MedLook Weekly Tip For 04/16/2007

MedLook now provides a CMS test page utility for paper and electronic claims. In the past testing a page has required selecting a patient with as many options selected as possible. Even then though fields could be misaligned. For instance, selecting all males will test the male check boxes, but not the female check boxes. The same with Yes/No answers. The new utility prints Y in all Yes boxes and N in all No boxes. It also prints M in all male boxes and F in all female boxes. Every option on the form has something being printed to it. Check boxes use a letter instead of a simple X thereby helping you determine its proper placement. The utility is activated from Tools->Utilities->CMS 1500 Test Page as shown here:



The utility itself looks like:



Layout by default points to the layout specified in your last valid MedLook database. Using the [...] browse button you can change to a different layout if necessary.

The Edit Layout command activates the current layout editor as specified in MedLook Tools->Options. You can edit the layout, save your changes to either the Electronic or Paper sections, and generate a new test claim. It is an iterative process to generate the proper output, especially for paper claims. Electronic claims can often be corrected in only one or two attempts as the clearinghouse generally has guidelines by which to determine exact placement of each item. Rather than paying a clearinghouse hundreds of dollars simply ask for their template/requirements and generate the claims file yourself.

The eClaim File option generates a test claim and saves it in the location specified in eClaim Output File (usually c:\eClaimsTest.txt). Your standard .txt editor (usually Notepad) is also started showing the file generated. Only one page is generated in any case.

eClaims Print sends an electronic claim directly to the printer. This is kind of useful for testing purposes.

Print is used to test printing a single claims page. You select the printer just like you would for any document.

The Left Margin and Top Margin fields effectively do the same thing as the Top and Left parameters in the Paper section (but they're only temporary whereas the changes to Top and Left are stored in the file).

The Height and Width settings are read-only for verification. They should always be 15840 and 12240 respectively.

Warning: If you modify your layout to such an extent that you violate your printer's margins you may result with many pages of junk being printed. You should incrementally test your settings. Printers are fickle beasts and have a memory of their own. Once a job gets into the printer in most cases there is no simple way to eliminate it.

This utility should help you completely eliminate any surprises in the future regarding placement of any item on an electronic or paper claim. You can use this utility to temporarily point to any of the CMS*.xml templates in the c:\Program Files\Rem Systems\ MedLook\Template folder and view output from any of them. This utility is very useful but is only used when changing printers, clearinghouses, or changes are made to the CMS 1500 form such as for the NPI fields.