Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Front Desk Workflow

We are located in SW Virginia and would love to visit another practice using AC to help us with our front desk workflow (both check-in and check-out). We would also like to scan pt ins cards into AC at the front desk. Is anyone else doing this?

One of our largest challenges is documenting copays when the patient arrives.

We tried using a 'receipt' template that would allow us to print a receipt for each patient and keep a copy for ourselves to enter into our PM (EZ Claim) the following day when the charges are reviewed. To our amazement, we found that it took as many as 10 steps to create a patient letter. Does anyone have any short-cuts for this process.

Use a paper superbill

Confused: it takes me 2 or 3 steps at most from the schedule to create a letter. We just throw the insurance cards on the Brother Multifunction Fax/Scan and scan them to the chart. You can come up to Alaska, watch our workflow, then go catch some Sockeye Salmon.

DFP-
I feel your pain. So many of us are trying to invent a better mousetrap (within AC) for these day-to-day issues.
These are still a work in progress for us, but here goes:
1. Co-pays- When patient pays, right click on name in schedule (or in patient list) and "add addendum". Right-click in addendum to bring up templates. We have a "receipt" template which includes "Amount: " and "Cash or credit card" (date, patient name are already on addendum). Enter those two. I suggest putting the $ amount into the subject line, but this is not essential. Save and print addendum so you can give the receipt to the patient; 2 copies if you want to send one to your biller. Addendums are listed in "past encounters". If you put the $ amount in the subject line as I suggested above, the list of past encounters quickly shows the date and amount of that patient's co-pays.

2. We use a paper super like Leslie, but are moving toward using the addendum as a receipt. It lets you record the copay and give the patient a receipt BEFORE the patient is seen.

3. We scan and import cards like Boondoc does. We have looked into dedicated card scanners but cost looks too high. You could come to Baltimore to see our work flow, but it really isn't pretty. Also, we have crabs instead of salmon.

4. You probably know this, but to send a letter, right-click (as in #1 above, but go to "print notes and letters"). Then click the radio button for "to patient" and you are writing a letter...

But please don't look to me (or anyone else here) to praise the letter writer.

Sorry, this has been an issue for you. There are a lot of places where work flow could be better with AC. But, I agree with Leslie. Use a paper Superbill. There are just things that paper works better for.

Can you please outline the 10 steps to write a letter? It should only take three.

I use a professionally printed, duplicate paper, pin fed superbill which we run off every morning on an Okidata printer. The superbill prints out with patient info derived from my PM program. My PM program actually allows me to take a pre-printed form and design my own superbill from it, pretty nifty. When the patient leaves, their copy serves as their receipt for their copay, has the date and time of their next appointment, date and times of any tests or consultant appointments, and any special instructions from me, all of which are hand-written. The original copy then goes to my in-house biller. You could scan this into their chart or into another file folder if you so desired but we simply keep them as a paper trail. They also serve as documentation that the patient was handed detailed instructions upon their departure.

still work in progress for me as well

Before visit: use Fujistu Fi 6130 to scan patient registration, insurance card and driver license - return visit scan updated items. we give pt's a paper receipt for their copay from a staples receipt book "Money/Rent Receipt Book 5.25x11 DC1152 -- (learned this while selling christmas trees in college).

Until I code and sign off my note, unable to:
1. generate a superbill
2. enter the copay amount
3. generate an AC receipt for the copay.

By the end of the day all my notes are coded and signed - many completed by the end of visit.

My MA - throughout the day will enter copays in AC in the pt's superbill - all completed by the end of the day - she uses the Staples Book to remind her who paid.

By biller has remote access and views superbills, scanned driver licence, insurance card and notes from the comfort of her home.

I am looking to improve this - appreciate those who have shared their workflow.

byzantine ... another reason I anxiously await a PM module.

We're still using 2 systems that don't talk to each other. We schedule in AC and do all the financials in the evil empire program through Allscripts. WE print the encounter form out of AC on a pre-printed suberbill (documenting what they paid and how) and then switch to the evil empire Allscripts program to put in the copay, Account payments, etc and then and generate a receipt to give the patient if they want one. At the end of the day everyone balances what they put into the PM program with the cash/checks/credit cards they have in their own bank bag and run a report. This gets rechecked by the bookkeeper the following morning who then puts the charges into the PM program and applies the money paid to it.

I can't wait till we get the PM program here!!

Thank you all for some very good suggestions on how to put together a work around until the PM arrives. (Bert can you make it sooner vs. later????)

Here are the steps we take to print a patient receipt:

1. Right click on patient’s name (from schedule or search)
2. Select “print notes & letters”
3. Click the radio button ‘to patient’
4. Right click in the text box to open your templates
5. Select the letter you want – ‘Pt Receipt’
6. Add the payment amount and an ‘X’ by the form of payment
7. Make sure both boxes at the bottom of the page are unchecked
8. Click ‘Move to Chart’
9. Select ‘no’ if you do not want a copy in the patient’s chart or ‘yes’ if you do
10. Click the printer icon in the top left corner (once you verify that your letter is correct)
11. Select the printer and quantity needed and click ‘Print’ – we use a Brother MFC and a half sheet of paper to print the receipt. (The company that prints our envelopes and other items cuts a case of paper in half for us for very little money or we use spare time to have a staff member cut some paper for the front desk)

If there is a way to make step 10 go away, please share. I am happy to share my receipt form/letter with any of you.

Yeah, Bert....please make it sooner rather than later!

For what? Is that from the other thread?

I was referring to DFP's request to have the practice management portion of AC ready soon (about 3 posts up). You are the programmer for that, right?

Bert is the DBA and application architect, part time Pediatrician on the side.

He does DB backups to relax.

Now that's funny. The guy who thinks that the PM system could be delayed while the EMR side should be perfected and we're saying he's the programmer for it! Awesome. Get it done Bert but, while you're at it, could you update the orders section, letter writer, and scheduler to make them a bit more intuitive? Thanks.