elligence 4.0 Debut Newsletter

4.0

elligence 4.0

The elligence interface has been improved in order to streamline certain processes and also to make it easier to train new people. Key changes are:

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New User Interfac
• A top-level menu toolbar with graphics that correlate to subject matter. • Re-organization of some top-level menu items so that the structure of the menu

provides a better path for training and setup. • A "Ticker Tape" appearing below the top-level toolbar to provide single-click access

and real-time counters for messages, visitors, documents, and a new Job Queue (see Enterprise Mode, on the following page).

Single Screen Patient Access

• All patient commands are available from a single toolbar. • Once a patient is selected, key patient data is prominently displayed. • Outlook-style Navigation Bars containing all Electronic Practice Management (EPM)

data in one place. • New Document and Communication sections for storing important patient

documents and messages. • Recent Patient Lists for fast selection of recently accessed patients. • Ability to modify the patient's Special ID and Date from the Patient Toolbar.

Role-Assigned Operators

Each operator is assigned a role. Roles are used to customize the Home Page for the operator as well as provide groupings that can be used in various commands, e g. to send a message to all Billers.

• Provider • Allied Health Professional • Office Manager • Biller • Scheduler

Enterprise Mode

Enterprise Mode is a system Preference that allows reports and billing commands to be run in the background and in a queue. By doing so operators are free to perform other tasks and elligence can stagger batch processes so as to reduce the impact on the server when many operators perform batch processes all at the same time. A Job Queue indicates which jobs are in the queue. Individual operators have access to jobs they have requested; Administrators and Operators with permission have access to all jobs that are queued. Jobs may be moved up or removed from the queue. As jobs complete, the Job Queue counter in the operator's Ticker Tape increases.

Organizers

Each operator has an organizer that is an Outlook- style Navigation Bar. Content of the Organizer is dependent on the operator's role. Available content in the Organizer includes:

• Practice Overview • Collection Cases • Communications • Visitors • Reminders • Job Queue • Unfiled Documents • News

Note: In elligence 4.0, the term "Ticklers" is no longer used. These are now Reminders (tasks) and Communications (messages).

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DATA STRATEGIES, INC

The Paperless Office Document Management Note: Other than the scanners used for insurance card and drivers licenses, the Document Management capabilities described below do not include actual scanners. These can be purchased separately. elligence allows documents to be attached to various elligence entities, e.g. patients, providers, referring doctors, insurance plans and employers. Each of these entities has a Documents section in their Navigation bar. Document Types may be defined and each document type has these properties:

• Description • Accessibility: Which operators, by role and/or specifically may view this type of

document. • Automatic Notification: Which operators, if any, by role and/or specifically should

be notified when the document is filed. • Retention: Documents can be retained forever or you may specify, in months,

how long the document needs to be retained.

There are three levels of Document Management:

1. Internal Documents

These are documents that are generated by elligence, e.g. statements, insurance forms and EOBs created during electronic remittance. Whenever a statement or insurance form is generated, it is automatically stored. The document may then be viewed either by clicking on the billing entry in the Patient's Ledger or by locating the document in the Patient's Document section.

2. Insurance Cards and Drivers Licenses

Insurance cards and drivers licenses may automatically be placed into the corresponding patient coverage or demographics screens. If OCR capabilities have been purchased, then appropriate fields can automatically be placed into the corresponding elligence fields.

3. External Documents (optional feature)

These are documents such as scanned pages, Microsoft Word or Excel files, PDF files, etc. that you wish to attach to one or more elligence entities. For example:

• An insurance contract that you wish to attach to an Insurance Plan. • A referral letter from the primary care physician that you wish to attach to a

patient and to a referring doctor. • A complimentary letter from a patient that you wish to attach to the patient.

DATA STRATEGIES, INC.

EOB Document Storage

Included with the Internal Document feature mentioned above, elligence will now store a copy of the EOB when processing electronic remittance (835) files. This copy may then be viewed or printed. From the Patient Ledger, click on the Payment Item; then right-click and choose:

View EOB For Patient View Entire EOB

The Patient Portion of the EOB can be printed and submitted with secondary claim forms.

Communication Management

elligence allows communications (messages) to be attached to various elligence entities, e.g. patients, providers, referring doctors, insurance plans and employers. Each of these entities has a Communications section in their Navigation bar. Automatic Filing When sending a Communication, you may easily insert key contact information for one or more elligence entities. This contact information includes the entity's name, phone numbers and e-mail address. As soon as the Communication is sent, it is automatically filed into the Communications section of those entities.

Communication Hyperlinks The entity's name is a hyperlink to that entity and the entity's email address will open your E-mail program with that entity's E-mail address filled into the To... section of the E-mail.

"Rich" Text Editor

Messages for Reminders and Communications may be entered using a rich text editor. What this means is that you may enter information using many of the same features as are available from Microsoft Word. (Examples above and below)

1. Call Dr. Jones 2. Call Susan Hagerty RE: her Rx 3. Call Me to confirm

Post Charges Enhancements

New Grid Control The Post Charges batch is displayed in a new grid control that allows more data to be displayed at one time, faster and with each column sortable. Displayable columns include Billing Order, Account Number, Name, Procedure, Modifiers, Quantity, Provider, Department, Location, Billing Entity, Place of Service, Flags (Accept Assignment, Capitated, Crossover), Responsible Party and Copay/Payment status.

Billing Order Control You may specify the order that charges should be posted. The order of posting dictates the order in which charges appear on claims and insurance forms. The default is in the order of entry. However, before posting, you may move charges up or down in the batch.


Post Charges Enhancements

Copays and Patient Payments

You may use the Define> Procedure screen to designate procedures for which a Copay applies, e.g. E & M codes. Then, during Post Charges, when any of those procedures are selected, elligence will enable a Copay/Payment button to allow posting of a Copay. You may then post a Copay, either as a new payment or from a previously collected unapplied credit.

You may view the Copay amount for the current responsible party and whether or not it has been paid from the charge grid. Collected Copays appear in green, those not collected appear in red.

In addition, you may post a patient payment against any charge for which a Copay doesn’t apply.

Multiple Authorization Numbers per Illness

Each Illness may hold multiple Authorization Numbers along with their corresponding Expiration Dates, Allowed and Remaining Visits for each Number.

From Post Charges, you may then choose the Authorization Number you wish to use or add a new one to the Illness.

Inactive Diagnoses appear in red. The list of diagnoses displays inactive diagnoses in red to avoid choosing a diagnosis that is no longer in effect.

Use of Inactive Diagnoses are flagged as a Warning or an Error when performing electronic claims or printing insurance forms.

When searching for diagnoses, Operators can be prevented from choosing an inactive diagnosis by eliminating Inactive Diagnoses from their view.

Scheduler Enhancements

Master Schedule Overrides

To provide more flexibility when scheduling providers, you may define one or more overrides to a provider's master schedule. Overrides have the following properties:

• Message Type: One of your previously defined Blocked Time Messages • Location • Recurrence: They may occur: Weekly, e.g. Every other week on Tuesdays or

Monthly, e.g. the fifteenth of each month or the last Friday of each month • Start and End Times • Color • Start and End Dates • Hold Indicator - To temporarily suspend an override

Wait Lists

You may create a waiting list either for open time slots or for pre-allocated blocked time, e.g. Well Baby Checks or Re-checks. Wait List entries contain the patient's preferences, if any, as well as a priority setting. As Wait Listed entries become available, one or more operators may automatically be notified. Hard and Soft Blocked Time Periods Pre-allocated blocked time periods may be designated as "soft" or "hard". Hard blocked time will appear in the Scheduler in a bold font. Schedulers may not open or schedule appointments into hard blocked time unless they have the security permission to do so.


When indicating a No-show, the patient's appointment can be removed from the Scheduler screen A new Scheduler Preference allows No-show appointments to be removed from the screen, thereby allowing other patients to be scheduled in that time period.

Daily / Weekly Views: Variable Display of Appointment Data

For each Overview and for the Weekly View, you may choose one or more of the following items to display for the appointment:

• Account Number Name • Location Phone Numbers (shown above) • User ID Procedure Code • Procedure Description

Tracking Patient Flow Through Places

You may define each Place within your office, e.g. Waiting Rooms, Exam Rooms, Checkout areas, etc. One or more operators are given primary responsibility for each place. As patients move into Places that are designated as an Operator's responsibility, they show up in the Ticker Tape as well as the Organizer for that Operator. They also reflect in the Scheduler’s daily view for the current date. Some Places may be designated as allowing more than one patient in that place, e.g. a waiting room.

Managing Visitors and Copays

When viewing Visitors, there is a Place Bar - an Outlook-style Navigation bar - that displays each Place and the number of patients currently occupying the Place. You may view all patients in all Places or only those patients within a specific Place. Visitors can be moved from one Place to another either via a keyboard "Transition" command or by dragging the Visitor to a Place in the Navigation bar. You may view how long a Visitor has been in a Place, e.g. waiting room, and when they arrived in the office.

Improved Patient Check In Process As patients come to the office they are Checked In and Processed. The Process command opens the patient folder. From the folder, the patient's demographics and insurance can be confirmed and updated; an insurance card and/or driver’s license can be scanned; and a Copay can be collected. Once Checked In, they may be Transitioned to any other place within the office via a command or similarly drag and drop from Place to Place. Upon completion of procedures they are Checked Out to the front desk for any additional instructions. To complete the process, the Departure command exits the patient from the office. In each movement, the time spent in each Place is stored. The Visitors List allows for easy identification of unpaid Copays (red or green) as well as transitioning and collection of Copays.

Inactive Status

Key search items may be set to Inactive. This is a securable option with a number of security settings to limit who may set and view Inactive items. Items that may be set to Inactive include:

• Patients: Only if certain criteria are met. • Defined Items: These include procedures, diagnoses, modifiers, insurance plans,

providers, referring doctors and departments. • Operators: Replaces the Delete capability for an Operator.

Key Facts

• The date the item is to become Inactive may be specified. • Inactive items are omitted from search views unless the Operator has the

permission to view Inactive items. • Inactive items appear in the Search window in red. Changes to the Inactive setting

are logged and available for viewing in Event Log Reports. • Use of Inactive procedures, diagnoses or modifiers are marked as Warnings or

Errors in the Exceptions Reports for electronic claims and insurance forms.


The Code Loader

The Code Loader now has an option to “Mark as Inactive all codes NOT present in the Import File”. If checked, you may set an Effective Date. All codes, i.e. CPT and ICD9 codes, NOT found in the Import File will automatically be set to Inactive using the specified Effective Date.

Cross-Database Reporting

If you have more than one database and are an Administrative Operator, then you may produce certain key elligence reports across all of your databases at one time. These reports then conclude with totals for all of the databases. Applicable report categories include: Aged Receivables, Charges, Payments, Day Sheets and Monthly Journals.

Improved Search Capabilities : Invoice Number Search

Invoice Numbers are now stored when generating statements. When looking for a patient, you may then search by Invoice Number.

Hosted (ASP) Solution With this version of elligence, DSI will offer a Hosted solution wherein the Servers (Application and Data) are located at DSI's colocation facility. DSI performs all backups, software updates and hardware maintenance. Clients simply need workstations, printers and high speed Internet connections. Please consult with DSI or your Sales Representative for Details, Pricing and a Demo.
