For an upgrade of the program that handles the new CPT codes introduced and required 1/1/2013, you will need a new version of MAGIC that has been reprogrammed to handle these codes. Unless you purchased the program after 8/1/12, the charge for this upgrade for single-user programs will be $39.50 to cover the cost of reprograming. This fee also applies to upgrades for unlimited programs. It is not in lieu of annual update fees.

The new version will NOT print the old codes after 1/1/13, even if the date of service was in 2012. If you must print a statement that includes the old codes either do it before you install the new program, or set your computer's date back to 2012 (i.e. 12/31/12) and print the statements you require.

The new codes include some quirks: They do not differentiate between inpatient and outpatient psychotherapy, so 90818 will now be coded as 90834, 45 minutes of Psychotherapy. As of 1/15/2013 they do not include a code for a 90 minute session, although it appears that 90854 will be added for that purpose. Practice MAGIC does not have a designated code line for 90837 (60 mins) or 90854 (90 mins) so, if you want to use these, you will need to add to them as userdefined codes in USERDATA. (There are six slots for userdefined codes).

Other  Features Added to Practice MAGIC over the years (All are in the Windows version; some are in the MAC version)

• Can Automatically Update fees for all full-fee clients when your standard fee has changed.

• New chronological Statement format added to the original "classic" format.

• Year 2000:

Practice Magic is Y2K compliant. HCFA now requires the dates in box 24 on the HCFA-1500 to be printed as a single eight digit number of the form mmddyyyy with no separations between month day and year. Practice MAGIC now prints in this format in box 24 (unless you place a ^ before the name of the insurance form on line #101 of the client information. - i.e. ^HCFA-1500 ). You can still, at your option, type a two or four digit year in the various boxes that ask for dates. If you give a four digit year, MAGIC will print the date in the new eight digit format. If you give a four digit year, MAGIC will print it in the traditional format. If you utilize the four digit year anywhere on the form, MAGIC will use the new format in the signature box (#31) when it prints the current date.

• Self-Running Demo:

The opening screen of Practice MAGIC now offers you two options, one to run the program normally, and the other to run a self-prompting demonstration that illustrates many of the features of Practice MAGIC.

• Expanded Client Info Box:

In the calendar window the data entry box can be pulled down to reveal a complete list of clients and insurance companies. We have had requests to be able to make that box wider so that it will be possible to distinguish between insurance companies with the same name but different addresses. This can be done by holding the SHIFT key down and pressing the right arrow key. Once you have opened the client list in this wider format, it will open in the wider format each time you open it during that session of MAGIC.

• Default for Place, Type and Units of Service (Boxes 24b, 24c and 24g on HCFA-1500):

Previously, the default for Place and Type of Service (Boxes 24b and 24c on HCFA-1500) has been O and 9 respectively. It is now 11 and 3 respectively.  Also, now, if you change the Place and Type of Service (Boxes 24b and 24c) on the on-screen HCFA-1500 (reached by selecting Client Info on HCFA from the EDIT menu on the MAGIC calendar screen.), MAGIC will ask you if you want this new value to be the default for new clients. The default for box 24g, units of service, is "1." To change the units of service, edit the client information, and place a colon after the fee for the particular service in question followed by the number of units you would like to print.

 

• Quick Financial Status Check:

Press the <F11> key when a client appointment is selected from the MAGIC calendar and MAGIC will display a screen containing all that clients appointments from the end of the last billing period, as well as payments and balances as of the date of the selected appointment. Pressing <F12> instead will display the summary of charges, payments and balances at the bottom of the screen without leaving the calendar screen. There is also now a DAY SHEET option in the PRINT menu which will print a single day's appointments with telephone numbers and a summary of charges, payments and balances as of the day of the selected appointment.

 

• HCFA-1500:

A new "HCFA-1500" menu has recently been added to the menu choices on the MAGIC calendar screen.  This menu redundantly provides in one place all the functions that would be required by someone only interested in using Practice MAGIC for filling out and printing HCFA-1500 forms for clients. The entries are in the order one would use them: add a client, edit the client information on an on-screen HCFA-1500, and print it. These are exactly the same functions as "Add Client" in the DISPLAY menu, "Client Info on HCFA" in the EDIT menu, and "Print insur. form" in the PRINT menu respectively. There is a fourth menu entry under HCFA-1500, "Print all insur forms," which is the same as the entry under PRINT with the same name.

MAGIC now fills out the HCFA-1500 form in the NEW TIMES ROMAN font and prints the bottom lines on the HCFA-1500 in a reduced size font so that there is room for name, addresses, phone # and pin # (6 lines of info) without writing over the red lettering on the form. Some users will still find it necessary, however, to set the page size on their printer setup information to Legal (8.5" x 14") so that the bottom line of print on the form can be printed. You can now enter visit dates directly onto the on-screen HCFA-1500 rather than first entering them on the appointment calendar.  Also a button has been added to the on-screen HCFA-1500 EDIT screen to allow you to proceed directly to PRINT.

• Click and Drag Disabled:

On some computers the click-and-drag method of moving or rescheduling an appointment was not working properly. We accommodated those machines by placing an asterisk at the end of line #46 in the USER DATA file, the line that asks at what point you begin to charge interest on an overdue account. The asterisk disables this feature. If you would like to reenable click-and-drag, simply edit line #46 in USER DATA (from the EDIT menu), eliminating the asterisk.

• Report Unpaid Insurance:

When running a receivables report ("Receivables report for all" in PRINT menu), you will now be asked if you want MAGIC to also report all dates of service for which no insurance check has been received (for clients for whom a primary insurance carrier has been designated.)

• Add-New-Client menu option:

Formerly new clients were automatically added when an appointment was made for a client MAGIC didn't recognize. Now, you can also add a client or insurance company using the Add-new-client option in the MAGIC "EDIT" menu or the newly added "HCFA-1500" menu.

• Select All:

Formerly Unselect All always appeared in the SPECIAL menu. Now it is replaced by Select All when no clients have been selected. This makes possible a variety of procedures like printing an address list of all clients. Click on Select All, and then select the "envelops/labels" option from the PRINT menu. If you have indicated on line 21 of Userdata that you print addresses on labels rather than envelops the adderesses will print on paper as if on label sheets ("3x11" and "3x10" indicate 33 or 30 labels to the sheet respectively.)

• Electronic Billing:

Using software supplied by the electonic claims clearing house,  Practice MAGIC can now be used to generate an electronic version of your HCFA-1500 claim on disk, which can then be transmitted electronically to any of a variety of elctronic claims clearing houses in order to bill claims electronically.  The electonic claims clearing houses charge a fee for this services.  We have found that eclaims seems to be the easiest to use, however, freeclaims is free and MAGIC will work with most of the others.

Changes to Practice MAGIC

• 1/16/09 OUTLOOK Hotsync. Practice MAGIC now offers a hotsync feature for OUTLOOK (Windows only). Please note that we just finishing development of a module that allows practice magic to hotsync with the Microsoft Outlook calendar. Since almost all handheld devices, including cell phones, blackberries, iphones, palm handhelds etc., hotsync with Microsoft Outlook calendar as well, this makes it possible for you to make your appointments on your handheld calendar and electronically transfer them back and forth to MAGIC. Development time and costs have been extensive; we are charging a one time fee of $99.95 for this feature; more information will be available on the What's New page of our website, www.practicemagic.com, shortly.
• 8/16/08 Practice MAGIC is no longer physically shipped to customers.  All orders are filled electronically.
• 2/1/08 Palm Hotsync. Several years ago the Palm operating system was changed (beginning with Palm OS 1.4) so that the files of the Palm Calendar residing on the desktop computer could no longer be read by a Practice MAGIC program that had the optional Palm Hotsync feature. Recently an enterprising customer who had grown accustomed to the convenience of scheduling all his appointments on his Palm Handheld, figured out how to continue to use the MAGIC Palm Hotsync feature with a new PALM HANDHELD.  He has his older Palm on his desk wired to his desktop computer. This old palm hotsyncs perfectly with Practice MAGIC, as always.   Since it is always plugged in, the Palm does not need a battery which can hold a charge, which is fortunate, because the batteries on old Palm Handhelds rarely do. Then he carries to his office a new palm, upon which he schedules all his appointments. Once a month, when he is ready to do billing, he uses the ifrared ports of the two palms to send the appointments on the calendar of the new palm to his old palm, which then hotsyncs them to MAGIC.  The only drawback to this plan is that appointments scheduled on the desktop are transmitted to the old palm but then are not transmitted from the old palm to the new palm, so that all appointments and changes must be made on the new Palm Handheld.

• 1/1/08 MAC programs gave a message that 2008 dates were unacceptable. This was a problem for about five customers.  The problem was corrected in mid 2007 and the people who had this problem were given new versions of the program for which there was no problem.
• 5/20/06 New version of MAGIC for CMS-1500 forms and NPI numbers. Originally we offered current users a free download which would handle many of the requirements of the new CMS-1500 form including NPI numbers, but we subsequently discovered that the ideosyncratic requirements of various Medicare organizations around the country required a flexibility that the older version of Practice MAGIC could not provide, so we had to reprogram. The new version of Practice MAGIC became available in mid 2006, and we have been charging older customers an upgrade fee of $39.95, which was separate from any yearly update fees that may have been due.  The original version put the letters "SOF" in box 31 for "signiture on file.". After receiving some complaints about this, we made a change that now causes the program to print the therapist's name in box #31.
• 5/20/05 Downloading of Updates is no longer necessary. We have changed the update procedure.  When the program tells you you need to contact Cornucopia for an update, it now also gives you a number to report when you call or email us.  Based on that number we give you code that you can enter into MAGIC when it asks, that will extend the functionality of your installed program.  Purchasers of the unlimited version will no longer need to contact Cornucopia after the the first year.
• 12/20/04 Can Automatically Update fees for all full-fee clients when your standard fee has changed. If you run a "Receivables Report for All" or "Receiveables Update Only" or "Statements for All" and answer "yes" to the question about whether you want to update, MAGIC will ask you, "After this billing, do you wish to automatically change the standard fees for all of these client's to the default fees in your current USERDATA file? (Y/N) [Default = N]"  If you answer "Yes" Magic will ask what your original standard full fee for "C.P.T. 90806" is before the change. It will then change the fees on those of these clients who's full fee for "C.P.T. 90806" is your standard full fee to the fees currently listed as defaults in your Userdata file.  Only the full fee will be changed, not any adjusted fees or copays.
• 6/15/04 The statement format printed by MAGIC has been radically redesigned so that visits and payments appear in the chronological order that they occurred and portions of the statement are set apart by boxes. The program gives you the option of using this "chron style" or going back to the original statement format )"classic style statement.") The new style does not permit you to use your own stationary, so you might want to stay with the classic style if using your own stationary is important to you.
• 5/15/04 WINDOWS MAGIC (CD ROM version) PASSWORD feature has been deactivated due to the number of support calls we were getting from people who had forgotten their passwords or could not get into their program due to the password protection. If you must have it, you can reactivate the PASSWORD feature by placing a "tilda" at the end of line #39 of your USER DATA.