It’s wasn’t that difficult to transmit claims electronically, but now it just got a little easier.
Sometimes it makes sense to take your schedule with you, and the easiest way just might be using iCal and your iPhone.
Ever wonder what it costs to send out a bill to a patient?
Yes, there are the obvious costs like the printing of the bill, the envelope and return envelope, and the postage to send out the bill – but there are also costs related to the labor to generate the bill, stuff the envelope, mail the bill, and answer patient inquiries about a bill.
There comes a point where the bill is small enough that it doesn’t even pay to send it out, so KIP allows you to set a minimum amount to bill a patient.
To access this feature, go to File > Preferences > Billing Preferences and set the minimum amount to bill a patient. The default amount is $0.00. So, for example, if you set it to $3.00, patients will not get a bill below $3.00.
This way you can set your own preset amount as to minimum bill that you wish to generate.
KIP Deluxe version 11 and Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) are made to work well together.
KIP Deluxe version 11 now includes the following updates for Anesthesiology which may apply to other specialties as well.
1) Provisions for more than one treatment provider per claim.
Some anesthesia claims require that multiple treatment providers be billed on one claim to be paid.
The example given concerned Blue Cross Blue Shield and a patient in labor who receives a spinal in the labor room by one anesthesiologist and then undergoes a C-section in the OR by another anesthesiologist on the same day. These charges are required to be billed on the same claim (either electronically or on paper).
As you can see in the line item image below, each line item can now have a unique provider. To reach this area, click the double triangles to the left of the word Diagnosis when editing an invoice.
Editing the provider on a CPT line in handled with a single click. No typing is needed.
2) Anesthesia minutes and units
Anesthesia billing requires both minutes and units on the claim. KIP always allowed both the minutes and units on the claim, however, KIP now calculates the units automatically once the anesthesia minutes are entered.
It seemed such a shame that migrating to KIP version 11 Multiuser would force us to upgrade any Mac G4 computers currently in use with KIP version 10.3, so we decided to test one out.
Our first test was an eMac running a 1.42 GHz G4 processor loaded with 512 MB of RAM and Mac OS 10.4.11, and here are the results.
Awesome!
The G4 ran flawlessly. In fact, and we are not sure why, this G4 seemed just as fast as our 1.8 GHz iMac G5 running the same OS loaded with 2 GB RAM.
And the surprising thing was that the 512 MB of RAM did not seem to affect performance at all.
Granted, we did not test every routine in KIP, but whatever we did run, ran well.
So, we are modifying our hardware requirements to include G4 Macs.
For sure, you will need a minimum of Mac OS 10.4.11 and 512 MB of RAM. Earlier versions of Mac OS 10.4 definitely do not work.
You can try slower G4 Macs and test whether the performance is acceptable to you or not. Obviously, expect a 700 MHz G4 to run half the speed of the 1.42 GHz G4 we tested.
But the good news is, the G4 is OK with KIP version 11.
KIP has been up and running now for a few days in our beta location. All is going smoothly and in our excitement, we have been adding a few new features while testing things out. We didn’t want to get too involved so early in it’s release, but we just couldn’t help ourselves when the test site had a few requests.
Our first request was:
Improve tracking of unpaid claims
…so we super-charged the Tickler file.
The Tickler file shows a list of all unpaid claims. You should be logging all calls on unpaid claims via the Tickler file. Now, there is a major reason to do so.
When you click on a claim, you will instantly see a list of all calls (or “actions”) made to get this claim paid … how many times it was printed, electronically submitted, or called upon.
The list can be sorted on any column, shortened to all claims older than a specific date, and searched.
You can also find “neglected claims” – all claims with no “action” taken within a specified period of time.
This will greatly reduce the chances that a claim will “slip through your fingers.”
The second request was:
Have KIP calculate the Adjustment on a claim
The problem was, that certain insurance carriers post the payment and the balance but not the adjustment. The office would have to calculate the adjustment before entering it.
Now, when you enter a payment, you can enter the amount paid and the balance and let KIP calculate the adjustment for you.
I know it’s a simple request, but sometimes, when you do something a lot, it’s nicer when it’s made just a little bit easier.
Make the Passwords easier to change
To change a password using earlier versions of KIP, you had to enter the original password and then a new screen would appear where you would enter the new password. This was a little confusing, so we moved it all to the password entry screen. Just click on the user and then the CHANGE PASSWORD button. This has proven to be much easier now.
Have an idea?
If you have an idea to make KIP better, let us know. It’s input from our users that make KIP better.
As of right now, our first location is up and running successfully. There are a few minor idiosyncrasies we are ironing out, but KIP is making it through day one just fine.
We are using an Intel Mac mini server with two Intel iMac clients and one G5 iMac client. The Intel iMacs are lightning fast (think Emeril – BAM!) and the G5 seems to be hanging in there just fine, but noticeably slower.
We will give it a few weeks, just to make sure – but this transition went extremely well.
It seems this version takes full advantage of the Intel processor, so keep that in mind when you consider any hardware purchase or upgrade.
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