Invoicing

An invoice is simply a document which reflects charges for services rendered.  It may also contain charges for items supplied such as medicines and materials. Typically, you would capture an invoice for each occasion on which you have seen a patient.  To capture a new invoice click on the invoice button on the Panacea toolbar  or select Transactions - New Invoice from the menu.  For details on capturing operating theatre invoices click here .

The invoice tab looks like this: consists of a header and details.  The header contains important information such as the account and patient.  The details contains the actual codes and charges and are arranged in a grid.

Invoice Header

The header consists of two tabs: Main and Other.  The Main tab consists of the most frequently used items.  Less common items are placed on the Other tab to avoid clutter and improve efficiency.

Header - Main tab

Note that you will not be able to capture charge items in the details section until you have captured at least the following header items: Account, Patient and Treated By.

Account
This account selector  specifies the account onto which this invoice will be debited.  Note that once an account has been selected Panacea will show you the funder  specified on the account as well as the Pricelist that will be used for the invoice.  These will be displayed in the bottom-right corner below the Save button.  You can click on the pricelist or funder and Panacea will take you to that item in a new tab.

For more info on how Panacea chooses which pricelist to use click here .

Patient
This ComboBox  specifies which beneficiary  received the service.  Only people linked to the selected account (i.e. beneficiaries) will be listed in the ComboBox .

Appointment
This control can be left blank, however, if you are using the diary this control allows you to link the invoice with a specific appointment.  This has many benefits, for example it makes it easy to ensure that all appointments have been invoiced.

Start Date/time
This specifies when the service was provided.  You can enter the start time if you wish by placing a check in the TimePicker . Specifying the start time is not compulsory though.  If you wish to capture when the service was completed you can enter the End Date/time on the Other tab.

Treated By
This specifies the Treating Practitioner  who provided the service.

Place of Service
This specifies where the service took place.  For more information on Places of Service click here .

Treatment Modifier
This field enables you to specify a modifier that applies to the whole invoice, for example an emergency treatment modifier.

End Date/time
This allow you to specify when the service ended.  Notice that the service can start and end on different days.  It is generally not necessary to capture these fields, though.

Header - Other tab

Document No.
The document number is not a compulsory field.  However, medical aids require a document number under certain circumstances, for example pathology invoices and dental lab notes.

Ref. No.
The reference number is generally not required.  Currently, the only situation in which it should be captured is when you need to send a pathology bar code number to Discovery.

Manually set period
Panacea normally chooses the correct financial period automatically based on the invoice date.  You can ovverride this by placing a check in the Manually set period checkbox .  A typically example of this would be if you forgot to capture an invoice before printing your statements.  By specifiying the period manually you can still reflect the correct date on the next statement but can also keep your accountant happy by not making adjustments in a previous financial period.  Your patient would also appreciate not having a statement which reflects his balance as overdue even though he has never seen a statement reflecting the "overdue" balance.

Authorization
This field can usually be left on Automatic so that Panacea can apply authorizations based on the information you captured on the patient's account.  However, if you wish to override Panacea's automatic behaviour you can specify which authorization applies to this invoice.  For more information on capturing authorizations click here .

This is a quotation
This checkbox  enables you to flag the invoice as a quotation.  Quotations are not charged to an account and do not appear on monthly statements, nor are they added to an account's age analysis.  Use quotations to provide patient's with cost estimates prior to treatment.  You can then convert a quotation to an invoice at a later stage by editing it and unchecking the This is a quotation checkbox .

Request an eQuote
This checkbox  enables you to request an eQuote  from the patient's medical aid.  If you check this checkbox  then Panacea will request an eQuote  immediately after you save the invoice.  eQuotes  are used prior to treatment to establish precisely how much of each line item (tariff code) will be covered by the medical aid.  The eQuote  can be given to the patient so that they know in advance if they will be responsible for a co-payment and, if so, how much.  Note that you can also request an eQuote  and view previous eQuotes  from the Transactions Tab  by right-clicking on an invoice.

Invoice Details

You can move into the invoice details grid by tabbing off the header or clicking on the details grid.  Panacea will add the first row and provide you with a PowerComboBox  to select the case (see below).  If this does not happen, make sure that you have provided at least the Account, Patient and Treated By fields in the header.

Case Column

To select the patient's case click on the  or press F10.  Note that is is necessary to select (or add) a case before continuing.  Panacea will show the case selector (see right). If the patient's case has already been added then click on it to select it.  Otherwise click on the Add Case button.  Click here  for more info on adding a case.

Shortcut using ICD codes You can also enter an ICD code directly into the case PowerComboBox .  When you move off the case column (e.g. press tab) Panacea will search for a case on the patient's record that matches that ICD code.  If one is found then Panacea will automatically select that case.  If more than one is found Panacea will provide you with a list to choose from. If a case is not found on the patient's record then Panacea will search your ICD Shortcuts.  If one or more ICD shortcuts are found that match the ICD code then Panacea will list them and you can click on one to choose it.  When you do this Panacea will automatically add a case to the patient's record which matches the details of the ICD shortcut you selected.

Code Column

Once you have selected the case Panacea will move into the Code column.  This column is used to specify the NHRPL / BHF code. You can enter the code or a description directly into the Code PowerComboBox .  In the first example on the right code "701" has been entered.  Note that code prefixes should not be entered. In the second example "perc" was entered.  Panacea will then search for all codes that have "perc" in their description.  In this example, "Percussion" was found. Alternatively you can click on the  (or press F10) to search for a code using the Code selector. For more information on the Invoicing Code Selector click here .

Medicines
If you wish to capture a medicine that has been dispensed enter a single letter into the Code PowerComboBox , depending on the type of medicine:

• "m" or "a" for acute medicine
• "c" for chronic medicine
• "p" for PMB chronic medicine
• "o" for oncology medicine
• "h" for homeopathic medicine

The medicine type can also be specified if you click on the  (or press F10).  Panacea will capture the line without a BHF code and will require a NAPPI code.

Note that when searching for available codes Panacea will only provide codes that comply with the following:

• The code must not have expired.  All codes have an Applies From and Applies Until date.  If the invoice date falls outside of a particular code's applicable period then that code will not be displayed when capturing an invoice.
• Only codes that apply to the treating practitioner will be displayed.  This is set on the treating practitioner's record.  Note that certain specialists may need to specify more than one set of codes, e.g. an orthopaedic surgeon may need to check Orthopaedics and Specialists on the treating practitioner's record.

Once you have selected a code Panacea will do one of the following:

• If you are entering a physiotherapy invoice Panacea may move onto the next line, ready to capture the next code.  Panacea automates the order of physiotherapy codes and automatically applies the 0008, 0009 and 0010 modifiers.
• If you select a material or medicine code Panacea will add a NAPPI column and will require you to specify the NAPPI code.  Selecting a NAPPI code works very similarly to selecting a NHRPL code.

Case modifiers (Physiotherapy only)

Physiotherapists sometimes treat more than one case in a session.  The NHRPL dictates that if the cases are related that modifier 0010 will apply and that the charges for the second case will be halved.  If the cases are not related then modifier 0009 applies and the second case is charged at full price.  If you are capturing an invoice and you select a second case then Panacea will display a Case Modifier Selector at the bottom of the tab (see right).

The case modifier selector can be used to change the order of the cases using the blue arrows on the left.  The modifier that applies to each case can also be selected using the ComboBox .  In the example the 0009: Full charge (circled in red) can be changed to 0010: Overlapping treatment (50%).  Panacea will perform all recalculations to allow for this change.  Note that the first case in a treatment never has a Case Modifier apply to it.

NAPPI Column

The NAPPI columns works similarly to the Code column except that you are selecting NAPPI codes instead of BHF codes.  NAPPI codes are required when you select a code (in the code column) that is configured as a "materials" code or if you select medicine.

Optical parameters

When a code is used that requires optical parameters (e.g. an optometry code that requires a lens prescription) a  symbol will be displayed.  Click on the  symbol to specify the optical parameters (see picture).

Tooth No's

This column will only display for dental practices when a code requires tooth numbers to be supplied.  Tooth numbers should be entered as the standard two-digit tooth number with the first digit (1-4) indicating the quadrant and the second digit (1-9) indicating the tooth in the quadrant.  Multiple tooth numbers can be entered one after the other and should not be separated by any other numbers or letters.  Note that the number of teeth specified must match the number in the quantity column.

Unit Price Column

The price to be charged is entered here.  The unit price will be multiplied by the Quantity to arrive at the amount in the Total Column.  Physiotherapy codes (except materials) skip this column because the charges are calculated automatically.

Quantity Column

The quantity describes the number of "units" of service provided.  In general this will be 1.  For medicines and materials it will be the quantity of medicine or material supplied.  Time-based codes should be captured as the number of minutes. (e.g. anaesthetic code 0023).

Saving the Invoice

When you are finished capturing the invoice it is recommended that you check your work before clicking the Save button.  Depending on your configuration Panacea may now take you to the Prepare eClaim tab .  This will enable you to send this invoice (as an eClaim) immediately to the medical aid in realtime.  Click here  for more info on how Panacea decides whether to open the eClaims tab.

Copy last invoice

If the details of the invoice you are about to capture are the same (or nearly the same) as the patient's previous invoice then clicking this button may save you some time.  When you click this button, Panacea will look for the patient's previous invoice and copy the details into this invoice.  The header information is not copied.

Invoice templates

This ComboBox  allows you to select an Invoice template to use.  Invoice templates save you time by inserting multiple codes all at once.  Click here  for more information on Invoice templates.

Show modifier column

This checkbox  determines if the modifier column is displayed.  In general it is not necessary to display this column, but if you want to attach a modifier to a particular line then check this checkbox .  Once the modifier column has been displayed you can select a modifier a a similar way to selecting a BHF code.

Show resulting modifier codes

If you check this checkbox  Panacea will show you all the modifiers that have been applied to each line.  This would include the Treatment modifier, the Case modifier (if applicable) and any modifier captured in the Modifier column.  Automated modifiers (such as physio code 0008) are also shown.  The purpose of showing this column is to expose what is going on "under the hood" and to clarify what will be printed on the patient's statement.