In this release, we are rolling out the red carpet for an exciting new feature that will help you get paid faster: Patient Billing and Portal! This latest addition to our patient payment module enables you to email statements to your patients who can then pay their bill securely online. Read on to find out more about Patient Billing and Portal as well as several fixes and enhancements implemented in this release.

Patient Billing and Portal

We all know how it is: The statement gets lost in stacks of junk mail or the payment gets put off until patients find their checkbook, an envelope and the correct postage. With patient responsibility increasing, it is now more challenging than ever to collect patient payments after the time of service. The Patient Billing and Portal service lets you email statements and offers your patients a convenient way to pay their bill online. After enrolling in the service, simply configure your billing options to send an email to patients who want to receive email statements with a link to pay their bill online. If a patient does not pay their bill within a configurable number of days, Kareo will automatically send a printed patient statement with a website address the patient can use to pay their bill online. Either way, you’re getting paid faster! Plus, this new feature saves you time when posting payments; no more opening envelopes and manually entering payments! Instead, payments made online are automatically entered into Kareo and are ready to be applied to open patient balances. This service is provided by Kareo in partnership with InstaMed®, a secure healthcare payments network. The Patient Billing and Portal is also an important precursor to the third phase of our patient payment module that is coming soon and will include automated payment plans for patients. To enroll in the Patient Billing and Portal service, please call 888-775-2736 and select the option for sales, or you can also email sales@kareo.com. For additional instructions, see Patient Statements > Patient Billing and Portal and Payment Posting > Find a Payment in the Kareo Help files.

Fixes & Enhancements

In this release, you’ll find the following fixes and other enhancements in response to customer feedback:
Appointment Scheduler

• Email Reminders: The configurations to email appointment reminders have changed. Email reminders are now sent if 1) The Appointment Options are set to send email reminders and 2) Patient is opted in on the patient record to receive email notifications.
• Email Notifications Opt Out: If a patient does not want to receive email notifications (email statements, appointment reminders), you can uncheck “Send Email Notifications” on the patient record.

Encounters

• If the dates for “Service Date” and “Procedure Date of Service” are more than a month apart, you will receive a warning message to confirm those are the correct ones.
• If a patient has two or more appointments on the same day with only one encounter entered into the system, all appointments on that day are now reported correctly on the Missed Encounters report.

Insurance Policy

• If there is an overlap between an expired insurance policy and the date of a new one, the correct policy is now captured on an approved encounter. For example: Insurance Policy A was valid from 1/1/2010 to 2/1/2011 and Insurance Policy B started on 2/1/2011. If the date of service was 1/1/2010, Insurance Policy A is the one captured on the approved encounter.

Paper Claims

• On the CMS 1500 form, the employer name (box 11b) on the secondary insurance now populates correctly. Note that the group number must be entered for the secondary insurance policy on the case.
• Under Paper Claims settings, when the Medicare style is selected, box 11 now displays correctly as “None.”
• UB04 claim form: Under the Practice Settings for an insurance company, when the “Provider accepts assignment of benefits” box is checked, box 53 will now print as ”Y.”

Payments

• You can now apply large dollar ERAs to a large number of claims. For example, a $60,000 check can now be applied to 800 different claims.

To Do List

• If you enroll in the new Patient Billing and Portal service and are a business office user, payments made online (ready to be applied) will show as a task in the To Do List.

Updated Help Files, Guides and Training Videos

In this release, we have made significant updates to the help files, guides and training videos:

Updated Kareo Help Files
Kareo help files are accessed through the Kareo application: Select Help > Kareo Help in the top menu. Updates were made to over 35 help topics including:

• Insurance List Management
• New Insurance Company
• Merge Insurance Company
• New Insurance Plan
• Merge Insurance Plan
• New Provider
• Provider Claim Settings
• Provider Performance Report
• Payment Posting
• Enter Copays
• Reverse Payment
• Patient Billing and Portal
• Data Entry Tips & Shortcuts
• Password Change
• Kareo Support

Updated Guides
Visit the Kareo Guides page: www.kareo.com/support/guides

• Implementation Guide for Company Administrators
• Payment Posting Guide

Updated Training Videos
Visit the Kareo Training Videos page: www.kareo.com/support/training. Visit the Kareo Self-Paced Courses page: www.kareo.com/support/training/self-paced-courses. Updates have been made to several training videos, webinar replays and self-paced courses including:

• Procedure Macros
• Credit Card Processing
• Pre-Recorded Webinars 1-6, 8 and 10
• New Biller Part 1
• New Biller Part 2

At Kareo, we continue working hard to make medical billing easy for you. Customer feedback drives our service and ensures we build the features that matter most to people like you, so your input is critical to us. Please email your suggestions, challenges and ideas for our next release to features@kareo.com.