Medicare Update & NetPractice Release Notes

Important Information for PPM Users:

We wanted to remind everyone of the important dates approaching that will affect your practice.

JANUARY 1, 2011 - you will no longer be able to send Medicare claims by modem. You should have received information from Pam on switching your Medicare and Anthem claims over to ZirMed^®. A lot of our clients have already made this change. But if you have not, contact Pam or the support department immediately to avoid a disruption in your Medicare reimbursements.

Since PPM is no longer being updated by McKesson, you need to make sure you give your practice plenty of time to convert to a new system. You need to be converted by January 1, 2012. Since it usually takes several months to totally close out the old system, do not wait too long to start your conversion!

JANUARY 1, 2012 - All electronic claims must use Version 5010 Version 4010 claims are no longer accepted

OCTOBER 1, 2013 - Claims for services provided on or after this date must use ICD-10 codes for medical diagnosis and inpatient procedures CPT codes will continue to be used for outpatient services

For Our NetPractice Users:

The release notes can be very helpful in understanding software changes and enhancements after a new service pack. An easy way to find these is to click on help in the bottom left of the action column. Once on the help screen, the last choice in the left column is Release Notes. Click on that and then click on 7.3 Release Notes. This will bring up all the release notes from 7.3.0 to 7.3.14 which you can view and print. There have been many helpful changes and enhancements in these service packs! Here are just a few recent ones:

Statements - When you print patient statements, each time the statement adjustment is posted in the patient's transaction history (based on the Adj Code for Stmts stored in NetPractice Default Values), the Description column now reflects 'how' the statement was printed. In the Printers dialog box, if you select Print Here, the Description is Screen; if you select Output to Disk, the description is File; if you select MyReports, the description is MyReports; and if you print directly to a printer, the description is Printer.
Payment Entry Function - *New Functionality* A Tertiary Payment option has been added so you can indicate when a payment should be considered as tertiary.
Procedure Entry Function - *New Functionality* You can now reorder procedure line items by clicking the drop-down field in the # column and selecting the number that you want the procedure to be ordered in. You can also delete procedure line items by clicking the X icon to the left of the # field.
Procedure Entry Function - You can type a CPT code into any Proc field and then press Alt+S and the rest of the line item data will automatically fill in and the charges will save and be posted. This saves time and key/mouse clicks as you do not have to tab through the line item and then click Save.
Payment Entry Function When you enter personal payments (payments with a Payment Code that has the No option selected in the Insurance Payment field in Maintain Payment Codes) you can click the Oldest button in the Action Column on the payment allocation screen and that payment automatically moves to the oldest date of service with a patient balance.

***New Functionality*** An Insert Special Code Action has been added to the Actions drop-down list box so you can insert a special procedure code (ADM, CPO, DIS, EPO, NDC, NOTE, TIME, THRU) that was not originally entered, anywhere within a claim. Select the check box on the line item directly above where you want the special code to be inserted, select the code, type a description, and the code will insert directly below the selected procedure. This prevents you from having to reverse and repost the charges when one of these codes needs to be added.

***New Functionality*** The Post NOTE Action has been renamed to Post Claim NOTE since this note is submitted as a claim note in HCFA Box 19 and its electronic equivalent. If you need to attach a Note to a specific charge (to print directly above the charge in HCFA Box 24A and its electronic equivalent), select the new Insert Special Procedure action and select NOTE.

- Cindy Stancil -
Senior Claims Specialists/Programmer
Support #: 317.848.2266
Toll Free Support #: 800.875.0141