2. The Family Editor (fame)
2.1. Introduction
The Family Editor, fame, manages account information. You can run the Family Editor to add a new family to Partner, update family demographics, or enter notes about the account. You can also review an aged balance summary, run a collection report, generate account form letters, or review an account's transaction history.
Accounts and Patients: All charges in Partner belong to accounts; all billing history is found by reviewing accounts. Use the Family Editor to work with accounts. Medical records, procedures, and diagnoses belong to patients. Use the Patient Editor (notjane) to work with patients.
2.2. Quickstart: Run fame, Change Demographic Information
Follow the procedure below to learn the basics of fame.
Run fame
You can run fame from the Partner Windows or by typing fame at a command prompt.
You can also run fame from within other programs, such as checkin. Run checkin for the patient, then press [F3 -- Edit Account]. You can then skip to step #3.
Find an Account
Enter the family's name, or part of the family's name, to search for the account.
You can also search by account number, phone number, or several other criteria. To learn more, read Finding Patients and Accounts.
Make Your Changes
On the first page in fame, you can change the account's basic demographics. Move around the screen by pressing Tab, Enter, or the arrow keys. You can also move back one field by pressing the Backspace key. If you wish, you can press Page Down to cycle through all the pages of fame.
Once you have moved the cursor to a field you wish to change, press the End key to automatically erase the current contents.
Press [F1 -- Save]
Press F1 to save your changes and quit. If you do not want to save your changes, press F12 instead.
In the procedure above, you ran fame and made a small change to an account's demographics. In the next sections, you will learn about each of the screens in the fame program. Each of them serves an important purpose.
2.3. Page 1: Demographics
On the first page of fame, the main demographics screen, you can view and change demographic and other miscellaneous information about an account. You can also run two very useful account reports.
The fields at the top of the screen are self-explanatory. Press Enter or Tab to move from field to field and fill in any of the basic information. Partner will automatically capitalize names for you and enter dashes (-) in the phone numbers if you do not.
Status Flags: The "Status" field is not like other fields. Statuses are used to "flag" or classify accounts. You can put several different status flags on an account, separated by commas. An account might have "Overdue," "Bad Debt," and "Collection" status flags. Your office can run reports to see all the families that have a status. The status flags show up in the scheduler and elsewhere in Partner so your office will always know if there are any special circumstances surrounding an account.
Look-Up Fields: In all Partner programs, some fields have a list of possible answers from which you can pick. You can type anything you want into a name field or address field, but the "Status" field can only be filled from a list of predefined values, just like medical procedures elsewhere in Partner. To see a list of possible answers in a "Look-Up" field, type an asterisk (*) and press Enter. You can learn more about using the asterisk key to search for options in the Charge Posting manual.
Zip Code City Look-Up: If you type a zip code into the "City" field, Partner will look up the city name for you. Press Enter until the cursor is in the "City" field, type in the five digit zip code, and press Enter or Tab to perform the look-up.
Customizable Fields: The six fields in the lower left quarter of the screen are customizable. Your office may have set these fields to record HIPAA information, social security numbers, or other data.
Billing and Budget Information: In the lower-right quarter of the page, you can view the account's "Last Service" date, the last date on which charges were posted for a patient on the account. Payment and billing dates are also listed. Partner tracks and maintains these dates automatically. The last two fields on the screen, "Hold Bill Till" and "Budget Amt," can be used to control when the family will receive a personal bill and what amount will be due. You can learn more about family billing options by reading Personal Billing and Collections.
Aged Balances: Does the account or their insurance company have any outstanding bills? You can review outstanding balances in an aged chart at the bottom of the screen. The Personal, Insurance, and Medicaid totals will give you a quick reference, but you can also see how old the balances are by number of days since the transaction date (the date of service). Since a charge may become personal only after the insurance company rejects it, a 120+ personal charge may not be as terrible as it looks. However, a large amount of money overdue in the "120+" column might be a red-flag that the account needs attention by a biller. If you want more information about an account's outstanding charges, press [F3 -- Collectn Report].
Address Verification: Insurance carriers will reject claims that have a bad zip code or are missing street or city information. When you edit an account, Partner checks the address and warns you if there is a problem.
Make corrections to the fields that are highlighted in red and press [F1 -- Save and Continue]. If you do not have correct address information, you can press F12 to continue.
Function Keys on the Demographics Page
- [F1 -- Save]
Press F1 to save all changes and quit fame.
- [F3 -- Collectn Report]
Press F3 to run the collection report program. Do you need to understand, in detail, why an account has an overdue balance? The collection report provides a complete record of outstanding charges, including an explanation of which charges are pending the insurance company and which are personal. To learn more about the collection report (coll), read The Collection Report.
- [F5 -- Notes]
Press F5 to jump down to page three of fame, the main notes page. You can accomplish the same thing by pressing Page Down twice.
- [F6 -- Account Forms]
Press F6 to generate a form letter for this account. You will see a list of available form letters:
Use the arrow keys to select the desired letter, mark the letter or letters you want with an X, and press [F1 -- Process Forms]. Some forms will ask you questions on the screen before you print them. Do you want to learn how to create your own form letters or edit the existing ones? Read Customizing Form Letters.
- [F8 -- Account History]
Press F8 to run the Account History report, tater. The Account History report provides you with a complete transaction history for the account, including all dependent patients who have the account as a guarantor and a complete billing history for all insurance companies on the account.
2.4. Page 2: Account Dependents Screen
The second page of fame is the dependents screen. It displays all patients related to the account, and contains tools for adding and editing patient information.
The list of family members includes any patients who have this account as either a guarantor, a custodian, or both. The relationship to the patient is described on the left, and the patient's name and birthdate appear on the right. The initial next to the patient's name indiciates their primary care physician, if one is assigned.
Function Keys
- [F1 -- Save]
Press [F1] to save any changes and quit the Family Editor.
- [F5 -- Move Patient]
Press [F5] and select a patient to reassign them to another account.
You will be prompted to find an account and then asked if that account should be the guarantor, custodian, or both for the selected patient.
- [F6 -- Add Patient]
Press F6 to add a patient to the account.
If the patient is not already entered into your system, you can add them during the procedure. After finding or adding the new patient, you will be asked if the current account should be the guarantor, custodian, or both for the patient.
- [F7 -- Edit Patient]
Press F7 and select a patient to run the Patient Editor (notjane) for that patient.
- [F8 -- Edit Policies]
Press F8 and select a patient to view the Insurance Policies screen for that patient.
2.5. Pages 3-5: Family Notes Screens
Pages three, four, and five of the Family Editor are notes screens. There are three different types of notes, and each has a screen to itself. They are: regular account notes, the account billing note, and the account copay note.
2.5.1. Account Notes
The Account Note screen stores user-entered notes about the family. Every note is saved with the username of the person who entered it along with a creation date and time.
Press [F4 -- Post New Note] to add a note to the account record.
Type your new note and press [F1 -- Save], or press F12 to cancel.
Learn More About Notes: The main notes screen is the same in both the Family and Patient Editors. It includes a follow-up note feature, a search field, and many other features to help you track important information about the patient or family. To learn about these features, read the Structured Notes manual.
2.5.2. Account Billing Note
The account billing note will appear on personal bills sent home to this family. If you have a special message for the family that must appear on their personal bill, add it to this page.
Press [F6 -- Modify Note] to change the family billing message. Type the new message and press [F1 -- Save].
If this is the first time you have added a note to this family's bills, you will need to press [F4 -- Post New Note] instead of F6.
| Messages For All Families |
|---|---|
You can also add a message to all personal bills, for all families, or a specific message for current or overdue bills. Read Personal Billing and Collections to learn more. |
2.5.3. Account Copay Note
The copay note will appear in the Charge Posting (chuck) program when a patient on this account is checked out. If you need the front desk to review important information before posting a charge for this account, enter the note here.
Press [F6 -- Modify Note] to change the account copay note. Type the new message and press [F1 -- Save].
If this is the first time you have added a copay note for this family's patients, you will need to press [F4 -- Post New Note] instead of F6.