Patient Data Input Manual
Table of Contents
- Step 1– Upload Patient Demographics
- Step 2 – Using the the Checklist
- Step 3 – Edit Patients’ Files
- Step 4 – Create Case
- Step 5 – Add Patients’ Insurance Information
- Step 6 –Scheduling
- Step 7 – Bringing Patients' Credit Forward
- Step 8 – Bringing a Balance Forward
- Step 9 – How to import a Patients' Xrays/Images
- Step 10- How to upload Patient files
Adding Patient Data, full walk-through and check list
The following steps only need to be completed after your Admin area has been fully filled out and you are ready to input patient information.
STEP 1 – UPLOAD PATIENT DEMOGRAPHICS
If you have already had your Csv files uploaded by support or are a brand new clinic without a csv file to provide, skip to step 2.
When coming from a from another software and have not already provided a csv file, the software can upload your patient demographics. In order to upload patient demographics from your old software, a .csv file must be provided.
If you are do not know how to obtain a csv file from your previous software, you may need to contact customer support for your old software to get guidance on exporting patient demographics.
The Csv file can contain:
Last Name, First Name, Middle Name, Nick Name, Address, City, State, Zip, Home phone, Work phone, SSN, Gender, Birth-date, Marital Status, New patient date, Employment status only, Email and Cellphone.
You must decide if you want to export just your active patients and inactive patients separately or if you want to export ALL your patients (active and inactive) within one csv. You can also provide a csv file of leads you may want imported from a source like MailChimp, Event Bright Etc. All patients imported into the software will be imported as “Leads" unless otherwise stated.
It is recommended that you provide separate csv files so you can market to them separately.
Send your .csv file to support@coactionsoft.com. Turnaround time for us to work on it will be determined by the file size. Then, we will contact you to arrange a time to upload to your software system.
STEP 2 – USING THE CONVERSION CHECKLIST
If you are coming from another software or are are starting brand new, you can download the attachment called "Katana Patient Conversion Checklist" to ensure you are entering all necessary info for the patient file before the patient is coming in for their appointment. You can take a marker and cross out any data fields that you do not want to copy from your old software to the new software. Once that is completed, make enough copies of this form to list each of your active patients. Then place each patient’s name on the top of a checklist.
If you are bringing over a very large patient database, we do not recommend adding ALL patient info into the system at once. We suggest taking a look at your old software to see who is scheduled on the date you have chosen as your Go-Live date, work on the patients from that moment and go out about 2 weeks to 1 month. This allows you to get all patients in that you are going to see right away and work on the others as they are coming into the clinic.
This checklist also creates familiarity within the system and ensures all data is being placed into the software until a routine can be established.
As each piece of data is transferred from the old software to the new, it is imperative that the appropriate field is initialed under each patient’s name. Once all necessary data is transferred for that patient, an audit can be conducted and the last “audit” box can be initialed indicating the completion of that patient.
STEP 3 - PATIENT’S FILE
*Click HERE for a full walk-through.
To access a patients file when your demographics were uploaded, go to -> Patients within your Toolbar -> Enter the last name of the specific patient you are looking for to filter the Rolodex -> Double click patient -> Edit
If you are not coming from another software and are starting brand new, Go to Patients ->New Patient button.
If you imported ALL of your patients (Active and Inactive) into your software or you decided that a patient provided on your Active or Inactive Csv file should not have an Active or Inactive Status, you should take the time to go through your list of patients from your Csv file and edit the files of those you wish to make Active, inactive or terminated.
If you are changing the status of a patient manually, MAKE SURE you select the button underneath the status area "Do not have system update status automatically" or they will revert back to what the system thinks the patient should be.
Inactive patients are patients that are not currently coming into the clinic but, you wish to continue to market to them. In the software any patient that has not been in (while using) 365 days or more will automatically changed to Inactive.
Terminated patients are people who are no longer coming in, but you are choosing not to market to them any more, i.e. they moved, left for college, passed away, etc.
For detailed information on how the software tracks the status of patients click Here
Add in all necessary information under the General Tab.
Don' forget to assign the appropriate assigned provider for each patient. If you choose not to assign a provider here and run a report by assigned provider, all patients will be listed under the Unassigned category.
An assigned provider is the provider for which you would like to link the patient to for financial reporting, regardless of who actually sees the patient. This will also give you the option to only show those patients who are Assigned to a specific provider in the Rolodex. For example, I can set Dr. A’s privileges so that he is only able to see the patients in which he/she is listed as the Assigned provider.
Patient Picture
If you have patients’ images from your last software saved to your pc or you would like to start uploading pictures to a patients file, select the Photo Tab when editing the patients info-> Click "No Picture Available" box -> Locate the photo saved to the pc -> Open and Hit Save after the image appears.
STEP 4 - CREATE CASE
*Click HERE for a full walk-through
Before you can enter an appointment in the software, you must create a “Case” for the patient. Open the patient’s file - > Click on “Case” -> Click “New”.
You must enter:
- Case Description- For clinic purposes. Case Description is not generated on any reports but, is how the clinic knows what is going on.
- Case Type: This is how your patients are categorized. We recommend adding specific case types to the drop-down to ensure your reports are generated the way you need to see them. For example: If you would like to generate a report of all your BCBS patients, you will need to add BCBS to the options list as "General Insurance" is the only option by default.
Please Note: If the case is a Personal Injury or Worker’s Compensation case, it should be noted as such under Case Type. For Worker’s Comp cases, Box 10a should be filled out. Box 10b should be filled out for Personal Injury cases. On this screen, you also have the option to add the referring provider or referring attorney if needed. If their names are not already added to the system during the setup, you can click the button on the left in that field and add it right there.
- Select your Price List- This is the list of services rendered within the clinic and how much you charge for said services.
- Select Case Status- options include Active, Inactive, or Pending Settlement
BILLING PROVIDER
The Billing Provider is the doctor for whom you would want that patient’s services billed under. If a Billing Provider is NOT selected for that patient’s case, the charge will get billed under whomever the Treating Provider is. You should use the Billing Provider if you want ALL charges for a specific case to be billed under a specific provider.
The Billing Provider can be changed on a specific charge by going into the visit and selecting Edit Charge. You will see a drop down menu next to Billing Provider. You can also go into the patient’s file, click Ledger and Charges. If you double click on the charge and click on the Billing Information Tab, you will see the drop down menu for Billing Provider.
DESIGNATED PROVIDERS
Using the designated provider area within the patients' case tab will allow you to have a provider linked to a specific case. Meaning that anything done on that particular case is counted towards that provider's financials.
For example, you can have Dr. A as the Assigned Provider within their actual patient file but, there might be two cases created. One for chiropractic and one for massage. The case for chiropractic can have the designated provider be the same as the assigned provider or someone different. In the massage case, the designated provider can be a massage therapist if this is their patient or left to none if more than one massage therapist will be seeing the patient for massage appointments.
No provider should be designated to a case if financials are spread. If no designated provider is selected in a case, you must run reports by the treating provider, so the correct provider receives credit for their own charges/payments.
Reports: If you select the Day Sheet and Collections Income report to be run based on the Designated provider, then you MUST select a designated provider for each patient’s case to see it categorized by the right provider. If a case does not have a designated provider listed, you will see those calculations fall under an Unassigned category.
STEP 5 - ADD PATIENT’S INSURANCE INFORMATION
*Click Here for a full walk-through
To add insurance information to the patient’s file click on the “Insurance” tab in their file -> Click Add/Edit -> Click Create New Policy -> Next -> New Primary -> Next -> This Patient -> Select Payer.
Enter the Insured’s ID number (Box 1A), Relationship to Insured (Box 6) and the Patient’s Responsibility information. Enter the specific limits of their policy.
You can leave the Number of Visits Used, Dollar Amount Used and Deductible To Be Met blank when doing the conversion. In order to fill out the specifics accurately you would have to do an insurance verification for every patient. You can enter more accurate information in this section after the policy resets and you redo an insurance verification. Just keep in mind, if this area is left blank, the system is unable to track deductibles owed etc. The full walk- through area explains these areas in greater detail.
You can select a Fee Schedule if your office has created one for insurance allowed amounts. Fee Schedules are not required. They are created to aid in keeping the patients ledger more accurate if you are aware of the allowed amounts set forth by that insurance payer.
“Authorization of Benefits” (Box 13) should be checked if you are billing insurance.
Enter the Insured’s Policy Group/FECA number, Employers/School name and Insurance plan/program if required (Box 11-11c).
Box 11d asks if you have any other policies. If the patient has a secondary insurance select “Yes”.
Select “Yes” for “Accept Assignment” (Box 27) if you are receiving payment from the insurance payer.
The bottom of the screen is where you will add the Adjuster contact information for any Personal Injury or Worker’s Compensation cases.
When you are finished entering all necessary info, select Next.
If you need to enter a secondary policy, select create new secondary and enter all necessary info. Make sure to enter all secondary info in the (Box 9's) area under the Primary tab so, secondary info is printed on the primary HCFA form.
If the patient does not have a Tertiary insurance policy you will select "No" in box 11d
If you do not need to enter a secondary policy, select Finished and indicate when this policy info should start.
We always recommend that a policy starts at least 1 day before the first set of charges to ensure the charges are picked up by the insurance policy. If your clinic has set a Go-Live Date, you will select the day before that date.
STEP 6 - SCHEDULING
*Click Here for a full walk-through
If you are coming over from another software, go to the schedule of your old software for the day you want to go live with the new software. Starting with the first person scheduled for that day, print all future appointments for that patient. Then continue to the next patient and print all their future appointments. Continue to print schedules for all patients scheduled out for about 2 weeks throughout the rest of the month depending on how many patient appointments you are working with.
To schedule the patient, Click on the “Appointments” tab within the patient file and Select "New"
- Make sure the correct provider is selected in the drop-down
- Select Date of appointment
- Select Reason of Visit (ROV) for the appointment
- Select time slot
- Save
You also have the ability to schedule patients by going to "Appointments" within your database toolbar.
Select "Schedule or Appointment book tab
Select the Date in the calendar and then Double click the appropriate time slot that you want to schedule the first patient.
Double click the correct patient within the Rolodex. Select Case for patient.
If the patient does not have a case, you will have to select "New Case" and follow steps in Step 4.
Select Reason of Visit
If that patient is consistently scheduled at the same time you can schedule those appointments out using “Recurrence”. If they are not, just click “Save and Close” for that one appointment.
Repeat step 6 for any patients that are scheduled during the first 2 weeks- 1 month.
STEP 7 - BRINGING A PATIENT’S CREDIT FORWARD
*Click Here for a full walk-through
If a patient has a credit in their old account and you wish to bring that credit forward, you can enter it into the system without it showing on an end of day report as new income. To do a Credit forward select the appropriate patient and click Ledger -> Payments -> Credit Forward.
You will then have the option to modify the date of the Credit Forward, enter the patient credit amount, and add a comment such as the date, type and amount of the original payment that was posted in the past software.
STEP 8 – BRINGING A BALANCE FORWARD
*Click Here for a full walk-though
In the software you have the option to continue to collect payments and post them to your previous software until their account is closed out or bring a patient and/or insurance balance forward into the new system. If you choose to bring a balance forward into the software, select the appropriate patient and click on ledger -> Balance Forward.
When the Balance Forward screen opens, you will have the option to modify the date of the transfer, enter a patient balance as well as a balance from a primary, secondary or tertiary insurance company. There are also two areas to add a comment, the first box is for your office information only and the second box will be printed on a patient statement and receipt.
STEP 9 – UPLOADING PATIENT X-RAYS
*Click HERE for a Full Walk-Through
If you have digital images of a patient’s x-rays, or other diagnostic results, they can be uploaded into the patient’s file. In order to upload the image, you must click on the Image tab -> Add. Browse for the file you would like to upload, select and click “Open”. Please keep in mind that only image files .jpg, .tiff, .png, etc. can be uploaded under the image tab.
If you are unable to download a file, you can pull the image up on the screen, take a screenshot and copy it to your windows clipboard and select “Add from windows clipboard” to upload.
STEP 10 – UPLOADING PATIENT FILES
*Click HERE for a full walk-through
If you have patient files to upload such as intake forms, new patient paperwork, etc. that you would like to upload, you will click on the Files tab of the patient's file ->Add. Find the appropriate file saved on your computer, select and click "Open"
Enter the name of the file you are uploading and Save.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are now ready to start seeing patients!
After you have used the software for the first month, most of your patients should have had their first visit in the new software and it should be smooth sailing. Be sure to initial the Software Conversion Checklist for each piece of data from the patient’s file that you convert. This is the key to a flawless conversion and will minimize any delays in billing.
Make sure you access the attachment to get your checklist.
- Support Information -
If you have any questions or need assistance with this process, please contact Support by:
Live chat: Click the 'Support Portal' button in your main toolbar (on left-hand side), then click the green 'Support' box in bottom right of screen.
Hours of operation are M-F 8am-6pm CST
***This has the fastest response time***
Call or Text: 909-378-9514
Email: support@coactionsoft.com
Comments
0 comments
Article is closed for comments.