Practice Management System - Dental
PMsys
Mid-Michigan Computer Consultants, Inc.
Bay City, Michigan
For more information send
e-mail
to MMCC.
INTRODUCTION
FEATURES
System design
Patient records
Insurance Processing
General Notes
Accounting
Patient RECALL
Patient records
PMsys Introduction
MMCC's
Practice Management System
is a full featured software package for dentists.
Written in the early 80's for mini computers, the system has evolved with
the computer industry and is now completely PC and PC network based.
Like all MMCC software,
PMsys
was designed, devloped and is supported
by a small team of programmers who completely understand the system and
the dental office. This approach results in a highly integrated system
where all features actually work together, correctly and efficiently.
MMCC
does not actively market
PMsys
. We have no outside sales force.
All clients have come to
MMCC and PMsys
on a referral basis and
they most often attribute their decision to the level of support
provided by MMCC .
Clients can reach a support person any time without
menus and without waiting on hold.
PMsys
remains largely a DOS based system.
The programs are written in the
ANSI Standard PL/B
language which has been implemented on many computer platforms.
MMCC
has tested many of the system's components in 32bit WINDOWS code
but we find that the speed, robustness and directness of the DOS
environment is the most effective approach for most clients.
The DOS programs have evolved over 15 years to the point where they
seem to read your mind and present exactly what you need, when and
where you expect it. For effective data processing that's hard to beat!
PMsys Features
System Design:
PMsys
was designed by people who learned to program writing industrial
strength software for mainframes in the late 60's and early 70's.
Unlike some professionals, however, the MMCC team evolved with the
computer industry. They pioneered packaged software as the mid-range
computer market emerged then moved to mini-computers and finally to the PC.
PMsys
reflects the background of the developers. The system's database design
is industrial strength and almost crash proof. At the same time it
addresses the requirement of packaged software to be extendable.
The user interface represents the very best mix of DOS and Windows
techniques yet runs in the DOS environment. The system makes extensive
use of popup windows, user defined tables and carefully assigned function
keys.
Most importantly,
PMsys
reflects the desires and needs of
real people
in
real dental practices .
The software has evolved over 15 years and continues to evolve even now.
Features that programmers love but users hate have been removed.
Things that users insist on and programmers don't think of have been
added. The system responds quickly and accurately with everything
our clients want.
Patient Records:
PMsys
is designed to work around the family unit as the billing entity.
Data can be located by account number or alphabetically by family name.
The family account data includes the billing address, four phone numbers,
billing options, and related information.
Individual patients are separately attached to family accounts. The
patient's data includes the individual's name, birth date, SSN, treatment
information, special billing options, and related data.
Practices which prefer to work only with individuals may assign
individual account numbers to each patient.
PMsys
was designed to reflect the realities of modern society and therefore
includes provisions for blended families. There are methods for
describing the most complicated residence and insurance arrangements.
Insurance Processing:
Employer and insurance company and insurance plan information are
stored separately for maximum flexibility.
These records are attached to the family accounts
and then associated with specific family members.
The system exhibits a high degree of integration.
When you enter an insurance plan for a specific account
the system automatically grabs the appropriate name, SSN and related data
from the patient data.
You then enter the employer number and the
system grabs almost everything else from the employer's records.
For special cases everything can be manually changed.
The real world of rapidly changing benefits is covered with
highly automated procedures.
When an employer changes coverage or insurance company
you can make one change in one place then have
PMsys
automatically make those changes to all related patient data.
Insurance plan
data is stored separately from patients, employers and
insurance companies for maximum flexibility. If sevearal local
employers offer exactly the same coverage you can associate
each with the same plan.
Insurance plans are defined by you.
A plan can be extremely general or extremely detailed.
The simplest plan might be a single record showing 100% coverage or
no coverage or a 50/50 split. A complex plan could include coverage
details as percents or dollars for groups of services
as well as for specific procedures.
These plans can include limits based on
either dollars or services per year at all levels.
Most insurance plans are relatively simple and can be descrided
in a few lines showing percent coverage and limits for
groups of related services. When a plan gets complicated,
PMsys
provides the ability to handle it.
Printed insurance forms
are automatically produced on ADA, Blue Cross and Delta Dental forms
using dot matrix, ink jet or laser printers.
The system priovides fully integrated and automatic
electronic claims filing
using Mede-America's clearing house service.
General Notes:
MMCC
developed a powerful
general notes
feature which is used in all
of its software. We describe it by saying that you get a box of
3x5 note cards for every patient. You also get a box for every
family, every employer and every insurance company as well as for
just about every other data type.
The system also give you a set of divider cards for each of those
data types. You can label those cards any way you want. You can
even assign colors, priorities and special flags for each divider.
When you make up a
divider card for one patient's box of note cards the system
automatically put that divider card in every patient's
box. Each data type, like employers or insurance companies, has its
own set of common divider cards.
You can store up to 99 note cards under each divider card for each
patient or employer or other data item.
Accounting:
PMsys
includes a full Accounts Receivable system.
We do not include the general accounting modules of
payroll, accounts payable and general ledger.
Those applications are largely standardized regardless of business
type and they are well covered by many inexpensive packages.
Accounts Receivable is unique and every type of business has its
own special requirements. Medical and Dental practices have to
deal with insurance.
PMsys
uses an open item accounting system.
Each visit by a patient is stored separately by visit date.
The records for that visit show every detail for that visit:
services performed, insurance and patient payments, credits,
service charges, etc.
Despite storing all of the details in an "open item" format,
PMsys
allows you to view and work with an account on a "balance forward"
basis. You have the best of all worlds because you can post
payments and adjustments to specific visits or you can simply
post a payment to the account itself and it will automatically
distribute the payment to as many records as it can.
Insurance payments present a special problem which we refer to as
chargebacks
.
At the time of service
PMsys
estimates the insurance/patient payment split. For whatever reason,
when you get the payment from the insurance company it is different.
PMsys
handles this by automatically detecting the situation and giving
you simple and flexible options. If, for example, the insurance
pays LESS than anticipated you can move the balance to the other
insurance company or to the patient. If the insurance company
pays MORE you can automatically credit the patient or other
insurance company. In any event the system gives YOU a one step
procedure then it does everything necessary by itself. A complete
audit trail of every step is kept with the patient records.
Service charges and late fees
are fully automated. You can choose either method or none at all.
Both techniques provide minimum and maximum fees, grace periods,
separate tracking of fees, and easy write offs when desired.
PMsys
includes three forms of
patient statements
.
Two types are used for "walkout statements" (or receipt)
presented to the patient as they leave the appointment.
The third format is the traditional monthly statement
printed in batch format.
Each statement can be tailored by the practice to reflect
just what they want to see.
Patient Recall:
The PMsys
recall module is one of the most robust, automatic and extendable
systems on the market. Any number of "recall events" can be
processed for a patient. An event can be a standard procedure
such as a prophy but it can also be something like a birthday
or anniversary card.
The recall module allows complete "set it and forget it" automation.
If you set a prophy recall for a patient the system will automaticall
generate reminders several weeks before an appointment is due. If
no appointment is scheduled the program will continue to send notices.
When an appointment is scheduled the system will watch to insure that
the patient shows up and is billed or it will note a missed appointment.
After the patient comes in the system will automatically schedule
the next recall without manual intervention.
Everything in the recall system can be tailored to your specific needs.
This includes the number of notices, the frequency, the recall periods,
The
Practice Management:
PMsys
provides a full range of practice management reports, charts, analysis
tools and related features. Many of these are in the form
of pre-defined reports concerning practice demographics. For example,
what patients work for a particular employer who's about to change
their coverage! Other software tools provide for extraction of
data and statistics for inclusion in word processors, spread sheets
and other software.
Besides reporting on the general data of the system,
PMsys
stores and analyzes a phenomenal aamount of historic data.
In fact, almost nothing is thrown away.
PMsys
was designed by people who remember when programmers spend days
to find a way to save one character. The earliest version of
the software ran on a mini-computer with a 2.5Mb
(yes, two and one half meg ) hard disk.
PMsys is extremely efficient and
with today's huge hard drives it can afford to save everything!
All of the reports are highly configurable. That means that the
software sets the general format which most practices use but
you can then change these to meet your specific requirements.
Most have built in address label formats as well as being able
to produce word processing "mail merge" files.
PMsys
includes a complete
referral tracking and analysis
module. The feature will track both professional as well as
patient referrals. Full cross refrencing and statistical reports
are available as well as
provisions for tracking thank you notes, acknowledgements and gifts.
v201.0
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