New Features Descriptions

Integrated Code Scrubbing
 
Application: Business Manager, Medical Office
Area: Encounters

You can now perform a code check on an encounter and the system will scrub the claim and flag errors such as invalid codes, expired codes, mismatched procedures and diagnoses, age issues, gender issues, and bundling issues which may result in payer denials. You can access this powerful new feature by clicking the Perform Code Check button on the Encounter Details screen. The functionality included with this release represents the first phase of our implementation of code scrubbing but there is much more to come. The second phase improvements, to be included in a subsequent release, will include batch scrubbing, custom rules, access to a knowledgebase of codes and usage, and improved presentation of code scrub errors and warnings. Kareo's integrated code scrubbing capabilities are provided through a relationship with Code Correct, the healthcare industry's leading code scrubbing technology.
 
For more information on this feature, refer to the Online Help and User Manual.

Streamlined Patient Demographics Entry
 
Application: Business Manager, Medical Office
Area: Patients

The process for entering new patients has been streamlined for faster data entry. All general fields for a new patient are now located on a single scrolling view with convenient keyboard navigation amongst the fields. There are now three methods for entering a new patient. First, you can enter all of the general fields and save the new patient without entering any cases or insurance policies by clicking the Save button. Use this method if you need to schedule a new patient but do not yet have the patient's insurance policy information. Second, you can enter all of the general fields for a new patient and be guided through the process of entering one or more insurance policies by clicking the Save & Add Policy button. Use this method if you need to enter a patient with one or more insurance policies and you do not need to enter any special case information such as condition dates, workers' compensation information, etc. Third, you can enter all of the general fields for a new patient and go directly to entering a new case by clicking the Save & Add Case button. Use this method if you need to enter a patient, one or more insurance policies, and other case information such as condition dates, workers' compensation information, etc.
 
For more information on these features, refer to the help topic Managing Patient Records > Entering a New Patient Record located in the Online Help and User Manual.

New Fields Added to Patient Record
 
Application: Business Manager, Medical Office
Area: Patients

The patient record now features several new fields including Medical Record Number, Mobile Phone Number, and Primary Care Physician.

Auto-Populate City and State from Zip Code
 
Application: Administrator, Business Manager, Medical Office
Area: Addresses

When entering any address, you can now simply type the street address and zip code and the system will automatically lookup and populate the city and state from a database mapping zip codes to cities and states. For example, if you type "1201 Dove Street, 92660" and tab out of the address field, the system will automatically insert the address "1201 Dove Street, Newport Beach, CA 92660". Give it a try! We think it will save you time.
 
For more information on this feature, refer to the Online Help and User Manual.

Auto-Complete for all Drop-Down Controls
 
Application: Administrator, Business Manager, Medical Office
Area: Everywhere

You can now use the keyboard to select items from any drop-down control by simply typing the first few characters of your desired item. For example, typing the characters "Fe" in the gender field of the patient record will now automatically select the item "Female" from the list. This feature is commonly referred to as auto-completion in software parlance and it saves you time in selecting items from drop-down controls. Just type in the first few characters and once the system matches your selection, you can tab on to the next field.

Improvements to Handheld Application
 
Application: Practitioner
Area: Mobile Encounters

There are various improvements to the Kareo Practitioner, our handheld application designed for mobile charge capture by a physician. First, you can now link procedures to diagnoses when entering encounters. Second, you can now enter as many as four modifiers with each procedure. Third, you can now search the entire database of procedure and diagnosis codes when entering encounters. Finally, you can now filter by diagnosis categories when selecting diagnoses to add to an encounter. These improvements should make entering encounters a lot more practical for providers of various specialties.

Various Enhancements to Payment Posting
 
Application: Business Manager
Area: Payments

There are several new enhancements to the payment posting process. First, you can now setup a default adjustment code for each insurance company to have the system automatically populate the adjustment code when entering adjustments. Second, the system now automatically transfers the balance of a charge to the secondary (or patient) once a payment has been posted. Third, the keyboard navigation has been improved so that you can select a patient, then tab through all of the open charges, and return to the control for selecting the next patient -- all without using the mouse. We hope these short-term improvements will hold over our users as we continue our work towards more substantial, long-term enhancements to payment posting which are scheduled for a subsequent release.
 
For more information on these features, refer to the help topic Posting Payments located in the Online Help and User Manual.

Showing Reason and Remark Codes When Posting from ERAs
 
Application: Business Manager
Area: Clearinghouse Reports

The reason and remark codes are now displayed next to each charge on step 3 of the Process ERA wizard, which is used to post payments automatically from electronic remittance advice (ERA) reports received from payers. The reason and remark codes are important in understanding the nature of a payer adjustment or denial.

New Procedure Macros
 
Application: Business Manager
Area: Settings

You can now setup custom procedure macros, which can be used as shortcuts for entering multiple procedures and diagnoses on an encounter. To setup your procedure macros, select Procedure Macros from the Practice > Settings menu and click the New... button. Start by giving your procedure macro a name (e.g. "macro1"). Then enter any number of procedures and diagnoses. Finally, save your new procedure macro. Then when entering charges for an encounter, simply type in the procedure macro name in the procedure code column and the system automatically adds all of the procedures and diagnoses to the encounter. The procedure macros provide faster charge entry for common types of encounters.
 
For more information on these features, refer to the help topic Setting Up The Practice > Setting Up Procedure Macros located in the Online Help and User Manual.

Show Procedure and Diagnosis Names in Encounter Details
 
Application: Medical Office, Business Manager
Area: Encounters

After our last release, we received several requests from our users to restore the descriptions for procedures and diagnoses that were previously displayed in the list of charges associated with an encounter. In response to this feedback, we have restored the procedure and diagnosis descriptions. The descriptions are now displayed in the list and as a mouse-over tool tip once you have entered a procedure or diagnosis by code.

Add New Payment Types to Encounter Details
 
Application: Medical Office, Business Manager
Area: Encounters

There are new options for tracking patient payments associated with an encounter. By default, the system displays a Payment Type of "None", which indicates that the patient did not make a payment during the encounter. However, you can also select a Payment Type of "Copay" or "Patient Payment on Account". If you select a Payment Type of "Copay", enter an amount, and then approve the encounter, the system will create a payment and apply the payment towards the first charge in the encounter. But if you instead select a Payment Type of "Patient Payment on Account", enter an amount, and then approve the encounter, the system will create a new payment and leave the full amount unapplied.
 
For more information on these features, refer to the help topic Entering and Tracking Encounters located in the Online Help and User Manual.

Enter E-Claim Notes on Encounter Details
 
Application: Medical Office, Business Manager
Area: Encounters

You can now enter E-Claim Note Type and E-Claim Notes fields within the miscellaneous add-on section of an encounter. These fields enable you to add a free-form note that is sent to the payer as part of the ANSI 837 electronic claim message format. This miscellaneous field is used for a variety of situations as set forth by specific payers.
 
For more information on this feature, refer to the help topic Entering and Tracking Encounters located in the Online Help and User Manual.

Rebill All Charges Associated with an Encounter
 
Application: Business Manager
Area: Encounters, Claims

Prior to this release, rebilling all charges associated with an encounter was rather difficult. The system required you to rebill each charge individually. This has been changed. Now when using the "Rebill" transaction of the Track Claims Status task, the system will ask you if you would like to rebill all charges associated with an encounter. If you answer yes, the system will rebill all charges associated with the encounter.
 
While we're on the subject of rebilling, we'd like to acknowledge your requests for a more powerful rebilling tool. Many of our users have requested a feature for rebilling a batch of claims by various parameters such as provider, service location, insurance, date range, procedure code, payer scenario, and more. We understand the need for this feature and we'd like you to know that a more powerful rebilling tool is on our development schedule for a subsequent release.

New Missed Copays Report
 
Application: Medical Office, Business Manager
Area: Reports

There is a new report that shows a list of encounters for which the patient did not pay the copay amount as set forth by their primary insurance policy. The new report can be accessed from the Reports menu by selecting Payments > Missed Copays.

New Patient Contact List Report
 
Application: Medical Office, Business Manager
Area: Reports

There is a new report that shows a list of patients and their contact information. The report can be accessed from the Reports menu by selecting Patients > Patient Contact List.

New Account Activity Report
 
Application: Medical Office, Business Manager
Area: Reports

There is a new report that tracks account activity by showing a list of transactions (charges, adjustments, payments, etc.) for a period of time. This report can be customized to filter by provider, service location, and payer scenario. The report can be accessed from the Reports menu by selecting Productivity & Analysis > Account Activity.

New Unpaid Insurance Claims Report
 
Application: Medical Office, Business Manager
Area: Reports

There is a new report that shows a list of unpaid insurance claims grouped by payer. This report can be customized to filter by insurance, provider, service location, balance, and claim age. The report can be accessed from the Reports menu by selecting Productivity and Analysis > Account Activity.

Show Page Status and Notes for Scanned Documents
 
Application: Medical Office, Business Manager
Area: Documents

You can now view and edit the Page Status and Page Notes fields when displaying scanned documents. These fields are useful for entering informational notes associated with each page of a document. For example, the page notes field could be used by a billing office to track errors and ommissions on Superbills that might have been scanned and submitted by a medical office (e.g. "missing diagnosis" or "no patient demographics on file").

Create New Documents from Existing Documents
 
Application: Medical Office, Business Manager
Area: Documents

You can now use the Process Document task to select one or more pages of an existing document and create a new document with a copy of those selected pages. Let's explore a real-world scenario for this feature. Suppose a medical office scans a batch of Superbills for processing by a billing office (e.g. "Billing Batch for Date of Service 02/01/2006"). Then the billing office reviews the batch, selects the erroneous pages with missing information, and creates a new document batch out of the problem pages (e.g. "Error Batch for Date of Service 2/1/2006"). This error batch can be routed back to the medical office for research and correction. You can access the Process Document feature by clicking the Process... button when viewing any scanned document.

Improved Support for Referring Physician Numbers
 
Application: Medical Office, Business Manager
Area: Settings

Prior to this release, the system provided very limited support for tracking identification numbers associated with referring physicians. But now, you can enter the same information for referring physicians that you can enter for providers in the practice. This includes the ability to add an unlimited number of industry standard identification numbers for a referring physician (e.g. "UPIN", "Medicare Provider Number", "Social Security Number", etc.). To access the new referring physician records, select Referring Physicians from the Practice > Settings menu.
 
For more information on these features, refer to the help topic Setting Up the Practice > Adding Referring Physicians from the Online Help and User Manual.

Some Lists Include Referring Physicians and Providers
 
Application: Medical Office, Business Manager
Area: Settings

You can now select a provider within the current practice as a referring physician. When selecting a Referring Physician or a Primary Care Physician from the patient record, the list now shows both referring physicians setup through the Settings > Referring Physicians menu, as well as the providers that are part of the practice and setup through the Settings > Providers menu.

Setup Departments to Group Providers of a Practice
 
Application: Medical Office, Business Manager
Area: Settings

You can now enter departments (e.g. "Family Practice", "OBGYN", "Pediatrics", "Radiology", etc) and associate each provider in the practice with a specific department. This is useful for organizing and reporting on providers in multi-specialty clinics by department. To setup your departments, select the Departments item from the Practice > Settings menu. Then edit each provider record to assign your providers to a specific department. In a future release, the system will support new options to customize, filter, and group information on reports by department.
 
For more information on these features, refer to the help topic Setting Up the Practice > Setting Up Departments from the Online Help and User Manual.

Billing for Ambulance Services
 
Application: Medical Office, Business Manager
Area: Encounters

You can now use the system to bill for ambulance services. The Encounter Details task now includes a new add-on section named "Ambulance", which when expanded, shows all of the fields necessary to support ambulance billing. We have also extended the rules governing the format of CMS 1500 forms and ANSI 837 electronic claim message format to support the new ambulance billing fields.
 
For more information on these features, please contact Kareo Support for a training session.

Transition to Microsoft.NET 2.0 Framework
 
Application: All
Area: Architecture

For the techies amongst our user base, you may be interested to know that our applications and systems have been migrated to the Microsoft.NET 2.0 software development framework and the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 relational database system. This new framework is the latest Microsoft software development technology and will help us continue to add new functionality and improve the architecture of our system rapidly over the coming year.

Other Software Issues Resolved