1. Introduction: Partner, a Family Billing System
Partner is a family billing system. It stores information about every patient, but it also stores a database of accounts, or "families." A family account may be the custodian of the patient, the bill-payer for the patient (the "guarantor"), or both. For example, three siblings may all have one family account serving as both guarantor and custodian. That family account will be listed in Partner under a parent's name. Alternatively, children from a divorced family may have one family account assigned as the guarantor and a different account assigned as the custodian.
It may be helpful to think of Partner as having two giant lists: a list of patients and a list of accounts. You run different programs and reports to look at each list. Patients are linked-up to one or more family accounts, and they can be moved around to different accounts when families change. You schedule an appointment for a patient, but you mail a bill to the guarantor account of that patient.
Partner's Family Editor (fame) and Patient Editor (notjane) programs can handle the many different kinds of families and billing situations your office encounters. In the image below, a list of accounts is on the left-hand side and a list of patients is on the right-hand side. You can see how Partner accounts and Partner patients can be linked together to handle different kinds of families.
As shown above, some patients live with one account but have their bills sent to another family. Tracy Jones lives with her mother Judy, but Mike Jones pays Tracy's medical bills. Junior Jones also lives with Judy, but he is responsible for his own bills and is therefore his own gurantor. Partner can handle all of these situations with ease.
When do you run fame, the Family Editor? If you need to review outstanding balances or the billing history for a family, or if you need to update demographic information, such as addresses or phone numbers, then you need to view an account. Run fame, the Family Editor.
When do you run notjane, the Patient Editor? If you need an immunization record, want to review a patient's major diagnoses, or need to change a patient's age or preferred name, you are going to edit a patient. Run notjane, the Patient Editor.
What About Insurance Policy Information? Although personal bills and billing history are tied to accounts, insurance policies are assigned on a per-patient basis. To access a patient's Insurance Policies screen, run nojane.
When do you run checkin? The checkin program, designed for checking in a patient at the front desk, is also a useful place to review information from both fame and notjane. The checkin program also includes the Insurance Policies screen.
Many Partner users run checkin first and then use function keys from the main checkin screen to run fame and notjane. You may find it easiest to run checkin for most tasks and never run fame or notjane as independent programs.
In the sections below, you will learn how to use fame and notjane to manage accounts and patients. To learn how to check in patients and use the checkin screen to edit accounts and patients, read Patient Check-In (checkin).