Kareo Release Notes - May 2007
A new version of Kareo's web-based medical billing software has been released. Below you'll
find a list of new features and bug fixes followed by a short description of
each new feature and bug fix. For more information, please consult the
online help or user manual. For software support, email
support@kareo.com.
Important Note: Over the past few months, many of you have asked
us to focus on improving the quality and stability of Kareo. In response
to your valued feedback, we have worked hard over the past month to hunt down and squash
many of the most nagging bugs in Kareo. This release may be light in features, but we
hope you like our dedication to improving the quality of your experience with Kareo.
To report any additional bugs, email bugs@kareo.com.
As we reach our quality goals, we will transition greater focus back to developing new
features on our product roadmap.
Contents
Clear Patient Statement Notes
Area: Patients
|
After you installed our last release, you might have been wondering why we added a feature for adding notes to statements for specific patients without also offering a way to clear those notes once they were no longer relevant. Well, we are happy to report that you can now clear patient statement notes. Just open the patient record, go the Activity tab, and click the new Clear Statement Note button. |
Copy Page Notes when Processing Documents
Area: Documents
|
As you may know, you can select pages from an existing document and create a new document by opening a Document record and clicking the Process Document... button. Prior to this release, Kareo did not copy page notes from the source document to the new documents created by the Process Document task. This created some confusion for certain customers. By popular demand, these page notes are now copied from the source document to any new documents created using the Process Document task. This will save you time if you add page notes to a document batch, then you attach pages of the document batch to specific records, and you later want to view the page notes on the destination documents. |
Clearinghouse Reports Now Hyperlinked to Encounters, Claims
Area: Clearinghouse Reports
|
If you have ever tried to lookup an encounter or claim referenced on a clearinghouse report when troubleshooting rejections, you probably know how time consuming it can be to write down the encounter number and manually search for the record. In order to help you troubleshoot rejections with greater convenience, we have hyperlinked the encounter numbers referenced on Kareo Internal Validation Reports, Clearinghouse Reports, and Payer Reports. You can click on any encounter number underlined in blue, and the system will load the corresponding encounter record. |
Search for Payments by Payment Category
Area: Payments
|
You now search for payments by Payment Category. On the Find Payments task, type in the name of the Payment Category in the keyword box, select "Category" in the Search In picklist, and then click Find Now, and the system will search payments by Payment Category. |
Updated HIPAA Adjustment Reasons
Area: Payments
|
Some customers have brought to our attention several Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) reports using several new HIPAA adjustment reason codes. To ensure all customers have the most up-to-date information, we have reloaded the standard HIPAA adjustment reason codes into all customer databases. |
New Customization Options on Key Indicators Summary Report
Area: Reports
|
Many customers have requested a more compact version of the Key Indicators Summary report with greater customization options. So we changed the default style to a matrix format and added several new options to the Key Indicators Summary report. First, you can display columns by metric, month, quarter, year, or total only. Second, you can now filter by rendering provider, scheduling provider, service location, department, insurance company, insurance plan, and payer scenario. Finally, you can now group by rendering provider, scheduling provider, service location, department, payer scenario, and batch #. If you would like the old format of the Key Indicators Summary report, simply click Customize... and set the Columns: option to Total. |
New Warning When Removing Diagnoses on Claims
Area: Claims
|
If you were one of the unlucky customers to receive rejections for missing diagnoses, the experience may have left you wondering why we would allow you to enter a claim with no diagnoses. It's a good point, which is why we have added a new warning message when you try to remvoe all diagnoses for a claim. |
New Description on Payment Details > Errors Tab
Area: Payments
|
If you automatically post a payment from an Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) report, and Kareo cannot process some claims on the report, you may have seen an error report show up. Some customers were confused by this, so we added a new message that reads "There were errors in posting a new payment from your electronic remittance advice report. The system has posted as much as possible, and the errors are highlighted below. To view general information about your new draft payment, click the General tab. To post the remaining unapplied amount of the payment manually, click the Apply tab." We hope this eliminates any confusion on the Payments record, Errors tab. |
Display Dunning Message Correctly on Patient Statement
Area: Patient Statements
Prior to this release, there was a bug that caused patient-specific notes and dunning messages to be truncated on the on-demand patient statement. This bug has been fixed, and patient-specific notes and dunning messages are now printed correctly.
Display Patient Notes, Not Statement Notes on Patient Detail Report
Area: Reports
Prior to this release, there was a bug that caused patient statement notes to be erroneously printed on the Patient Detail report. This bug has been fixed, and the Patient Detail report now correctly displays only patient notes added to the Patient record > General tab.
Enable Patient Reports When User Has Correct Permissions
Area: Patients
Prior to this release, there was a bug that disabled all of the reports located in the Reports popup menu on the Patient record if the user did not have permissions to the Patient Details report. This bug has been fixed, and the Reports popup menu now correctly displays the list of reports for which the user has permissions.
Display User Names on User Productivity Report
Area: Reports
Prior to this release, there was a bug that caused the ommission of user names from the User Productivity report. This bug has been fixed, and the User Productivity report now correctly displays user names.
Filter by Batch Number on User Productivity Report
Area: Reports
Prior to this release, there was a bug that prevented filtering by batch number on the User Productivity report. This bug has been fixed, and you can now filter the User Productivity report by batch number.
Filter by Procedure on Contract Management Summary Report
Area: Reports
Prior to this release, there was a bug that prevented filtering by procedure on the Contract Management Summary report. This bug has been fixed, and you can now filter the Contract Management Summary report by procedure.
Eliminate Error When Saving Patient Cases
Area: Patients
Prior to this release, there was a bug related to changing the order of insurance policies on the second case for a patient, which displayed an error message that read "System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: The INSERT statement conflicted with the FOREIGN KEY constraint 'FK_InsurancePolicy_PatientCaseID'". This bug has been fixed, and you should no longer see this error message.
Prevent Double-Click Action When Clicking Fast on Lists
Area: General
Prior to this release, there was a bug that incorrectly resulted in a double-click action when scrolling too quickly on lists. This bug has been fixed.
Hide Warning When Closing Appointment Without Changing
Area: Appointments
Prior to this release, there was a bug that incorrectly displayed a warning message asking you to save an appointment, even when closing an appointment that had not been changed. This bug has been fixed, and you should now only see this warning message if you close an appointment without saving your changes.
Eliminate Rare Error When Entering Ticket Numbers
Area: Encounters
Prior to this release, there was a rare bug on the Encounter record that caused an error message when entering ticket number in certain situations. This bug has been fixed, and you should no longer see these error messages.
Searching for Payments by Patient First and Last Name
Area: Payments
Prior to this release, there was a bug that prevented you from searching for payments by a combination of the patient's first and last name. This bug has been fixed, and you can now search for payments by a combination of the patient's first and last name.
Set Correct Adjustment Code for HIPAA Code 172
Area: Payments
Prior to this release, there was a bug when automatically posting a payment from an Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) report that caused the adjustment code to end up blank for the HIPAA adjustment reason 172. This bug has been fixed; Kareo has added "172" to the HIPAA adjustment reason code list and any payments with this code should now post correctly.
Display Change Status Reason on Payments for All Transactions
Area: Payments
Prior to this release, there was a bug that prevented the Change Status Reason for correctly displaying for bill, transfer, and settle transactions. This bug has been fixed, and the Change Status Reason is now displayed in the Transactions list of the Payment record.
Eliminate Erroneous Denial Transactions on Payments
Area: Payments
Prior to this release, there was a bug that caused erroneous denial transactions on payments when users enter a $0.00 allowed amount but also posted a payment on a particular service line. This bug has been fixed, and the system no longer posts denial transactions if there is any payment posted on a service line.
Eliminate Blank Denial Transactions on Payments
Area: Payments
Prior to this release, there was a bug that caused blank denial transactions on payments in certain situations. This bug has been fixed.
Selecting Payer When Posting Payments
Area: Payments
Prior to this release, there was a bug that prevented you from selecting the insurance policy from the Payer picklist, on certain service lines with three or more insurance policies. This bug has been fixed.
Stop Clearing Payer When Posting Payments
Area: Payments
Prior to this release, there was a bug that caused the Payer picklist to be erreneously cleared simply by tabbing through the field. This bug has been fixed.
Changing Status on Existing Patient Payments
Area: Payments
Prior to this release, there was a bug that prevented you from changing the status on service lines included with an existing patient payment. This bug has been fixed.
Show Primary Auto-Billed in Specific Scenario
Area: Payments
Prior to this release, there was a bug that prevented bill transactions from being noted when the patient has a primary and secondary insurance policy, and the primary is setup to automatically cross-over to the secondary. This bug has been fixed, and if you now post a payment from the primary in this scenario, the default action will be to transfer the balance to the secondary and a bill transaction will be correctly logged on the service line.
Stop Creating Transactions When Clicking Next Line on Payments
Area: Payments
Some customers use the Next Line button on the Apply tab of the Payment record to quickly step through all of the service lines on a payment. Prior to this release, there was a bug that erroneously added transactions to service lines stepped through with the Next Line button. This bug has been fixed, and transactions are no longer added unless you intentionally tab through the appropriate fields and enter transactions on a service line.
Stop Modifying Adjustment When Tabbing Through Allowed on Payments
Area: Payments
Prior to this release, there was a bug that caused the erroneous modification of adjustments when tabbing through the Allowed field on existing payments. This bug has been fixed.
Prevent Rebilling a Settled Claim
Area: Payments
Prior to this release, there was a bug that allowed you to rebill a settled claim. This bug has been fixed, and you can now only rebill a claim that is open. If you need to rebill a settled claim, then we recommend you first reopen the claim, then rebill the claim.
Prevent a Blank Date of Service on Claims
Area: Claims
Prior to this release, there was a bug that allowed you to enter a blank date of service when modifying existing service lines on the Claim Detail task. This bug has been fixed, and Kareo will no longer allow you to enter a blank date of service.
Display Payment ID for Adjustment, Denial Transactions on Claims
Area: Claims
The ID for payment records has been added to all adjustment and denial transactions displayed in the Transaction list of the Claim Details task.
Prevent Changing Patient on Claims
Area: Claims
Prior to this release, there was a bug that allowed you to change a patient on claims that had already been billed and were at some stage of the adjudication process with insurance companies. This caused all sorts of rejections and other problems related to Coordination of Benefits (COB) information sent to secondaries. To avoid these problems, the system now prevents you from changing the patient on the Claims Detail task. If you need to change the patient, we recommend voiding the claim and entering a completely new claim.
Print Box 32B and 33B Correctly on CMS 1500 Form with NPI
Area: Claim Printing
Prior to this release, there were bugs that prevented boxes 32B and 33B from being printed correctly on the new CMS 1500 Form with NPI. More specifically, the ID and facility type was not being printed in box 32B, and the rendering provider group number qualifier was not being printed in box 33B. These bugs have been fixed.
Eliminate Unique Key Constraint Error on Payments
Area: Payments
Prior to this release, there was a rare bug that resulted in an error message that read "Violation of unique key constraint...". This bug has been fixed, and you should no longer see this error message.
Eliminate Error When Selecting Patient on Encounter
Area: Encounters
Prior to this release, there was a bug when enter a new encounter and looking up a patient but not selecting a patient, which caused an error message that read "Cannot access a disposed object. Object name: 'Text Box'". This bug has been fixed, and you should no longer see this error message.
Eliminate Error Related to Insurance Policies
Area: Patients
Prior to this release, there was a rare bug related to insurance policies that resulted in an error message that read "Sorry, our system noticed a problem with the insurance policy precedence". This bug has been fixed, and you should no longer see this error message.