Visual Practice HOW TO

...Enter patient's insurance policy and claim information 

Introduction

Before you can create a bill for a patient's insurance company, you first need to enter the patient's insurance policy and a claim against that policy. This HOW TO is a short tutorial on entering a patient's insurance information.

The Patient Registry Policy Tab

In the patient registry is a tab titled "Policy". The Policy tab contains a data entry area for insurance policies and claims, as shown below:

Here is a screen capture of all the fields included in the insurance policy grid:

Obviously there is a lot of information that you can collect about a patient's insurance policy; most of it is not required for billing purposes. Depending on the type of insurance your patient uses, the primary information you need to collect to have included on an insurance bill or statement is:

There is also a comment field that you can use to include information about the policy that you would find useful, such as terms and conditions of use, etc.

Note: If this patient's Insurance Company does not exist, you can click on the Insurers button to quickly access the Insurance Company Lists form and enter the new insurance company.  Once saved, you can then select the insurance company in the Insurer column on the Policy grid.

Once you have entered this information, you can then make a claim against the policy.  To record a claim, ensure the insurance line you've entered is highlighted and press the Claims button.

Once the Claims button is clicked, a new Form will appear.  This is the Claim Form and allow you to specify claims against the highlighted insurance policy.  The Claim Form is shown below:

To create a claim, press the Add button and fill out the claim line.  You may specify more than one open claim against a policy.  The 'Open' status is for informational purposes only and does not affect the billing process.

Once you have finished entering the claim information, click on the Save Button on the toolbar. You will then be returned to the patient registry.  You can then continue to edit the patient's registry information, or you can click on the Save Button to save all the changes you've made.

That's it!  You've created an insurance policy and claim for this patient.