Category: RFR

To configure your system optimally and assure maximum efficiency, be sure to go through the System Options thoughtfully.

Find and expand Settings in the navigation bar on the left of your screen, as shown above. In the example above, we have expanded Option Category: Billing to reveal several types of settings, and we also have expanded the first of these, Billing defaults when adding a NEW patient. We now see that there are several specific settings listed, along with each setting’s current value.

It might be that our organization normally charges interest, so we can save time by setting the default value to “Yes” instead of the current setting of “No”. To make the change we double-click the Charge Interest option (or highlight the option and press <ENTER>). Here is the option form:

Important: Note that changing the default in the top portion of the screen, has no effect on any dataset-specific settings in the list at the bottom of the screen. Rather, it is the default for any datasets that are NOT listed at the bottom. (If you have imported data from the old version of SOS, you will see a row in the list at the bottom of this screen for each of your datasets, even if it matches the default value.)

On the other hand, you may have two or more datasets and you want to default Charge interest to “No” in your second dataset, number 103. In that case, prior to saving you can specify the exception in the list at the bottom of the form. Click the NEW button in the toolbar at the top of that list panel, or use the <CTRL><N> hotkey. Select the dataset in which you want a different setting, change the setting to the desired value, and save.

The list at the bottom of the System Option now shows that the Charge interest default for dataset 103 will now be “No”, while the default for dataset 101, and any other new datasets, will have the default value, which we set to “Yes” in the upper portion of the screen.

You can review and set any other system options in a similar fashion.

The SOS screens you work on every day (such as Patient form, Charge form, Credit form, Progress Note form, and Appointment form) include selection lists of many kinds. The Charge form, for example, provides quick entry thanks to lookup lists of providers, services, place of service codes, sort codes, CPT modifiers, and diagnoses. Some of these, for example, place of service, are ready for use as soon as you install your software. Others, like providers, are unique to your organization, so you have to enter the data for those lists yourself.

Depending on the SOS features you have licensed, you will find “Lookups” in at least two sections of the Navigation bar. If you have licensed all of the SOS feature sets, then you will see Billing Lookups, Clinical Lookups, Scheduler Lookups, and Common Lookups. The last of these contains lookup lists that all of the feature sets require. The other three, as you might guess, are specific to billing functions, clinical records, and appointment scheduling.

Clicking the little “+” to the left of one of these kinds of Lookups will expand it. For example, if we expand Billing Lookups, this is what we see:

With the exception of the last of these sub-menu options, these options all work the same way: double click to see of list of items of this type. From the list, you can add a new item, view and change an existing item, or delete an item that has never been used. So, looking at our menu in the figure above, we would come here to add or change a Billing Provider (used to be called “Supplier”), an Insurance Carrier, a Non-Insurance Payer, a Claim Adjustment Reason Code, a Place of Service Code, or a Sliding Scale Fee configuration. The other Lookups menus are similar.

The “Other” Lookups, however, on the Billing, Clinical, and Common Lookups menus, are different. For more information please see the article entitled Managing Other Lookups.

KEYWORDS:
[ PROVIDER, BILLING PROVIDER, CARRIER, PAYER, CAR, CLAIM ADJUSTMENT REASON, PLACE OF SERVICE CODE, SLIDING SCALE, ASSET, INTERVENTION, OBJECTIVE, OBSTACLE, PROBLEM, MEDICATION, PHARMACY, APPOINTMENT STATUS, APPOINTMENT TYPE, APPOINTMENT RESOURCE, ALLERGY, CITY, DIAGNOSIS, EMPLOYER, FACILITY, GLOSSARY, PROVIDER TYPE, REFERRAL SOURCE, REFERRING PROVIDER, SERVICE, SERVICE CATEGORY, SERVICE MACRO, GROUP  ]

Other Lookups, specifically Other Billing Lookups, Other Clinical Lookups, and Other Common Lookups, offer a way to maintain pick lists of simple items that consist of just a code and a description. Instead of featuring a special list window for each of these simple lookup types, SOS groups them in just a few expandable lists. As an example, here are the Other Billing Lookups:

Clicking Other Billing Lookups in the navigation panel opens the list on the right. Expanding several of the Lookup Types by clicking the little “+” button to the left of a type, you can see the existing lookup items of that type nested below the type description.

To add a new item of a particular type:

1. Highlight the type description or any item of the desired type.
   
2. Click the “New” button at the top left of the main toolbar (or right-click and select New on the pop-up menu).
3. Complete the form with the desired code and description.
4. And save, using Save and Close to save the new item and return to the list, or Save and New to save this one and immediately add another without returning to the list first.

At the bottom left of the Main tab of the Patient Form you will find a panel titled “Patient Communications (Addresses, Emails, Phones)”. It is here that you can record an unlimited number of, you guessed it, street addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers.

Notice the “New” icon on the left side of the toolbar at the top of the Communications panel. Use the little arrow just to the right of the icon to select the type of information you want to add.

You can add information in any order you like, but we’ll just start with an address. The City field is a pick list. After a while all the combinations you normally use will be in the list. Type a couple of letters of the desired city to quickly get to the right part of a long list. Use the “New” button at the bottom to add a new City-State-Zip.

Use Save and Close in the top toolbar (or the <Ctrl><Return> hotkey) to save your new address and return to the patient’s Communications list.

Use the same steps to add additional addresses, emails, and phone numbers. If you put more than one of any type into the list, SOS will mark the first one you enter as the “default”. You can designate a different entry to be the default by highlighting your choice and clicking the star icon in the toolbar at the top of the Communications panel. Your designated default in each category will be highlighted green. If you make a mistake, just make sure that the last one you click is the one you want to be the real default. If you save and refresh the screen (using the icons in the top toolbar), you will see that only one entry in each category shows as the default. If there is only one item in a category, the system will mark it the default when you save the patient form.

Previous:

Entering a New Patient, Step 2: Basic Demographic Data Fields

Next:

Entering a New Patient, Step 4: Contacts

Other Articles in this Series:

Entering a New Patient, Step 1

Related Articles:

Managing Patient Insurance Payers
Managing Patient Non-Insurance Payers
Managing Patient Care Episodes
Managing Patient Posted Charge Entries
Managing Patient Posted Payments and Adjustments
Recording Patient Psycho-Social History
Managing Billing and Clinical Documents for a Patient
Creating a Patient Treatment Plan
Recording Progress Notes
Recording Prescriptions
Recording Allergies
What Are User-Defined Fields?