Customizing General Billing Settings

General Billing Settings

The General Billing Settings section relates particularly to the functions of the Invoices section of AcuBase Pro.

 

   Default Invoice

The Default Invoice allows you to select the to select whether you tend to print general superbills or HCFA 1500 forms most frequently, and adjusts the inner program defaults accordingly.  Newly created patient cases, as well as invoices, will default to this setting, but can also be further specified/changed for each case or invoice.

     E-Billing Yes/No

Electronic Billing Setup is set to “No” by default. If you wish to use the electronic billing capabilities of AcuBase Pro, you must set E-billing to “Yes” before you are able to bill electronically.  If you are interested in using electronic billing, please follow the instructions in the Electronic Billing section of this user’s manual.

     Billing Statement Footer

This option allows you to change the message that appears at the bottom of invoice statements you may send to your patients. 

     Tax Settings

The Procedures Tax and Products Tax fields allow you to set default tax amounts for products and services that you provide, which will show up in both the inventory database and on invoices, respectively.  Note that taxes on each product and service may be changed within each record, as well.  Tax percentages must be entered in decimals.  So, if your products are taxed at 5%, you would type “.05” rather than simply “5.”  Note, too, that, while a Products tax rate may automatically be entered when adding a new item to inventory, if the tax rate is later changed, it will not change the tax rate on previously entered inventory items.  These items will need to be changed manually.

If the tax rate you charge for products changes, you may change the rate in the Products Tax field, and then automatically assign that new rate to all existing inventory without having to change each item manually in the inventory database.  To do this, once you have changed the Products Tax field to the new rate, click on the button next to the field.

     Auto-Enter Adjustments

Set this field to “Yes” if you wish to have AcuBase automatically enter the difference between a payment and the total outstanding for a given line item on the Invoices Payment screen.

By default CMS form policy, descriptions of procedures are not required on the CMS 1500 form.  If you wish to have procedure descriptions show up on superbills and on the gray lines in box 24 of the CMS form, set this option to “Yes”.

     CMS 1500 Form, Box 24

The CMS 1500, Box 24 option allows you to enter default information that will automatically flow through to patients’ default settings in Cases (see the Cases section under the “Using the Patients Tab” section for more on Cases).  Though you may have parts of your invoice auto-entered, you can still change those fields on each invoice if you wish. 

Billing Codes Settings

The Billing Codes tab gives you access to both Procedure (CPT) and Diagnosis (ICD-9) codes. These are the lists that pop up when using the Patients and Invoices sections of the program. 

 

You may choose to sort the codes alphabetically by description or numerically by code by clicking on the field name at the top of the list. Click into any of the procedures or diagnoses listed to edit them, as well as adding modifiers, prices, tax amounts (%--must be entered in decimals) for each procedure, and your own codes.  To create new procedures or diagnoses, click on the New Code button above the code list.  You will be given a blank line at the bottom of the list of codes to put in a new entry. The lists will automatically re-sort as soon as you click outside of them.

You may view either list in its entirety for the purposes of doing Finds or sorting or printing them by clicking on the List button.

Delete a code by clicking on the trash can (Delete) icon at the end of the line in question.

There are typically thousands of possible diagnosis codes which users in different clinical settings may wish to have at their disposal.  Because most offices use a handful of diagnosis codes frequently, a small “Use” box appears to the left of each diagnosis.  Select or de-select the codes you wish to have pop up in code lists throughout the program. You may click on the Select All/None button to select or deselect ALL codes in the program.

As a courtesy, AcuBase Pro comes with current ICD-9 and many CPT codes already entered, but it is your responsibility as a professional to make sure you code your billing correctly.

Codes change yearly, so many of the codes that initially came with AcuBase may no longer be current.  New code sets are typically available in October of every year. If you wish to download the latest codes into AcuBase, you may do so from our website by clicking below or going to http://www.trigram.com/coding.htm. The “Update Now” button on the Billing Codes Settings screen will give you the option of going to our website to download the codes (Update Now).  A “DiagnosisCodes.csv” file will be downloaded from our site and should be saved to your desktop.  Once it has been, click on the “Update Now” button again and click OK to load the codes from that file into the program. The year of the current code set will show under the Diagnosis section on this Settings screen. 



Insurance and Referral Sources Settings

The Insurance and Referral Sources settings are places for you to enter commonly accessed insurance company and referral source information.  These settings allow you to enter an unlimited number of insurance companies or referrers, keeping this information current in one place so that it may accurately be auto-entered into the appropriate places in the Patients database. Click on the “New” button to create a new record. Edit any record by clicking on its name from the list of available entries.  Delete an entry by clicking on the trash can (Delete) icon on the far right side of the line.  Click on any entry on the list to see more information related to that entry.

The patients associated with the insurance company and/or referral source (assigned from within the Patients tab) will show up in a list under each company or referrer when you select that company or referral source to edit.

When viewing individual Insurance Company or Referral Source entries, return to the main Preferences section by clicking on the Back button or on the small wrench icon on the top-right side of the screen.