• How do I activate AltaPoint?

• How do I know what version I am on? What is your most recent version?

• What issues were fixed on the last update? 

• What clearinghouse does AltaPoint recommend?

• I'm using a software for backups, like Backup Exec. Will this back up my AltaPoint data too?

• What are AltaPoint's system requirements?

• How do I find my computer's IP Address? 

• What is PostgreSQL? Do I need it?

• What is an Employer ID?

• One of my employees doesn't appear in the schedule. Why?

• What insurance type should I select?

• What do the different qualifiers mean in box 24I?

• Does AltaPoint test its forms with all the clearinghouses?

• A few digits are being cut off of one of my forms. Can I fix it myself?

• My forms are printing off slightly (either too high, too low, too far left or right.) How can I fix them?

• Why doesn't the CPT code for my procedure show up on the claim?

• I'm trying to run a query in SQL, with the names in alphabetical order. It doesn't seem to work. What's wrong?

• How do I get a list of all patients with a specific type of insurance? What about a specific insurance company?

• I want to learn more about generating and writing reports, is there a place I can get more information?

• I'm looking in the database, but I don't see Medicare as an insurance type, I only see numbers. What are these numbers?

• How do I print a birthday list for everyone having a birthday in May?

When in the transaction entry screen under billing, or in the billing tab on the Patient File, it asks for Insurance Type. Which is correct?

Most of these are self-explanatory like Medicare for Medicare and Blue Cross for Blue Cross. Just choose the type for your carrier. If you don't see it listed, choose from the suggestions below.

Medical Group(all commercial insurance, EXCEPT Blue Cross then use
BC/BS)

FECA (Federal Employee’s Compensation Act), few users know what this is. If you don't, we don't recommend selecting it.

Other Medical (Car accidents, other liability, NOT FOR HEALTH INSURANCE)

Note: This type is used to determine the qualifier attached to your provider ID on the CMS form. Make sure you have selected one.

An Employer ID is the same as your Federal Tax ID.

If an employee doesn't appear in the schedule it is because they are not set as a scheduling employee. Go to File, Providers and Employees, and select the employee you need to fix. Press Edit. When the file box opens  look in the bottom left corner for a check box that says "Schedule." Put a checkmark in the box and click Accept then Close. The employee should now show in the schedule. 

Qualifiers are the way anyone reading a CMS form can determine the insurance type of a particular claim. This type is set under Billing in the Patient File or in the actual bill itself. If you have the correct type selected in the claim, the form will automatically put the correct qualifier.

Blue Cross Blue Shield -- 1B
Medicare -- 1C
Medicaid -- 1D
ChampVA -- 1G
Champus -- 1H
Worker's Comp -- X5
Medical Group, FECA, Other Medical -- G2

AltaPoint receives guidelines and requirements from both clearinghouses and insurance carriers. We then design our forms based on those written requirements. Once the form has been designed, it is the responsibility of AltaPoint's clients to make sure their clearinghouse tests the forms.

If a clearinghouse has a requirement not being met by AltaPoint, a written document from them can be presented to us and we will modify the form accordingly. Due to the varying preferences and requirements of clearinghouses, we can only make changes if we are given written documentation regarding the change.

Yes. Expanding a field in a form is a very simple change. Go to Reports | Design Custom Reports. (In Version 6 it is Reports | Design Statements and Insurance Forms.) Find the report you want to fix and click on the button called Format. This will open up the form view. Look for the box causing the problem and click on it. When the box is highlighted, small black boxes appear around it.

Place your mouse on the top right-hand black box (on the corner) and click on it. Holding down your mouse, move slightly to the right. This will stretch the box to the right, making it bigger. Do this until you think the entire contents of the box will be visible. For example, if the box is only cutting off one digit, you should only stretch the box just big enough for one digit. 

To adjust an entire form, you would want to use margins. Go to Reports | Create Custom Reports (Design Statements and Insurance Forms if you are in Version 6.) Select the report you want to edit and press Detail.

When the report comes up, look a few lines down until you see the margin settings. Essentially, which ever margin you set will push the text further away from that side. Therefore, a Top margin will push the text away from the top. A Right margin will push it away from the right side.

Determining the perfect amount of margin to set will require a bit of guesswork. Starting with an estimate of how many "rows" off you are, and knowing that 1 row is equal to .1667, you should be able to calculate a rough estimate. Put in your estimate and run a claim (or report) and print it out. From there you will just want to re-estimate and print again, following that procedure until you have determined the correct margin amount. If needed, you can certainly set more than one margin, or even a negative margin if your printer requires it.

When a procedure code is entered but no corresponding CPT code shows up on the claim, it is most likely due to the assignment of a fee schedule on that claim. Often an office will set up the CPT codes for their Standard Fee schedule, but forget to do the same for any new fee schedules they add.

To check this, go to Lists, Billing Codes. Choose the billing code in question and press View. In this screen, press the Fee Schedule tab at the top. Select the fee schedule assigned to the claim you are trying to print. Is there a CPT code entered in the top box? If not, put one in. The code should now print on your claim.

Many offices will receive a large payment for multiple bills, and apply inside one of those bills. The patient's account will balance out to 0, but the payment has not been applied to the other bills on the account.

When you apply a payment inside of the Transaction Entry screen, it applies to THAT TRANSACTION.

If you want a payment to apply to multiple bills, you MUST enter that payment in the batch payment screen.

If a payment is not applied to a bill, the program recognizes the amount under the patient's account, but the bill will still have a balance if you open it.  For help applying credits, see the topic below.

First, go into a bill with a balance. Go to the bottom and hit the Payment button. Choose either Apply to Item or Apply to Bill, depending on your preference. When the payment box comes up, click the tab at the top called "Apply Credit Balance."

To use this feature you will need to assign two billing codes. First, next to Adjustment Credit Code, assign a billing code that is set up with a code type of Write-Off. Second, next to Adjustment Charge Code, assign a billing code that is set up with a code type of Credit Adjustment.  

If there is an amount in the Payment Amount box, and you aren't sure how much credit is available, change the Payment Amount to $0.01. This will update the list below, showing all bills with a credit amount. Once you have determined how much credit is available, highlight the bill you wish you take credit from and change the Payment Amount.

Once you have hit Okay, a credit adjustment will be placed on the bill that was overpaid and a write-off will be placed on the bill you wanted to apply it to. 

To help offices narrow their list of most commonly used billing codes, we have a feature called a "Short List." We also have an option to show only Payments and Adjustments in the search list in transaction entry. If you notice some codes are missing from the transaction entry billing code box, make sure none of these filters are marked in the check boxes at the bottom.

If they are not checked and you still don't see the code you are looking for, consider the following:

Is the item an inventory item? Do you have sufficient quantity on-hand? If you don't have any in stock the code will not appear in transaction entry because the program doesn't think you have any in stock.

There are several reports in AltaPoint that are helpful.

• For collections, you can run Patient Aging and Insurance Aging which help you determine which bills are past due.
• There is Practice Analysis which presents an overview of money coming in and services being rendered.
• You can also run Insurance Payment Analysis to view the payment trends of specific procedure codes.
• Additionally, you can run the Comparative Analysis which is a Practice Analysis used to compare annual, monthly, and quarterly results.

Most offices run a combination of these reports for their A/R.

The amount of a procedure is determined by the billing code corresponding to it. This is set up under Lists, Billing Codes. The Standard Fee is the amount set under your Standard Fee Schedule. Each subsequent Fee Schedule may also have a charge. If the amount populating in your bill is wrong, check the Fee Schedule assigned to the bill, then go into the Billing Codes List and check the prices set for the code.

Changing the price in the transaction itself will not save the change, it only edits the amount for that transaction.

If your alphabetical results don't seem to be in true order, it is probably because the SQL language is case sensitive. This means that a capitalized "B" will come before a lower-case "a." The queries determine order based on a table called "ASCII." To see that ordering system, you can go to http://asciitable.com/

To get a list of patients with one type of insurance, for example Medicare, go to Reports | Lists | Patients. When the Print Custom Report box comes up, put a check mark in the Filters box. This will display several rows below.  

To get a list of patients with Medicare as their Primary Insurance Type, first we need to tell the report where to look for data, and what the data is supposed to be.

• The "File" drop down is used to tell the program what part of AltaPoint we are looking for data in. In this case, it is the Patient File, so on this drop down we choose "Patient." 
• The "Field" drop down is used to tell the report which box in the Patient File we would like it to look in. In this case, it is the Primary Type. 
• The "Compare With" drop down is used to tell the report whether the value we are looking for is the same, less than, greater than, or not the same as what can be found in the "Field" box. In this case we want it to be Equal To, since we want it to be an exact match to the Medicare type. 
• The "Value" drop down box is used to tell the report what results to look for in the "Field" box. In our example, the "Field" box has Medicare in it, which is Primary Type 0. So we put a 0 in the box. (Check HERE for a list of which numerical value matches each insurance type.)

You can also substitute Primary Code in the Field box and type the insurance companies Code into the Value box if you want to look up only a specific insurance payer.

For more information about how to design, run, and filter reports, look for the link in the next topic of Frequently Asked Questions.

We have a file you can download HERE with some helpful information about report creation. Please note that this information may change, but familiarizing yourself with the key concepts can help you design and run successful reports.

Each Insurance Type has a numerical value assigned to it, to help the database calculate and refer to them. They are listed below. Ordinarily you would not need to know these, but for filtering and report editing it is handy to know.

• 0 = Medicare
• 1 = Medicaid
• 2 = Champus
• 3 = ChampVA
• 4 = Medical Group
• 5 = FECA
• 6 = Other Medical
• 7 = BC/BS
• 8 = Workers Comp

Go to Reports, Print Custom Reports. Type "Birthday" into the search box. Press Okay. When the print box comes up make sure there is a checkmark in the box called "Advanced."

In the boxes below, there should be two lines filled in, one saying "Patient Birthdate Greater than" and one saying "Patient Birthdate Less than".  In the last box on the "Greater than" line, type in 05/01. On the "Less than" line, type in 06/01. This will give you a list of all birthdays in May.