Posting Charges with GoalMinder Account Manager

GoalMinder Account Manager (GAM, the billing module of GoalMinder) uses the Charges area to enter billable services which will then be submitted to insurance companies and/or will be included in statements sent to clients. Charges can be posted in a variety of ways by using "Queries", that is, by telling the computer how you would like information grouped and displayed. Under most circumstances, you will want to display information by seeing all services delivered by a particular therapist for a given date or date range. Here is a list of the possible ways you can work with posting information using the Charges Area:

By Specific Therapist (all patients) by date or date range (Most Common)
By Specific Patient (all therapists) by date or date range
By Specific Patient By Specific Therapist by date or date range
All Therapists, All Clients by date or date range

Posted versus Non-Posted Charges

Later, we will show you how to display each of these queries by simply clicking check boxes. Queries are available to see charges that need to be posted (non-posted charges) and charges that have already been posted (posted charges). A posted charge is one that has already been verified by the therapist and Account Manager and has been queued for submission or already sent to an insurance company and/or included in a client's statement. A non-posted charge is one that has not yet been processed by the program.

GAM and GoalMinder Working Together

The procedure for using the Charges module depends on how your clinic and the therapists within the clinic are utilizing GoalMinder™, the companion program to GAM. Several scenarios are possible and are described below. Note that all scenarios require that the client's registration information has been entered into the Client area of GoalMinder prior to using GAM. If the client's name and insurance information (where applicable) are not listed in the Client area of GoalMinder, then entering charges for that individual cannot occur.

How to Use the Charges Screen

Scenario 1:
Billable appointments have been scheduled using the GoalMinder Calendar AND the therapist has used the Treatment Area of GoalMinder to identify the Service rendered.
This is the easiest of all possible scenarios for the account manager. Almost all the work has already been done by the program, the therapist, and the receptionist or scheduler. Do this:

Go to the Charges Area by clicking on the Charges button from the Main Screen
Enter a therapist's name by using the drop-down list box called "Therapist"
Select "non-posted charges" from the listbox below the Therapist list box (This is the default setting)
Choose a date or date range by using the radio buttons on the right-hand side of the screen (Choices are yesterday, this week, last week, or any day or date range of your choice)
Press the Query button. You will see a display showing the date, time, client name, account number, a service abbreviation for an insurance (CPT) code, unit, session number and diagnosis. The insurance information is there as well and can be viewed by checking the little Display box at the bottom left of the screen. Continuing with this display, the account manager now does this:
Press the Calc. Fee button. A dialog box appears asking which calculations you would like to perform. Choose "All."
The result of this action is that the program looks up all relevant fee information and enters either standard fees for that therapist for services listed or enters contracted fees individually negotiated for the service for a given client. This information is obtained elsewhere in the program.
If a particular service should be billed DIRECTLY to the client instead of to his/her insurance company (like a missed appointment fee) then double-click on the appropriate line of the "Bill Client" column and a little "x" will appear. Double-click again to erase the "x" if you made a mistake.
If a statement should NOT be sent to a client (for example, some clients do not want mail sent to their residence), double-click on the "No Statement" line for that client and a little "x" will appear. Double-click again to erase the "x" if you made a mistake.
Press the Post button.

That's it! All the listed charges are now queued for billing and will be ready for HCFA or electronic billing to the correct insurance companies and/or included in statements sent to the client. The entire process takes less than 30 seconds per therapist!
If any line of charges is not complete, then the program will not post that entry. For example, if a diagnosis is not listed for a service, the program will leave that line identified as a non-posted charge. In such cases, the therapist needs to be asked to provide that information either by completing the diagnosis panel within GoalMinder or by filling out the diagnosis information of the Daily Activities Sheet which is turned in to the account manager. If the DSM- or ICD- number is known, the account manager only needs to click into the appropriate line and type the diagnosis. If the diagnosis code is not known, then the account manager can look it up within the program and add it.

Posting Charges by finding the Client

Note that queries can be done for clients instead of for dates or date ranges for any therapist by checking both the therapist box and the client box and then using the find button to locate the client in question. Do this:

On the Charges Screen, check the Therapist box and select the desired therapist.
Check the Client Box and press the Find button.
A Find screen will appear:
Type enough of the last name and first name to find the client. Alternatively, you can use any of the other fields of Find Client to find the person's information you are seeking. The program will show you if the search identifies more than one possible client, and you can choose from among the possibilities if the original search did not select just one possibility.
Click Ok.
Select the date or date range of interest
Click the Query Button.

The display is now limited to non-posted entries for that person seeing that therapist for the date(s) requested. If the display is empty, it means there are no non-posted charges that have been entered.

You can view all posted entries with the identical query parameters by simply resetting the "Chargetype" list box to "posted charges" and then clicking the Query button again. Now you will see all charges which have already been posted within the requested dates for that client with that therapist.

Summary:

GAM gathers information from the calendar and from the therapists' session record and diagnosis entries to prepare a Charge View for a given day or date range. The Account Manager performs a Query by entering a date or date range together with a therapist to achieve this view. The Account Manager then presses a Post button to queue the charges for production of claims and statements. The account manager can edit entries, including adding CPT codes or diagnoses where needed. Charge lines not ready for posting because of missing information will be left as non-posted by the program until they are corrected. The Account Manager can also surpress individual Charges from being included in insurance claims or statements to the client. Queries can be focused to show services for a given client as well as services given by a therapist to all clients within a particular date range.

Scenario 2: Billable appointments have been scheduled using the GoalMinder Calendar BUT the therapist has NOT used the Treatment Area of GoalMinder to identify the Services rendered:

Obviously, for this scenario, the Account Manager will need from the therapist a list of the services performed that are to be billed. GoalMinder produces a report to be filled out by the therapist specifically for this purpose. See the Reports section of the GoalMinder manual and look for the Daily Activity Sheet. This is a straightforward listing of the clients scheduled for the therapist on a given day along with other pertinent information. The therapist will use sheet to write which services were provided for clients. The therapist then turns in this list to the Account Manager.

To post charges, the Account Manager performs the same therapist, date, and Query actions described earlier. When the results of the Query are displayed, the services column will be blank. If no previous diagnosis was entered, this column will also be blank.

GoalMinder has a list of mnemonic names for all Insurance codes (see appendix) . Let's say that the service was a 45-50 minute individual psychotherapy. That is currently coded as a 90806 in the CPT system of billing, and the service is abbreviated as "t50", standing for therapy-50 minutes. To enter a t50 service, do this:

Find the appropriate line where the service should be entered for the client
Click once and type t50.

That's it! Repeat this for each blank entry (but read on, because there are some shortcuts to learn about!).

Now, if you don't know the abbreviation for the service, you can search for it like this:

Find the appropriate line where the service should be entered for the client.
Double-click on that line
A Services window will appear:
Scroll through the list or click into it and type a letter beginning with the abbreviation you are looking for ("t" in this case) and the window will highlight the abbreviation and display its associated service in a display window.
When you have found the service you need, press the OK button.

Note that you can use this panel to enter the same service code for all clients with a single keystroke. For example, let us say that all clients except one need a t50 entry and one needs an i1 entry (intake, 120 minutes or less). GAM lets you do this very simply:

Double click on any empty service line displayed
Select t50
Click on the "All Records" checkbox. All lines will now contain t50
Find the client who received the i1 service and enter i1 on line by clicking once in the appropriate place and then typing, thus replacing the t50 with i1.

Summary:

You can directly enter services by single-clicking and typing into the services line displayed in the Charges area, but you need to know the correct abbreviation. You can use a Services window to find the correct abbreviation by double-clicking on a services line. You can also use the Services window to quickly enter the same service for all clients displayed in the Charges Area.

Scenario 3: Billable appointments have NOT been scheduled using the GoalMinder Calendar AND the therapist has NOT used the Treatment Area of GoalMinder to identify the Services rendered:

Yes, it is possible to use GAM even when the GoalMinder calendar hasn't been used and when no services have been indicated via the Treatment area, but it takes some work. Usually, it is easier to go to the calendar and schedule the individuals, if for no other reason than to simplify entry into GAM. However, here is how to get things into GAM without using the calendar. Note, however, that a basic requirement of having the client in GoalMinder's Client area still holds.

Do this:

On the charges screen, select "Posted Charges" from the Query Options section of the screen (yes, Posted Charges, even though you haven't posted anything yet!)
Select the therapist who has performed the service(s)
Select the date of the service
Press Query
Regardless of whether anything lists as posted or not, press the "Add" button that now appears allowing you to enter the name, service, and amount charged for the service.
Click the Add button and this service is now posted. It will be treated identically to any service entered by either of the methods described earlier, except that a time of service will not be associated with this type of posting, but a date of service, of course, will be available.. Since that isn't needed for most claims or statements, that isn't really an issue.