Run SOS as a traditional Windows client-server program or in a web browser or both!
For the first time ever it is possible to run your SOS software on
Tab interface makes for quick switching among your tasks without losing your place
G5 employs a new tabbed interface that allows you to switch around among your open windows without having to close or cancel a current task to go to another. For example, you can have your current daysheet in one tab, an open charge entry in another, patient list in another, patient screen in another, and open yet another to make a change in the properties of a service code. You can click back and forth among these tabs as you like. You can even have multiple open patient screens, making it easy to compare or copy information between them.
Full integration of all primary modules: Billing/Receivables, Appointment Scheduling, and Clinical Records
Unlike all previous versions of SOS, G5 is a single, integrated application. All features are available within a single user interface whether you run SOS as a Windows application or in a web browser. You still have the flexibility of licensing only those features you want, but if you later add another module, the new features will appear in the menu structure alongside those you had previously been using. Below, looking at the left side navigation panel, you can see that lookups for the three main modules are all present if you have licensed all three. You no longer have to bounce around among different SOS programs and you can instantly access all of the features from a single login.
Unlimited Care Episodes for Standard and Pro licenses
Previously in SOS, whenever a previously discharged patient returned for treatment, you would have to either overwrite important data from the previous admission (like intake date, primary provider, and discharge date), or open an entirely new record for the new admission. G5 supports multiple “Care Episodes” for both standard and pro licenses. When a patient comes back into treatment, you simply add a new Care Episode to his or her existing record. As you can see in the example below, each patient care episode has its own…
- Primary provider
- Default provider for new charge entries
- Intake/Discharge dates
- Discount setup
- Claim setup (one professional claim setup per episode for Standard; unlimited professional and institutional claim setups for Pro)
- Diagnosis list
- Program enrollments
- Group memberships
As a result, each new episode of care gets its own data, and all previous episode data remains in the system as well, associated with the same patient record.
For more see: Managing Patient Care Episodes
List views that provide customizable columns, quick filtering, grouping, ordering, and printing
Most lists in the G5 system provide extensive features that provide the above features and more. Here are some examples of what is possible with just a few clicks:
- Starting from the main patient list, show only those patients who live in a particular zip code, group them by primary provider. and order them by descending date of birth.
- Temporarily remove the “Discharge Date” column from the list.
- Search for patients based on the value in any column or combination of columns, such as date of birth. phone number, alternate ID, or any portion of the address or name.
- Filter the list for particular values, as in the simple search examples above, or configure more complex filters such as ranges of zip codes. The figure below shows the types of filter operators available to you. Advanced filters, such as a filter that specifies one or more date ranges can combine several of these filter operator.
In previous versions of SOS, you would have to learn some basic SQL query language skills to produce the kinds of filtered lists that you can do in G5 with a few keystrokes. In addition, once you have the results displayed on your screen, you can easily print a hard copy or export the results in many popular file formats:
Change logs that display the details of changes to data in the system
Information about changes to data in the system is now instantly available on a new Change Log tab of the data forms. A chronological list is automatically recorded, showing when each change was made, the user who made the change, and exactly what data was changed, with the previous and new values:
Archived copies of filed insurance claims, payroll reports, and signed clinical reports
Copies of important output, such as filed claims, clinical reports, and payroll reports are automatically stored in the database, making it easy to output exact copies when the need arises. Along with the detailed audit trails and change logging, these features mean that the SOS G5 database will be larger than the database generated by SOS G4, but the benefits are significant.
Payment, adjustment, and transfer in a single Credit entry
When you apply a payment to a Charge in G5, you also can adjust (write off) part or all of the remaining balance, and you can even transfer all or part of the remaining balance. All options are available at once, on the same Credit Split window.
Automatic transfer of responsibility between payers
In G5, you may pay an amount greater than the balance on the current payer’s split. In previous versions of SOS, you had to do a balance transfer first, or use a “More Splits” operation. G5 takes care of that part for you.
Let’s say that at the time you entered a Charge, you thought that the insurance would pay only $50 of the $100 fee, so you split $50 to the insurance and the other $50 to the patient. A few weeks later you receive an insurance check for $65. You can go ahead and pay the entire amount to the Charge, even though it is more than the $50 insurance balance. G5 will automatically transfer $15 from the patient responsibiliy for you, even if the patient already paid her entire $50 portion! That extra $15 the patient paid will immediately become an unapplied payment on the patient’s account. You can apply the payment to a future charge or refund it as appropriate.
Simplified and more intuitive Provider entries
Earlier versions of SOS often required you to create multiple entries in the Provider List for each actual provider. For example, Dr. Meredith Grey might be represented by MG, MG1, MG2, and MG3 in order to accommodate various insurance billing quirks and payroll multipliers. SOS G5 introduces the concept of Provider Profiles to handle these issues. Each provider can have any number of associated Profiles. You simply select the appropriate Profile, for example, “MG-1”, when you enter a new Charge transaction. When scheduling an appointment, however, you just use “MG”.
For more, see…
Managing Providers and Managing Provider Billing Profiles.
Each Insurance Carrier has an unlimited number of Insurance Plans
Large Insurance Carriers often offer many different Insurance Plans. Grouping Plans within Carriers in G5 allows you to distribute a bulk payment from a single Carrier to patients who are covered under different plans of that carrier. Prior to G5, it was necessary to create a separate “Carrier/Plan” for each Insurance Plan, and you would have to manually divide a single check up to apply it to patients with different plans. In other words, in G5 the Payer is the Insurance Carrier, not the specific Plan. That change makes applying payments from the Carrier far more efficient.
Switch from SOS proprietary accounting to traditional double-entry accounting
Most all accountants and financial controllers use a bookkeeping system called “double-entry accounting”. Previous versions of SOS used a proprietary bookkeeping approach but in G5 we have implemented standard double-entry transaction records, making it easy for your accountant to understand. No worries, though, because the new back-end accounting is implemented in a way that regular SOS users never have to see or understand double-entry bookkeeping to use the product. In fact, transaction entry in G5 is actually far easier than in previous versions of SOS. As an example, to transfer payment responsibility on a charge from one payer to another used to require making a special kind of “transfer” credit transaction. The transfer entry produced a set of two charge splits and two credit splits that SOS users often found confusing. In G5, you can accomplish the same thing by simply changing the amounts of the splits on the original charge whenever necessary. Behind the scenes, the system creates and records a set of accountant-friendly, double-entry (debit/credit) bookkeeping transactions that document the details of that change, and a line is written to the Change Log for each modified split, recording the same change in plain English for the non-accountants among us.
Even better, in the most common situations, SOS anticipates what is necessary and does the transfer for you automatically. For example, let’s say that you split the entire responsibility to the patient portion initially, but then receive a payment from insurance. When you apply the insurance payment to the charge, SOS will automatically reduce the patient’s responsibility and increase the insurance responsibility so that there is enough of an insurance balance to allow your payment to be applied. In previous versions of SOS, you would have had to do the transfer manually as a separate credit or you would have had to use the old “More Splits” technique. Only then could you have
For more details: See Examining Accounting Details and Transferring or Changing Payment Responsibility for a Charge Entry
Show more than one provider simultaneously in the Scheduler views
For more details: See Selecting Providers to Appear in the Appointment View.
Fast, Easy Appointment Searches
Search through existing appointments instantly using a new Search Appointments list that can instantly be filtered to leave only those appointments that meet your specific criteria. See Searching for Appointments for more details.
Looking Good!
SOS G5 on Windows comes with many “skins” and “themes” that you can select to change the colors and overall look used by the software.
