elligence 4.0
This major elligence release sets the stage for elligence 5.0 - to be called MDsuite® - containing EMR capabilities. elligence 4.0 provides a new user interface, added functionality and improved performance.
New, Improved User Interface
The elligence interface has been improved in order to streamline certain processes and also to make it easier to train new people. Key changes are:
- Re-organization of some top-level menu items so that the structure of the menu provides a better path for training and setup.
- A top-level menu tool bar with graphics that correlate to subject matter.
- A "Ticker Tape" appearing below the top-level tool bar to provide single-click access and real-time counters for messages, visitors, documents, and a new Job Queue (see Enterprise Mode, below).
- Outlook-style Navigation Bars that have nodes that open or collapse and bottom-level sections.
- Patient Tool Bar and Menu Items that provide prominent display of pertinent patient and family data as well as single click access to key patient-related commands.
- Ability to modify the patient's Special ID and Date from the Patient Tool Bar.
Operator Roles
Each operator is assigned a role. Roles include Provider, Allied Health Professional, Office Manager, Biller and Scheduler. Roles are used to customize the Home Page for the operator as well as provide groupings that can be used in various commands, e g. to send a Message to all Billers.
Enterprise Mode
Enterprise Mode is an option that allows reports and billing commands to be run in the background and in a queue. By doing so operators are free to perform other tasks and elligence can stagger batch processes so as to reduce the impact on the server when many operators perform batch processes all at the same time.
A Job Queue indicates which jobs are in the queue. Individual operators have access to jobs they have requested; Administrators and operators with permission have access to all jobs that are queued. Jobs may be moved up or removed from the queue. As jobs complete, the Job Queue counter in the operator's Ticker Tape increases.
Organizers
Each operator has an organizer that is an Outlook-style Navigation Bar. Content of the Organizer is dependent on the operator's role. Available content in the Organizer includes:
- News
- Practice Overview
- Collection Cases
- Visitors
- Communications
- Reminders
- Unfiled Documents
In elligence 4.0, the term "Ticklers" is no longer used. These are now Reminders (tasks) and Communications (messages) and appear in their respective Organizers.
Document Management
Note: Other than the scanners used for insurance card and drivers licenses, the Document Management capabilities described below do not include actual scanners. These must be purchased separately by the user.
elligence allows documents to be attached to various elligence objects, e.g. patients, providers, referring doctors, insurance plans and employers. Each of these objects has a Documents section in their Navigation bar.
Document Types may be defined and each document type has these properties:
- Description
- Accessibility: Which operators, by role and/or specifically may view this type of document.
- Automatic Notification: Which operators, if any, by role and/or specifically should be notified when the document is filed.
- Retention: Documents can be retained forever or you may specify, in months, how long the document needs to be retained.
There are three levels of document management:
- Internal Documents: These are documents that are generated by elligence, e.g. statements, insurance forms and EOBs created during electronic remittance. Whenever a statement or insurance form is generated, it is automatically stored. The document may then be viewed either by clicking on the billing entry in the Patient's Ledger or by locating the document in the Patient's Document section.
- Insurance Cards and Drivers Licenses: These require purchase of a scanner and scanning software from DSI. Scanners may be purchased with or without OCR capabilities. Insurance cards and drivers licenses may automatically be placed into the corresponding patient coverage or demographics screens. If OCR capabilities have been purchased, then appropriate fields can automatically be placed into the corresponding elligence fields.
- External Documents: These are documents such as scanned pages, Microsoft Word or Excel Documents, PDF files, etc. that you wish to attach to an elligence object. This is an optional feature. Consult with DSI or your Sales Representative for pricing.
EOB Document Storage
Included with the Internal Document feature mentioned above, elligence will now store a copy of the EOB when processing electronic remittance (835) files. This copy may then be viewed or printed.
From the Patient Ledger, click on the Payment Item; then right-click and choose:
- View EOB For Patient
- View Entire EOB
The Patient Portion of the EOB can be printed and submitted with secondary claim forms.
Patient Document Storage
When defining a Patient Document, you may indicate that you wish to store that document. To do so, set the Page Property - Enable Document Storage - for that format to Yes.
When the document is printed, elligence will store a copy of that document. It then is viewable from the Correspondence entry in the patient ledger or from the Documents section of the patient folder.
Export Period Close Data to QuickBooks
You may export Period Close summary data to QuickBooks or other accounting programs.
Statements Improvements
Invoice Numbers (Sequence Numbers): The statement's Invoice Number (Sequence Number) is now stored and is displayed with the Billing Entry on the Ledger.
Summary Mode Statements now include all Payments and Adjustments
Omit Zero Balance Charges even if never billed - There is now an option to omit charges that have a zero balance even if the patient has never been apprised of the charge's adjudication.
EDI Manager: Send/Receive
The Send/Receive command may now be limited to one or more selected destinations. This is useful if a particular destination might be unavailable and you wish to have elligence temporarily avoid trying to reach that destination.
Define Command Reorganization
The Define command items have been re-organized to better reflect their functionality and to provide a better path for training and setup. In addition, Database Options are now called Preferences.
Admin> System Information
This top-level menu item was previously called: Current Activity.
It now displays additional information such as operator log-ins by role and document storage statistics.
Recall Manager
The item previously called Recall Manager has now been renamed Recalls and appears in the Patient Menu and Navigation Bar.
Communications Management
elligence allows communications (messages) to be attached to various elligence entities, e.g. patients, providers, referring doctors, insurance plans and employers. Each of these entities has a Communications section in their Navigation bar.
Automatic Filing
When Sending a Communication, you may easily insert key contact information for one or more elligence entities. This contact information includes the entity's name, phone numbers and E-mail address. As soon as the Communication is Sent, it is automatically filed into the Communications section of those entities.
Communication Hyperlinks
The entity's name is a hyperlink to that entity and the entity's email address will open your E-mail program with that entity's email address filled into the To... section of the email.
"Rich" Text Editor
Messages for Reminders and Communications may now be entered using a rich text editor. What this means is that you may enter information using many of the same features as are available from Microsoft Word.
For example, you could enter a message such as:
Here are some key items:
- Call Dr. Jones
- Call Susan Hagerty and tell her about her Rx.
- Call Me to confirm
Post Charges Enhancements
New Grid Control
The Post Charges batch will be displayed in a new grid control that will allow more data to be displayed at one time, faster and with each column sortable. Displayable columns include Billing Order, Account Number, Name, Procedure, Modifiers, Quantity, Provider, Department, Location, Billing Entity, Place of Service, Flags (Accept Assignment, Capitated, Crossover), Responsible Party and CoPay/Payment status.
Billing Order Control
You may specify the order that charges should be posted. The order of posting dictates the order in which charges appear on claims and insurance forms. The default is in the order of entry. However, before posting, you may move charges up or down in the batch.
Copays and Patient Payments
You may use the Define> Procedure screen to designate procedures for which a Copay applies, e.g. E & M codes. Then, during Post Charges, when any of those procedures are selected, elligence will enable a Copay/Payment button to allow posting of a Copay. You may then post a Copay, either as a new payment or from a previously collected unapplied credit.
You may view the Copay amount for the current responsible party and whether or not it has been paid from the charge grid. Collected Copays appear in green, those not collected appear in red.
In addition, you may post a patient payment against any charge for which a Copay doesn’t apply.
Multiple Authorization Numbers per Illness
Each Illness may now hold multiple Authorization Numbers along with their corresponding Expiration Dates, Allowed and Remaining Visits for each Number. See: Define> Preferences> Patient: Illness.
From Post Charges, you may then choose the Authorization Number you wish to use or add a new one to the Illness.
Batch Report: Hash Totals
Hash Totals are used to insure that charges were posted to all of the correct accounts. Here's how Hash Totals work:
- The Batch Charge report includes a "Hash Total" - the sum of all the account numbers. The result (at least the right-most 8 characters) are shown at the bottom of the report, as if you were adding up a series of amounts.
- You add up the account numbers that are on your Superbills.
- If the two numbers match, then charges were posted to all of the correct accounts.
Inactive Diagnoses appear in red
The list of diagnoses displays inactive diagnoses in red to avoid choosing a diagnosis that is longer in effect.
Scheduler Enhancements
Master Schedule Overrides
To provide more flexibility when scheduling providers, you may define one or more overrides to a provider's master schedule. Overrides have the following properties:
- Message Type: One of your previously defined Blocked Time Messages
- Location
- Recurrence: They may occur: Weekly, e.g. Every other week on Tuesdays or Monthly, e.g. the fifteenth of each month or the last Friday of each month
- Start and End Times
- Color
- Start and End Dates
- Hold Indicator - To temporarily suspend an override
Wait Lists
You may create a waiting list either for open time slots or for preallocated blocked time, e.g. Well Baby Checks or Re-checks.
Wait List entries contain the patient's preferences, if any, as well as a priority setting. As Wait Listed entries become available, one or more operators may automatically be notified.
Hard and Soft Blocked Time Periods
Preallocated blocked time periods may be designated as "soft" or "hard". Hard blocked time will appear in the Scheduler in a bold font. Schedulers may not open or schedule appointments into hard blocked time unless they have the security permission to do so.
Daily / Weekly Views: Variable Display of Appointment Data
For each Overview and for the Weekly View, you may choose one or more of the following items to display for the appointment:
- Account Number
- Name
- Location
- Phone Numbers
- User ID
- Procedure Code
- Procedure Description
Scheduling an Appointment
- A summary list of the patient's upcoming appointments now appear in the appointment dialog.
- A warning is shown when scheduling more than one appointment for a patient on one day.
Blocked Time Messages Mnemonic
You may now define a 3 letter mnemonic for blocked time messages. In the Monthly View, the mnemonic is displayed if defined.
Additional Right-click Options
Walkout Statements and Superbills are now available as a simple right-click from the patient's appointment.
- When indicating a No-show, the patient's appointment can be removed from the Scheduler screen
- A new Scheduler Preference allows No-show appointments to be removed from the screen, thereby allowing other patients to be scheduled in that time period.
Improved Display of Provider’s Location
The location for Blocked Messages is now displayed in both the Daily and Weekly views. This is for any type of Blocked Message including those that are part of the Master Schedule and its Overrides. This enables the practice to know where the provider is located when the provider’s location varies. So, for example, if the Blocked Message was the word At and the location was
When scheduling over a Blocked Message, the Blocked Message’s Location is used as the default Location for the appointment.
Tracking Patient Flow through Places
You may now define each Place within your office, e.g. Waiting Rooms, Exam Rooms, Checkout areas, etc. One or more operators is given primary responsibility for each place. As patients move into Places that are designated as an Operator's responsibility, they show up in the Ticker Tape as well as the Organizer for that Operator. They also reflect in the Scheduler's Daily View for the current date. Some Places may be designated as allowing more than one patient in that place, e.g. a waiting room.
Managing Visitors and Copays
When viewing Visitors, there is a Place Bar - an Outlook-style Navigation bar - that displays each Place and the number of patients currently occupying the place. You may view all patients in all places or only those patients within a specific Place. Visitors can be moved from one place to another either via a keyboard "Transition" command or by dragging the Visitor to a Place in the Navigation bar.
You may view how long a Visitor has been in a place, e.g. waiting room, and when they first arrived in the office.
Improved Patient Check In Process
As patients come to the office they are Checked In and Processed. The Process command opens the patient folder. From the folder, the patient's demographics and insurance can be confirmed and updated; an insurance card and/or drivers license can be scanned; and a Copay can be collected.
Once Checked In, they may be Transitioned to any other place within the office. Upon completion of procedures they are Checked Out. In each movement, the time spent in each Place is stored. The Visitors List allows for easy identification of unpaid copays (red or green) as well as transitioning and collection of copays.
Inactive Status
Key search items may now be set to Inactive. This is a securable option with a number of security settings to limit who may set items to Inactive. Items that may be set to Inactive include:
- Patients: Only if certain criteria are met
- Defined Items: These include procedures, diagnoses, modifiers, insurance plans, providers, referring doctors and departments
- Operators: Replaces the Delete capability for an Operator
Key Facts
- The date the item is to become Inactive may be specified.
- Inactive items are omitted from Search views unless the Operator has the permission to view Inactive items.
- Inactive Items appear in the Search window in red.
- Changes to the Inactive setting are logged and available for viewing in Event Log Reports.
- Use of Inactive procedures, diagnoses or modifiers are marked as Warnings or Errors in the Exceptions Reports for electronic claims and insurance forms. See: Define> Preferences> Billing: General
Report Output Flexibility
A Print Setup button and the currently chosen output method now appear on the Preview screen. You may change the output method or output first to HTML and then to the printer without having to regenerate the report.
The Code Loader
The Code Loader now has an option to “Mark as Inactive all codes NOT present in the Import File”. If checked, you may set an Effective Date. All codes, i.e. CPT and ICD9 codes, NOT found in the Import File will automatically be set to Inactive using the specified Effective Date.
Cross-Database Reporting
If you have more than one database and are an Administrative Operator, then you may produce certain key elligence reports across all of your databases at one time. These reports then conclude with totals for all of the databases. Applicable report categories include: Aged Receivables, Charges, Payments, Day Sheets and Monthly Journals.
Department Types
Departments may now be assigned one of the following Types:
- Charges: These are the only departments available during Post Charges
- Payments: These are the only departments available during Post Payments
- Both: These departments are available during both Post Charges and Post Payments
Note: When upgrading to elligence 4.0 all departments are automatically set to the Department Type of Both.
Improved Search Capabilities
Default Patient Search Modes: When selecting a patient, elligence will assume that if the data you enter is a number that your search is by Account Number; if it is a letter, then the search is by Name.
Forced Patient Searches: You may force elligence to Search in a specific way by entering any of the following characters as the first character:
| If the 1st character is: | Then the search is by: | Example: |
| - (minus) | Invoice Number | -57892 |
| ^ | Social Security Number | ^234 |
| @ | User ID | @AB3883 |
| * | Home Phone | *858 |
| / | Date of Birth | /01091978 |
| . (period) | Patient ID | .45678 |
Invoice Number Search: When looking for a patient, you may now search by Invoice Number. To switch between the search by Patient and Search by Invoice Number click on the link or depress [Alt]+P for the Patient Search and [Alt]+V for the Invoice Number search.
Inactive Items: Operators must be given permission to view Inactive Items. Those with that Permission may view Active and/or Inactive Items.
Recent Patient Lists
For easy access, you may choose from a list of recently accessed patients from both the top-level Patient Menu command and the lower level Patient Toolbar. Note that the top-level Patient Menu opens a patient in a new window and the lower level Patient toolbar opens the patient in the current window.
Copy and Paste Demographics
You may now Copy Patient Demographics and Paste the demographics into the Notify, Other or Patient Demographics of a New or existing patient.
Deposit Slips
Deposit Slips have been enhanced to:
- Include an option for Electronic Fund Transfers (EFTs)
- Allow selection of one or more Paid Entities
- Include the Paid Entity on the Deposit Slip report
Patient> Ledger
Options: There is now a Date Filter for Closed Charges.
Patient> Insurance Coverages
- Terminated Insurance Coverages now appear in red on the Navigation Bar.
- There is now a New button on the screen, available as [Alt]+N. This is a shortcut to create a New Group of coverages.
- All four of the Insurance Plan's phone numbers and up to four website addresses, if defined, now appear under the Group Name for the plan. The website addresses will appear hyperlinks. Clicking on these links will take you to the Insurance Plan's website.
- The Medicare Payer Category is now available on the Patient's Insurance Plan. This enables the operator to indicate on the patient-level whether the Plan is primary to Medicare. Note: It still appears on the Insurance Plan definition screen but can be overriden for a particular patient.
Define> Billing> EDI Destinations
The following option has been added:
- Include Amounts in Capitated Charges
If checked, then fees for capitated charges are included in the services that are in the claim file; if un-checked, then the fee for capitated charges is set to zero.
Define> Billing> Insurance Plans
Some new options have been added:
Website Addresses
You may enter the Insurance Plan's website addresses: General, Claims, Eligibility and Other. When you display a patient's insurance coverages, these website addresses will appear as hyperlinks. Clicking on a link will take you to the Insurance Plan's website.
Billing: Include all diagnoses on the Illness even if they are not referenced to by any charge.
Currently, elligence reports all diagnoses on the illness when creating the Health Information (HI) segment for electronic claims.
Un-checking this box, tells elligence to only report the diagnoses that charges on the claim refer to - not all of the diagnoses on the illness.
Electronic Claims Pre-processing Report:
Depending on the choice made above, elligence will report any diagnoses that are Inactive as an error.
- Posting Payments: When this plan is supplemental, automatically write-off balances using this Adjustment Type
- For example, if the plan is Medicaid and you wish to adjust off any remaining balances that would be billed to Medicaid as a secondary or tertiary insurance, then indicate the adjustment type to be used. During Post Insurance Payments, elligence will automatically use this adjustment type and fill in the adjustment amount so that the balance is written off.
Define> General> Providers
A provider can now be tied to an Operator. This enables elligence to report Visitors and Appointments in the Organizer for each Operator.
Reports> Custom Query
These reports have now been organized into categories which appear on the Menu bar. Reports also include a description. Security permissions may be used to limit which operators may view and change the SQL portion of the report.
Hosted (ASP) Solution
With this version of elligence, DSI will offer a Hosted solution wherein the Servers (Application and Data) are located at DSI's colocation facility. DSI performs all backups, software updates and hardware maintenance. Clients simply need workstations, printers and high speed Internet connections.
Please consult with DSI or your Sales Representative for details and pricing.