Makers of Practice Magic Psychotherapy Billing Software
Hypertext Users' Manual (Macintosh version)
This page provides you with the complete users' manual for Practice MAGIC for Apple Macintosh. (To view a Windows manual click on the words "View Windows Manual" below.) Included is a table of contents with hyperlinks that allow you to click on a subject item and jump to that portion of the manual. Assuming that you have opened this page with a web-browser like Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator, you can also use the FIND feature that your web-browser provides in the EDIT menu to look in this manual for particular subjects you are interested in. There is also a troubleshooting guide with links to relevant sections of the manual.
Click here to View Windows Manual.
Practice
MAGIC
(for Macintosh)
The Software That Counts
For Your
Psychotherapy
Practice
March, 2005
Cornucopia Software
www.practicemagic.com
P. O. Box 6111
Albany, CA 94706
510-528-7000
LICENSE: In purchasing the Practice MAGIC disk, the purchaser receives a licensed for a single person to use the program on one computer or terminal; however, if you are using an introductory copy or demonstration copy of Practice MAGIC, you are authorized to make as many copies as you like of that software and manual and to distribute it to friends and colleagues.
WARRANTY: We guarantee a full refund of purchase price of this software if purchased from the manufacturer or one of the manufacturer's authorized dealers and the purchaser is for any reason not completely satisfied with the product. Beyond this Practice MAGIC is provided "as-is" without any other warranty of any kind either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
CUSTOMER REMEDIES LIMITED: In no event will the purchaser be entitled to any amount of compensation in excess of his or her original purchase price as described above. Cornucopia Software, the distributor, and the author of Practice MAGIC shall have no responsibility nor liability to you or any other person, persons, or entity with respect to loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by use of Practice MAGIC and/or its documentation or by inability to use this product. This expressly includes, but is not limited to loss or invalidation of customer data, programs, files, equipment, business opportunity, loss of business, loss of business profits, or business interruption. The manufacturers, distributors, and authors of Practice MAGIC shall be liable for NO CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, even if previously advised of the possibility of such damages.
Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure accuracy throughout this book, but the author and publisher assume no responsibility for any errors or omission. No liability is assumed for damages resulting from the use of information contained herein.
TECHNICAL
SUPPORT INFORMATION
Unless otherwise indicated at the time of sale, Cornucopia Software
will, at its discretion, supply a reasonable amount of technical
support for users of the Practice MAGIC software program at no
additional charge. This support will be supplied to one individual
user, even if the software is a multi-user version. It should be
understood that technical support constitutes a major expense to
Cornucopia Software. In order to continue to provide the best
possible support for a premium product that is sold at an extremely
reasonable price, we require that the user who receives the
technical support will train any other person using that program in
its use. We also require that users will first consult the users
manual in printed or electronic form before telephoning Cornucopia
Software for support.
If support is requested from a second user, this support will be
charged to the owner of the Practice Magic software on a per
minute basis.. Specifically, if the program is used by a practitioner
and his or her office personnel, free support will be limited to one
of those people. Support for other people, including new office
staff will be charged to the owner of the Practice Magic software.
We have attempted to give instructions in this manual for
transferring Practice Magic to a new computer in the event that the
original computer on which it is installed fails or is replaced for
other reasons. It is expected that anyone replacing his or her system
will consult a computer dealer, consultant or other professional to
facilitate the transfer of programs and information from the old to
the new computer; if support is requested from Cornucopia
Software for such transfer or reinstallation, that support will be
charged to the owner of the Practice Magic software. The
telephone number for Cornucopia Software support is 510-528-
7000.
Copyright (c.) 1992 - 2004
Cornucopia Software
All Rights Reserved
The Practice MAGIC software program and this manual are the sole property of Cornucopia Software, which retains all copyrights. Any unauthorized duplication of this material constitutes a violation of federal copyright law. In purchasing the Practice MAGIC disk, the purchaser receives a licensed for a single person to use the program on one computer or terminal; however, if you are using an introductory copy or demonstration copy of Practice MAGIC, you are authorized to make as many copies as you wish of that software and manual and to distribute it to friends and colleagues. The introductory or demonstration copy will only be useful for a limited number of months, usually four. All other copies of Practice MAGIC are also time limited, usually for a period of approximately one year unless a special fee is paid for an unlimited use copy.
This manual last edited August, 2004
"Practice MAGIC" is a trademark of Cornucopia Software.
"MS-DOS" is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
"Day-timer" is a registered trademark of Daytimers, Inc.
"Apple," "Macintosh," "AppleWriter," "Imagewriter" and "Laser
Writer" and "OSX" are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
"LaserJet" is a registered trademark of Hewlett-Packard Company
"Outlook Express" is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation
"Netscape Navigator" is a registered trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation
(Page numbers correspond to
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Program License and Warranty Info . . . . . . back cover
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
How to Use This Manual . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv
Getting Started : OSX, Installing MAGIC . . . . . . . . . . . . iv
Running Practice MAGIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Summary of Calendar and Menu Options . . . . . .. . . . 3
To Enter an Appointment in Your Calendar . . . . . . . . . 4
Scheduling Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Scheduling non-clinical appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Detailed Explanation of Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . 8
File: Save and Quit, Backup, Jump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Edit: Client/Insurance Company Info, Client Info on HCFA1500, Client List,
User Data, Add client, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 9
Display: Ahead 1 Week, Schedule Next Week,
Back 1 Week, Info about Client , Client $ Status
Sunday Appointments, Jump to New Week . . . . . .23
CMS-1500: Display/Edit CMS-1500 form, Print Insurance Form,
Print Insur. Forms For All, Add client, . . . 25
Change: Name, Time, Frequency,
Procedure, Visit #, Comment (1 sess), Comment (all). . 26
Print: Client Phone List, Statement, Insurance Forms,
Client $ Status, Address Envelopes/labels,
Statements for all, Insurance Forms for all, Calendar
(1 sheet, 1wk, 4wks), Alerts, Set Print Scaling . . . . . 27
Appt: Move, Skip, Cancel/No Show, Cancel/Terminate,
Move, Reschedule, Set Vacation Day . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Special: Set Alert, Cancel Alert, Alert Summary, Select,
Unselect, Unselect All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Deposit: Deposit Checks (Record a Payment),
Gross Income Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
Program Capacities and Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46
Appendix A: Guided Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 48
3. Schedule Appointment on the Calendar Screen
4. "Temp." and "Weekly" Appointments
6. Printing on an Insurance Form
7. Recording a Payment (Making a Checking Deposit)
9. Scheduling the Following Week's Appointments
10. Conclusion
Appendix B: Trouble Shooting Guide:
If you are having a problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Practice MAGIC combines billing and check depositing functions with a unique calendaring feature. The result is a program that makes the paperwork of running a practice almost effortless. The program maintains a record of all clinical and non-clinical appointments. Weekly, multiweekly, and biweekly appointments can be carried forward from week to week automatically. It can print a week's calendar of appointments in a variety of formats including one that replaces Daytimer calendar inserts. Together with the deposit information drawn from the program's deposit slip generating feature, the calendar gives Practice MAGIC all the clinical service and financial information to generate client/patient statements or insurance bills on a variety of forms without any further input from the user.
The appointment calendar that MAGIC creates on your screen that allows MAGIC to do your billing for you automatically can also be printed by your printer and used as a daily calendar for your practice. If you use a Daytimer, MAGIC can be configured to print a calendar in a size and format that will fit into your Daytimer wallet. You can also simply print a weekly appointment calendar on a singe sheet of paper. Take your printed calendar with you during your work week and mark in pen any changes or new appointments that you make. Then at the end of your week, run MAGIC on your computer and add these changes and additions to MAGIC's electronic calendar. Since MAGIC automatically carries forward weekly appointments, there will be very few changes for you to make. Then use MAGIC to create and print your week's deposit slip and automatically generate any statements you need for client/patients. Although your bank provides you with preformatted deposit slips, we have found that banks happily accept the clearly printed and annotated deposit slips generated by MAGIC.
Because Practice MAGIC works the way one would intuitively expect and continually displays on the screen the options available to the person using it, little written documentation is necessary, even for someone who is barely familiar with computers. This manual is intended to give you an overview of the features and uses of Practice MAGIC. There is a convention used throughout the program and the manual that will help to clarify what keys you are being asked to press: the names of keys are surrounded by pointed brackets. For instance, if you are instructed to press the "R" key followed by the "RETURN" key, the program might prompt you "Press <R><RETURN>," or "Press <R> followed by <RETURN>."
If you do not have a floppy disk drive request that Cornucopia Software send you a CD-ROM disk or request an internet address from which you can download the program.
OSX: Currently Cornucopia is currently offering a "classic" version of Practice MAGIC and an OSX version. The OSX version will not run on some computers; if yours is one of those computers, you will know immediately, because the OSX version of MAGIC will not even start up. The OSX version seems to also perform properly on most computers with Finders 8.x and 9.x.
Installing Practice MAGIC on a hard disk:
Installing from a Floppy Diskette:
1. Put your MAGIC disk into your floppy drive.
2. Click on the icon of your MAGIC disk and drag it to the location on your hard disk display where you wish it to reside.
3. Remove the Floppy disk from your disk drive. Double click on the MAGIC folder you have just created. You are now ready to run MAGIC.
4. To run MAGIC double-click on the application program Practice MAGIC or Practice MAGIC demo, depending on which you have, to enter the program.
Installing from CD-ROM Disk:
1. Put your MAGIC disk into your CD-ROM drive.
2. Double-Click on the icon of your MAGIC disk to OPEN it; If you do not already have a version of Practice MAGIC installed, drag the "MAGIC" Folder Icon from the CD-Rom disk to the location on your hard disk or Desktop display where you wish it to reside. If, however, you DO already have a version of Practice MAGIC installed (which would mean that there is already a MAGIC folder on your hard disk), open the MAGIC folder ON THE CD-ROM disk, and drag only the "Practice MAGIC" program Icon from within the MAGIC folder on the CD-Rom disk to the MAGIC folder on your hard disk or Desktop display. (Be sure you are draging to a folder and NOT to an ALIAS) If you are replacing an older copy of MAGIC, a message will appear on the screen telling you that you are replacing an older file with the same name, and verifying that in fact you want to do this (Say "yes")
3. Remove the CD-ROM disk from your disk drive. Double click on the MAGIC folder you have just created. You are now ready to run MAGIC.
4. To run MAGIC double-click on the application program Practice MAGIC, Practice MAGIC OSX, Practice MAGIC Classic, or Practice MAGIC demo, depending on which you have, to enter the program.
To run MAGIC double-click on the application program Practice MAGIC or Practice MAGIC demo, depending on which you have. Be sure that the date is properly set on your computer (The date can be changed from the control panels option of the apple menu in the top left corner of the screen) In addition to the internal memory (RAM) of your computer used by the operating system (Finder) and any other software that has been loaded prior to MAGIC, Practice MAGIC will require approximately five million bytes of RAM in order to run. You can find out how much memory is available for MAGIC by clicking on the apple in the upper left corner of your screen and dragging it to "About This MacIntosh." The resulting screen will inform you how much memory is available (Largest Unused Block) in thousands of bytes. That number must be over 5000 and is preferably 6000 or more. If you do not have enough memory to run MAGIC, you will probably see the message "ERROR 7" when you try to run it. In that case, you can reduce the amount of memory that MAGIC requires by blackening the "Practice MAGIC" icon and pulling the FILE menu down to "Get Info." Towards the bottom of the Get INFO box you can click on and change the number (in thousands) of bytes that MAGIC will use. If you lower that number, you will run the risk of having the program occasionally run out of memory and abort. One way to increase the amount of memory available for MAGIC is to remove any programs that are currently active in your computer. You can identify these by clicking on the icon in the extreme top right corner of your screen. Another way to increase the amount of memory available is to reduce the memory used by the finder. This can be done on most MAC's by holding down the SHIFT key during start up until the message "Extensions Off" appears on your screen. This may also substantially increase the speed of Practice MAGIC.
When Practice MAGIC runs for the first time, a dialog box will appear asking you if this is the first time you are running Practice MAGIC. (If you run the older version of MAGIC, instead of the dialog box, a file display box will appear on the screen and you will be asked to click on Practice MAGIC in the box and then the OPEN button. Click on Practice MAGIC demo if you are running the demo.) The next screen you will see will give you a few instructions about entering your name and address. Click on "OK" to continue. Then you will be presented with several screen pages of information about you, the "user". Fill in the information on each line, and then press <RETURN> to proceed to the next line. Several entries may be unclear from the prompt. For instance, leave the lines "User code" and "Printer code re. carriage returns (0/1)" blank. For "printer type code," enter "2" for Apple Imagewriter I or II, and "3" for Apple LaserWriter, StyleWriter or other Apple-compatible printers. The information lines asking the minimum top and left margins that your printer is capable of are critical to printing accurately on insurance forms like the HCFA1500. These will be filled out automatically by a routine called "SET PRINT SCALING," which is an option in the program's PRINT menu. For most printers, you will later need to run the "SET PRINT SCALING" option in your PRINT menu before your printer will accurately fill out forms. Once these minimum margin values are set by that routine, you can adjust them by returning to the present EDIT screen using the program's EDIT menu and selecting "USER DATA." If printing is too high, you will then need to decrease the top margin (line 20 in Userdata) in 1/12 inch increments. If it is too far to the right, increase left margin (line 18). When you have entered all the information you wish, click on the close box or use the FILE menu. The information you have entered will be saved automatically. Next you will be informed that MAGIC is loading calendar files and then (the first time the program is used) an instruction notice will appear indicating how to fill out the blank calendar that is about to be displayed.
The calendar screen is the first screen that will appear in subsequent uses of Practice MAGIC. From the calendar screen, appointments can be filled in by clicking on the appropriate appointment hour. Type the first nine characters of the last name, the first several letters of the client/patient's last name followed by a period, or the two letter initials of the client/patient ("name code"). (Do not put periods or spaces after the letters in initials.) You will then be asked for additional information about the client/patient. Placing "&" in the name code for couples or families being seen conjointly (i.e. "A&R" or "A&RS") will cause MAGIC to automatically generate the C.P.T. procedure code for couples therapy. If you are seeing more than two people in a family conjointly, use the initials of only two. Although appointment slots are initially set for even hours, if your appointment is not on the hour, you can indicate the exact appointment time by clicking on "time" in the CHANGE menu (or <Command-T>) and entering the exact appointment time or just ":" followed by the number of minutes after the hour. If you change to a time that is not on the hour, you will notice that the physical location of that appointment box on the screen will shift accordingly. Procedure codes can also be changed by clicking on PROCEDURE in the CHANGE menu or <Command-P>. Clicking on an appointment that is already scheduled and overwriting it with another appointment will cause the previous appointment to be eliminated and replaced with the new appointment unless you have designated the original appointment as a regular weekly appointment, in which case it will be automatically scheduled for the following week..
SUMMARY OF CALENDAR AND MENU OPTIONS:
To edit your calendar:
<Command-B> Will show the previous week's appointments.
<Command-A> Will show the following week's appointments.
<Command-N> Will automatically schedule the following week's appointments.
<Click> Click on the appointment slot you wish to fill out or edit.
To enter a client/patient appointment in the calendar:
MAGIC displays a 6 day week calendar of hourly appointment slots. To view Sunday's appointments, select "Display Sun Appts" from the "Display" menu. The Saturday appointment column on the screen will be replaced by a Sunday appointment column. To again view Saturday appointments, select "Display Sat Appts" from the "Display" menu. (When printing the week's calendar, only the weekend day that is displayed on the screen will be printed.)
To schedule an appointment, click on an appointment slot on the calendar screen and enter the initials of the client/patient (no periods) or last name of the client/patient you are scheduling for that time. You may also type the beginning letters of the last name followed by a period. Many people choose to ignore the time of the appointments and just use the calendar as a streamlined data entry mechanism, making a list of appointments on the appropriate days similar to keeping a "day sheet." If MAGIC does not recognize the name or initials you enter (because they are not in the client/patient list),, the program will ask if the initials are correct. If they are, press <RETURN>. You will then be asked for the client/patient's last name if you have only entered initials in the appointment calendar. If you do not want to record this client/patient in MAGIC's client/patient list, click <CANCEL>. If you wish to record the client/patient in the client/patient list, enter the last name of the client/patient. After entering the last name, you will be prompted for more information about the client/patient (first name, home and office telephone numbers). If you want MAGIC to use the actual last name as the code, place an asterisk at the end of this response. If you did not originally enter a two to four letter code for this client/patient in the calendar, a name code will be automatically assigned consisting of the first letters of the client/patient's first and last names. If that abbreviation represents a duplication of an existing code or if the last name represents a duplication, the new code will be followed by a number to set it apart from the duplicate. Names of Insurance Companies will be automatically preceded by "@". If the name code you give is different than the one that would be automatically generated by the program, the program will insert a backslash (\) followed by your code after the information it places in the client/patient list. You can change the name code by editing the client/patient list (EDIT menu); however, if you do this you must also change any appointments in the calendar in which that code was used, or MAGIC will no longer recognize those appointments.
If the appointment you schedule is the first for that client, MAGIC will assume that the appointment is "IRREGULAR" or "TEMP," that it is not going to be held with that patient at the same time each week ("WEEKLY"). By editing the userdata file you can change the default so that MAGIC assumes the appointment will be held with that patient at the same time each week ("WEEKLY"). Weekly appointments are shown on the calendar in bold while TEMP appointments are shown in a different color and are not bold.
If you inadvertently press
a key while in the calendar screen and there is a client code at the location of the
cursor, the client code will disappear. You can restore the original entry by backing up
the cursor with the backspace key so that the character(s) you have just entered no longer
appear and then pressing <RETURN> or clicking on another appointment box. The
original appointment will be restored.
To schedule a group, type the word GROUP. A code of "GP:" will be assigned to the group and you will be asked to give the codes (two letter initials) of the group members. If you later want to add or remove group members, you can do this by editing "GROUP" in the client/patient list. If GROUP already refers to another group, and you wish to begin a new group, add a number, i.e. "GROUP2" or "GROUP5." A simple way to verify the group you have scheduled is the one you intended is to place the cursor on the group appointment in question and press the fourth option in the DISPLAY menu, and a list of client/patients will appear at the bottom of the screen.
When a new group is scheduled, the program now asks you to list the members of the group and if one or more members are not recognized the program asks about the new member(s) and adds them to the client/patient list. When printing billing statements for group members, you can now place the cursor on the group appointment, select "Statement" from the "Print" menu, and statements will be printed for all group members. To print a statement for a single group member who is not also seen individually, place the cursor on a blank appointment slot and select "Statement" from the "Print" menu, giving the client's name or code when the program asks for it. This method of entering groups ensures that all group members' names or codes correspond exactly to how they are listed in the client/patient list. If a member drops out of the group, his name needs to be deleted from the list of members in the client list for that group. Similarly, if a new member is added, his name must be added to the list of the names in the client list, followed by a comma. If you are experiencing problems with clients not being found or recognized check to be sure that every character of the name you are looking for corresponds exactly to the way it was entered in the client list and calendar. The procedure code defined for the group session will become the code used for each of the members of the group for that appointment. The fee for that procedure will be taken from the fees stipulated in each group member's individual information file; there is no information file for the group itself, so the "Edit Client Information" function will not operate when a group appointment has been selected.
Scheduling Non-clinical Appointments:
Placing a period before an appointment description in an appointment hour indicates to MAGIC that this is not a clinical appointment. These appointments will not be checked against the client list, and will appear on the screen in a different color.
FILE "File" to Exit program, saving changes, Exit with Backup, Display a different Calendar week.
EDIT "Edit" to edit user information; edit list of clients/patients; edit client/patient information in a list or on an on-screen HCFA1500.
DISPLAY "Display" to move calendar ahead one week, back one week, schedule the following week automatically, or see information about a client/patient.
CMS-1500 Redundantly provides in one place all the functions that would be required by someone only interested in filling out CMS-1500: Add client, Display/Edit CMS-1500, Print, & Print All.
CHANGE "Change" to change name, time, frequency, procedure code, visit number, or comment for the appointment identified by the cursor.
PRINT "Print" to print client/patient list, statements, insurance forms, envelopes (or labels), calendar.
APPT "Appt" to cancel, skip, move, reschedule or terminate appointment at cursor location or designate a vacation day for therapist.
SPECIAL "Special" to set a visit number at which you would like Practice MAGIC to alert you when you schedule that appointment. (This function is often important for managed care situations in which reports are due periodically.) Also used to select or unselect clients/patients for print functions.
DEPOSIT "Deposit" to fill out and print check deposit slips.
MENU OPTIONS (DETAILED EXPLANATION):
Used to exit the program. Choosing "QUIT" will save any changes you have made automatically. You can also click on the calendar close box to exit MAGIC.
"Jump to New Week" to display a week of the calendar that is not necessarily near the week that is currently displayed."Jump to New Week" to display a week of the calendar that is not necessarily near the week that is currently displayed.
"Version Number" indicates what version of Practice MAGIC you are running. This entry appears in light gray and does nothing if you click on it.
"Save and Quit" to exit the program, saving all information you have entered. After selecting this option you will be asked if you want to make a backup of the files that you have altered in this session of running MAGIC.
For the backup process, you will need a floppy disk entitled MAGIC Backup. You can create this by inserting a blank disk in your floppy drive and formatting it. Before the format process begins, you will be asked to title the disk. Usually it is adequate to simply type MAGIC BACKUP and this title will replace the default title, Untitled; however in some instances it may be necessary to click on the work Untitled and then when it turns black, type MAGIC BACKUP.
When you click on the calendar screen close box to exit MAGIC you will be given four options: to simply exit, to return to the calendar screen you just left, to return to a different calendar screen by typing in a new date, or to backup your data and exit. If you choose to backup your data before exiting by clicking on Backup and EXIT, MAGIC will backup any client information files that you have edited or updated and any calendar months that were loaded into MAGIC during this running of MAGIC. During the backup process MAGIC will also backup the client/patient list, the check deposit information and the userdata file. These will be copied to a floppy disk entitled MAGIC BACKUP. If no floppy disk by this name is found, MAGIC will invite you to insert it or to cancel the backup process.
Retrieving Backed Up Data: To retrieve
backed up information, simply select the client file (".pat") or calendar file
(".cal") you want from your Backup disk by blackening it with one click and drag
it to the INFO sub-folder in your MAGIC folder. You should be given a prompt warning you
that a newer file already exists; if so, respond "OK." It is a good idea to have
more than one BACKUP disk and rotate them.
Displaying a different portion of the calendar (Jumping):
As described above, one of
the four options MAGIC offers you after you click on the calendar close box to exit MAGIC
is to return to a different calendar screen. To select this option type the date
(mm/dd/yy) of the calendar page you wish to display, and click on OK. MAGIC will
then display the calendar week for whatever date you indicated, provided it is not beyond
the expiration date of your copy of Practice MAGIC.
Used to update information in the client/patient list, to edit information about a client/patient/insurance company, or about you, the user (therapist). The following options appear:
"Client (Patient)/Insurance Info" Includes client/patient's name (or insurance company's name), address, payments, diagnosis, balance, insurance information. Most of this information need not be filled in unless you need MAGIC to fill out detailed insurance forms like the HCFA1500. Any line can be left blank.
If you have clicked on a client/patient appointment in the calendar when this function is selected, that client/patient's information will be accessed. Since insurance companies do not appear in your calendar, you will need to first click on a blank appointment slot in the calandar before editing insurance company information. If you have clicked on a blank spot in the calendar and you then select the first entry in the EDIT menu, you will be prompted for the name or initials (code) of the client/patient or insurance company you wish to edit information about. (Codes for insurance companies always begin with an "at" sign ["@"].)
To edit this information file, click on the line to be edited and make any changes you desire. Press <RETURN> to end the edit on that line or click on another line. Scroll for more data. Click the close box to save your changes and return to the calendar.
Finding an Entry: The process of entering client information includes several features to help you locate the lines on which to enter information. Once you have accessed the information edit screen for a particular client (select "Client Info" in the EDIT menu) or for Userdata (see below), each time you select an information line by clicking on it, the number of that line appears at the top of your screen. If that line of information corresponds to an information box on the revised HCFA1500, the number of that box is also given at the top of your screen. If you have a specific box that you need MAGIC to fill in, for instance "9b," you can locate the appropriate information line on your screen by selecting "Find Info for HCFA box No." and then typing 9B followed by <RETURN>. The screen will jump to the appropriate line. If you need to change some information you've already entered, and want to find the line on which it was entered you can use the same search feature. For instance to change the "relationship to insured" from "self" to "spouse," you would select "Find Question" from the SEARCH menu followed by typing SELF and the <RETURN> key and the cursor will jump to the line that contains the word "self." If there are more than one lines containing the word "self," and you have located the wrong one, again select "Find Question" from the SEARCH menu followed by the <RETURN> key to locate the next line containing "self."
In addition to the search feature, MAGIC makes it easier for you to select information lines that you may need to fill out by attempting to evaluate your responses and placing asterisks in front of those information lines that seem to be important to be filled out. For instance, if you indicate that there is a second insurance plan, the line that asks the name of the second insurance company will have an asterisk placed in front of it to draw your attention to that question.
When entering ICD9 diagnostic codes (lines 7. 8, and 9) you can find a code by typing a question mark optionally followed by part of the code description and the list of ICD9 codes will be displayed in a scroll box with the code you described highlighted. Click on a category and the box will display the codes in that category. Click on a code and that code will be automatically filled in in the ICD9 information box you are editing. At any time you can exit the DSM display by clicking outside the display box. The currently highlighted item will be transferred to your response box.
Response Conventions Used by MAGIC: Questions involving a portion of a fee that a client/patient pays (copay) or an insurance company pays may be answered in one of four ways: decimal, fraction, percentage, or fixed amount (above $1). For example, a copay of $20 on a fee of $80 could be indicated by ".25", "1/4", "25%" or "20".
When filling out patient
data, if the patient has two insurance companies some entries will be different for each
company. In most cases the data line specifies which company it refers to. However, in
others "Primary Ins\Secondary" or "Prim.\Sec." on the information line
will indicate that information for both primary and secondary insurance policies (if
different) should be included on the same response line separated by a back-slash. In
these cases enter the information for the primary insurance policies followed by a
backslash and then the information for the secondary insurance company all on the same
line. If there is no relevant information for the primary insurance, begin the information
relevant to the secondary insurance policy with a back-slash. If you want the information
you give to apply to the primary carrier but not the secondary carrier (if there is one),
then end the entry with a back-slash. Where there is no secondary carrier, no back-slash
is necessary.
"Miscellaneous Information" Lines: If you have "selected" a number of client/patients, and then chosen "Fill out ins form" MAGIC will fill out the insurance forms for each of these client/patients in turn. If MAGIC needs an insurance form fed into the printer that is other than the HCFA1500 it will stop and prompt you to insert that insurance form. Because some insurance forms ask for different information than others, we have included four miscellaneous lines in the client/patient information file for idiosyncratic information. The default response on these lines is "Misc. #" followed by 1, 2, 3, or 4. You will know if an insurance form makes use of the miscellaneous lines because when you first try printing the form "misc. #n" (where "n" is 1, 2, 3, or 4) will print in the place where some particular information is asked for that should then be entered on the miscellaneous #n line in the client information line. If, for instance, "Misc. #3" is printed in a box on an insurance form that MAGIC fills out, it means that whatever information that box requires should be placed in the client/patient information file on line 74, which is the third miscellaneous information line.
This situation also occurs on statements when the client name (line 14) is not the same as the name of the responsible party for payment (line 1) In that case the client's address (lines 2 and 3) would not necessarily be the same as the address of the responsible party, so MAGIC takes the mailing address for client statements from the third and fourth miscellaneous information lines. If no information has been placed in the third and fourth miscellaneous information lines, and the client/patient name (line 14) and responsible party's name (line 1) do not match (excluding order) the program automatically fills in the third and fourth miscellaneous information lines with the address that appears on lines two and three.
Stipulating Fees for Clinical Procedures: There are ten procedures listed in the client information file, including one that you can define any way you want. This last one need not even be a number, but can instead be a descriptive phrase like "Case Consultation." If there is no five digit code in the procedure description but instead a word description, the statement MAGIC prints will include the short descriptive phrase in the procedure column. This is equally true of line #47 of the client/patient information file which is the individually user-defined code that varies from client to client. For each procedure you are asked to input your fee. These procedure lines are the same as appear in your USERDATA file and the fees that appear in your USER file are automatically transferred to each client information file that you create. These fees can be changed in any client information file at any time. If you want to indicate a "standard" fee as well as an "adjusted" fee as requested by many managed care companies, you can do this by typing the standard fee followed immediately by a greater than sign (">") followed by the adjusted fee. MAGIC will print both fees on your statements, the standard fee on insurance forms, and use the adjusted fee in financial calculations to determine what is actually owed. If your insurance form calls for the exact number of minutes that you see the patient rather than a range, follow the fee amount immediately by a colon (":") and then the number of minutes you see the client for this procedure. On the HCFA1500 form column E of box #24 (Units of Service) defaults to "1", however this number will be effected by the above procedure of adding a colon followed by a number. If the number after the colon is less than 20, that number will appear in column E of box 24 when the corresponding procedure is used.
MAGIC defaults to standard C.P.T. codes adopted 1/1/98. For individual psychotherapy, (90806, etc.) and hos-pital visits (90818, etc.) you can specify the number of min-utes (as described above) and the code will print accordingly. Similarly you can specify "interactive psychotherapy" and/or "medical eval. and management services" by terminat-ing the fee line for that procedure with "I" or "M" respectively, or "IM" for both. For example, "135:75 IM" would be printed as "90815" if it were entered on line #38, and would be printed as "90829" if it were entered on line #43 (Hopital Visit). The original code (90804, 90806 or 90818) will display on the bottom of the calendar screen when you click on these appointments. To view the actual procedure code at the bottom of the screen after clicking on the appointment, select "Rest of Info Line & Fee" from the DISPLAY menu.
Designating User-definable Procedure Codes: The six User-definable Procedure Codes that are designated in the user information list (accessed by selecting "User Info" in the EDIT menu) take the form of a procedure description followed optionally by "@" and then the fee amount excluding the dollar sign. If the fee is specified in this way it becomes the default which is transferred automatically to the client information files. The procedure description can consist of a five digit C.P.T. code alone, a five digit C.P.T. code followed by a descriptive phrase, or just a short descriptive phrase. If the five digit code is present, a printed statement for a client/patient for whom this procedure was performed will read "C.P.T." followed by the five digit code in the "procedure" column. If there is no five digit code, the statement will include the short descriptive phrase in the procedure column. This is equally true of line #47 of the client/patient information file which is the individually user-defined code that varies from client to client. (Note that if any of these user-defined codes are not CPT codes, that program will assume that this is not a client and will not put the word "client:" on statements.)
In the event that one of
these user-defined procedures is being performed with a client or patient and the fee for
that person is not the standard fee, an alternative fee can be indicated in the client
information file for that person on lines 111 through 116, which ask for the fees for the
six user-defined codes specified in the user information file. The client information file
will display as a default any fees indicated for those procedures in the user information
file. These six procedures are displayed when "Userdef'd" is selected in the
"change procedure" dialogue box ("J") that appears when
"procedure" is selected from the CHANGE menu..
Unlimited Individually-defined procedures, fees, copays: In addition to the User-defined Codes described above, the "change procedure" menu also offers you an unlimited option to type in unique procedure codes and fees for particular visits. The option of entering a fee and an adjusted fee separated by ">" is also available for User-defined Codes as it is for standard procedures (described above). In addition a separate copay can be defined for a particular visit or procedure by following the fee (adjusted fee) amount with ">>" followed by the copay amount. This is useful if there are certain visits or procedures that are not covered by insurance and must by paid fully by the client. If the copay in this case is defined as the entire (adjusted) fee, this procedure will not be included when insurance forms are printed.
Non-Cllinical Procedures: In
addition, if that individually user-defined code is descriptive without a C.P.T. code,
MAGIC will assume that this is a consultation or some other non-medical service and the
words "Client:" or "Patient:" that normally appear in front of the
client/patient's name at the top of the statement will be omitted. If, for example, the
procedure is "Case Consultation" performed with another practitioner, the
statement for this person will not refer to him or her as a client or patient.
Billing for Non-Client/Patient Professional Activities: In certain circumstances you will want to eliminate the words "client" or "patient" from statements, as in the case of professional supervision, consultations and certain other services that may be performed with other professionals or people who you are not treating clinically. To omit "client" (or omit "patient") designate a user defined procedure in the client/patient's file (line #47) or user information list (lines 59-64) as other than a number. For instance you may put the words "Clin. Consult." on line #47 and that phrase will appear in the procedure column of this person's statement, and his or her name and address will appear on the upper portion of the statement without the word "Patient:" or "Client:" before it.
Reduced or Adjusted Fees: MAGIC has the
ability to designate a reduced or "adjusted" fee for a client/patient in
addition to your customary fee. This is done by placing a ">" (greater
than sign) after the fee amount in the client information file followed by the reduced
fee.amount. This designation can be made in the corresponding fee in the user information
list and it will be automatically transferred to client information files. For instance,
the entry after "Initial Evaluation" might read "120>100" to
indicate that your standard fee for this procedure is one hundred and twenty dollars but
that you are charging a reduced fee for this client/patient of one hundred, which may for
instance be the fee you have contracted for with this person's HMO. If the insurance form
for this client requires a statement of the number of minutes of the procedure, the entry
might read "120>100:60" to indicate the additional information that the
procedure was 60 minutes. When the insurance form prints, the larger number (in this
example, 120) will be used to fill out the form. However, when statements or receivable
reports are printed, the lower number will be used as the actual ("adjusted")
amount of the fee. Statements will show both the actual fee and the "adjusted
fee." This was included because many managed care companies request that they be
billed for your full fee, even though it is understood that you will only be paid a
reduced portion of that fee. NOTE that whenever a ">" sign appears in any fee
in a client's information file, MAGIC assumes that adjusted fees may be involved and so it
prints a column on the statement for "adjusted fee" even if no procedure
containing this designation in it's fee definition actually appears on the statement.
Deductibles:
One way to handle deductibles is to create an appointment in your calendar for the client
in question and edit the procedure code of that appointment, selecting "User
defined" and typing "Deductible" for the procedure definition. Then set the
fee for that "procedure" to the amount of the deductible. It will print on
statements as "Deductible" with the appropriate charge. Another way to handle
deductibles is to set the client's copay at 100% and bill through the visit in which the
deductible is fulfilled. Then, before printing the next statement, set the copay to the
correct amount.
Entering Initial Financial Data: When first using MAGIC, you will need to transfer existing financial information to MAGIC so that your statements accurately reflect the client/patient's history. MAGIC makes this easy for you by asking you at the time you first introduce a new client/patient if you want to regularly this client/patient, his insurance company (if any), both or neither. Then MAGIC will ask this client/patient's $ balance (money he or she owes you) as of the end of the day before this client/patient's first appointment in MAGIC's calendar. If you indicated that you want to bill this person's insurance, MAGIC will now ask you the client/patient's copay, the portion of his or her bill that is not covered by insurance. If there is no insurance involved this number is "1" which is the default. Otherwise, you can enter the portion in any of a variety of forms: a decimal (like ".25"), a fraction (like 1/4"), a percentage (like "25%"), or a dollar amount greater than one (like "$10.00"). If the copay is anything but "1" you will be asked the balance owed by this client/patient's primary insurance carrier as of the above date. Finally you will be asked for the client/patient's street address and then city, state, and zip. These questions supply MAGIC with the information it needs to begin keeping your billing records for this client/patient. They are all optional and can be skipped by simply pressing <RETURN>. You can always go back and edit any client/patients client information at a later time, adding this information.
Changing financial information can also be done by clicking on that client/patient's appointment and then dragging the EDIT menu to "client info" to edit data for that client/patient. The most critical data to fill in are the insurance company's current balance, the client/patient's current balance (balance forward) and the last date that deposits were considered in calculating these balances ("Date of last deposit considered in balances") You are actually prompted to give two date prompts. The first (line #11) asks for a month, day, and year preceding the client/patient's first appointment that you wish MAGIC to produce statements or bill for. This date is automatically updated every time you print a statement and ask that the client/patient's financial data be updated. The other date is on line #16, the last deposit date that was used in the calculation of the client/patient's current balance ("Date of last deposit..."). Any deposits subsequent to that date will be assumed to be additional payments to be considered in the current statement. This date is also automatically updated. Any time this date is changed a warning appears that the program is clearing certain financial history data. This means that any data that the program has stored about this patient's payment and balance history will now be assumed to be inaccurate, as well as the patient's balance forward.
If you would like to include previous aging information about the client's account, fill in the financial information requested at the end of the client information list. Each amount should reflect the total amount due as of the corresponding date minus all payments that have been made since that date. The earliest date should be the lowest on the screen. (Consequently, the amount must decrease with each succeeding earlier date.)
The final information that is often essential is the insurance company or companies' outstanding balance(s) if insurance is involved. A simple way to think about all these figures is to make Practice MAGIC's information accurate up to the date you activate Practice MAGIC. Then give Practice MAGIC the appointment and deposit information it requires from that date forward and let MAGIC do the rest.
"Client/Patient HCFA1500 Info" The EDIT menu also displays the option of displaying the HCFA1500 form on the screen so you are able to click on the appropriate boxes and fill them in. This information will then be automatically transferred to the client information file. When you finish editing click the close box or select Save Edits from the FILE menu. On-screen ICD9 help is also available. It works exactly as described under "Edit Client/Patient Info."
Some CMS-1500 boxes are not displayed on the screen. For instance, in most states Medicare requires psychologists to place the modifier "AH" and LCSW's to place the modifier "AJ" after the procedure code and Masters Counselors to place a "Z9" in box #24D. If "MEDICARE" is selected in CMS-1500 Box #1, MAGIC will automatically place the these codes after the procedure code if the procedure is one of MAGIC's nine standard procedure codes other than "psychological testing," which does not require it. If the code is user-defined or individually-defined, you will need to add those letters yourself when you define the procedure. The preceding does not apply, however, if colon (":") is placed at the end of the data on line number 14 of the USERDATA file (which normally just contains the code for whether you are using your Soc. Sec. # or your Employer ID.#) followed by any two characters; this will cause those two characters to be printed as a modifier after the C.P.T. code on CMS-1500 forms that are designated for Meidare or Medicaid. Placing an explanation point ("!") after those two characters on line #14 will cause those characters to be printed as a modifier after the C.P.T. codes on ALL CMS-1500 forms, even if not for Medicare.
MAGIC fills out the service date fields at the bottom of the CMS-1500 form (Box 24) using information from the MAGIC calendar. Times will also be filled in after dates-of-service; however, these will not be printed when the CMS-1500 form is printed. You can also add to or modify these dates. All new dates-of-service will be automatically written into the MAGIC calendar. If no time is specified for these service dates, the earliest available time slot on the designated dates will be written to.
"Client/Patient List" The "client/patient list" lists all the insurance companies you have entered followed by the names and phone numbers of all your clients/patients in alphabetical order. When you enter an appointment with a client/patient code that is not already on the list you will be asked if you wish to add this name to the client list. If you do, you will be prompted for more information which will ultimately appear in this list. This list can be edited at any time. You can also edit information for individual clients by clicking on that client's code in the client list and selecting "Client Info" from the EDIT menu.
Names of insurance companies must be included in the client/patient list. This will occur automatically as insurance companies are written into client information files (see below) where the names of primary (line #29) or secondary (#67) insurance carriers is requested, or as checks from the insurance companies are entered.
Another way to add a name of an insurance company (or of a client/patient) to the client/patient list is to use the EDIT "client list" function described above. Do this by clicking on the first blank line in the list and then entering the necessary info. When entering insurance company names in the MAGIC client/patient list, you should avoid using commas in the name, because when MAGIC fills out labels or envelopes, it will print the name only up to the first comma.
To edit a line containing an insurance company name, click on the part of the line to be edited and make any change. Then press <RETURN> or click on another line. A dialog box will be displayed that will allow you to edit information for that company. Click on and move the scroll box on the right side of the screen to display more clients from the list. Click on the close box to return to the calendar.
Delete Client Name: You can delete a client/patient from the list completely by deleting just the client/patient code (on the left side of the screen) and then pressing <RETURN>.
WARNING: If you change the client/patient code here, all previous appointments and deposits in which you used a different code for that client/patient will not be recognized when you do a statement or insurance form.
Designating Client/Patients as "Inactive:" Select a client by clicking on the right side of a line in the list containing the client's name. Then press <Return>, and a dialog box will appear listing the client's name and telephone numbers in an edit box, and the client's billing instructions. In addition there will also be five buttons, including <OK> and <CANC>. The buttons will offer you the option of closing the client's account if it is active or activating it if it is not already active. Another button allows you to indicate that the client is to be excluded from the printed list of clients produced by the "Client List" option in the PRINT menu on the main MAGIC calendar screen; if the client is already excluded from the printed list the button will offer you the option of restoring the client to being included in the printed list.
Printing the Client/patient List: Selecting the "Client List" option in the PRINT menu on the main MAGIC calendar screen provides a handy printed reference list of your currently active clients/patients and their telephone numbers that can be quite handy when you are out of your office and need to return a telephone call.
Changing
Client/Patient Billing Status: Designating Specific Client/Patients for Regular Billing:
To designate certain client/patients for monthly or otherwise regular insurance billing or
client statements, edit the client/patient list (from the "EDIT" menu on the
calendar) and click on the right side of the line containing this client's name. Then
click on the button that says "Change Billing Instructions" When entering new
clients, MAGIC will automatically prompts you to disignate your billing preference for the
each new client. When you select "Print statements for all" or "Insurance
forms for all" from the PRINT menu, MAGIC will ask you if you if you indeed want to
do this for all active client/patients or just for the ones you have designated for
regular billing statements or insurance billing.
"User Data" "User Data" includes all information that is particular to the individual user including default values that are transferred to each client/patient. information file when it is created. These defaults can of course be modified for each client/patient as described in the above section. User Data information includes therapist's name, addresses, phone numbers, bank account number, ID number, fees. Also includes information about the desired size of the calendar you may wish to print, and information about the printer being used. The heights and widths initialized in this file are for printing the calendar and filling out forms. It is currently set to print a calendar that will fit in a 5" Daytimer wallet, however it may be necessary for you to make some changes in these settings to customize for your printer and your particular needs.
When you run MAGIC for the first time, this data will be requested. It can be modified at any time using the EDIT menu and selecting "USER DATA." To edit in this data after selecting "Edit User Data," click on the line to edit and then edit. Complete your edit by pressing <RETURN> or clicking on another line. You can scroll to see other pages of information. Click on the close box to return to the calendar. The options for "Printer type code" are those explained in the second paragraph of the section, GETTING STARTED, at the beginning of this manual. It comes preset to "3" which is what it should be for almost any printer except an imagewriter, which should be a "2."
Line 39: HCF-1500 Template: On line #39 of the USER DATA file you are asked to name the HCFA1500 template you prefer to use. The default is simply named "HCFA1500." Whatever you place on this line will be transferred to lines #101 and #102 of every new client file automatically. If certain clients' requirements are different than others you can edit the client's information file and change lines #101 or #102. All the MAGIC files that end in .FRM are templates for insurance forms. All of those that begin with HCFA are templates for filling out the HCFA1500 form. For most people the template named HCFA1500.FRM is satisfactory, but for some clinicians it is not. For instance replacing HCFA1500 with HCFAALT will cause box #29 on the HCFA1500 form to be filled out with the client's copay requirement rather than simply 0. By playing with the different templates provided you may find one that especially suites your needs, but for most people the default HCFA1500 template is satisfactory. In box #31 on the on-screen CMS-1500 there is a question: "Print today's date in the signature box? [Y/N]" If you change your answer to this question, the CMS-1500 template will be changed automatically and you will be offered the option of making the newly chosen template the default for new clients. Answering "Yes" to this last query will cause the User Data information on line #39 to be changed. You can also change the name of the CMS-1500 template yourself. For instance replacing CMS1500 with CMSALT will cause box #29 on the CMS-1500 form to be filled out with the client's copay requirement rather than simply 0. (NOTE that this is NEVER required by insurance companies.) By playing with the different templates provided you may find one that especially suites your needs, but for most people the default CMS-1500 template is satisfactory.
Line 53: Default "Signature on File" Message: Practice MAGIC normally places "Signature on File" automatically in boxes #12 and #13 of the CMS-1500 form. If you would like to change the default, you can do so by editing line #53 of USER DATA. The first character on line #53 indicates (Y or N) whether you would like first appointments for new clients to be designated as "REGULAR WEEKLY" or "IRREGULAR" (also referred to as "TEMPORARY.") If there is a colen that follows the first character, everything after the colen is the information you would liked placed in boxes #12 and #13. (These two elements will be separated by another colen if they are different from each other.)
Select FONTS and font SIZE: To select a printer font (for printers other than the ImageWriter), select USER DATA from the EDIT menu and when the user information screen appears, scroll down to line #57. (Each time you click on a line, the line number will appear at the top of the screen.) Line 57 offers you 6 print fonts. Selecting any of them other than "Generic" will activate a high quality print routine. Statements will print in the font you selected and HCFA1500 forms will be filled out in a high definition Courier font. You can specify the point size of the font that you would like printed on the heading lines of statements by beginning lines one through six of the USER DATA with a looping bracket, the point size you want for that line, and a closing looping bracket. For instance: {18} would produce an 18 point font.
Procedure Descriptions on statements: By answering the question on line #24 of the User Data file Y or N you can indicate whether you want to include procedure descriptions on statements in the heading under PROCEDURE or just the C.P.T. Code. Unless you answer "N" a description of up to eighteen characters will appear after the five digit code. If you want descriptions of your USER DEFINED PROCEDURES to appear, you will need to follow the C.P.T. code you select by a space and then a description of up to 18 characters. Extra characters will be ignored.
Definable Screen
Colors: To modify screen colors, edit entry #26 in your user data file
(<Command>+<U>). Type any character followed by pressing <RETURN> or
clicking on another edit line. A box will be displayed containing ten colored rectangles
and a rectangle that reads "Return." These are the ten colors by MAGIC in
various screens in the program. To replace any of these ten colors with another, click on
the rectangle with that color. The MacIntosh Color Picker will appear on your screen with
the color you just selected to edit. There are two methods of color picking, one by
adjusting three selection bars, and the other by clicking on a point in a colored circle
and selecting darkness using a lightness/darkness selection bar. You can switch between
the two by clicking on "More options" and then selecting the appropriate icon
from the side bar that is displayed. NOTE that when you use the circle method, the circle
initially appears BLACK, until you lighten it by using the lightness/darkness selection
bar.
"Add New Client/Insur. Co." adds to your client list, creating new client information files that MAGIC can later access when doing billing for those clients. Magic will assume the date of illness and the "first seen" dates to be the date before the cursor position on the calendar. This date will appear on the eleventh (last date billed) and sixteenth lines (last deposit considered) of the Client Information Data Entry Screen and on other lines as well; however these two lines have a critical effect on keeping accurate financial records and should be corrected on that screen if it is wrong. If, for instance that date is after the actual first date seen, the first appointment will not show up in billing statements.
"Ahead 1 Wk" and "Back 1 Wk" are used to display the next week or the next prior week on the screen.
"Schedule Next Week" will forward your appointments to the week following the week currently on the screen. Can be used to update a week already scheduled or to schedule a week that is currently blank. All weekly appointments will be forwarded. Biweekly appointments will have a notation (>>) placed in their time slot in off weeks if no one else is scheduled. Temporary appointments, those which do not reoccur each week or every other week at the same time, will be indicated by "TEMP" and will not be forwarded. Skipped or moved appointments will be indicated by ">". This function can be repeated for a week that has already been scheduled. During the scheduling forward process, the program will pick up and alert you to scheduling conflicts and visit numbering inconsistencies.
The term "TEMP" is used to refer to appointments that are not carried forward automatically from week to week. They may be one-time appointments, appointment reschedules or appointments of client/patients who's hour varies from week to week. Weekly, biweekly and multiple time per week appointments are assumed to be fixed appointments, appointments which repeat each week at the same day and time. Practice MAGIC automatically schedules these appointments for successive weeks when the "Schedule Next Week" function (<CMD>+<N>) is used. When a clinical appointment for a new client/patient is scheduled, it is automatically set for "TEMP." To change it to WEEKLY or some other frequency, (or to change "weekly" to TEMP), select "Frequency" from the "CHANGE" menu (<CMD>+<R>) and select the frequency you desire. To permanently change the appointment time of a client/patient who comes regularly at a stable appointment time, use the "MOVE" option (<CMD>+<J>) from the APPT menu. In using this option, the frequency of visits for this client/patient will be preserved. If a new permanent appointment time is scheduled without using the MOVE option, MAGIC will assume that this is an extra appointment being scheduled for this person, perhaps, for instance, an emergency visit. MAGIC will automatically schedule the appointment as TEMP. This will create minor problems if what you intended to do was really to permanently reschedule (MOVE) the appointment, because you will then have to change the frequency of visits for the new appointment, and the old appointment will still be rescheduled each week at the old time. That will require you to TERMINATE the old appointment time (<CMD>+<X>). Using "SKIP APPT" would not work to eliminate the old appointment because it would cancel the appointment for one week only and automatically reschedule it for the following week.
"Rest of Info Line & Fee" and "Previous Info" are used to look at the comment line of a client/patient you have clicked on. If the comment extends off the screen, click on "Info about client/patient" to see the comment. "Previous Info" will again show you the beginning of the line.
"Client $ Status" is identical to "Check $ Status" under the PRINT menu.
"Display Sunday Appointments" The MAGIC Calendar screen displays six days of the week at any given time, Monday through Friday and either Saturday or Sunday. Tos display or schedule Sunday appointments when Saturday appointments are currently displayed in the right column of the calendar screen, select "Display Sunday Appointments" from the DISPLAY menu. When Sunday appointments are currently displayed, this same menu entry will switch the display back to Saturday appointments.
"Jump to New Week" to display a week of the
calendar that is not necessarily near the week that is currently displayed. This option
performs the same function as the "Jump" option under the
MAGIC calendar screen FILE menu.
If you do not have the CMS-1500 capability built into your current version of Practice MAGIC (there is no "CMS-1500" menu on the calendar page) you need to purchase and download the upgraded Practice MAGIC for an upgrade fee of $39.95. You can order the upgrade from www.practicemagic.com/orders.html) The following are instructions for it's use:
Instructions for Transitioning to the CMS-1500 Form from the HCFA-1500:
The two templates (see paragraph above) for the CMS-1500 form which will be automatically written to C:\MAGIC\INFO on you hard disk are called "CMS1500.FRM" and "CMSALT.FRM." If you replace "HCFA1500.frm" as your "Insurance Form Template" with either of these forms, they will format your output to conform to the CMS-1500. The "CMS1500.FRM" template will automatically place a zero in box 29, as our HCFA-1500 template has been doing for years. You can alternatively select "CMSALT", which will cause MAGIC to calculate the copay for the visits being billed and place that number in box 29. In the case of MAC, you will need to copy the two files, "CMS1500.FRM" and "CMSALT.FRM" from the folder created when you unstuff the downloaded file to the INFO subfolder in you MAGIC folder residing on your desktop. (The files will be copied automatically for Windows).
IMPORTANT: After upgrading to the CMS-1500 version, for each pre-existing client, you will need to replace "HCFA1500.frm" as your "Insurance Form Template" with either CMS1500 or CMSALT; these CMS-1500 templates will format your output to conform to the new CMS-1500 form. NOTE THAT CHANGING THE INSURANCE FORM TEMPLATE TO CMS1500 DOES NOT CHANGE THE ON-SCREEN INSURANCE FORM. PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL OR CALL US TO TELL US THAT CHANGING THE TEMPLATE DOES NOT CHANGE THE FORM UNTIL YOU HAVE TRIED PRINTING A FORM. In addition lines 50, 51 and 109 of each client file should be edited as well as line 40 and 41 of the USERDATA file. Line 110 of the client file now fills in box 33b, Line 50 now fills in 24j (top) and line 51 fills in box 19 which is commonly designated for the therapist's taxonomy number. Line 109 fills in box 32a and 32b and line 61 fills in box 17 a&b. Lines 40 and 41 of the USERDATA file in the NPI number (33a) and the default for the NPI number of the place of service for new clients.
WE HAVE RECEIVED MANY SUPPORT CALLS BY PEOPLE WHO ARE FINDING BOX 24J (lower portion) IS BEING FILLED OUT WITH THE INFORMATION FROM BOX 33A. If the NPI of the Billing Provider(agency) is different from the NPI of the Rendering Provider (therapist), both NPI numbers should be placed on line #40 of userdata AND IN BOX 33A OF THE ON-SCREEN INSURANCE FORM separated by a forward slash ("/"). If you do not want anything to print in lower 24J, just begin Box 33A (AND LINE 40 OF USERDATA) with a forward slash ("/") followed by your NPI#. In general all entries on the on-screen insurance form that ask for two possible pieces of data, as for instance box 17a&b (on line 61) and 32a&b (on line 110), can be filled out with both pieces of data separated by a forward slash. If no forward slash is included, the entire entry will be printed in both places. If nothing follows the slash, the place on the form that is filled out by that second piece of data will be left blank. If nothing precedes the slash, the place on the form that is filled out by that first piece of data will be left blank. The new form template will place the therapist's name in box 31 one line higher than the therapist name was printed on the old HCFA-1500. IF YOUR COPY OF MAGIC WAS PURCHASED OR DOWNLOADED PRIOR TO APRIL in 2007, you may need to download an updated copy in order to for the instructions in this paragraph to work (call Cornucopia)
The MAGIC on-Screen insurance form will look the same as when you were filling out HCFA-1500 forms (if you ever were). The "CMS1500.FRM" template will automatically place a zero in box 29, as our HCFA-1500 template has been doing for years. You can alternatively select "CMSALT", which will cause MAGIC to calculate the copay for the visits being billed and place that number in box 29. In the case of MAC, you will need to copy the two files, "CMS1500.FRM" and "CMSALT.FRM" from the folder created when you unstuff the downloaded file to the INFO subfolder in your MAGIC folder residing on your desktop. (The files will be copied automatically for Windows, although NO PROMPT WILL BE DISPLAYED THAT THE TEMPLATES ARE NOW SUCCESSFULLY INSTALLED).
NPI: Before using the CMS-1500 forms, you will need to enter your and National Provider Identification ("NPI") number. Do this by selecting "User data" from the EDIT menu. Scroll down and click on line 40 and enter your NPI on that line (see above if your Billing NPI is not the same as your Rendering NPI). If you have a separate National Provider Identificationspace for your place of service, you can enter that on line 41.
PINs: If an insurance company requires that you use a specific provider number, like a PIN, authorized by that company and distinct from the NPI, input that number on line 50 and line 110 of the CLIENT information file for that particular client (also accessed from the edit menu). (see above if your Billing PIN is not the same as your Rendering PIN) Information for both Primary and Secondary insurance can be entered on line 50, separated by a backslash. Line 51 should be empty unless you want something to print into box 19 (some insurance companies are asking for the taxonomy number to go there) The "ID Qualifier" number that is required for non-NPI identification numbers should come before the actual identification number, and be followed by several spaces. Some examples of "ID Qualifier" numbers can be found in the user manual connected to this website. Simply click on "online manuals" on the left side of this web-page, and then utilize the "find" or "search" function of your web browser to locate the first instance of "ID Qualifier" in the manual. The "find" or "search" function is usually accessed by control-F or control-S. On line #109 of the client information file, if required, you should enter the NPI of the Place of Service; this is not the same as the Provider NPI! 109 can also handle the other I.D. of the place of service by putting both on line 109 separated by a forward slash. If you want 32a and 32b to be blank, you will need to delete the information on line 109. If you do not want 32b filled out, be sure that line 109 ends with a forward slash.
Switching from HCFA-1500 to CMS-1500: Then to utilize the CMS templates, for any given client, highlight an appointment of that client on the MAGIC calendar, or click on an open appointment slot, and select "Client Info on HCFA" (or "Client Info on CMS-1500" if you have a later version of MAGIC) from the Edit Menu, scroll to the bottom of the on-screen insurance form, and then change the letters "HCFA" in the box labeled "MAGIC Insurance Form Template" to "CMS" so that instead of reading "HCFA1500," for instance, it would read "CMS1500". NOTE THAT CHANGING THE INSURANCE FORM TEMPLATE TO CMS1500 DOES NOT CHANGE THE ON-SCREEN INSURANCE FORM. PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL OR CALL US TO SAY THAT CHANGING THE TEMPLATE DOES NOT CHANGE THE FORM UNTIL YOU HAVE ACTUALLY TRIED PRINTING A FORM.
PINs: If an insurance company requires that you use a specific provider number, like a PIN, authorized by that company and distinct from the NPI, input that number on line 50 of the CLIENT information file for that particular client (also accessed from the edit menu). The "ID Qualifier" number that is required for non-NPI identification numbers should precede the actual identification number, and be followed by several spaces and then the ID number itself. Here are examples of "ID Qualifier" numbers you may need to use:
0B State License Number.
1B Blue Shield Provider Number.
1C Medicare Provider Number
1D Medicaid Provider Number.
1G Provider UPIN Number
1H CHAMPAS Identification Number.
EI Employer's Identification Number.
G2 Provider Commercial Number
LU Location Number.
N5 Provider Plan Network Identification Number
SY Social Security Number.
X5 State Industrial Accident Provider Number.
ZZ Provider Taxonomy
Box 29: With the old HCFA-1500, box 29 was obsolete and unused for years. With the CMS-1500, for reasons beyond our abilities to comprehend, this box has been reactivated. Since Practice MAGIC keeps a running balance of charges and payments, and does not associate each payment with a specific service, the program can not calculate box 29 accurately. Those practitioners who feel compelled to place an accurate number in box 29, will need to settle for the calculated copay on the relevant visits to be placed in box #29 as "amount paid." For newer versions of Practice Magic, by clicking "no" to the question in box 29 on the on-screen cms-1500, you will instruct MAGIC to change the insurance template from "CMS1500" to "CMSALT" which will calculate the copay for the visits being billed and place that number in box 29. For older versions, you will need to change the name of the insurance form template yourself. Note that neither we nor any of our customers have ever encountered an insurance company that had any interest in knowing how much of the client's copay had been collected to date.
Shortcomings of CMS-1500 Template, when run without program update:
Diagnosis Designators: 2007 versions of practice magic will handle diagnosis designators in box 24E as required by the CMS-1500 directions; namely, the numbers, must have no punctuation or spaces between them. Older versions of Practice MAGIC not updated for the CMS-1500, however, will continue to place, as between the diagnosis designator numbers, even when using the CMS-1500 templates.
One too many PINs: In most cases you will not be using a separate, insurance company assigned PIN number; your NPI will be the only ID# required. If you do, however, assign a PIN number for a particular client, that PIN number will print above the NPI number on each visit line in which there is a visit. Unfortunately, unless you are running a version of Practice MAGIC that is customized to the CMS form, an extra PIN# will also print on the first visit line that is blank. This probably won't be a problem, and it will not occur if no PIN# is assigned or if there are six visits being billed on the particular form.
Please note: The old form required three lines of printing in a one-inch space. The new form requires printing accurately six lines in a 1 inch area in order to accommodate the national provider identifier, which appears redundantly in many places throughout the form. We anticipate that some of our users will experience difficulty aligning the software and their printer to this form. Other than for new owners of practice magic, we will charge for assistance in aligning your printer a minimum of $39.95. See instructions in this manual for the first time you print on a form or PRINTER NOTES in this manual if you would like to do it yourself.
CHANGE This menu allows you to change information you have entered for a client/patient. Click on the client/patient whose data you would like to change and access the CHANGE menu or click on a time when no one is scheduled and access the CHANGE menu. If no one is scheduled, you will be asked the name or client/patient code of the client/patient whose information you would like to change.
"Name" To change the name of the client/patient, click on the "Name" option. You will be prompted to enter the correct initials and press <RETURN>. You may enter any initials. WARNING: This function will not check to make sure that the initials you give are in your client/patient list. The change will not be made in the client/patient list. Previous appointments and deposits will not be recognized when you do billings.
"Time" To change the time, use the "Time" option. This would not be used to move the appointment to a different day on the calendar, but would be used to change the time from 1:00 to 1:30 or 7:00 to 9:00 on the same day, for example.
"Irreg. Appointment" To change the frequency with which the client/patient is seen, click on the "Frequency" option. Click on the number of times per week the client/patient will be seen or Click on BIWEEKLY or TEMP, if it is a temporary appointment, one which does not reoccur regularly at the same time each week. Another way to change an appointment to temporary is to drag the mouse to "Irreg Appt" on the CHANGE menu. An alternate way to switch from temporary to "regular weekly" is to drag the mouse to "Reg weekly appt" on the CHANGE menu.
"Procedure" To change the client/patient's procedure code, click on "Procedure". You will be given different options for the type of procedure. Click on the letter of the correct procedure or type in the procedure number. If you select "J: user-defined," you will be offered seven choices, the first being the user-defined procedure designated on line #47 of the client information file (listed in the dialog box as "Indiv. user def'd"), and the other six being the procedures you defined on lines 59 through 64 of your user information list.
If the procedure for this
session is not one of the nine procedures listed in the initial menu, and it is not one of
the 7 user-defined procedures, you can type the five digit number of the procedure at the
"change procedure" menu. If you wish to use a descriptive designation of the
procedure without a number, you can do this by typing a space followed by the description.
You can designate the fee for that procedure by following the number or description with
an "@" followed by the fee, for instance "Parents with oldest
child@90." If you do not include the fee on this line, MAGIC will ask you the fee.
"Visit #" To change the visit number, click on "Visit #". Visit numbers are normally handled automatically so that this function is rarely used.
"Comment (all sess.)" To change or add
to the comment, use either "Comment (1x)" or "Comment (all sess.)"
depending on whether you want the comment for the current session or whether you want it
to appear for all sessions.
Print allows you to print the client/patient telephone list, statements, insurance forms, accounts payable, envelopes, labels, and/or the calendar. Before printing, be sure that you have informed MAGIC about the type of printer that you have. In the User Information file that you can access from the EDIT menu you are asked to give the "code" for your printer. The answer to this question should be "2" if you are using an Imagewriter printer and probably 3 if you are using any other printer. If your answer is "3" and you print a calendar or statement, the print is unlikely to turn out to be the desired size of 6 lines per inch and 10 characters per inch. To print onto preprinted forms like the HCFA1500 the printer's output must conform to these specifications. This problem is automatically solved by MAGIC for Imagewriter printers, however if you are using another printer (code "3") you mayl need to change the proportions of the output of the printer by selecting the last option in the PRINT menu, "Set Print Scaling." This utility is run automatically when you first run Practice MAGIC and it is usually not necessary to run it ever again, unless you install a new printer.
NOTE: If when you print you
get an "insufficient memory" error message, you do not have enough RAM to print
without using BACKGROUND PRINTING. To correct this problem, when the PrintMonitor or PRINT
Dialog box appears select background printing (For some printers this is not the default.)
"Client/Patient List." This will print all your clients/patients in approximate alphabetical order with their phone numbers.
"Statement(s)." To print statements for clients: If you have selected a number of clients using the SELECT function in the SPECIAL menu statements for all of these will be printed when "Statement(s)" is selected. Otherwise, a statement will be printed for the client whose appointment is presently highlighted. If no one is selected and you have clicked on a blank appointment slot, the program will ask for whom the statement is to be printed. This is particularly useful if you are reprinting a statement of a client who has not been scheduled on your calendar recently. The default ending date for a statement is the date the cursor is on. For each client, the default beginning date for a statement is the first date after the last statement was printed and saved. If more than one client is selected, the location of the cursor when the PRINT menu is accessed will determine the default end date for all.
Note: Practice MAGIC offers you the option of updating client financial records whenever a new statement is displayed or printed. The "Beginning Balance" reflected in the client statement is the balance at the end of the last statement for which UPDATE was requested. MAGIC does not automatically update a client's financial information at the time a deposit is recorded. The deposit is not reflected