Hiding Other Insurance for Electronic Claims Submission

Sometimes electronic claims do not process properly if there is a secondary insurance submitted on the claim.

This does not happen with all clearinghouses and all claims, but if you find you an instance where you want to simply submit the selected insurance as the only carrier on the claim, check the HIDE OTHERS box on the invoice.

Checking this box submits the selected insurance carrier only, and hides all other insurance from the electronic claim.

In the example above, you want to send a claim to the secondary insurance carrier, Travelers, and not show the primary carrier, Medicare, anywhere on the claim. Select Travelers as the Bill To insurance, and check the HIDE OTHERS box next to the insurance carriers list on the invoice.

The claim will be submitted as if Travelers was the only insurance carrier.

Marketing Using Email with KIP

It is well known that marketing within your own patient database is effective.

Just look at Kohl's. They know that sending their credit card holders a flyer pays off, and if they include a coupon (especially a 30% off coupon), chances are their customers will be taking advantage of it.

Sending email is a free and easy way for you to do the same type of marketing, and takes only a few minutes.

You can use email to:

- send out a patient newsletter

- alert patients of a change in office hours

- notify patients of a sale or promotion

- notify patients of a drug recall alert

The possibilities are limitless.

To send an email, create a list of patients using the CUSTOM PATIENT SEARCH in the Patients menu. Then click the OUTPUT button and then SEND EMAIL.

You can use a pre-made template or type the email freehand and click SEND EMAIL.

Your email will now go to all patients with an email address. You do not need to eliminate patients who haven't had an email entered. KIP sorts them out for you.

Make sure you start requesting your patient's email addresses - and then use them. Your patients will appreciate it, and so will you.

For more information on formatting emails, go to Emails and Text Messages Made Easy.

Billing Provider and Treatment Location Preferences

KIP makes sure your correct billing provider and treatment location are on each claim.

Depending on the your office preferences, you may prefer the invoice billing provider and treatment provider to be associated with the patient or with the type of invoice you are entering.

Some practices might require the use of two billing providers for two different practice locations, while other practices may need two billing providers for different types of claims.

Each patient is automatically assigned a billing provider and treatment location based on the first invoice entered for the patient. This information is stored in the BILLING tab of the slide out window of the Personal Information screen. You can easily change these if necessary.

When you use Auto-Entry Invoices, if you would like to use the billing provider assigned to the patient on each invoice, select "Patient" in the Invoice Preferences where it says "Auto Invoice uses Billing Provider & Location from:"

If you want to always use the Billing Provider and Treatment Location used on the Auto Invoice, select "Auto Invoice."

This way, KIP helps to make sure the correct billing information is on each claim - and saves you steps in the process.

Attach a Photo to your Patient Record

To attach a photo to a patient record, simply drag a photo file to the patient photo area in the Alerts window to the right of the Personal Information screen.

Drag a Photo into the area in the Alerts window.
A Photo can be a JPG, TIFF, or PDF file.

You can take patient photos using Photo Booth on the Mac, and drag the images directly to the KIP patient window.

Photo Booth in Mac OS 10.6.8 (and newer) is able to select which camera you use to take photos, and it is also more stable in dragging directly from Photo Booth into KIP.

If you have difficulties dragging photos directly from Photo Booth into KIP, try dragging the photo to your desktop and then from the desktop into KIP.

After dragging the photo into the patient window, you may delete the photo file on your computer, if desired. The photo is stored within the KIP data file.

If you are using Photo Booth and find you cannot drag the photo into the patient record, chances are, you took two photos within the same 60 seconds. Photo Booth names the second file with a #2 at the end.

In this case, the name of the second photo is not compatible with dragging the photo into KIP. If you rename the second photo and remove the # sign from the name, the photo will be able to be dragged into the patient record.

Managing Patient Scans, Photos, and Files

You can have many types of files on your computer that are related to a specific patient. File types can be varied and can include:

- a scan of a driver's license, insurance card, or EOB
- an image of a patient's x-ray
- a scan of an exam form, letter, or lab results
- a photo of a wound
- a pre-operative photo or a photo of a post-operative result
- a video of a patient encounter
- an audio file of a patient conversation

A file can literally be anything that can exist on your computer.

Now, you have the ability to have KIP store these files and retrieve them as needed, anywhere - whether you are using the computer from within your local network, or remotely from a second office or from home.

The process is quite simple.

Open the Patient Information screen, and choose SAVE FILE TO THIS PATIENT from the More menu.

A dialog box will open for you to choose the desired file. Select the file you wish to relate to this patient and click the OPEN button.

You will now be shown an area to describe the file. You may write anything you wish here (For example: insurance card).

Click OK and you are done. The file will be copied to the server computer and stored for later retrieval.

To view files for a patient, choose the FILES tab in the Patient Information screen.

Double-click on a line to open it.
Double-click on a blank line to save a new file to this patient.

Double-click on the file you wish to open. The file will be moved to your local computer and opened with the default application set for that type of file.

If you need to change the name of the file in the list, Command-click on the line.

Files open in the default program installed on your computer associated with that kind of file - so, if you have scanned an insurance card as a JPG file, it will likely open with Preview on your Mac computer.

You can save any type of file. Large files can take time to be copied to the server. Please take that into account when you are associating files to a patient, especially when using KIP from a remote location.

It is important to note that if you are accessing patient information from a remote location, patient confidentiality should be a concern.

You should set up a VPN (virtual private network) connection between the server and the remote location to ensure data security. Although it is not difficult to set up a VPN connection, you may want to seek assistance from a local computer technician if you are not familiar with this technology.

Use KIP to Store Patient Files, Documents and Photos

Patient information can come in many forms. They can be images, text documents, or even movies.

KIP allows you to store these files and associate them with a patient.

For example, you scan the patient's driver's license and save it as an image file. Now, you can store this image in KIP and have it accessible anywhere on the network. The network can even be a remote site if you have remote access set up.

You can associate any type of file with a patient. If the file can be on your computer, you can associate that file with a specific patient. When you choose to view the file, the file opens using the program associated with that file.

So, for the example above, when you want to view the patient's driver's license, it will open in the program used on that computer to view image files (most likely Preview on a Mac).

There is no limit to the number of files you can associate with a patient.

When you associate a file with a patient, that file gets copied to the server computer and it becomes available to any other user anywhere on the network. On a single user version of KIP, the file gets copied to a special local folder.

If the original file is then deleted, the copy made by KIP stays safe. Once the file becomes associated with a patient, it becomes stored on the server, so even if you delete the original file, the copied files remain.

Most files are small - JPG, PDF, TXT - and are moved to the server in an instant. If you associate a large file with a patient, it can longer to be copied. A typical high resolution photo (800K) should take less than a second to be copied on a local network, where a small movie file (500MB) may take several minutes.

KIP allows you to name these files so you can easily recognize them.

So, for every form in your office (patient information forms, exam forms, faxes received, EOBs), you can scan the form, and associate the image file with that patient. You can then shred the original form. The stored file can be opened or printed when needed.

It now becomes even more important to do daily, weekly, and off-site backups. Don't let this lax. Backing up your data is more important than ever.