7.3.5 Service Pack Release Notes 03-05-09

• Insurance Billing Functions - ***New Functionality*** The Begin with Plan Code and End with Plan Code fields in the following functions have been enhanced so you can search your existing Insurance Plan Table from a drop-down list box. The Begin with Insurance Carrier and End with Insurance Carrier fields in the following functions have been enhanced so you can search your existing Insurance Carrier Table by clicking the magnifying glass icon.
  • Print Insurance Forms
  • Reprint Insurance Forms
  • Insurance Filing Report
  • Insurance Denials by Ins Carrier (Billing, Insurance Billing Functions, Insurance Management Reports, Insurance Denial Reports)
  • Insurance Refiles by Ins Carrier (Billing, Insurance Billing Functions, Insurance Management Reports, Insurance Refile Reports)
  • Insurance Pends by Ins Carrier (Billing, Insurance Billing Functions, Insurance Management Reports, Insurance Pend Reports)
  • Aged Accounts Receivable for Insurance (Billing, Insurance Billing Functions, Insurance Management Reports)
  • Insurance Statistical Reports (Billing, Insurance Billing Functions, Insurance Management Reports)
  • Delinquent Filing Report (Billing, Insurance Billing Functions, Delinquent Insurance Menu)
  • Print Delinquent Insurance Forms (Billing, Insurance Billing Functions, Delinquent Insurance Menu)
  • Reprint Delinquent Insurance Forms (Billing, Insurance Billing Functions, Delinquent Insurance Menu)
• Move/Re-Build Transmission File (Billing, Insurance Billing Functions, Electronic Claims) - It was possible for primary insurance payments to not populate correctly on secondary insurance claims. This has been corrected.
  
• Print Insurance Forms (Billing, Insurance Billing Functions) - Box 18 on the HCFA-1500 form will now print a two-digit year instead of a four-digit year.
  
• Print Insurance Forms (Billing, Insurance Billing Functions) - Previously, on Durable Medical Equipment (DME) claims, Box 32 on the HCFA-1500 form contained the patient's name and address based on the 'Patient's Home' Place of Service code (12). Now, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) requirement, Box 32 contains the name and address of the location on the charge transaction.
  
• Print Patient Statements - It was possible for the statement aging messages to print on the statements twice. This has been corrected.
  

• The Begin with Plan Code and End with Plan Code fields in the following reports have been enhanced so you can search your existing Insurance Plan Table from a drop-down list box. The Begin with Insurance Carrier and End with Insurance Carrier fields in the following reports have been enhanced so you can search your existing Insurance Carrier Table by clicking the magnifying glass icon.
  • Managed Care Analysis (Managed Care, Management Reports)
  • Capitation Analysis Report (Managed Care, Capitation Functions)
  
  

• The Begin with Plan Code and End with Plan Code fields in the following functions have been enhanced so you can search your existing Insurance Plan Table from a drop-down list box. The Begin with Insurance Carrier and End with Insurance Carrier fields in the following functions have been enhanced so you can search your existing Insurance Carrier Table by clicking the magnifying glass icon.
  • List of Patients by Ins Carrier (Patient, Patient Listings, Sorted Lists of Patients)
  • List of Patients by Plan Code (Patient, Patient Listings, Sorted Lists of Patients)
  • List of Patients sorted by Responsible Doctor and Ins Carrier (Patient, Patient Listings, Sorted Lists of Patients, Double Sorted Lists of Patients, List of Patients by Responsible Doctor)
  • List of Patients sorted by Location and Ins Carrier (Patient, Patient Listings, Sorted Lists of Patients, Double Sorted Lists of Patients, List of Patients by Location)
  • Mailing Labels by Insurance Carrier (Patient, Patient Mailing Labels)
• Patient Registration - It was possible for employer information to not save on the account. This has been corrected.
• Family or Linking Billing Only (Patient, Change Patient Data) - ***New Functionality*** - The Family Review Action Column function has been enhanced to include details for the Master Account and a breakdown of the Patient and Insurance balance for each family member. This can be accessed from any family member's account. You can also select and edit an individual account from the list of family members. Click anywhere in the row containing the family member's information to access that patient's account.
  
• Insurance Policy Information (Patient, Change Patient Data) - Previously, if no date had been entered, the Coverage Last Verified On field defaulted to the current date. Now the field is blank so you can manually enter a date.
  
• ***Co-Payment Functions*** - Insurance Policy Information - (Patient, Change Patient Data) ***New Functionality***
  • As part of the new Co-Payment functionality, a Spec Co-Pay $ field has been added so you can store a specialist co-payment amount in addition to the standard co-payment amount. These amounts then default in Patient Check In/Out depending on the doctor the patient is scheduled with.
  • The Copay field of the Insurance sections on the Patient Summary screen now reflects both co-payments in Co-Payment/Specialist Co-Payment format. 20.00/35.00 for example.
  • With the Additional Co-Pays Action Column function, you can also store additional co-payments based on the codes you set up in the new Co-Payment Code Table. These amounts then default in Patient Check In/Out depending on the doctor the patient is scheduled with.
  • For additional information, see the Co-Payment Functions entries in the Schedule and Tables sections of these Release Notes.
• History (Patient, Change Patient Data) - ***New Functionality*** - The Claim Delay Reason field now defaults as blank when you refile a claim from the Transaction History screen.
  
• History (Patient, Change Patient Data) - ***New Functionality*** - The ability to edit a Billing Group on a transaction, from the Actions field on the patient's Transaction History screen, which was removed in the 7.3 update, has been reinstated.
  
• Verify Eligibility (Patient, Change Patient Data) - ***NetVerify Users Only*** - It was possible for the function to time-out when checking eligibility with certain insurance companies. This has been corrected.
  

• The Begin with Plan Code and End with Plan Code fields in the following functions have been enhanced so you can search your existing Insurance Plan Table from a drop-down list box. The Begin with Insurance Carrier and End with Insurance Carrier fields in the following functions have been enhanced so you can search your existing Insurance Carrier Table by clicking the magnifying glass icon.
  • Insurance Denials by Ins Carrier (Reports, Insurance Related Reports, Insurance Denial Reports)
    
  • Insurance Refiles by Ins Carrier (Reports, Insurance Related Reports, Insurance Refile Reports)
    
  • Insurance Pends by Ins Carrier (Reports, Insurance Related Reports, Insurance Pends by Ins Carrier)
    
  • Aged Accounts Receivable for Insurance (Reports, Insurance Related Reports)
    
  • Insurance Filing Report (Reports, Insurance Related Reports)
    
  • Delinquent Insurance Filing Report (Reports, Insurance Related Reports)
    
  • Insurance Statistical Reports (Reports, Insurance Related Reports)
    
  • List of Patients by Ins Carrier (Reports, Patient Listings, Sorted Lists of Patients)
    
  • List of Patients by Plan Code (Reports, Patient Listings, Sorted Lists of Patients)
    
  • List of Patients sorted by Responsible Doctor and Ins Carrier (Reports, Patient Listings, Sorted Lists of Patients, Double Sorted Lists of Patients, List of Patients by Responsible Doctor)
    
  • List of Patients sorted by Location and Ins Carrier (Reports, Patient Listings, Sorted Lists of Patients, Double Sorted Lists of Patients, List of Patients by Location)
    
  • Collection Analysis Ins Carrier (Reports, Statistical Reports, Collection Analysis Reports)
    
  • Collection Analysis sorted by Performing Dr and Ins Carrier (Reports, Statistical Reports, Collection Analysis Reports, Sorted Analysis by Performing Dr)
    
  • Collection Analysis sorted by Location and Ins Carrier (Reports, Statistical Reports, Collection Analysis Reports, Sorted Analysis by Location)
    
  • Insurance Functions (Reports, Corporate Reports)
• Insurance Procedure Analysis Reports (Reports, Insurance Related Reports, Insurance Statistical Reports) - This report no longer includes charges that were posted with an NF modifier.
  
• Bank Deposit Report (Reports, Transaction Journals) - ***New Functionality*** - This report has been enhanced to include a Batch column for the Batch Number. Also, you can now print this report in Excel format by selecting the Microsoft Excel via MyReports option from the Printers dialog box. The totals do not print in the Excel format.
  
• Print a Letter or Document (Reports, Data Management System, DMS Letter Processor) - It was possible for the PatientAge data element to populate into a data-fill document incorrectly. This has been corrected.
  
• RVS Productivity Reports (Reports, Statistical Reports, Productivity Analysis Reports) - An RVU column has been added when you print this report using Microsoft Excel via MyReports.
  
• UDS Reports - ***New Functionality*** - The reports for the 2008 reporting period have been released:
  • Report 3B and Report 4 include small changes
  • Report 6 has been replaced by Report 6A
  • Report 6B has been added
  • Report 7 is now titled Health Outcomes and Disparities and includes new information
  • Reports 9CI and 9CII are not valid for 2008.
  Veteran Status is now tracked for 2008. If the patient or a family member is a veteran, select the Veteran check box in the Family Income Data DMS record. You can still run reports for the 2007 reporting period with the 2007 content intact. NetPracticePM produces the correct report (2007 or 2008) depending on the ending date you select for the report.
  

• Enter Patient Appointments - ***New Functionality*** - If you select a patient that has an appointment history, you can now access that patient's summary screen by clicking the patient demographic information at the top of the appointment history screen. Previously you had to click Proceed to move to the schedule view before you could access the patient's information.
  
• Enter Patient Appointments - ***New Functionality*** - A third user-defined comment line has been added to the detail screen. You can define this comment line in the Scheduling System Integration under System, Database Maintenance Menu.
  
• Enter Patient Appointments - ***Family Billing Only*** If your system is set for Family Billing, and you had a Master Account tied to a billing group not set to lock-out appointments, but had a family member's account tied to a billing group set to lock-out appointments, it was still possible to schedule an appointment for that family member. This has been corrected.
  
• Patient Check In/Out - ***New Functionality*** - An option for E-Check has been added to the Payment Type field for the Co-Payment and ROA Action Column functions. For additional information see the System section of these release notes.
  
• Patient Check In/Out - ***New Functionality*** - The Calculate Payment function has been added to the Action Column. This function is available only if there are Unposted Procedures for the patient for the selected date in Patient Check In/Out.
  
• ***Co-Payment Functions*** - ***New Functionality***
  • Patient Check In/Out
    • As part of the new Co-Payment functionality, a Specialist Co-Pay field has been added to the patient's detailed Check In/Out screen. The name of the Expected Co-Pay field has been changed to Co-Pay. Both the Co-Pay and Specialist Co-Pay fields default with the values stored in the patient's Insurance Policy Information screen based on the doctor the patient is scheduled with.
    • From the Co-Payment Action Column function, the Co-Payment Code and Co-Payment Amount fields default with the co-payment information stored in either the Co-Payment Amt $ field or the Spec Co-Pay $ field, or the Additional Co-Pay function from the patient's Insurance Policy Information screen based on the doctor that the patient is scheduled with.
  • Scheduling Co-pay Report - (Schedule, Scheduling Printing Menu) - This report now pulls the appropriate Expected Co-Pay amount from either the Co-Payment Amt $ field or the Spec Co-Pay $ field, or the Additional Co-Pay function from the patient's Insurance Policy Information screen based on the doctor that the patient is scheduled with.
  • For additional information, see the Co-Payment Function entries in the Patient and Tables sections of these Release Notes.
• Check In/Out Payment Journal (Schedule, Scheduling Printing Menu) - It was possible for the Location to pull the Schedule Default Location from the Scheduling System Integration instead of the Scheduling Default Location of the user who entered the ROA payment. This has been corrected.
  
• NetReminder Results - ***New Functionality*** - ***NetReminder users only*** - You can now print this report by Doctor ID or Location ID.
  
• Verify Eligibility - ***NetVerify Users Only*** - It was possible for the function to time-out when checking eligibility with certain insurance companies. This has been corrected.
  

• Patient Check In/Out Integration (System, Database Maintenance Menu) - A Payment Code for E-Check Co-Pays field and a Payment Code for E-Check ROAs field have been added. You need to create new payment codes in Maintain Payment Codes under Tables, Payment Code Table and type those codes here.
  
• Scheduling System Integration (System, Database Maintenance Menu) - ***New Functionality*** - A User Defined Prompt 3 field has been added.
  
• Smart List Control (System, Database Maintenance Menu) - ***New Functionality*** - An Employers field has been added.
  

• ***Co-Payment Functions*** - ***New Functionality***
  • Co-Payment Code Table - The Co-Payment Code Table has been added so you can create codes for specific types of co-payments to utilize information for those co-payments on the patient's account, in the Doctor Code Table, and in Patient Check In/Out.
  • Maintain Doctor Codes - (Tables, Doctor Code Table) - A Specialist check box has been added so you can indicate if the doctor is a specialist.
  • Maintain Doctor Codes - (Tables, Doctor Code Table) - A Co-Payment Type field has been added so you can use the codes you created in the Co-Payment Code Table to assign a specific co-payment type to the doctor so that the correct co-payment amounts default in Patient Check In-Out.
  • Maintain Type of Service Codes - (Tables, Type of Service Table) - The Collect a Co-Pay check box has been removed since the new co-payment functionality has been added.
  • For additional information, see the Co-Payment Function entries in the Patient and Schedule sections of these Release Notes.
• Diagnosis Code Table - An enhancement has been made so that when you click the magnifying glass icon and search for a diagnosis code by description, both the long and short descriptions are searched. Previously, only the short descriptions were being searched.
  
• Maintain Doctor Codes (Tables, Doctor Code Table) - ***New Functionality*** - The First Name field has been increased to allow 12 characters.
  
• Import Fee Schedules (Tables, Fee Schedule Table) - ***New Functionality*** - A Load from File function has been added to the Action Column so you can import insurance company fee schedules directly from Excel spreadsheets. This function imports only the Facility and Non-Facility Fees for Participating and Non-Participating providers. It does not populate any Rate Schedules. The Excel spreadsheet needs to reside on the server on the same drive that Cache is located. The path name in the function must match the location of the file on the server. For example, C:\FEESCHEDULES\UHC. The spreadsheet columns must be in the following order with the corresponding column headers:
  • Column 1 = Leave the header blank if the fee schedule is for non-facility amounts. Type an asterisk (*) if the fee schedule is for facility amounts.
  • Column 2 = CPT Code Column
  • Column 3 = Modifier Column
  • Column 4 = Blank Column
  • Column 5 = Participating Amount Column
  • Column 6 = Non-Participating Amount
• Maintain Fee Schedule Amounts (Tables, Fee Schedule Table) - ***New Functionality*** - A Facility Procedure Table column has been added. This column contains the values from the new Facility Price $ and Facility Rate A $ - E $ fields in the Procedure Code Table. The values are inaccessible and cannot be changed within this function.
  
• Insurance Class Table - ***New Functionality*** - The Insurance Class Table has been added so you can further categorize and track Insurance Carriers and Fee Schedules for those carriers. In the Insurance Class Table, you attach a Fee Schedule to an Insurance Class. Then you attach that Insurance Class (and its corresponding Fee Schedule) to the appropriate Insurance Carriers. For example, you have all of your Blue Cross plans under the Blue Cross Plan Code; the Insurance Class represents the 'lines of business' under those insurance plans (Medicare Advantage, PPO, HMO, etc.). Each line of business/insurance class has its own Fee Schedule. So, for example, you would take your Blue Cross PPO Carrier and attach the appropriate BCPPO Class and corresponding Fee Schedule. Therefore, if you negotiate a new Fee Schedule for a particular line of business, you can attach that new Fee Schedule to the Insurance Class and all of the Insurance Carriers that have that Insurance Class attached to it will be updated with the new Fee Schedule, so you don't have to manually change the Fee Schedule in every affected Insurance Carrier. This will also enhance insurance reporting capabilities in the future.
  
• Maintain Insurance Carriers - (Tables, Insurance Carrier Tables) - An Insurance Class Code field has been added so you can attach an Insurance Class (and its corresponding Fee Schedule) from the Insurance Class Code Table to the carrier. The Fee Schedule in the Fee Schedule field must match the Fee Schedule stored with the selected Insurance Class Code.
  
• Maintain Procedure Codes (Tables, Procedure Code Table) - ***New Functionality*** - The Nominal Fee field has been changed to Nominal Fee/Cost to accommodate a nominal fee field for Community Health Centers and a cost field for all other clients that may need to cost out certain CPT codes.
  
• Maintain Procedure Codes (Tables, Procedure Code Table) - ***New Functionality*** - A Facility Price $ field and a Facility Rate A $ - E $ field have been added so you can store different prices for procedure codes performed at a facility versus a non-facility place of service. You can view the values set in these fields in Maintain Fee Schedule Amounts, under Tables, Fee Schedule Table. NOTE: If you, before saving the Procedure Entry screen, realize that you need to change the location code, the price of the procedure in the Chg Amt field will not update to reflect any difference in price between the locations. After you change the location, you must manually delete/remove the data from the charge line item and re-enter the procedure code to pick up the different price.
  

• Procedure Entry Function - It was possible for the tab stop to not function correctly if you had selected the Date of Service DOS option in the Tab Stop in Chg Ent field in NetPracticePM Default Values. This has been corrected.
  
• Payment Entry Function - It was possible for the Allowed Amount to not take the multipliers on the procedure into account. This has been corrected.
  
• Print Payment Exceptions (Transactions, Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA)) - ***New Functionality*** - If there is a negative payment on an Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA), it will now print on this report.
  
• Daily Register to Excel (Transactions, Transaction Journals) - ***New Functionality*** - The Daily Register to Excel function has been added so you can print the Daily Register in Excel format by selecting the Microsoft Excel via MyReports option in the Print dialog box and then retrieving the report from MyReports. You can also access this report from Reports, Transaction Journals.
  
• Unlock a Batch (Transactions, Transaction Batch Control) - Previously, when you clicked the magnifying glass next to the Batch Number field, it was possible for the search table to display only unlocked batches. This has been corrected to display locked batches.
  

NetPracticePM Patient functions are no longer case-sensitive. You can type in uppercase or lowercase when searching for patients from any Patient Look-Up screen. This means that you can type any of your patient information in Patient Registration, Patient Referral/Pre-registration and Change Patient Data in either uppercase or lowercase.

If a task is assigned to a group and is assigned as Everyone must complete, when a user marks the task as complete it will display in light gray type on their own Task List. But, it will not be removed from everyones Task List until all users that it was assigned to mark it as complete.

If a task is assigned to a group and is assigned as One person must complete, then only one person in the group has to mark the task as complete and it will mark the task as complete for everyone in the group. If you mark the task as complete, it appears in light gray type on your Task List, and with a line through it on everyone elses Task List. The task will then be removed from everyones Task List when the NetPracticePM utility functions are performed that evening.

With the 7.3 release of the Filter function on the Action Column in the Schedule menu, you can set your schedule to view multiple doctors at multiple locations on one scheduling screen. If you choose to view one doctor at multiple locations, the locations are displayed vertically in time-order of the schedule.

When you manually post insurance company payments, the only way that deductible amounts will print in the DEDUCT column on the Auto-Generated EOB is that the payment is posted with a denial and the denial description contains DEDUCT.