VersaForm Change Log
Changes in Version 3.144
New Features
Insurance Eligibility ($)
Insurance eligibility checking is now part of the system and is in beta test. Eligibility may be checked either through the Scheduler or upon request.
Changes
Windows 7
Server functions such as manual backup and adding practices to a multi-practice system now support Windows 7.
Login
In the Login window, VersaForm News will show at least once on each workstation in each release.
Demographics
In the Demographics Tab, we now check the SSN only if it has been changed.
Ledger
In the Charge and Insurance Info window, Drugs Tab, we allow 7 decimals in the Quantity field. This permits the user to enter, for instance, micrograms as .000001 of a gram.
On the ledger and on transaction edit, we enabled multiple selection of ICD9 codes using the shift key.
Payments
Added a claim Event Description field to the payment window to allow descriptions of denials and payments. This is visible when reviewing payments on a charge.
Payments (ERA)
Use the Split EDI Info button under the Insurance menu to split an 835 file with several practices in it so they can be processed separately.
In an electronic remittance advice, if a negative adjustment is received, we don’t insert a credit. Instead we put it on the Exception Report.
Claims
We now allow OTAF and Allowed Amount to be 0.00 (but not empty).
We now cancel all possible crossovers from a claim after cancelling the claim (unless the claim being cancelled is itself a crossover).
Claims (837)
We don't issue both F8 and 9F REF segments--we now choose depending on the Reason Code.
Fixed a bug that prevented getting MEA segment--measurements--in loop 2400.
Meds
On a system with the FDB drug list, we now allow meds to be set Inactive. This simplifies the choice lists.
Current meds are now sorted by Last date instead of Prescribed date.
Electronic prescriptions all go via the NewCrop web facility. This provides the full e-Rx functionality, including:
- Drug/disease interaction checking.
- Display of medications belonging to the Health Plan formularies for the Insurance Plans used by the patient.
- Alternative medication suggestions for reducing drug costs for the patient.
- Receipt of prescription renewal requests from a pharmacy (after you have asked tech support to turn them on).
Medications prescribed by other physicians may now be imported from RxHub via NewCrop. They will appear as External Prescriptions.
Medications chosen within a Note can be prescribed electronically, via the NewCrop web site, using «+med_web».
Labs
On labs we now use a red ball for the overdue icon.
The Remove button works again.
Scheduler
No-shows are now only those marked No Show in the Scheduler, not simply those who had no charge.
Messages
When sending a message, the list of For names is now in alphabetical order.
Images
In the Image Tab, we now decompress zipped (ZPICTURE) images and display them as BMP files. This allows display of black and white images captured by the formerly used Kodak window.
We allow renaming of images
Notes
We have added a Sign and Save button to the note. It saves a click.
Multi-doc
Any system administrator may now modify the practices table.
Reports
We have reorganized the report display to better categorize the reports.
In printed encounters, we removed the words "not signed"-- if the encounter is not signed, the field is blank. We have added immunizations as a separate paragraph in the encounter printout.
Multiple encounters may be printed together.
In the aged receivables reports, we have fixed an error in the computation of patient balance.
The collection activity report has been changed for better grouping of the data.
Health Management Reports
In Health Management reports, we show the High and Low normals, taking into account the patient's age.
In Health Management reports, we now show history panels under History, not Labs.
Protocols
We added a Medications Tab as a condition in protocols.
Superbills
You can choose whether the Superbill is to have the verbiage about assignment.
Setup
There is now an Email Subject field in Setup, Preferences to allow more appropriate Subjects in "mail merge" emails.
In the Setup, Practices edit window, we have added an Organization ID (OID) field to prepare for EHR Interoperability.
Changes in Release 3.143
New Features
VersaForm News
On the login screen, there is now a section of VersaForm News headlines that will display useful and relevant information regarding VersaForm and healthcare related topics. Clicking the "view" button next to a headline will open an internet browser window and take you to a web address related to the headline.
Electronic Prescriptions
Beginning with release 3.143, VersaForm electronic prescriptions are fully qualified for the 2% Medicare bonus for Electronic Prescribing. The prior version of electronic prescriptions included drug/drug and drug/allergy interaction checking, patient handouts, drug monographs, and transmission to a pharmacy. Current users, please read this .
The new release extends this support by providing:
- Drug/disease interaction checking.
- Display of medications belonging to the Health Plan formularies for the Insurance Plans used by the patient.
- Alternative medication suggestions for reducing drug costs for the patient.
- Receipt of prescription renewal requests from a pharmacy.
Alerts and Reminders
Visit Plans can now include reports that are tailored to the patient’s specific conditions. For Instance, the Visit Plan for a diabetic patient can automatically include the patients’ most recent HbA1c and blood sugar test results. To do this, all you have to do is assign a Health Management report to the relevant protocol.
Changes
Insurance
Validation for Medicare Part D plans has been added.
In each of the Insurance Plan Setup, Provider Setup and Edit Provider IDs windows there is now a drop down for "Tax ID in claims" which can be used to set whether EIN or SSN is used for different insurance plans. This makes it unnecessary to set up a different Provider to use a different ID for a particular insurance plan.
Insurance Plans and Providers now have the option "Don’t use submitter". This makes it unnecessary to set up a different Provider to have the provider’s name instead of the group in the claim (for instance, in Item 33 on the CMS1500 form).
An insurance plan may now be marked so as not to be included as "Other Insurance" on claims to other insurance plans. For instance, you may not want to include an auto accident insurance company as "Other Insurance" on a Blue claim for a flu visit. Likewise, you can mark an insurance plan to not include other insurance plans as "Other Insurance" on their claims. For instance, you might not want to include Medicaid as "Other Insurance" on the auto insurance claim if it is irrelevant.
An Insurance Plan’s name is now displayed regardless of whether there is a carrier number or not.
Fixed a rare problem that caused deleting a patient’s insurance to also remove insurance information for other patients.
The list of a patient’s insurance plans has been restructured, showing primary, active plans first.
Electronic Claims
Fixed bug that would cause addresses without zip codes to cause an error.
Modifiers m1-m4 are now trimmed, preventing blank spaces from being sent.
If the field "epsdt referral given" is blank, it will now be treated as "No" instead of ignoring the epsdt CRC segment in loop 2300.
Claims
Charges entered via an encounter may now include the facility identified for that particular encounter, if any is identified.
If a CPT Code has blanks in the "Accept Assignment" field, it is now treated as though it were not filled in.
Allow substitution of "A" for "-" to identify the particular database when sending claims from a MultiDoc system. This avoids the problem caused when an insurance plan erroneously removes the hyphens from the claim numbers.
Paper Claims
On Medicare secondary claims, the Primary Payer ID is no longer printed due to requirement conflicts.
Alerts and Reminders
Fixed a bug when calculating the time interval for immunizations when the interval exceeded 89 years.
Fixed a bug that allowed Alerts to be marked both as "performed" and "overridden".
Ledger
A bug that would occasionally cause "Print Selected Claims" to fail to print has been fixed.
When a claim is being cancelled and resubmitted, crossovers from that claim will no longer be re-submitted.
CPT Code Setup
When adding a charge, the Quantity field can no longer be entered using the keyboard, preventing an error that would occur if an invalid Quantity was entered.
Images
The method used to display images after being scanned has been updated to allow proper display on Windows Vista.
Letters
Sending a letter twice no longer results in an error.
EHR
The list of problem classes now shows whether the class is active or not.
Scheduler
Fixed a problem regarding adding a new provider and not setting a scheduler resource that would cause changes to affect all scheduler resources.
Setup
You can now choose to see only the active items in many of the Setup Tabs.
Changes in Release 3.142
New Features
Patient Registry ($)
Alerts and Reminders
VersaForm now provides computerized alerts and reminders to help you deliver higher quality healthcare for both preventative care and management of chronic conditions and help ensure that timely clinical interventions are initiated. Immunizations also may be the subject of both alerts and reminders.
Alerts and reminders are driven by protocols (sets of conditions and actions) that can be set up by the user. They are based on information that is already in your VersaForm system. They can be used whether you have Practice Management, EHR, or both. In VersaForm terminology, Alerts are for the physician, Reminders are for the patient.
Alerts are seen in a new tab on the patient chart when the chart is opened. The tab is colored red when there are new alerts.
Reminders, on the other hand, are printed as an Outreach Report that provides a list of patients to be contacted, for instance by telephone. The Outreach report can also produce letters using the letters in the Letters Tab of the Desktop. This list of patients comes from the report. The letters can be printed or emailed.
Visit Plans
In addition, you can produce a "Visit Plan" to be printed before a patient is seen. It contains summary information (problems, labs, meds) for the patient along with a list of all applicable Alerts. You can print a Visit Plan for all the patients scheduled for a particular day, or for another time period, or you can print a Visit Plan for a single patient. Printing Visit Plans can alert the physician to overdue assessments or to patient conditions that do not meet the goals that have been set.
Health Management Reports
Health Management Reports can show the status of individual patients or of a group of patients. For instance, they can show the latest blood sugar test value for all of your patients who are diabetic.
You define your own Health Management Reports on an ad-hoc basis. You can then save them for repeated use. These reports can show information on immunizations, labs, treatments, and patient history.
The above Patient Registry features can be purchased as an add-on to your system.
Patient Recalls
A new method of setting up patient recalls is part of this release. You can set any number of recalls for a patient, with a separate note for each. You can get a list of recalls for a given time period, or print or email recall letters as a batch.
Immunizations
Immunizations are recorded in the same way as medications. The vaccines have been entered in the practice-wide medications list. If electronic prescribing is in use, the vaccines will normally have been entered automatically. When recording a vaccination, the user can enter information such as vaccine manufacturer, lot number, etc. A report showing a patient's immunizations is available. Vaccination reminders may be set up if you are using the Patient Registry functions, above.
Electronic Labs
- VersaForm now accepts intermediate labs results.
- Lab panels can now have patient instructions and lab panel prompts.
- A lab panel used for a specific patient can now contain patient comments and instructions.
- Individual lab tests can now contain user supplied comments.
Changes
Setup
- A new facility type, AMBSURGCTR has been added.
- You can now choose to include the office in Box 32 of the CMS-1500 for any insurance plan.
- Letters can now be exported and imported.
Scheduler
- You can now change date, time, and duration of a scheduled item even if you are using the appointment reminder call feature.
- If the user creating a schedule item has no default provider, one is assigned.
- Appointment reminders can now be generated for all existing future appointments.
- An appointment reminder call can be added or removed from an existing appointment.
- Daily schedule window has a new button to jump ahead 3, 6, 9, and 12 months.
- A schedule resource can be restricted to "normal hours".
- A new graph shows, by month, what portion of scheduled time consisted of "no shows".
Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA)s
- Payment adjustments now show in summary reports.
- Out of balance payments are now shown in the report header.
- An improved method of identifying secondary insurance payments has been implemented.
e-Rx
- Changed practice registration to ensure that only a single registration takes place.
- Fixed a problem sending class 4 drugs.
Security
- You can now elect to "remember" both the user name and password so they need not be supplied when starting VersaForm.
General
- All temporary files created by VersaForm are deleted when VersaForm exits.
- Fixed SSN search in select patient dialog.
- Added buttons for dashboard and letters to the main menu bar and removed the desktop button.
Ledger
- Added new column for charge service date on credit history.
- An EOB is now sorted on the "Issued By" column so the EOB will be in order.
- Added special function for Illinois Medicaid Secondary.
- Added option to allow $0.00 charges and to automatically bill insurance even if the charge amount is zero. This will allow the reporting of PQRI codes (these normally carry no charge amount).
- Corrected an error in the use of the UB04 legacy prohibit date on UB04 and UB92 forms.
- Birthdate and sex is no longer printed in block 9b of the CMS1500 for Medicare with secondary held by patient.
- Added a restriction that only one credit to be transferred or refunded can be processed at a time.
- Payments now cause a ledger refresh to show the results of an EOB payment.
Reports
- Referring physician is now shown in patient reports.
- Added current date to Patient Summary report.
- Added an Authorizations Status Report to the General reports.
Medications
- Discontinuing a medication will now show all renewals as stopped.
Changes in Releases 3.141
An error was fixed that prevented lab entry from the keyboard. Changing scheduled appointment times is again permitted.
Changes in Releases 3.140
New Features
Recurring Appointments
You will now be able to make recurring appointments. VersaForm will walk you through the process of defining the criteria, choosing the dates and making the appointments.
New Report
The new Unpaid Charges report shows you the status of unpaid charges based on the patients' current insurances. The report groups charges as:
- 1 - There is no primary insurance
- 2 - Primary insurance is not queued
- 3 - Primary insurance is queued
- 4 - Primary insurance is SENT
- 5a - Primary insurance is completed
- 5b - Secondary insurance is not queued
- 5c - Secondary insurance is queued
- 5d - Secondary insurance is SENT
- 5e - Secondary insurance is completed
- 6 - Other (the insurance is pended or, when you look at the Payment, Adjustment and Insurance Details window, there is no Status listed.)
New Versions
- We now have a Trial Version of VersaForm that includes a pre-populated database. It can easily be converted to a non-trial database.
- We now have a Student Version of VersaForm.
Schedule and Encounter Description Editing
It is now easy to add, remove and edit Encounter Descriptions. (This was added in version 3.139 but was not documented.)
VF Phone Home
You can now have VersaForm automatically send copies of error messages to VersaForm Tech Support.
Changes
Claims
- Some payers do not want the Federal Tax ID sent with facility information in electronic claims. We removed the warning message that appeared about a facility missing its EIN when creating an electronic claim. The warning was also removed from the Facility Setup. This is so you can simply leave the EIN out when payers don't want it.
- In electronic claims, we have corrected the abbreviations for drug unit of measure in Loop 2410.
- On the CMS1500 claim form, we changed the way Block 19 is picked up from the Miscellaneous Tab. 40 characters now go onto each line of Block 19, and the same for print-to-file 1500s. If you use print-to-file and need Block 19, let your claims processor know about this change.
General
- VersaForm is now deleting many of the temporary files it needs to generate.
- In the Vitals display, the Vitals will always be in order, even when some are blank.
- In Letters, patient labels have a larger left margin and the name on the label is printed in 9 point type as "First Middle Last" instead of "Last, First Middle".
Labs
- VersaForm now accepts lab data from 9 different labs, including Cytocheck.
- We added a Print button to the Lab Panel Patient Comments, Lab Panel Patient Instructions and Lab Test Patient Comments windows.
- All data in the results comments is now shown in the Data Panel for ... window and in printouts.
- Lab processing now ignores parentheses surrounding the reference range. If VersaForm cannot figure out how to translate the reference range (it is supposed to be 'number - number') then the low_normal and high_normal fields will be null.
Ledger
- Adjustments, transfers, refunds, etc. are now all included in the history of a credit on the ledger. You get to this Credit for ... window by right clicking on a credit line.
- During the process of transferring credits:
- If you cancel at any time after choosing whom to transfer to, VersaForm will return the credit to the original chart.
- The ledger being transferred TO will refresh automatically if it is open.
- In the Adjustment for ... window, VersaForm no longer assumes that the adjustment is an insurance adjustment.
- An EOB with no credits at all is now included in multi-patient payments.
- The handling of Multi-Patient EOB credits and deposit slips has changed. When a Multi-Patient EOB is started:
- If no credits are assigned to patients, the credit appears on the deposit slip.
- If all or part of the credit is assigned to patients, it appears on the deposit slip.
- If the credit is assigned to patients but not fully applied to payments, it appears on the deposit slip.
- If the credit is transferred to a different patient, the full amount of the Multi-Patient EOB credit is on the deposit slip PLUS the transferred amount is there as well.
- VersaForm now warns the user against reversing a credit that came from a Multi-Patient EOB.
- VersaForm now prevents reversing a credit unless all of the payments have been reversed.
Notes
- In the header of a Note, VersaForm now displays dates in short form, m/d/yy, so the entire date is visible.
- The select_dropdown_values window is larger.
- Windows for choosing dropdowns and templates are now resizable.
- VersaForm now allows paragraph format of dropdown choices without commas separating chosen values.
- VersaForm now allows duplicate values in a dropdown.
- Current vitals are correctly formatted.
- After a dropdown, if a comma appears after a period, colon, or semicolon, it is removed.
Reports
In the Deposit Slip, the payments are again correctly grouped by type.
Scheduler
- There are now blanks around the "/" between Comments and Description to make it easier to read.
- The Scheduler can now correctly display 5-digit patient ID numbers.
- A bi-monthly Event problem was fixed.
- You can force appointments on Holidays.
- The free time search now tests for Holidays.
- Holidays are grayed out in the Schedule window.
- All schedule times may be entered by typing them in directly. The minutes must be divisible by 5.
- The Visit Type is now included in the schedule print out from the Print button in the Schedule window.
- The Appointment List report now shows the Resource and allows sorting on it.
- An overbooking problem was fixed. (It used to use the Schedule Increment rather than the appointment Duration.)
- We added a Today button to the Schedule window to put the calendar back to today and refresh today's data.
- We added a Refresh button to the Schedule window that refreshes data for the currently selected date.
Setup
- Submitter Setup: removed the unused Import button.
- When a facility is being entered, we don't check for the EIN, but we do check for the NPI.
- We check for NPIs when entering Providers, Referrings and Submitters as well.
Changes in Releases 3.139
New Features
New Reports
- Patient Future Appointments.
- Patient Previous Names.
- Patient Previous Addresses.
Labs
- Lab panels can now have instructions for the patient that can be printed.
- Lab panels can now have a prompt that shows up for the operator. You can use this to remind the operator to check for certain patient problems, etc.
- Labs (a specific lab panel for one patient on a single date) can now include comments from the patient.
- Labs (a specific lab panel for one patient on a single date) can now have personalized patient instructions.
- Lab tests (a specific test for a specific lab panel for one patient on a single date) can now have test comments.
- If lab data is modified, we now show the user who made modification.
- Show and allow update of lab test's LOINC code.
Demographics
- All patient prior addresses and prior names are now kept.
- A field has been added for the patient's spouse's cell phone.
- We have added specific address records for the patient's Father and the patient's Mother.
Changes
Security
- A High Security Level was added.
- A new type of User, the Security Administrator, was added.
- For the most part, if the Security Administrator chooses Standard Security, VersaForm works as before.
- Passwords are now encrypted using an advanced hashing algorithm.
- If you forget your password, a System Administrator must reset your account by assigning you a new password.
- The login screen now contains options for remembering the User and Password. Use of this feature is controlled by a Security Administrator. Multi-Doc systems do not get this feature.
- Be aware that, if you choose High Security, it is possible to loose access to your database such that only VersaForm tech support can regain access and only over an Internet connection.
See "Security" below for more about the new Security Level.
General
A warning message is shown if a User is running with a Windows logon that does not permit local file changes.
835s
- Fixed a problem where out-of-balance files ended up on the Payments and Credits report instead of the Exception report. This problem occurs sometimes on secondary insurance payments where the 835 contains the amount of the charge instead of the amount of the payment.
- Changed 835 insert into adjustments table to set service date to today instead of the transaction date.
- Updated the 835 codes.
- The 835 Reconciliation report now shows provider adjustments (adjustments charged to the provider like late filing penalties). Because these adjustments are not linked to a claim, they show only on the reconciliation report.
- 835 file processing changes
- If you are not connected to the proper database, VersaForm does not move the file to the error directory and does not put anything in the electronic claim tables.
- VersaForm now ignores the 835 BPR14 missing segment error.
Labs
- Labs processing now ignores parentheses surrounding the reference range. If the code can not figure out how to translate the reference range (expecting 'number - number') then the low_normal and high_normal fields will be null.
- Round trip labs are ready for first installation.
- VersaForm now allows users to change lab_panels: panel_name, active, prompt and patient_instructions.
- Labs for a patient can now be filtered and displayed by order date, due date, reviewed date, panels, tests, facilities, test state, abnormal tests, and electronic labs.
Reports
- Fixed a problem that occurred when the user selected a report with no data.
- Fixed the Appointment List report to check for cancellations so they don't appear.
- Changed the audit report to display longer descriptions.
Scheduler
Fixed a problem that prevented scheduling an appointment without selecting a patient.
Appointment Reminders
- If the schedule time is changed and the patient already has a reminder call for that day, do not add a reminder call.
- If an appointment to be deleted has an appointment reminder and there is another appointment for this patient on this day then, after deleting, add an appointment reminder for the other appointment. If more than one appointment is left for the same day call about the first one only.
Security
- A new level of security was added. The VersaForm system may now be either "Standard" or "High" security.
- Passwords are now encrypted and multiple passwords are kept to be able to enforce re-use rules.
- Only the User who enters a password can know what that password is.
- The login screen was changed to allow passwords to be entered in mixed case.
- Password changes now show in the Audit report.
- Changed the Access Control Tab to allow entry and update of the new security parameters.
- Added a menu item, Change My Password, under Utilities.
- DBA Authority is now called System Administrator Authority.
- The first user added to a new install is now given both Security Administrator and System Administrator authorities.
User Authorities
- There are now two special authorities that can be granted to a User.
- You cannot grant a User Authority to another User unless you already have the authority being granted.
- The User Authorities are:
- System Administrator
- A System Administrator is allowed to view and change critical system settings such as setting the options for VersaForm backups.
- In addition, a System Administrator is granted all permissions (see the Controlling What Users can See and Modify section below) for viewing and changing all patient and practice data.
- Security Administrator
- A Security Administrator is allowed to view and change system settings relating to logins, passwords, and system security levels. Only a Security Administrator is allowed to change another User's password.
- A Security Administrator is not automatically granted all user permissions.
- The same User can be both a System Administrator and a Security Administrator. The built-in User DBA is both a System and Security administrator and these authorities cannot be removed from this User.
- System Administrator
System Security Levels
The Security level is selected in the Access Control window. The two levels of System Security are:
- Standard
- The password rules have no effect and passwords may be of any length, contain any characters, etc.
- Passwords are not case-sensitive.
- Reports are not restricted based on Administrator authorities.
- A System Administrator can prevent users from using the Remember my User Name and Password for the login screen.
- If a User login fails, the system will provide specific information about what caused the failure, such as bad User name or incorrect Password.
- Three login attempts are permitted using an incorrect password and then the system will exit but the User is not suspended and can try again by restarting VersaForm.
- High
- Only a Security Administrator can:
- Use the Access Control and Users Tabs in the Setup window.
- Make a User inactive.
- Grant Security Administrator authority to another User.
- Use the Audit and the Security User List reports.
- Change the password rules.
- Allow users to use the Remember my User Name and Password for the login screen.
- The password rules become effective.
- Passwords are case-sensitive.
- You may be required to use a complex password. A complex password contains at least one upper and one lower case letter, one number and one special character.
- Consecutive attempts to login using the wrong password will cause a User to be suspended. The number of attempts is set by a Security Administrator.
- A suspended User can only be reset by a Security Administrator by assigning a new password to the User.
- You may be prevented from reusing passwords.
- The system will not provide information on the cause of login failures.
- Only a Security Administrator can:
Controlling User Login
- Every VersaForm User must have a password. Passwords are kept in the VersaForm database and are encrypted using an advanced hashing algorithm. Only the User who enters a password can know what the password is. If you forget your password, a System Administrator must reset your account by assigning you a new password.
- Using the Access Control Tab, a Security Administrator can set the password rules for your system including:
- Permitting or disallowing use of the Remember my user name and password for the login screen.
- Setting the System to the Standard or High Security Level.
- Setting the minimum length of a password.
- Forcing all users to change passwords on a periodic basis.
- Making passwords case-sensitive.
- Requiring you to use a complex password. A complex password contains at least one upper and lower case letter, a number and a special character.
- Preventing you from reusing passwords.
- Setting the maximum number of login failures caused by supplying an incorrect password to allow before suspending a User.
- The Change Password dialog will show you the current requirements when you are entering a password.
- The login screen contains options for remembering the User name and Password. Use of this feature is controlled by a Security Administrator. Multi-Doc systems do not get this feature.
Med Interactions and e-Rx
Patient handouts now available in 19 languages
Changes in Release 3.138
An error that prevented schedules from printing has been fixed. This occurred only in the earliest 3.137 versions; systems downloaded on or after 10/10 do not have the error.
An error in reading automatically downloaded lab results has been fixed.
Changes in Releases 3.136 and 3.137
New Features
Free Trials
We have added 30 day free trials of the ledger, for those who are just using the electronic health records part of VersaForm, and of electronic remittance advice processing, for those who are already doing their billing with VersaForm.
We have also added a free trial of the Scheduler that has no time limit, but does limit the functionality.
Ledger 30 Day Free Trial
The free trial will let you experiment with the ledger. One of the best features is, if you enter a charge from the Encounter tab, or from within a Note, the charge will automatically appear on the ledger, ready to be billed to insurance.
The first time you use a free ledger function you will see a message explaining that you can try the ledger free for 30 days. When the number of days left is getting low, you will be reminded that the free trial is running out. Once the Ledger Free Trial has expired, no more ledger functions can be used until you buy the feature and install the new key.
Note:
- The ledger Print button, Print This Ledger will still work after the trial period has expired.
- Creating or printing claims are not part of the 30 day free trial period. The menu items for printing claims are disabled.
ERA Processing 30 Day Free Trial
If you request Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) from your payer or clearinghouse, you can automatically post claims to your patient ledgers. It can save you much of the time you now spend posting EOBs, and make it easier, too. Because it may take some time to get this started, your 30 free days won't start until you begin using the feature. When the number of days left gets low, you will be reminded that the free trial is running out.
Scheduler Free Trial
Up to two appointments per day are allowed, with no time limit. You can set up as many resources to be scheduled as you need--they can be people, rooms, machines, or whatever. However, the Find a Time, Search and Print buttons are disabled during the trial.
Labs Test Low/High by Age
You are now able to enter low and high values for labs based on age.
If a lab test does not have low/high value(s) by age, or the patient age is unknown, or the patient's current age is not covered by the values in the Low/High table, VersaForm will use the low and high values from the Datum/Test Setup window.
Statement Report
Statements Printed has been added to the reports.
Vista
VersaForm may be installed in Windows Vista.
Changes
Scheduler and Patient Calls
- Resource event start and stop times show in the weekly schedule.
- Patient Calls can be made to the home, work or cell phone numbers.
- VersaForm logs the message results from Patient Calls.
- If you choose to, VersaForm can now cancel appointments that should be cancelled as a result of a Patient Call. The Schedule Reconciliation Report will show that the patient call resulted in the automatic deletion of the appointment.
- You can now specify whether Patient Calls default to Yes or No.
Desktop
- The Completed and Read columns can now be set from the list in Messages/Reminders.
- Unsigned Encounters can be signed, Images can be marked as reviewed, and Notes can now marked as signed and/or reviewed from the Physician's Dashboard.
Setup
- There is now a vertical scroll bar if you have more providers than will show on one screen.
- VersaForm will not allow more than your maximum number of active providers.
- You can select only active facilities.
- There is an Active column displayed in Insurance Plans.
- You can copy the address from one insurance plan to another.
Ledger
- You can now reverse transactions with reversed payments and adjustments, and reverse payments that have previously been reversed.
- The ditto marks now look back to the last charge so intervening payments do not interfere with their use.
- VersaForm now bases the time calculation for the Use Previous popup on the date entered, not the service date.
- Explosions now recognize Needs CLIAin the component CPT® codes.
- Fixed a problem with the previous charge's amount being repeated when the user declines to enter the charge amount on a CPT® code that does not have an associated charge amount.
- Takes Qtyinto account when calculating the Copay Amt, if it is a percentage.
- You can select only active facilities for the Service Facility on the Problem/Facility Tab of the charge.
- The Hospital Admit and Hospital Discharge dates have been moved to the Problem/Facility Tab of the charge.
- Removed the Emergency checkbox--it was duplicated by the Emergency Relatedcheckbox above it in the Problem/Facility Tab of the charge.
- If you don't enter a diagnosis code on a charge, and there is one on the previous line, it will be included in the diagnosis code warning message, and you can just click to choose it.
Statements and Superbills
- VersaForm is becoming more proactive in avoiding running into the database size limit for those using the free MSDE SQL server. As the 2 GB size limit approaches VersaForm will remove recent statement images and eventually will stop archiving statement images at all.
- If the statement doesn't show charges over a certain age, print a balance forward line when it is needed to make the statement balance.
- The charges on Superbills are now sorted by service date, in ascending order.
Claims
- Added printing of item 22, Medicaid Resubmission Code and the original reference number.
- Print as a job, so the program won't ask for the printer on each claim.
- UB04 format changes, and print the doctor's name, NPIs and Qualifiers for attending and referring providers.
- Prevent force-to-paper causing other patients' electronic claims going to paper.
- VersaForm is becoming more proactive in avoiding running into the database size limit for those using the free MSDE SQL server. As the 2 GB size limit approaches VersaForm will remove recent images for completed claims and eventually will stop archiving claim images at all.
- If a facility's NPI is required but missing, emit the facility in electronic claims anyway, because some nursing facilities have no NPI.
Payments and 835s
- Fixed the "penny error" which was caused by unrounded results.
- When processing 835s in a Multi-Doc situation, VersaForm no longer automatically switches to the proper database. VersaForm will tell you to log into the proper database before processing the file.
- It is no longer necessary to set up an Electronic Claims Processor just for 835s.
- VersaForm prevents you from making an error by specifying an existing file for the log file and/or the error file for 835 processing.
- The 835 payments and exceptions report has been modified to show claim adjustments and payments adjustments more fully. There is only room to show a maximum of three claim adjustments in the report. So, if there are more than three claim adjustments, a footnote tells the total number of adjustments and total amount for those adjustments.
- All payment adjustments will be shown.
EHR
- Permit saving or overwriting a template from the Notes window. Thus you don't have to go to Setup to modify a template.
- Fixed a problem with searching notes when using an OLE-DB database connection, as with SQL Server 2005..
- Now limits scheduled drugs to classcode 4 or 5.
- You can now fax prescriptions for scheduled drugs.
Electronic Labs
- Lab Panel IDs are truncated to the first 15 characters and Lab Panel Names are truncated to 30 characters.
- Lab results need to be put into an open encounter. Instead of simply using the first open encounter, VersaForm asks the user which open encounter, if any, should receive the lab results and what to do if there are no open encounters.
Registration
- Added Birthplace to the Demographics Tab.
- Fixed the age calculation error when the patient's Date Of Birth was a leap day.
- Do not default the signature fields in the Billing Info Tab.
- In the Insurance Tab, if the Subscriber is not the patient, you can now click on the Copy Address from Patient button to fill in the Subscriber Address.
General
- In order to add new features, VersaForm has an expanded Program ID and Program Key. Your old ID and Key will continue to work but any keys you receive in the future will be in the new format.
- Added a Register button for unregistered, Basic Edition users.
- Add NPI to provider information acquired during the first login.
- Set the default license value to 20 active workstations.
- Add an active station check, to check the number of active workstations.
Reports
- Made the totals in the Aged Accounts Receivable as of a date and Aged A/R by Insurance Plan large enough to hold any expected value.
- Improved the A/R "as of" reports so they give the same results as the production reports. For instance, the A/R report as of 1/1/2006 will give the same totals as the production report from 1/1/1900 to 1/1/2006.
- Added a column to show the carrier number in Claims not Returned.
Changes in Release 3.135
- A problem that prevented schedules printing was fixed.
Changes in Release 3.134
New Features
Windows Vista
- VersaForm may be installed in Windows Vista as a client (but not as a single-user system or as a server). Consult Technical Support before installing. Full release for Vista will be announced.
- Vista clients may access either SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2000 databases.
SQL Server 2005
- New VersaForm systems may now be installed using SQL Server 2005. This includes both standard and "multi-doc" systems.
Changes
Claims
- You can print the UB04 claim form instead of the UB92, with dates in Setup / Preferences controlling which of the two is used.
- The National Plan Id was added to the Insurance Plan Setup
- On the CMS1500 08/05, we print a space between qualifier and number in 33b, but only for medicare.
- On the CMS1500 08/05, we always print the rendering physician ID in item 24j when the insurance is medicare--whether or not it is a group practice--as per the instructions.
- Numerous changes were made in the print-to-file format of the CMS1500 form.
Scheduler and Schedule Related Items
- You can now schedule an appointment at the same time as a cancelled appointment.
- Added 45 and 20 minute schedule increments.
- The appointment edit window shows the user who created the appointment in
- When making a schedule entry, the window displays previous no-shows for selected patient.
- The schedule resource list is now sorted alphabetically.
- Schedule start time now begins with the resource start time.
- A warning is displayed if patient already has an appointment scheduled within five days of the new appointment.
- The next appointment is shown in patient chart title bar.
- A future appointments list for a patient is shown in the demographics tab.
- When creating an appointment, patient phone number can be modified. This is used primarily by users of the Appointment Reminder feature.
ERA 835 Processing
- Improved ERA processing for crossover claims to correctly identify the secondary insurance.
Appointment Reminder Calls
- New reports for appointment reminders that list results by resource.
- Modified Appointment Reminders so the correct call status is returned.
Other
- In summary medication lists, we now avoid showing duplications of re-prescribed meds.
- With DBA authority, you can reverse the signing of an encounter.
- The ICD9 code choice window shows active codes only.
- The chart memo is now operational. It is not included when the entire chart is printed.
Changes in Release 3.133
New Features
TeleMinder
An interface to the TeleMinder automatic appointment reminder service has been added. TeleMinder reminds patients of their appointment time and date, clinic location, physician, and any other information you specify. It will leave messages on answering machines, and accept appointment confirmations.
Automated appointment reminders result in decreased "no shows", a more productive staff, and healthier - happier patients.
Chart Memo
A Chart Memo has been added to the Patient Chart. This provides a note for the physician to use for notes and reminders relating to the patient, but not specific to an encounter. The memo field could be used for recording information such as:
- an unusual goal for monitoring a particular therapy
- a reminder that this is a problem patient or a patient that is noncompliant
- a plan for an upcoming office visit, and for the lab to be done when the patient comes in
- a reminder to discuss a specific issue at the patient's next office visit
- other similar miscellaneous items
- The Chart Memo is opened by a button at the top of the chart. It does not appear on the ledger.
Changes
SQL Server 2005 is now supported for single practices. Multi-doc availability will be announced.
The VersaForm client runs under Windows Vista, but as of this release testing is incomplete. We recommend delaying implementation of Vista until our testing has been completed. If a VersaForm database is to be installed under Vista, SQL Server 2005 should be used. Please consult VersaForm before beginning a Vista installation.
Notes and images may now be entered without opening an encounter. This feature must be enabled by a choice in the Setup/Preferences dialog, since it would allow entry of information without a corresponding encounter.
Claims
The new CMS1500 08/05 form is supported for paper claims, and provides for use of the NPI (National Provider Identifier). Dates that control NPI and legacy identifier usage are in Setup/Preferences and Setup/Insurance Plan. The dates are set to use the new form; to continue using the old form, you must change the date for using CMS1500 08/05. More information is here.
Note: CMS has delayed the deadline when the new form is required! See the CMS Bulletin.
An option has been added to the Insurance Plan Setup to use the patient number in box 26 of CMS1500 08/05 instead of the claim number.
A patient's insurance plan information now includes the insurance plan's patient ID as well as the subscriber ID.
Electronic claims may now be submitted through the Emdeon/WebMD service.
A search function has been added to the window that views an electronic claim transaction set, making it easy to find a particular patient's claim.
Desktop
Dashboard encounter list and labs lists are limited to valid entries. Previously all entries were shown.
In the Messages window, the Print button will now print just the messages that are displayed, instead of all messages.
Medications
When prescribing a drug electronically, if a drug is no longer valid a search will be initiated automatically.
Electronic prescriptions can be resent with a single click. This is useful if, for example, a prescription failed to be sent because the pharmacy FAX machine was busy for a long period or the Pharmacy simply cannot find the prescription.
This change uses the pharmacy FAX number in your VersaForm data base rather than the FAX number in the NewCrop database. This allows you to quickly correct or update a pharmacy FAX number for your electronic prescriptions.
Patients may now have as many pharmacies as desired. Previously the maximum was 2.
Reports
The printed patient chart has been improved--each encounter is on a new page, only current meds are printed, and CPT®s are not printed.
A Patient Info Verification report has been added, to be used when asking patients to verify their current address, meds, etc.
There are 2 new reports for collections: Collection Follow Up and Collection Activity.
The name of the Activity Report by Provider has been changed to Charges and Payments by Provider (svc date), and the name of the Production Report by Provider has been changed to Charges and Payments by Provider (entry date). The purpose of the name change is to avoid the impression that these reports are similar to the other Activity and Production reports. Because these reports include refunds and other adjustments, they show different totals than those other reports.
The Payments by Payment Type report now excludes EOB payments from sum of patient payments.
In reports, filters now operate on computed columns, expanding their usefulness.
Other
On the Select a Patient Chart Dialog, the Advanced Search function has been changed--it now searches for the data item entered in the Find field, in the Data field indicated by the Advanced Search choice. The Claim Number has been added to the list of fields that can be searched for. A particular benefit of this change is that it enables searching by claim number when entering payments in the Multi-patient payment window.
A suffix field has been added to referring physician information.
When entering a charge through the encounter dialog, the encounter date is use for the service date instead of current date.
When a charge is reversed, associated diagnoses are removed.
When printing statements, if an interest rate is not found, 0 is used, and the statement is still produced.
The Labs dialog will now ask whether to mark the lab completed if data has been entered.
Changes in Release 3.132
- Added ability to import patient pictures in JPG or BMP format without using additional software.
- Added Surescripts logo to electronic Rx pages.
- In Scheduler, fixed error in Cancel button.
- Restored visibility to the title of a note, so it can be changed.
- In Messages, fixed error in Reply button.
Changes in Release 3.131
- Corrected printing of Units on paper claims that exceeded the space available because it printed 2 decimal places.
- Does not attempt to include taxpayer ID on an electronic claim when it is missing from the provider information.
- When NPI is use, does not send Legacy ID on an electronic claim if that ID has already been sent as the taxpayer ID.
- Changes to the Patient Form Kit and Appointment Form Kit were withdrawn to avoid impacting user-modified form kits.
Changes in Release 3.129
New Features
Physician’s Dashboard
The Physicians Dashboard gathers on one screen information about the clinician's daily work:
- It shows Unsigned Encounters, Images not Reviewed, Labs not Reviewed, Notes not Signed or Not Reviewed, Appointments (today) and Messages and Reminders.
- Double-clicking on any item goes directly to the relevant patient chart.
e-Rx--Electronic Prescriptions--is in Beta
- This new feature, which is now ready for Beta Testing, allows you to send electronic prescriptions to a pharmacy. You must have a high-speed Internet connection available to each VersaForm station to use this facility. Prescriptions are sent either via FAX or directly (using secure transmission protocols) to the pharmacy's computers, depending on the capabilities of the pharmacy. This feature includes adding over 31,000 medications for you to choose from and provides access to over 30,000 pharmacies in the United States who accept either FAX or direct prescriptions.
To support this feature, pharmacies may be selected and assigned to patients when you add a medication to a patient's chart. If you prefer, you can select and add pharmacies from the Setup/Facilities screen and assign pharmacies to patients using the Registration tab on the patient chart.
If you are interested in becoming a Beta Tester for this feature, contact VersaForm at 800-678-1111.
Medication and Allergy Interactions
- This feature now includes drug handouts for the patient and drug monographs for the physician.
Special copay window for the front desk
- A new button on the Scheduler Appointment window opens a special window that permits acceptance and posting of a copay with only 3 clicks!
"Claim As" feature for incident-to billing
- Enables billing for Physicians' Assistants and Nurse Practitioners to be made under the name of a physician, as for Medicare "incident-to" rules.
"Claim As Rendering" feature
- Allows you to say whether the Primary Provider's or the Rendering Provider's information is used as the billing provider.
NPI--National Provider Identifier
- Enter NPIs for providers, billing providers, referring providers, supervising providers, rendering providers, purchased service providers and facilities.
- Added NPI Dates to insurance plans, so the use of the NPI can begin at different times for different insurance plans if required.
Secondary Billing
- Payer adjustments (the ones on the EOB) from the primary payer must now be reported on the secondary claim, if the secondary claim is electronic. Medicare is among the payers that require this. The information is gathered automatically if you have the ERA feature, and you can enter it manually from a paper EOB if not. There is a new button, EOBA(djustments) on the payment window to use this feature.
Other Changes
Reports
- Double clicking on patient lines in a report now takes you to the patient’s chart.
- Collection follow-up and collection activity reports have been added.
- The use of Filters has been expanded to cover a larger range of column types.
Scheduler
- Remembers the last used scheduler
