Many of you were part of the transition from our DOS to our Windows program starting in 1999.
You might remember how different the program looked. In the first month, you played a game
of where is this, and how do I do that? Then, we heard our customers say: ‘I would never go
back to the previous version of the program.’ The differences will be less of a shock for many in
transitioning to G5. There are areas of the program that have changed for the best. This
document will try to show you these changes, so there are no surprises when you start using
the program. There is also another document under our G5 Document Library on our website
http://www.sosoft.com under Support.
Integration of all SOS modules into ONE suite
SOS Suite G5 (the fifth generation of our software) is now really a suite. One login to access all
the modules you own. There is no need to start Office Manager, then go out and start Case
Manager, etc. You log in with your user ID, and all the modules you have permission to access
will be there when the program opens. There is no need to exit out of the program or minimize
the program to start another.
If you are on a network and you have limited access to some of the modules but rarely go into
one, you can set your user ID to only open what you need. This way, another user can access
that module.
It is also so much easier to tell how many seats are used and who is connected. All this
information can be found under Help then Program Details.
Navigation Bar
Most of you have been using windows for a long time, so using SOS Suite G5, you will feel right
at home. The Navigation Bar is divided by each module with a Common Lookups section for
shared files. To get familiar with the Navigation Bar, read the document at
All About the G5 Navigation Bar
Insurance Carriers/Plans
Before you do your conversion of the data, you will be asked to group your insurance carriers as
much as you can. If you have 10 BCBS, and payments all come on the same check, combine
them under one Insurance Payment Group called BCBS. In the conversion process, BCBS will
become your Carrier, and all the entries you added to that ‘Payment Group’ will be the plans. In
G4, it would allow you to post an electronic ERA across all these payers. In G5, it will do the
same with manual check entries. You enter the check under the Carrier BCBS, and you can
post the payment across all the plans
Understanding Insurance Carrier Plans And Policies
Adding Insurance Plans To A Carrier
Providers/Providers Profile
An added feature with G5 is the Provider and the Provider Profiles. In G4, you could enter the
provider multiple times. The reasons were:
- billing differently depending on the payer
- use of different multipliers for their payroll,
- billing under a supervisor for specific insurances.
In G5, we have only one provider entry with multiple billing profiles. The provider billing profile
is what is used when entering charges. All the fields on the G4 provider screens are available
on the provider billing profile screen. G5 will allow you to set up a Default Primary Provider, and
a Default Provider for New Charges under the Care Episode for each patient.
Understanding Billing Providers, Service Providers, And Provider Billing Profiles
Managing Provider Billing Profiles
Accounting (Deposits, Payroll)
The accounting method in SOS Suite G5 is a standard double-entry journal entry. Look at the
following to get more information:
A new feature of G5 is the Deposits. It will allow you to reconcile what has been entered in
terms of Cash and Checks vouchers even if you have not applied the payments to any
accounts.
Printing A Deposit Reconciliation Report
You will need to select how SOS G5 will calculate the payroll for your practice, if at all. Make
sure to read the following document to help you decide.
Selecting A Payroll Calculation Method
Banks
A bank is set up in the dataset entry screen. You can only have one bank per dataset, and
each deposit in that dataset will be linked to that bank.
Patients
There are multiple ways to see the patient’s information. Under Patients in the Navigation Bar,
you can see Patients Billing, Basics, and All Data. It was done to restrict the amount of
information that a user may access.
You can add new patients from any patients list, or you can do the Patient-Quick Add. Keep in
mind that not all the fields are available in all the different Patient lists. In the Document Library
for G5, there are many documents related to entering new patients.
Entering A New Patient – Step 1
Entering A New Patient – Step 2
Entering A New Patient – Step 3
Entering A New Patient – Step 4
Using Quick Add To Rapidly Create A New Patient Account
Care Episodes
Care Episodes are new to the billing module in SOS Suite G5, but were present in Case
Manager Pro Version. A Care Episode follows the patient from the start to the finish of a
treatment period. If the client leaves but comes back a year later, you would start a second
Care Episode for that second period. You can read more about it from the link below.
Managing Patient Care Episodes
Payers
If you want your transaction entries to show only the current insurance plans, you need to go
into the system and enter a Coverage End Date under the inactive policies. If you did not do
that before the conversion, I would do this before entering new charges in G5. Why should you
do this? Because in G5, it will create a split for every insurance that SOS sees as valid. If you
only removed the checkmark in the box Generate Claim, it will still create a split. It may take
you some time to go through your customers’ policies, but it will be worth it in the long run.
Also, you cannot delete splits in the charge entry in G5.
Transaction Entry
This is the part that many of you will like as the format didn’t change very much. You enter your
transactions in the daysheet, post your daysheet, and then the entries will be moved to the
patient‘s ledger. Same as G4. The only difference is that you have a field where you select the
Care Episode you are using for the patient. The Care Episode is linked to the Billing Provider,
diagnosis, and all the transactions within that Care Episode.
How Do I Enter A New Service Charge
Payment Entry
This is one area of the software that changed. The new word you will encounter is Voucher. You can
have Cash, Credit Card, EFT, Check, and Other vouchers. They can pay for dates of
services, they can be used to store prepayment, you can put the money back on the voucher
when the insurance takes back the money, you can do a refund, account for a bounced check,
or move the payment from one transaction to another.
Qualifying Your Credit Type Selection For Payments And Adjustments
You probably heard Noe and me say, ‘if you change anything from the ledger, your accountant
won’t like it, and it will change the numbers.’ G5 uses T-accounting, which will keep track of
what you do when you make changes from the ledger, and the best part is that everything is
done in the background automatically. You don’t have to worry about it.
There are many How-to Payment documents on our website under the SOS G5 section. Here
is the link:
I would suggest that you look at all the payment documentation. Most of these documents are
short and will save you many hours of frustration down the road. If you are unsure, please let
us know.
Claims
The significant change in claims is that SOS stores of all the claim batches you generated, so if
you need to reprint the claims as the file was submitted, you will be able to do so. We removed
the options for the old CMS1500 format, so only the new format is available. Electronic claims,
the module is done within the claims menu. The Reprint Claims is also in the same area.
Change Logs
You will see throughout the screens a tab called Change Log. It will give you all the changes
that were made since the time the record was created. It will show what was changed, who
changed it, and when it was changed. This is why it is a good reason for NOT sharing your login information
with other people in the office.
