots ule
• Choose All or Current Doctors/Rooms (depending on
current view)
• If you choose All, you can then choose to print a single
doctor/room per page or multiple.
Note: If you want to print the schedule for multiple doc-
tors/rooms but not all, choose All; you are given the oppor-
tunity to confirm which doctors/rooms to be included.

patient forms • Right-click on the appointment and choose Forms.


For information about the Forms Center, see “Printing
Forms for Patients” on page 126.

routing slip for a patient • Right-click on the appointment and choose Routing
Slip
or
Open the appointment and click the Routing Slip icon.

all routing slips for the day • Click the Print icon and choose Current Day’s Routing
Slips

Note: The appointment list can be sent to a recipient’s mobile device; for more information, see
“Sending Information Via Mobile Technology” on page 102.

Using the Appointment Opportunity Report


The Opportunity Report displays the busiest time, quietest time, and times with the most cancellations/
no-shows/reschedules, for each day of the week, over the past 30 days.
• Choose View»Opportunity Report
or
click the Print icon (in the calendar toolbar) and choose Opportunity Report.

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Working with the Calendar

Using Appointment Reminders


The Appointment Reminders function allows you to generate a list of appointments for a specific date
and create a task for you to follow each one up and/or send an email reminder to each patient.
1. Click the Appt Reminders icon in the calendar toolbar.
2. Select the date.

3. To create an Appointment Reminder task in your task list, select Create Tasks.
• Specify if you want to create tasks for all appointments shown or selected ones (use Shift-click to
select the appointments).
• Specify how much time in advance you want to be prompted about the task.
For more information, see “Managing Your Tasks” on page 15.
OR
To send an email reminder to the patients, select Send Email.
• Specify if you want to send email reminders to all patients shown or selected ones (use Shift-click
to select the appointments).
4. Click OK.
If you chose to Send Email, the email messages are sent and received in the Message Center on your
home page. For more information, see “Viewing and Sending Messages” on page 14.
Note: Appointment reminders can be sent to a recipient’s mobile device; for more information, see
“Sending Information Via Mobile Technology” on page 102.

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Working with Patient Appointments

Working with a Patient’s Appointment

Finding a Patient’s Appointment


To find a patient appointment, enter all or part of the name or account in the search field at the top
right of the calendar. 8000 will take you to the first match in the schedule.

To view other appointments for a patient:


• If the appointment you are viewing is part of a group of recurring appointments, you can view the
other related appointments. Open any one of the linked appointments and click Additional
Appointments. For more information, see “Scheduling Multiple Appointments” on page 80.

Finding an Open Appointment


1. Choose Appointments»Find Open Appointment.
2. Enter the criteria (e.g. 4:00pm on a Tuesday) and click Get appointments. 8000 will list available
dates that match the criteria.
3. Double-click on a date to create a new appointment for that date and time or click Close.

Adding an Appointment (Quick Entry)


The Quick Schedule feature allows you to quickly book an appointment with just the main fields. You
can open the appointment entry later to complete any other information.
1. Click the New icon in the calendar toolbar and choose Quick Schedule.

2. Change any of the default entries as applicable, and enter any CPT codes for pre-posting.
3. Click OK.

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Working with a Patient’s Appointment

Adding or Editing an Appointment (Full Entry)


1. Click the New icon in the calendar toolbar and choose Appointment
or
Double-click on the schedule/existing appointment
or
Right-click on the schedule and choose New (or Edit) Appointment.

2. Use the Patient lookup to locate a patient. The list includes all of a patient’s cases; if you select the
wrong one, you can change it in the appointment screen (choose from the Case No. list). The
lookup also allows you to choose someone on your Prospect list.
If the appointment is for a non-patient, just enter the name directly in the field.
3. Change the Date/Time, Duration, Type, and Status if necessary.
4. To schedule multiple appointments for this patient, click the Additional Appointments icon at the
top. For more information, see “Scheduling Multiple Appointments” on page 80.
5. The Appointment History area displays the patient’s last and next appointment as well as the
number of appointments this patient has missed (No Shows), cancelled, or rescheduled.
6. Paramount users: You can enter the fee codes you anticipate using to save time later. Enter the
quick code in the Quick Codes field or select from the lookup. After the appointment, when the
patient is checked out, the fee codes will already be in the Ledger, but you can still edit or add codes
at that time.
7. When you are finished, close the appointment entry. You may need to click the Refresh icon to see
the appointment in the schedule.

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Working with Patient Appointments

Scheduling Multiple Appointments


1. Create the initial appointment or open an existing one (see “Working with a Patient’s Appointment”
on page 78).
2. Click the Additional Appointments icon, then click Build Schedule.
3. Select the number of additional appointments required and the interval between each and click
Next.
4. Select the days of the week that can be considered and click Next.
5. To avoid double-booking, select Avoid Overlaps. Click Finish.
6. The proposed appointments are listed. Change the dates or times as necessary, or select a date and
click Remove.
7. To provide the patient with a list of these future appointments, click Print.
8. When you are finished, click OK.
The appointments made in this manner are all linked, so you can view, modify, or delete any one of
them at any time. Open any one of the linked appointments and click Additional Appointments.

Using the Walk-in List


If patients arrive without an appointment, you can add them to a Walk-in List to keep them in priority
order until you can add them to the schedule.
1. Click the Lists icon in the calendar toolbar, then choose Walk-in List.

2. Click Add and retrieve the patient.


3. When you are ready to create an appointment for the patient, drag the patient name to the
schedule. The Quick Schedule form opens; complete the entry as described in “Adding an
Appointment (Quick Entry)” on page 78.
4. To remove a patient from the walk-in list without adding them to the schedule, select the name and
click Remove.

Moving (Rescheduling) a Patient’s Appointment


• Click on an appointment and drag it to a new time slot
or
Open the appointment and change the date and/or time.
Tip: You can also use the Cut/Copy/Paste functions available from the right-click menu, or drag the
top or bottom of the appointment entry to extend the duration (single or 5-day/work week views
only).

Checking Patients In/Out


• Click the Check In or Check Out icon in the Appointment entry screen
or
Right-click on the appointment in the schedule and choose Check In or Check Out.
Paramount users: Patients can also be checked in and out using the Clinic Control Center. For more
information, see “Using the Clinic Control Center (Paramount users)” on page 82.
If you are checking in a new patient, follow standard procedures for entering a new patient and for
printing a First Visit Package. For more information, see “Creating a First Visit Package” on page 89.

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Working with a Patient’s Appointment

When the patient is checked out, the Ledger appears; for more information, see “Posting a Transaction
from an Appointment” on page 81.

Posting a Transaction from an Appointment


• When the patient is checked out, the Ledger appears
or
Click the Open Posting Screen icon in the Appointment entry screen.
Paramount users: If you entered the fee codes in the appointment entry screen ahead of time (see
“Adding or Editing an Appointment (Full Entry)” on page 79), they will appear in the Ledger, but you can
also add or change codes directly in the Ledger. For more information, see “Working in the Ledger” on
page 49.
After posting the charges, provide the patient with a statement. For more information, see “Generating
an Individual Statement” on page 67.

Opening the Patient’s File


To open the patient’s file from the calendar, right-click on the appointment and choose Open File. For
more information, see “Working with the Patient File” on page 35.

Creating a Patient File from a Non-Patient Appointment


If you have created an appointment for a non-patient, reopen the appointment entry and click Create
Patient. A new patient file is created with the person’s name; complete the rest of the patient file as
described in “Creating a Patient File” on page 36.
If the person is not a patient but was added from the prospect list, you must create the patient file from
the Prospect Center. Right-click on the schedule and choose Open File to open the Prospect Center. For
more information, see “Working with the Prospecting Center” on page 99.

Checking a Patient’s Insurance Eligibility


SecureClaims customers can connect to the SecureClaims/ENS eligibility verification system to check
on the status of a particular patient or all patients.
1. To check the eligibility of all patients, on the Calendar, click Check Eligibility in the toolbar.
or
To check the eligibility of a particular patient:
• In the Patient File, click the Insurance tab, then click the Check Eligibility link in the Co-Pay
section.
or
• On the Calendar, right-click on the patient’s appointment and choose Check Eligibility.

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Working with Patient Appointments

The patient’s most recent insurance information is shown.

2. To log in to the SecureClaims system to verify that this information is current, click Retrieve. You
are prompted to enter your user name and password. The fields are updated with the current
information from SecureClaims.
3. To update the patient’s file with this information, click Apply.
4. If you accessed the Check Eligibility from a non-patient appointment on the Calendar, you can click
Create Patient to quickly create a patient file with this information.
5. When you are finished, click Close.

Using the Clinic Control Center (Paramount users)


Use the Clinic Control Center to monitor patients’ status from arrival to check out.
• Click the Clinic Control icon in the calendar toolbar.

Checking In a Patient
1. Click on an appointment entry to add the patient’s name to the Active Name slot in the Clinic Control
area.
2. Drag the Active Name to one of the slots under a room.

The patient's status changes to “Arrived”. A timer next to the name shows how much time has
elapsed since check-in.

Moving a Doctor to a Room


• Click on the doctor name in the list (or in a room, if already assigned) and drag it to the new room.

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Using the Clinic Control Center (Paramount users)

Editing the Original Appointment


• Drag the patient name to Edit.

Checking Out a Patient


• Drag the patient name from the room slot to either the Check Out or Check-Out & Post box. The
patient's status changes to “Seen”.
If Check Out & Post was chosen, the Ledger appears. For more information, see “Working with
Transactions” on page 47.

Closing the Clinic Control Center


• Click Clinic Control to close it.

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Working with Patient Appointments

84
Communicating with Patients

Introduction
8000 provides several ways to communicate information to your patients for various reasons.
• The call log allows you to track the length and details of your calls to and from patients. For more
information, see “Calling Patients (Paramount users)” on page 93.
• There are several options for sending letters, including merge letters that include information from
the patient file, and letters to recognize special occasions. For more information, see “Sending
Letters to Patients” on page 85.
• The Message Center works with your regular email application to send email messages to patients
who have an email address listed in their patient file. For more information, see “Sending Email
Messages to Patients” on page 90.
• The Clinic Newsletter helps you to create newsletters which can be printed or sent by email. For
more information, see “Creating Clinic Newsletters” on page 91.

Sending Letters to Patients


There are a number of ways to send a letters to patients and other individuals in 8000. You can:
• generate a quick letter to send to a patient, their first or second insurance provider, attorney,
employer, or referring doctor
• send a merged letter that uses pre-defined text and information from the patient file
• print labels and envelopes with information from the patient file, such as patient address, attorney
address, provider address, or employer address
• create a welcome letter for new patients. The first visit package also includes a list of office “Do’s
and Don’ts” and a calendar to remind the patient of upcoming visits.
Tip: If you want to send a merged letter to prospective patients, see “Working with the Prospecting
Center” on page 99.

Printing Labels and Envelopes


You can print labels and envelopes with information from the patient file, such as patient address,
attorney address, provider address, or employer address.
• Choose Tools»Labels and Envelopes.
Your choices for addressee and output type are saved for the next time you choose this menu option.

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Communicating with Patients

Generating Merged Letters


Merged letters enable you to quickly and easily compose letters that combine re-usable text with infor-
mation from the patient file. 8000 comes with predefined merged letters, but you can create new
merged letters.
• Choose Tools»Merged Letters.
You can choose whether to send a merged letter to one or several patients.

1. Change the Header or Footer information and Font if required.


2. Choose an existing letter (click the browse button beside Title) or click New and enter a Title,
Description, and Body.
3. To prompt the user to enter information just before the letter is printed, enter the prompts as
follows at the top of the letter body:
? 1 text of question
? 2 next question
In the body of the letter, enter the number of the question/prompt in curly brackets. See the screen-
shot above for an example. When you select Output or Print, you are prompted to “fill in the
blanks”.

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Sending Letters to Patients

4. To pull specific data from the patient file, use merge codes (see “Codes for Including Patient File
Information” on page 88). In the body of the letter, enclose the code, preceded by an exclamation
mark, in square brackets. For example, “Dear [!PatientFirstName]:”
• To include a diagnosis, type “Diagnosis” followed by the print order; for example, [!Diagnosis1]
will print the primary diagnosis.
• To include user defined fields, type “UserDef:” followed by the label of the user defined field that
you want; for example, [!UserDef:UserDef1] will print whatever is in the user defined field called
UserDef1.
5. Click Spell Check after you have finished changing (or entering) the body of the letter.
6. To specify who should receive the letter, click Pick Accounts and:
• click Add Account to add individual accounts and enter the account number in the table (repeat
as necessary), or
• click Load Search List to send letters to an account list generated in the Search Report
Generator. For more information, see “Working with the Search Report Generator” on page 123.
7. If you made changes to the body of the letter that you want to save for future use of this letter, click
Save.
8. To record that a letter was sent, select Log in Patient Notes.
9. To open the letters in your default word processor, click Output.
10.To view the letters before printing, clear the Send Directly to Printer checkbox and click Print.

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Communicating with Patients

Codes for Including Patient File Information

AccidentDate FirstInsuredID RefDoctorLastName

AltNo FirstInsuredLastName RefDoctorMI

AttorneyAddress FirstInsuredMI RefDoctorSeenDate

AttorneyCity FirstInsuredPhone RefDoctorState

AttorneyContact FirstInsuredRelationship ReferralSource

AttorneyFax FirstInsuredSex ReturnToWorkDate

AttorneyName FirstInsuredState SecondInsAddress

AttorneyOptLine FirstInsuredZipCode SecondInsAdjuster

AttorneyPhone FirstInsZipCode SecondInsCity

AttorneyState HospAdminDate SecondInsClaimNo

AttorneyZipCode HospReleaseDate SecondInsCompanyName

AutoAccident IllnessDate SecondInsETSCode

AutoAccidentState InitialComplaint SecondInsFax

CaseType InitialVisitDate SecondInsOptLine

COB LabDate SecondInsPayorID

ComplicationDate LastReportDate SecondInsPhone

DaysOrUnits LastReportTitle SecondInsPlanName

DoctorID MedicaidOrigRefNo SecondInsPlanNo

EMG MedicaidResubCode SecondInsPolicyNo

Employer OSFAddress SecondInsState

EmployerAddress OSFCity SecondInsuredAddress

EmployerCity OSFID SecondInsuredBirthDate

EmployerState OSFName SecondInsuredCity

EmployerZipCode OSFState SecondInsuredEmployer

EPSDTFamilyPlan OSFZipCode SecondInsuredFinancialAr-


rangements

FirstInsAddress PatientAddress SecondInsuredID

FirstInsAdjuster PatientBirthDate SecondInsuredLastName

FirstInsCity PatientCity SecondInsuredMI

FirstInsClaimNo PatientEmail SecondInsuredPhone

FirstInsCompanyName PatientFirstName SecondInsuredRelationship

FirstInsETSCode PatientHomePhone SecondInsuredSecondName

FirstInsFax PatientLastName SecondInsuredSex

88
Sending Letters to Patients

FirstInsOptLine PatientMaritalStatus SecondInsuredState

FirstInsPayorID PatientMI SecondInsuredZipCode

FirstInsPhone PatientOccupation SecondInsZipCode

FirstInsPlanName PatientSex SimilarIllnessDate

FirstInsPlanNo PatientSSN SubluxLevel

FirstInsPolicyNo PatientState TDEndDate

FirstInsState PatientZipCode TDStartDate

FirstInsuredAddress POS WorkEmail

FirstInsuredBirthDate PriorAuthNo WorkFax

FirstInsuredCity RecallDate WorkPhone

FirstInsuredEmployer RecurrenceDate WorkRestricEndDate

FirstInsuredFinancialAr- RefDoctorFirstName WorkRestricStartDate


rangements

FirstInsuredFirstName RefDoctorID XrayDate

Creating a First Visit Package


The First Visit Package can include a “welcome to the office” letter that may include a calendar of
appointments, a merge letter, and a list of “Do’s and Don’ts”.
Note: This is a form letter package, it is not personalized with the patient’s information.
1. Choose Tools»First Visit Package.

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Communicating with Patients

2. Edit the opening and closing paragraphs as required, and optionally choose a calendar to include.
3. To include a merge letter, select the checkbox and click the browse button to select the letter.
4. To include the list of office “Do’s and Don’ts”, select the checkbox and edit the list as required.
5. To open the documents in your default word processor, click Output.
6. To view the documents before printing, clear the Send Directly to Printer checkbox and click
Print.
Note: Once you click Output or Print, any changes made to the Opening or Closing Paragraphs or list
of Do’s and Don’ts are saved for future First Visit Packages.

Recognizing Special Occasions


Use the Special Occasion function to print labels and letters to recognize your patients’ special occa-
sions (e.g. birthdays, anniversaries, etc.). For information about entering a patient’s special occasions,
see “Capturing the Patient’s Special Occasions” on page 38.
1. Choose Tools»Special Occasions.
2. The subsequent screens prompt you to specify the Occasion Type (to find patients whose selected
occasion falls in a particular month or within a specific date range), any Filters (i.e. case type and/
or doctor).

3. From the Results list, click Next to choose the output options (merge letters, a list, or labels).
• If you choose Merged Letter, click the browse button to locate the letter template and specify if
you want the output to go directly to the printer or to open in your default word processor first
(output to file). Lists and labels only go directly to the printer.
4. Click Finish to generate the output.

Sending Email Messages to Patients


You can send email messages to patients who have an email address entered in their patient file. All
email messages are sent and received in the Message Center on your home page. For more informa-
tion, see “Viewing and Sending Messages” on page 14.
Messages can also be sent to a recipient’s mobile device; for more information, see “Sending Informa-
tion Via Mobile Technology” on page 102.

90
Creating Clinic Newsletters

Creating Clinic Newsletters


8000 provides three templates to help you to create professional-looking newsletters for your clinic.
Newsletters are saved in PDF format which you can print or distribute by email.
1. Choose Tools»Clinic Newsletter.

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Communicating with Patients

2. View the three templates to select the layout you want, then click Next.

3. Change the Title, Clinic, or Clinic Name as required, and enter the text of the newsletter in the Main
Text, Paragraph 1 and Paragraph 2 boxes.
4. To change any of the images, right-click on one and choose Browse. Locate the image and click
Open. To return to the default image, right-click on the image and choose Reset Image.
5. At any time you can click Save to create a record of the newsletter. It is saved under the Title of the
newsletter. This allows you to retrieve the newsletter at a later date to finish it and generate the PDF
— saving the newsletter does not create the PDF.
6. When you are satisfied with the content of the newsletter, click Finish. You are prompted to save
the generated newsletter as a PDF file.
7. To retrieve a previously saved newsletter to make changes and regenerate the PDF, click Open.

92
Calling Patients (Paramount users)

Calling Patients (Paramount users)


Use the Call Log to track the length and details of your calls to and from patients. You can record the
call subject, a recall date, and enter any notes on the conversation.
Information about calls you make and receive from patients is recorded in the Call Log. The Call Log
lists the number of outgoing and incoming phone calls, the total length of all calls and the average
length of each call.
Note: You must have a patient file open in order to access the Call Log.
• To track an incoming call, choose Tools»Call Log»Take a Call.
• To track an outgoing call, choose Tools»Call Log»Make a Call.
• To record a call in the Call Log report, in the Call Log screen, click End Call and then click Record.
• To view see the number of calls in, calls out, and average time per call, choose Tools»Call
Log»View Report.
• To view call notes, choose Tools»View Call Log Notes. Choose to view all notes you have made,
or only notes for calls relating to the currently open patient file. If you are an administrator user, you
can view all notes (recorded by all users, for all patients).
• To add, edit, or delete a Call Subject, in the Call Log screen, click Modify List. The Call Subject
Lookup appears. For information about using or editing the Lookup, see “Working with Lookups” on
page 19.

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Communicating with Patients

94
General Practice Functions

Introduction
8000 provides several functions that assist you in managing your practice:
• Forecast financial outcomes and patient levels based on historical data (see “Forecasting Financial
Outcomes and Patient Levels” on page 96).
• View various practice data in graph form (see “Viewing Graphs” on page 97).
• Set goals for your practice for credits, adjustments, new patients, and total patients, and track the
progress (see “Setting Goals” on page 97).
• Compile market research statistics using various demographic data (see “Gathering Demographic
Information About Your Patients” on page 98).
• Identify and contact inactive patients (see “Recalling Inactive Patients” on page 98).
• Manage prospective patients and create mailing lists (see “Working with the Prospecting Center” on
page 99).
• Send reports and other information to someone’s cell phone (see “Sending Information Via Mobile
Technology” on page 102).
• Keep track of your office and treating supplies (see “Maintaining Inventory” on page 104).
• Access and update practice policies and processes (see “Working with the Policy Manual” on
page 106).
• Access third-party utilities (see “Using Third-Party Utilities” on page 108).
• Set up and track gift cards (see “Managing VIP (Gift) Cards” on page 109).
• Use the Artificial Intelligence system to alert you to overdue tasks, and use the Software Usage
Analytics to identify missing information in your patient files, system problems, and required/
suggested maintenance actions. For more information, see “Monitoring When Key Tasks Are
Completed or Overdue” on page 109 and “Viewing Software Usage Analytics” on page 111.
• Track changes to the database (see “Viewing the Supervisor Log” on page 111).

95
General Practice Functions

Forecasting Financial Outcomes and Patient Levels


You can forecast financial outcomes (projected charges, credits, adjustments, total income and
expenses, and total profit/loss) as well as the total number of patients and the number of new patients,
based on historical data.
1. Choose Tools»Forecasting.

2. Select the period you want to forecast (e.g. current month, current quarter, current year).
3. Enter any known or expected expenses for this period. Amounts are updated to include this expense
amount.
4. When you are finished, click Close.

96
Viewing Graphs

Viewing Graphs
• Choose Reports»Graphs.
Opens the Yearly Graphs screen. Here you can view and print graphs of charges, credits, adjustments,
new patients, or visits for your practice. Previous year and current year-to-date are shown in separate
charts; use the arrow buttons to scroll through different years. Graphs include high and low indicators
as well as a “moving average” line.

To view a Run Rate graph, Maintenance Map graph, or Doctors Standings graph, click Advanced
Graphs. These graphs allow you to set filters on the data shown.
To create a custom graph, in the Advanced Graph screen, choose Setup from the Custom drop-down
list. In the Custom Graph list screen, click Add. Enter a name for the graph and choose the categories
of data to be included.

Setting Goals
• Choose Tools»Clinic Goals.
The Clinic Goals function allows you to view and print line or bar graphs of your practice’s goals for
Credits, Adjustments, New Patients, and Total Patients.
Note: To set and track individual goals, use the Retirement Tracker; see “Using the Retirement
Tracker” on page 117.
For each type of goal graph you can adjust the Goal Year to Date, Actual Year to Date, Difference, and
the Goal for Year. You can also choose to view goals for all or specific doctors.
Your current statistics may help you to decide on appropriate goals for your practice.

To add, edit, or delete goals for your practice:


1. In the Goals screen, click Goals Setup.
2. To add goals, click Add and enter, for each doctor, goals for charges, credits, new patients, and total
patients. Add one line per doctor per month.

97
General Practice Functions

Gathering Demographic Information About Your Patients


Compile statistics using various demographic data. You can specify the criteria you want to search for,
or collate all demographic fields to view a summary of the top entries for each category (for example,
51% are female, 42% are married, 48% live in Sacramento, etc.). Note that the summary does not
provide all responses (e.g. all cities of residence), just the top response for each category.
1. Choose Tools»Gathering Market Research.

2. To look for a particular demographic group, specify your search criteria (age range, gender, location
of residence, marital status, referral source, insurance company)
or
To gather the top entries in each category, leave the fields blank.
3. Click Print to output the results to your printer, or click Compile to view the results (and optionally
export them to a .csv file).

Recalling Inactive Patients


Use this function to find inactive patients. For maximum productivity, you should do recalls regularly.
1. Choose Tools»Recall Inactive Patients.
2. The subsequent screens prompt you to specify the Recall Type (to find patients whose last charge
or exam date fell within a specific date range, or patients whose recall date has passed) and any
Filters (i.e. case type and/or doctor).

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Working with the Prospecting Center

3. From the Results list, select a patient and click Open to view the patient file, or click Next to choose
output options (merge letters, a list, or labels).
• If you choose Merged Letter, click the browse button to locate the letter template and specify if
you want the output to go directly to the printer or to open in your default word processor first
(output to file). Lists and labels only go directly to the printer.
4. Click Finish to generate the output.

Working with the Prospecting Center


Use the Prospecting Center to manage prospective patients and create mailing lists. Prospects can be
converted into patient files.
• Choose Tools»Prospecting Center.

Searching for Prospects


The Prospect Lookup tab lists all prospects in the order they were added, but you can filter and sort as
required.
To search for a specific value, select Show All, select the column name in the Selected Column list,
then type the first few characters of the entry (e.g. “Kra” to go to the first entry beginning with those
letters).
To filter the list (clear the list and show only those files that match the criteria), select Filtered, select a
column name in the Selected Column list. Type the first few characters to be filtered (e.g. “Br” to see
only prospects beginning with those letters).
To sort the list, click a column name (and again to reverse the order).
When the desired prospect file is highlighted, press ENTER or double-click to open it.

Adding a Prospect
1. Click New Prospect.
2. Enter the prospect’s contact information in as much detail as you wish.
3. To include the prospect in a mailing list, click the browse button beside the mailing list fields and
create a new mailing list (see “Creating Mailing Lists and Labels” on page 101) or select an existing
one.

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General Practice Functions

4. Click Save.

Importing Prospects
1. Choose Tools»Import.
2. Locate the file to be imported, the destination mailing list, and identify how the fields are separated.
3. Click Load File. The file’s data is loaded into the listbox in the middle of the screen, and each line is
labelled with a line number. For example:
1: Simon
2: Wozniak
3: 999-555-1212
4: Marguerite
5: Solomon
6: 999-555-3131
The Line Number Inputs area matches the imported data to their corresponding location in the pros-
pect list. So in the example above, you would link the fields as follows:

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Working with the Prospecting Center

First Name = 1, Last Name = 2, Hm.Phone = 3, and Next record start at line number field = 4.

Creating Mailing Lists and Labels

To create a mailing label:


1. With a prospect file open, choose Tools»Mailing Label. You must use Avery 5160 labels (or similar
layout, i.e. 30 per page).
2. Click on the label location(s) where you want to print a label for this prospect. You can select
multiple locations to print multiple labels for the same prospect.
3. Click Print.

To create a mailing list:


1. Choose Tools»Mailing Lists. The Mailing List lookup opens.

2. Add or edit the mailing lists as required. For more information, see “Working with Lookups” on
page 19.
3. To assign prospects to a mailing list, double-click on the entry in the Prospect Lookup and choose
the mailing list from the browse button at the bottom of the Prospect File tab.

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General Practice Functions

Sending Merge Letters to Prospects


For more information about merge letters, see “Sending Letters to Patients” on page 85.

To send a letter to a single prospect:


1. With a prospect file open, choose Tools»Merge Letter, and choose Current Prospect.
2. Select a letter and click Generate.

To send a letter to a mailing list:


1. Ensure all prospects are assigned to the mailing list as applicable.
2. Choose Tools»Merge Letter, and choose Mailing List.
3. Select the mailing list and letter and click Generate.

Exporting Prospects
Export your prospects (all or by mailing list) to a text file that contains all information as it appears on
the Prospect Lookup tab, except the Mailing List column.
1. To export prospects to a text file, choose Tools»Export.
2. If you want to export all prospects, leave the Mailing List field blank. Otherwise, select the mailing
list that contains the prospects you want to export.
3. Click Export.

Creating a Patient File


• With a prospect file open, choose Tools»Create Patient File.

The prospect is removed from the Prospect Lookup tab and added to the Patient Lookup. When you
open it from there, you are prompted to create a new case. For more information, see “Working with
the Patient File” on page 35.

Sending Information Via Mobile Technology


You can send reports and other information via SMS on most major cell phone networks; check with
your carrier if you require assistance with sending email to cell phones. The following information can
be sent:
• Daily statistics (totals only)
• Appointment reminders
• Appointment lists
• Task information
• Messages from your Message Center.

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Sending Information Via Mobile Technology

To send information to a recipient’s mobile device:


1. Choose Tools»Mobile Technology.

2. Select the recipient from the list.


To add, edit, or delete a recipient, click Setup.

• Enter the Name and SMS Address (10-digit number followed by the SMS email suffix, e.g.
1115551212@provider.com) and click Update to add it to the list.
• If necessary, select recipients to edit or remove as required.
• Click Close.
3. Select the information types that you want to send.
4. For each type selected, click Configure to more specifically identify which information should be
sent:
• Daily Statistics -- choose any combination of Charges, Credits, Adjustments, New Patients, or
Total Patients; for all or a specific doctor.
• Appointment Reminders -- select a specific date or a date range.
• Appointment List -- choose all appointments, or only those for a particular date and time period,
for all or a specific doctor.
• Task Information -- choose tasks that are either created on a specific date, or due on a specific
date, for all or a specific user.
• Messages from the Email Manager/Message Center -- choose all messages, all unread messages,
all unread messages received today, or manually selected messages.
5. Click Send.

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General Practice Functions

Maintaining Inventory
Use the Inventory functions to keep track of your office and treating supplies, including the names of
products and vendors that you order from. You can use this information to create purchase orders.
Once a purchase order has been filled, you can create a receiving entry to update your inventory.
When inventory is used by a patient, you can capture this information in the patient’s posting screen;
these products are then deducted from the overall clinic inventory. For more information, see “Record-
ing Inventory Used by a Patient” on page 49.
To access the Inventory screen:
• Choose Tools»Inventory.

About the Inventory Screen


The Inventory screen includes a Home tab, which shows a list of items that are within 10% of the reor-
der level, tips about maintaining inventory, and basic statistics about the clinic inventory such as the
number of items sold over the last 30 days and revenue generated from the sale of inventory items.
Each button at the top (except Reports) opens a new tab so you can switch between the inventory
areas. To close a tab, click the X at the far right of the tab bar. You cannot close the Home tab.

Adding or Editing a Vendor


1. On the Vendors tab, click Add (or select a vendor and click Edit).
2. Enter vendor contact information in the top section, and any notes at the bottom.
3. The Products section lists all products connected with this vendor. You can add products on the
Products tab or directly in this section.
The Financial Information section is display-only and shows revenue and profit gained from this
vendor’s products.
4. To add an alert that will appear each time this vendor is opened, click Alerts in the Edit Vendor
screen, then click Add. Enter the alert message or choose one from the Lookup table.

Adding a Product Type


Product types allow you to categorize your inventory. For example, you may have several different
types of supplements, each one entered as a product. By having them all listed with the product type
“Supplement”, you can quickly see how many supplements you have in stock.
1. On the Products tab, click Add.
2. Click the browse button beside the Type field.
3. In the Product Type lookup, click Add to enter a new Product Type.

Adding or Editing Products


Note: You must set up a vendor and a product type before adding a product.
1. On the Products tab, click Add (or select a product and click Edit).
2. Enter information about the product in the Product, Product Options, Product Details, and Notes
areas.
3. Click Save.

Viewing a Vendor’s Products


On the Vendors tab, select a vendor from the list in the Vendor screen and click Edit. The Products are
listed for that vendor.
or
On the Products tab, use the drop-down lists at the top to filter the product list by vendor and/or prod-
uct type.

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Maintaining Inventory

Creating a Purchase Order


1. On the Purchase Orders tab, click Add.
2. In the top part of the screen, select the vendor, change the date and status if necessary, and enter
any additional notes about the purchase order.
3. To add products to the order, click Add Item.
• In the Stock No column, click the browse button, choose a product, and click Select.
• Enter a quantity in the Units Ordered column.
4. Select a Ship Method and enter the Tax% as well as any shipping charges if known.
5. Click Save. If required you can now print the purchase order, or click Close.
All purchase orders are listed on the Purchase Orders tab. To filter this list, select a purchase order sta-
tus from the drop-down list at the top of the tab.

Creating a Receiving Entry


Use a receiving entry to mark the purchase order as received and add the product(s) into inventory.
1. On the Receiving Entries tab, click Add.
2. Click Select to retrieve the related purchase order.
3. If you did not receive everything ordered, change the status to Received-Partial.
4. The items ordered on the PO are populated in the list.
5. In the Stock No column, click the browse button, choose a product from the Products screen, and
click Select. Make changes to the Units Received column. Finally, choose a Ship Method and
enter the Tax%.
6. If the total receivables do not match the total ordered, you are prompted with a reconciliation screen
to take one of the following actions:
• Print Report - showing what was received and what was ordered (similar to the Receiving Entries
screen)
• Ignore (take no action, closes this screen)
• Contact Vendor - adds an alert to the vendor record stating that the order received today was
incomplete
• Print Purchase Order for Remainder - prints a purchase order for what was not received.
7. Click Save. If required you can now print the receiving entry record, or click Close.

Viewing Inventory Reports


Click Reports and choose one of the following reports. For all but the inventory report you can limit
data to a specific date range.
• Inventory Report -- shows vendor name, product name, quantity on hand, re-order levels, re-order
amount, and cost of each item
• Items Sold -- lists all products sold and the quantity sold of each
• Profit Report -- shows cost, sales price, and quantity sold
• Sales Report -- lists all products sold and the quantity sold of each
• Sales Tax Report -- shows how many taxable products were sold and the amount of tax collected.
All reports open in the Report Viewer, which provides functions to print, copy, and search.

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General Practice Functions

Working with the Policy Manual


Use the Policy Manual to record your policies and processes and make them easily available to other
users. Policies are organized into categories.
• Choose View»Policy Manual.

Working with Policies


Choose the category of policies you want to view, or choose All. To add or edit categories, click the
browse button to open the Policy Category Lookup.
To add a policy, click Add. Choose the category (or add a new one on the fly), enter a short title and the
full policy description.

106
Working with the Policy Manual

To edit a policy, select the policy in the list and click Edit. Make changes as required.

To view the full text of a policy, select the policy in the list and click View.
To print an individual policy, view the policy and click Print. To print all of the policies, click Print Man-
ual. The manual appears in a print preview screen. Change settings as required and click Print.

Working with Processes


To view and maintain processes, click Create Clinic Process on the policy manual list screen.
To add a process, click Add and enter a short name for the process. In the table, enter a more descrip-
tive formal name for the process, then enter each procedure and its details in the table rows.

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General Practice Functions

To view a process, select the process from the drop-down list. The related procedures are listed in the
table. To view the procedures in a tree view that can be expanded/collapsed, click View. The process
can also be printed from the View screen.

Using Third-Party Utilities


The Utilities menu provides access to the following third-party utilities:
• Handheld Sync
• Document Plus
• Instant Ad Expert *
• MediNotes
• Quick Post
• SpringCharts
• Writepad Link **
• Timeclock ***
• Word Processor ***
• VIP Center (choose the SecureClaims or Forté website)
• Weblink (opens the Forté website)
Note: These must be purchased separately from Forté or the third-party vendor as applicable.
* If you have created a login on the Instant Ad Expert website, you must set up the User Options to
identify which user will receive messages from Instant Ad Expert.
** If you are using Writepad, you should define the export options in the User Options.
For more information, see “Changing General Display Options” on page 25.
*** If you want to use the Timeclock or an external word processor, you must define the location of
these applications. For more information, see “Customizing Security and Setup Options” on page 28.

108
Managing VIP (Gift) Cards

Managing VIP (Gift) Cards


If you have a credit card reader, you can offer VIP cards for your practice which can be applied against
charges. The only requirement for the cards is that they have a magnetic stripe encoded with a unique
serial number. VIP cards can be “topped up”, even without the presence of the card (e.g. over the
phone), or deactivated (e.g. if the card was lost or stolen).

To set up a new VIP card:


1. Choose Utilities»VIP Cards.
2. Click to add a new card.
3. Swipe the card and enter the amount to be credited to the card.

To “top up” a VIP card:


You can top up a card without swiping it.
1. Choose Utilities»VIP Cards.
2. Select the card in the list and click .
3. Enter the amount to be added to the card.

To deactivate a VIP card:


1. Choose Utilities»VIP Cards.
2. Select the card in the list and click to edit the card.
3. Clear the Active check box.
4. Optionally, set up a new card and add the deactivated card’s balance to it.

Monitoring When Key Tasks Are Completed or Overdue


To ensure that key tasks are completed in a timely fashion, use the Artificial Intelligence system. It
checks key tasks at regular intervals and alerts a designated user when tasks are overdue. The recipi-
ent can save these alerts to their task list or message center.
Note: See also “Viewing Software Usage Analytics”.

To set up the Artificial Intelligence system:


1. Choose Tools»Options, then click Setup.
Note: You can also set up your AI alerts in the Setup Wizard; click Utilities»Setup Wizard.
Choose “I am an existing user”, skip the data conversion, and click Next until you get to the
AI screen.

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General Practice Functions

2. Select the tasks that you want the AI system to check on.
3. For each selected task, indicate the relevant criteria, such as how often they should be completed.
Note that this is different from how often the AI system should check!
4. Click AI Settings to indicate who should receive the notifications, how often the AI system should
check the status of the selected tasks, and whether alerts should be shown all at once or staggered
every 10 minutes.

To manage AI alerts:
AI checks all selected tasks according to the schedule defined in the AI Settings. If any task is due, a
notification message is placed in the assigned user’s inbox, and an alert appears in the lower right of
the assigned user’s screen.

Either save it to your task list, or delete the alert. You can also create tasks from notification messages
in your inbox: either drag the notification to the Tasks area to create a task, or move it to the Tasks
folder when viewing the notification message (if you double-clicked to open it in a new window).
Note: Even if you create a task from a notification alert, if the related task is not performed, an alert
will appear again the next time AI is scheduled to check.

110
Viewing Software Usage Analytics

Viewing Software Usage Analytics


The Software Analytics report tells you if there is any missing information in your patient files, any sys-
tem problems, required/suggested maintenance actions, as well as how much of the 8000 system was
used in the last three months and a breakdown of the feature usage.
• Choose Tools»Software Analytics.

Viewing the Supervisor Log


View the Supervisor Log to see a chronological log of edits to the database, such as patient file
changes, financial transactions, system setup changes, etc.
• Choose Tools»Supervisor Log.
• To clear the list, click Purge.

111
General Practice Functions

112
PART V —
Working With
Reports

8000 provides a wide range of reporting functions to help you get the data you need in
whatever form you require. These include:
• Standard reports, including Clinic Totals, Account Balances, Interest, CPT Payor,
Payment, Accountant’s Review, Procedure Code, Case Type, California Workers’
Compensation (CAWC), Two Year Statistics, Marketing Success, Transactions, and
Credit Card Transactions. You can also generate a list of patient names.
• Functions to create custom reports - use Report Writer to create brief or narrative
patient file reports, the Search Report Generator to query and filter patient data, the
Forms Center to print forms for your patients, and the Report Minder to track report
deadlines.
Introduction
You can create reports for patients and for your practice. The following standard reports are available in
8000:
• List of patient names (see “Generating a List of Patient Names” on page 118)
• Clinic totals report (see “Working with Clinic Totals” on page 119)
• “Account Balances Report” on page 120
• “Aging Report” on page 120
• “Interest Reports” on page 120
• “ASH Reports” on page 121
• “CPT Payor Reports” on page 117
• “Payment Reports” on page 117
• “Accountant’s Review Report” on page 122
• “Procedure Code Reports” on page 117
• “Case Type Reports” on page 117
• “California Workers’ Compensation (CAWC) Reports” on page 122
• “Two Year Statistics Report” on page 117
• “Marketing Success Report” on page 116
• “Transaction Reports” on page 117
• “Credit Card Transaction Report” on page 122

In addition to the above specific reports, the following options allow you to create custom reports:
• the Report Writer helps you to create brief or narrative patient file reports (see “Working with the
Report Writer” on page 122)
• the Search Report Generator is used to query and filter patient data (see “Working with the Search
Report Generator” on page 123)
• the Forms Center can be used to print forms for your patients (see “Printing Forms for Patients” on
page 126)
• the Report Minder allows you to track report deadlines (see “Viewing the Report Minder” on
page 126).

Working with Standard Reports

Using the Wellness Center


The Wellness Center is a single access point to some of the most common reports.
Choose Reports»Wellness Center. You can keep this window open for quick access to these reports
at any time.

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Working with Standard Reports

Generating Financial Reports


The following reports use a common starting point:
• “Marketing Success Report”
• “Case Type Reports”
• “CPT Payor Reports”
• “Payment Reports”
• “Transaction Reports”
• “Two Year Statistics Report”
• “Procedure Code Reports”
• “Using the Retirement Tracker”
When you open any one of these reports from the Reports menu (or Tools menu, in the case of the
Retirement Tracker), they open in a common window from which you can then open any of the others
directly.

• Select a report from the list at the top, or from the Recent Reports on the left.
• If you often set up the same criteria for a particular report, click Save configuration. The next time
you want to run the same report, click Load configuration to retrieve the settings.

Marketing Success Report


The Marketing Success report shows how much was spent on each marketing type (e.g. Yellow Pages,
flyer, web site, etc.) and how much was collected due to each type in a given time period. The Market-
ing report also shows the number of active and new patients in the specified time period.
• Specify the date range.
• To add or change the amount spent for a marketing type, click Setup Expenditures (click Refresh
when you’re done to update the report). Note that the expenditures capture a yearly amount, while
the report may show any time period.
• You can view a graph of the report data, print it, or export the data to a .csv file.

116
Generating Financial Reports

Case Type Reports


Use to see a report of monthly, yearly, and total patients and charges broken down by case type. For
more on case types, see “Understanding and Setting Up Case Types” on page 8.
• Specify the date range.
• Optionally, select a doctor to filter the data.
• Click List to see data for all case types, or select a case type and click Breakdown to see all
patients who have that case type.
• You can view a graph of the List view, or print any view.

CPT Payor Reports


Use to see all CPT codes used and what line payments, if any, have been applied to them. This helps
you determine which codes are best for disbursement.

Payment Reports
Use to see a report of payments recorded for accounts, case types, and/or doctors.

Transaction Reports
Transaction reports are used to analyze saved (posted) transactions. The report includes all the infor-
mation on each transaction line (although only a portion is shown on the report screen).

Two Year Statistics Report


Use to compare two years of practice information showing total growth by chosen area.

Procedure Code Reports


Use to see a breakdown of office financial statistics by procedure code.

Using the Retirement Tracker


The Retirement Tracker allows you to set specific goals, e.g. a new car, and the amount required to
reach that goal. The amount value is includes charges, credits, and adjustments, and is derived from
your Daysheet totals.
Note: To set and track goals for the entire practice, see “Setting Goals” on page 97.

117
Working with Standard Reports

• Choose Tools»Retirement Tracker or access from the Financial Reports center, if open. Select an
existing target to view a graph of the progress toward the goal. Graphs compare current values to
target values.

• To add a new target or edit an existing one, click Add, then click Add or Edit as appropriate. Enter
the Amount Required, the Start Date, and the hoped-for Completion Date.

Generating a List of Patient Names


You can generate a list of patient names that match specific criteria. For example, you can:
• specify which patient account the list should begin with
• show patients for specific or all case types
• show patients of a particular doctor
• choose to output the list to a screen, printer, or file
• exclude patients with an account balance of zero
• include patient phone numbers in the list
• sort the patient file by account number, name, or insurance provider
To generate a list of patient names, choose View»List Names.

118
Working with Clinic Totals

Working with Clinic Totals


You can view various totals for your practice in the Clinic Totals screen.
• Choose A/R»Clinic Totals.

In the Clinic Totals screen you can:


• view monthly totals for a particular year
• view weekly totals for a specific time period
• show clinic totals for a particular doctor.
• print clinic totals
• view, add and edit Daily Totals for your practice
• open the Goals screen, for more information see “Setting Goals” on page 97.

119
Working with Standard Reports

Account Balances Report


You can view a list of patients who currently have a balance.
• Choose A/R»Account Balances.
• Complete the criteria and click Generate.

Aging Report
An aging report details the aging status of patient accounts. For more on monthly aging, see “About
Monthly Aging” on page 58.
• Choose A/R»Aging. In the Aging screen, in the Other tab, click Aging Report.

Interest Reports
Interest reports allow you to see what interest was assigned to patient accounts during aging. For more
on aging, see “About Monthly Aging” on page 58.
• Choose A/R»Aging. In the Aging screen, in the Other tab, click Interest Report.

120
ASH Reports

ASH Reports
Use to produce American Specialty Health (ASH) reports for a patient. You can produce Clinical Treat-
ment, Reconsideration, and Supportive Care reports. The reports are generated with information from
the patient file. However you can add new information and edit existing information in the form.
You can save blank ASH forms as templates to which you can add patient information later. Template
ASH forms allow you to enter information in fields that do not receive information from the patient file.
You can also produce a Provider Status Change Request form for doctors in your practice. You can also
print other ASH forms, such as Accident Questionnaires, Claims Tracer Requests, and Laboratory Refer-
ral.
• Choose Reports»ASH Reports. A startup screen appears. Choose the function you would like to
complete, or click Close to open the ASH Reports screen.

Opening or Editing an ASH Report


• To edit an ASH report, select the field you want to edit and type the new information.
• To open a saved ASH report, in the startup screen, click Open an existing report.
or
In the ASH Reports screen, choose File»Open. Choose the report from the Reports List screen, and
click Open.

Generating an ASH Report


• In the ASH Reports screen, choose File»New, and then choose a report.

Generating a Provider Status Change Request Form


• In the startup screen, click Provider Status Change.
or
In the ASH Reports screen, choose File»New»Provider Status Change Request.

Using ASH Templates

To create an ASH Template:


• In the startup screen, click one of Clinical Treatment Form, Reconsideration, and Supportive
Care.
or
In the ASH Reports screen, choose Template, and then choose one of Clinical Treatment Form,
Reconsideration, and Supportive Care. Enter a description for the template, and then click OK.
In the template screen, enter any information in editable fields. Click Save.
Note: Only those fields that do not receive information from the patient file are editable.

To merge an ASH template with a patient file:


1. Open the patient file you want to merge with an ASH template.
2. In the ASH Reports screen, choose View»Template List.
3. In the Template List screen, select the template, and click Create Report.

Printing ASH Reports and Forms


• To print an ASH report, choose File»Print and then click OK.
• To print an ASH form, click File»Print Form, and then choose the form you want to print.

121
Working with Custom Reports

Accountant’s Review Report


Accountant’s review reports include financial information for patient accounts for a specified period of
time (month, quarter, or year). You can view the report on screen, print, or export it.
• Choose A/R»Accountant’s Review.

California Workers’ Compensation (CAWC) Reports


Use to produce CAWC reports for a patient. You can produce:
• Doctor’s First Report of Occupational Injury or Illness (First Report)
• Primary Treating Physician’s Progress Report (PR-2)
• Primary Treating Physician’s Permanent and Stationary Report (PR-3)
• Primary Treating Physician’s Permanent and Stationary Report (PR-4)
• Notice of Options Following Disability Rating (DEU Form 110)
When you produce a CAWC report, information from the patient file is included in the appropriate fields,
and you can add information to fields that do not receive patient file information.
• Choose Reports»CAWC Reports. In the CA Workers’ Compensation screen, choose File»New and
then select the report you want to open.

Credit Card Transaction Report


Retrieves transactions processed on the CareSwipe system. You can retrieve data for a specific date or
range of dates (up to 90 days old (the oldest date reports are kept)). This report displays summary
information, on the totals processed, or more detailed information.
• Choose A/R»Credit Card Transactions Report.

Working with Custom Reports

Working with the Report Writer


Use the Report Writer to generate brief or narrative reports or to work with worksheets.
• Choose Reports»Report Writer

Brief and Narrative Reports


Using information from the patient file and phrases you choose, you can create brief or narrative
reports. Brief reports are 1-2 pages long, while narrative reports include additional historical informa-
tion. You can create reports such as supplemental reports, progress reports, and evaluations.
Phrases are saved sentences that can be inserted into brief or narrative reports. When you click
Phrases from either the brief or narrative reports screens, the Phrase screen appears. In this screen
you can select from existing phrases as well as create new phrases.

To insert a phrase in a report:


1. In the Phrase screen, select the phrase you want to add to the report and click Accept Selections.
The phrase is moved to the box at the top of the screen.
2. When you have selected all the phrases you want to add to that part of the report, click OK.

To create a new phrase:


1. In the Phrase screen, click Edit Phrases.
2. In the Phrases Edit screen, type the phrase you want to add, and click Save.

122
Working with the Search Report Generator

To edit an existing phrase:


1. In the Phrase screen, select the phrase you want to edit, and click Edit Phrases.
2. In the Phrases Edit screen, make any changes to the phrases, and click Save.

Working with Worksheets


Worksheets gather information from the patient file in a centralized place. They can be printed and
used to gather information during an exam.
You can use the Report Writer to create brief or comprehensive worksheets. Brief worksheets contain
plain text. Comprehensive worksheets contain elements that can be populated with information from
the patient file (such as diagnosis) and can also use merge files. You must use a word processor (such
as Microsoft Word) as your default word processor for this function.

Working with the Search Report Generator


Using the Search Report Generator you can analyze data in the patient files as well as the patient
header and any alerts. For example, you can create a list of all patients, with first and last name only.
You can also use filters to show only a subset of patients, such as those who were born within a certain
date range or who have the same last name.
Reports from the Search Report Generator are formatted in a table for easy analysis, with column titles
drawn from labels in the patient file or patient header, and lines numbered for easy reference. You can
save and reload both the report criteria and the report results. You can also export report data or use it
in merged letters or labels.

• To open the Search Report Generator, choose Tools»Search Report Generator.


You can either use Wizard Mode or Advanced Mode. Both allow you to generate a query and save or
print the results, but Advanced Mode offers more sorting capability and also allows you to print mailing
labels or envelopes for the patient records found. The initial default mode is the wizard, but whenever
you change the mode you are asked if you want to switch your default (unless you turn off the prompt).

Using the Wizard to Create and Run a Query


Note: If you are in Advanced mode, click Wizard Mode at the top.

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Working with Custom Reports

1. If you want to reuse a previously saved query, click the arrow beside the Open button, and choose
Open Query. Select the query and click Open.
Note: You can only open a query that was saved from the same mode that you are currently using.
2. Select the fields on the left that you want to include in the query, then click Add to move them to the
list on the right. Optionally, click Sort By and define the sort order.
3. Click Next to continue.
4. Optionally, apply any filters to the information you are searching; for example, if you have included
Month Charges, you can filter the search to include only amounts that are not zero, or greater than
a specified amount.
• Click in the Field and select the field that you want to apply a filter to, then in the Filter column
select the filter from the drop-down list. Enter the value to be used in conjunction with the filter.
5. Click Next to view the search results.
Note: You can delete records from the results before saving, exporting, or printing the results. Select a
row and press DELETE. This only deletes the information from the search results; the information
remains in the patient file.

Using Advanced Mode to Create and Run a Query


Note: If you are in Wizard mode, click Advanced Mode at the bottom.

1. If you want to reuse a previously saved query, click the arrow beside the Open button, and choose
Open Query. Select the query and click Open.
Note: You can only open a query that was saved from the same mode that you are currently using.
2. In the tree on the left, select (or change) the information you want to search for. You can expand
and collapse the tree to specify more precisely what information you want to search for.

124
Working with the Search Report Generator

3. To apply a filter to the information you are searching for (for example, if you have included the
Month Charges value from the Header, you can filter the search to include only amounts that are not
zero, or greater than a specified amount):
• Click New Filter in the top right of the screen.
• Click in the cell that you want to apply a filter to, then select the filter from the drop-down list.
• If the filter type includes an amount, when “{amount}” is highlighted type the value.
4. When you are ready to run your query, click Start at the bottom of the screen.
Note: You can delete records from the results before saving, exporting, or printing the results. Select a
row and press DELETE. This only deletes the information from the search results; the information
remains in the patient file.

Saving Queries
A saved query includes the search and filter criteria for that query. It does not include the results of the
query.
• To save a query, click the arrow next to the Save button, and choose Save Query. Enter a Name
and Description for the query and click Save.

Saving Search Results


You can save search results in .xml format [how/where/why would this format be used?], or save them
as an accounts list which enables you to use those patient names when creating merged letters. For
more information, see “Generating Merged Letters” on page 86.
• To save search results in .xml format, click the arrow next to the Save button, and choose Save
Results. Navigate to where you want to save the results file and click Save.
• To save search results as an accounts list, click the arrow next to the Save button, and choose Save
as Accounts List.

Retrieving Saved Search Results


1. Click the arrow beside the Open button, and choose Open Results.
2. Navigate to the results file and click Open. The search and filter criteria for the query are displayed
in the Search Report Generator screen.
3. Click Start to see results for the query.

Exporting Search Results


You can export a search to a .txt file which can be imported as an email list in the Email Manager. For
more information, see “Sending Email Messages to Patients” on page 90.
To export search results:
• Click Export.

Printing Search Results


You can print the search results as a report from either Wizard or Advanced Mode. If you are using
Advanced Mode you can also print mailing labels or envelopes for the patient records found (you do not
have to include the address fields in the query, they will be retrieved from the patient records).
• To see what the search results report will look like, click Preview.
• To print the search results report in Wizard Mode, click Print.
• To print the search results report in Advanced Mode, click the arrow beside the Print button, and
choose Results.
• To print mailing labels or envelopes for the patient records found (Advanced Mode only), click the
arrow beside the Print button, and choose Mailing Labels. Choose the label or envelope options,
then click Print List.

125
Working with Custom Reports

Printing Forms for Patients


In the Forms Center you can print common patient forms, such as registration forms, work restriction
forms, or diagnosis forms. If you want to edit the form before printing it, you can choose to output the
form as a file.
• Choose Tools»Forms Center.
To add a new custom form, in the Forms Center, choose the Custom tab and double-click the Add New
Custom Form icon. You are prompted to navigate to the new custom form file you have created.

Viewing the Report Minder


Use the Report Minder to keep track of which reports are due in the next interval (you define the inter-
val, for example, the next 30 days). This is particularly useful for ensuring the timely delivery of WC
reports.
• Choose Reports»Report Minder.

126
INDEX
A C
Accident Questionnaires form 121 calendar
Account Balance Report 120 fields 19
Accountant’s Review report 122 personal 16
aging see also appointments
applying interest 58 setting up 73
resetting patient year totals 59 Calendar screen 74
Aging Report 120 California Workers’ Compensation (CAWC)
Aging screen 58 reports 122
agreed pricing, setting up 6 call log 93
alerts calling patients 93
adding patient 38 cards, gift
adding vendor 104 applying to charges 52
Artificial Intelligence 109 setting up 109
patient, turning on or off 25 CareSwipe, setup 27
appointments Case Type report 117
adding and editing individual 78 case types
booking from ledger 50 about 8
creating patient file 81 creating 9
customizing display 26 linking to a fee schedule 6
customizing status 26 cases, patient 34
forms and routing slips 76 cell phones, sending information to 102
no shows 76 changing posting date 48
opening the patient’s file 81 charges
Opportunity Report 76 adding 49
personal 16 adding from appointment 50
reminders 77 checking eligibility 81
scheduling multiple 80 checking patients in/out 80
sending information to cell phones 102 ChiroBrain 23
status 75 claims
type, setting default 26 see also quick claims
types 75 billing history 68
walk-in list 80 electronic 61
archiving 58 filing cabinet 68
Artificial Intelligence alerts 109 generating multiple 62
ASH (American Specialty Health) Reports 121 history 68
attorney one touch billing 52
inquiries 69 outstanding 69
list 7 recording a past claim 69
audio files, attaching to patient file 37 resubmitting 68
automatic balance write-off 55 viewing a patient’s 68
automatic features, defining 29 Claims Tracer Request form 121
clinic
goals 97
B hours, customizing 26
balance, write-off globally 55
information 5
BillFlash 67
newsletter, creating 91
billing
Clinic Control Center 82
functions, about 61
Clinic Totals report 119
including patient notes 65
Clinical Treatment report 121
list 62
codes, procedure, see procedure codes
Billing History screen 68
columns
birthdays, recognizing 90
resizing 21
buttons, changing the appearance of 25
sorting 21
contact lists
setting up 7

i
contacts 7, 17 exporting
converting from older versions 5 patient files 41
co-pay details in patient header 52 prospects 102
Co-pay Estimator screen 52 external files, attaching to patient file 37
CPT Payor report 117
credit card processing
F
CareSwipe setup 27
feature usage 111
entering payments 53
Fee Lookup screen 6
custom graphs 97
fees
customer support 12
about 6
customizing forms 126
agreed pricing 6
importing 7
D schedules 6
data integrity report 111 setting up 6
database fields 18
creating multiple 5 files, patient, see patient files
maintenance 10 filtering, see searching
viewing edit log 111 finding, see searching
date (posting), changing 48 first visit package, creating 89
date fields 19 forecasting 96
Daysheet Lines screen 58 forms
daysheets Accident Questionnaires 121
about 56 Claims Tracer Request 121
customizing 26 customized 126
editing 58 Laboratory Referral 121
finding information in 57 printing for patients 76, 126
practice diary Provider Status Change 121
enabling 26
entering 57
G
viewing 57
games 17
printing 57
gift cards
viewing totals for a doctor 57
applying to charges 52
default doctor 5
setting up 109
demographics, reporting on 98
global write-offs 55
diagnosis codes, importing 20
goals
doctors
clinic 97
hours, customizing 26
individual 117
list 7
Goals screen 97
setting default 5
Goals Setup screen 97
viewing totals in daysheets 57
graphs
Document Plus 108
custom 97
documents, attaching to patient file 37
viewing 97
driver’s license, scanning 36
grids, customizing fields shown 21

E H
Edit Appointment screen, adding a charge from 50
Handheld Sync 108
Edit Postings screen 49
HCFA map 38
electronic claims 61
header, viewing 43
eligibility, checking 81
home page
email
about 13
copying to a patient file 14
adding images 17
sending information to cell phones 102
messages 14
settings 14
rolodex 17
using the Message Center 14
TimeClock 17
employer list 7
hours, defining clinic/doctor/room schedule 26
envelopes, printing 85
estimates, creating 51
export file (WritePad) options 25

ii
I M
images mailing
adding to the home page 17 labels 101
attaching to patient file 37 list, creating 101
importing main screen 13
fees 7 maintenance required 111
patient files 41 map 38
prospects 100 market research, gathering 98
inactive patients 98 Marketing report 116
individual goals 117 Medicare, resetting visit counts 70
installing the system 4 MediNotes 108
Instant Ad Expert 108 merged letters
insurance generating 86
billing 62 sending to prospects 102
checking eligibility 81 messages, sending and receiving 14
company list 7 missing data report 111
processing batch claims 62 mobile devices, sending information to 102
Interest Report 120 monthly aging 47
interest, applying to aged accounts 58 monthly statements 67
inventory multiple appointments 80
maintaining 104 music 17
patient 49 My Corner 17

L
labels, printing 85 N
Laboratory Referral form 121 New Transaction table 48
Ledger newsletter, creating 91
about 47 no shows 76
booking appointments from 50 notes
see also posting automatic 65
letters including with billing 65
see liens patient 38
see tracer letters SOAP 39
sending to patients, insurance providers, attor- NPI number 65
neys, employers, or referring doctors 85 NYWC map 38
liens 69
Line Item Posting screen 54 O
List Names report 118 occasions
lists capturing 38
attorney 7 recognizing 90
doctor 7 one touch billing 52
employer 7 opportunity report, appointment 76
insurance company 7 options
referring doctor 7 appointment status 26
see also reports buttons 25
service facility 7 calendar 26
lookup items daysheet 26
active and inactive 19 passwords 28
adding 20 posting 27
deleting 20 reports 25
editing 20 tables 25
importing diagnosis codes 20 tabs 25
searching 20 WritePad export file 25
selecting 20 outstanding claims 69
lookups
about 19
case types 8
Fees 6
Patient 35

iii
P personal
passwords, changing 28 appointments 16
Patient File screen 33 calendar 16
patient files photos, attaching to patient file 37
about 33 phrases
accounting overview 43 in Report Writer 122
adding notes 38 in SOAP notes 40
attaching external files 37 policy manual 106
cases 34 posting
co-pay details 52 adding charges 49
copying email messages to 14 changing date 48
creating from a prospect 102 editing transactions 49
creating from appointment 81 estimates, creating 51
driver’s license, scanning 36 from Edit Appointment screen 50
header, viewing 43 individual payments 52
importing and exporting 41 line item payments 54
managing 41 multiple 53
opening 35 one touch billing 52
opening from appointment file 81 options 27
querying through reports 123 printing transaction history 51
see also patients speed posting 53
validating 42 viewing a patient’s claims 68
working with 35 viewing a patient’s statements 68
Patient Lookup screen 35 practice diary
Patient Minder area of Appointment screen 37 enabling 26
patients entering 57
alerts 38 viewing 57
checking eligibility 81 printing
checking in/out 80 ASH forms 121
demographic statistics 98 daysheet information 57
editing totals in daysheets 58 forms and routing slips for patients 76
generating list of 118 labels and envelopes 85
importing and exporting files 41 policy manual 107
inventory 49 schedules 76
managing files 41 setting up 3
printing forms and routing slips for 76 transaction history 51
printing transaction history 51 Procedure Code report 117
prospective 99 products (inventory), maintaining 104
recalling inactive 98 projected amounts 96
recording past claims 69 Prospecting Center screen 99
recording past statements 69 prospects
resetting visit counts 70 adding 99
resetting year totals 59 exporting 102
see also patient files importing 100
sending letters 85 searching 99
validating files 42 Provider Status Change Request form 121
viewing claims 68 purchase order, creating 104
viewing statements 68
payments Q
credit card, enabling 27 querying patient files 123
credit card, processing 53 quick claims, generating 61
individual patient 52 quick codes, setting up 6
line item posting 54 Quick Post 108
speed posting 53
third party remittances 55
VIP cards 52

iv
R screens
recalling inactive patients 98 Aging 58
receiving entry, creating 104 Billing History 68
receiving messages 14 Calendar 74
Reconsideration report 121 Co-pay Estimator 52
referring doctor list 7 Daysheet Lines 58
registering your software 5 Edit Appointment 50
reminders Edit Postings 49
appointments 77 Fee Lookup 6
reports 126 Generate Billing List 62
remittances, processing 55 Goals 97
Report Minder 126 Goals Setup 97
Report Writer 122 Insurance Billing 62
reports Ledger 47
about 115 Line Item Posting 54
Account Balance 120 Patient File 33
Accountant’s Review 122 Patient Lookup 35
Aging 120 Policy Manual 106
Appointment Opportunity 76 Process Insurance Claims 62
ASH (American Specialty Health) 121 Prospecting Center 99
brief or narrative 122 Recall Inactive Patients 98
California Workers’ Compensation 122 Supervisor Log 111
Case Type 117 Search Report Generator 123
changing the appearance of 25 search report list, using in merged letters 86
Clinic Totals 119 searching
Clinical Treatment 121 appointments 78
CPT Payor 117 patient files 35
filtering 123 prospects 99
Interest 120 SecureClaims
List Names 118 about 61
list of 115 checking eligibility 81
Marketing 116 processing payments 55
Procedure Code 117 sending messages 14
Reconsideration 121 service facility list 7
software analytics 111 setting up
Supportive Care 121 attorney list 7
Transaction 117 case types 8
Two Year Statistics 117 clinic, room and doctor hours 26
worksheets 123 doctor list 7
requirements, system 3 employer list 7
resetting patient year totals 59 fees 6
resubmitting insurance company list 7
claim 68 printers 3
electronic claims 68 referring doctor list 7
see also submitting service facility list 7
retirement tracker 117 site licenses 28
rolodex 17 system requirements 3
room schedules, customizing 26 time clock application 28
routing slips, printing 76 users 28
rules based tasks 29 word processor 28
settings, see options
Setup Wizard 5
S site licenses, changing 28
sales tax calculator, using 50 SOAP notes 39
saved words and phrases 40 Software Analytics report 111
schedules software updates 11
fee 6 special occasions
options 26 capturing 38
printing 76 recognizing 90

v
speed posting 53 transactions
spell-checking 18 about 47
SpringCharts 108 adding charges 49
standby list 80 adding charges from appointment 50
statements editing 49
generating individual 67 individual payments 52
generating multiple 67 line item posting 54
history 68 posting from appointment file 81
monthly 67 recording a past claim 69
one touch billing 52 speed posting 53
recording a past statement 69 viewing a patient’s claims 68
viewing a patient’s 68 triggered events 29
statistics Two Year Statistics report 117
patient 98 types, appointment 75
sending to cell phones 102
status, appointment 75
U
supervisor log 111
UB-04 map 38
Supportive Care report 121
user options, see options
system requirements 3
users, setting up 28
utilities 108
T
tables
V
changing the appearance of 25
vendor
customizing fields shown 21
adding a 104
resizing columns 21
alerts 104
sorting columns 21
VIP cards
tabs, changing the appearance of 25
applying to charges 52
tasks
setting up 109
automatic features 29
VIP Center 108
managing your 15
rules based, defining 29
sending information to cell phones 102 W
template 29 walk-in list 80
tax calculator, using 50 Weblink 108
template ASH forms 121 Wellness Center 115
template, rules-based tasks 29 word processor
third-party utilities 108 accessing 108
TimeClock setting up 28
accessing 108 words, saved 40
setting up 28 Workers’ Compensation reports 122
using 17 workflow, defining tasks 29
viewing 17 worksheets 123
to-do list (tasks) 15 write-off balance, global 55
totals WritePad
patient in daysheets 58 export file options 25
report on clinic 119 Writepad
resetting patient year 59 accessing 108
viewing in daysheets 57
tracer letters
generating individual 68
Y
printing multiple 69 year totals, resetting 59
transaction history yearly graphs 97
printing 51
viewing 47
Transaction report 117

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