AERIS

Patient List

The patient list is where you will go for almost all of your daily tasks. From here you can get to your patient information, insurance information, and all of your financial transactions (i.e. services and payments). This is also where to print claims, statements, and reports for the selected patient.

Patient Demographics

When you add or edit a patient's record, the information is spread over multiple tabs. The first tab is primarily demographic information. Wherever data fields are used to fill corresponding boxes on CMS-1500 claim forms, the screens are designed to mimic the form in appearance. This makes it easy to know exactly where everything comes from on your claims.

Patient Condition Information

In addition to the patient's diagnosis, this tab is where you enter information about whether the patient's condition is related to employment and/or an accident. It is also where you select the referring provider, enter the dates of the current and previous similar illness, and the dates for disability and hospitalization. Again, the screen is designed to resemble the CMS-1500 form.

Insurance Subscriber

Claim information for the insurance subscriber is on the first tab of the patient's insurance information. Also on this screen is where you indicate whether your practice accepts assignment of benefits and where you enter what you want to print in boxes 10d, 19, 22 and 23.

Insurance Eligibility

The Eligibility tab is where you enter both box 11 for the current insurance and box 9 for any other insurance. Aeris makes it easier by allowing you to copy the box 9 data from another insurance record already entered for the patient.

Service Information

A "Service" is the generic term Aeris uses for sessions, visits, or whatever your practice calls the treatment you bill for. At the top, you can enter the diagnosis codes appropriate to the procedure code. If you enable the option, Aeris will remember a patient's service fields and will fill them for you next time you add a service for the patient.

Service Financials

Most important to your practice is the financial aspect of the service. Here you can indicate how much of the total is expected from the patient and how much from insurance. Aeris uses balance-forward accounting for patient amounts and open-item accounting for amounts due from insurance. You can also see insurance payments that have been applied to this service.

Insurance Payments

Insurance payments let you apply the payment to multiple patients and to multiple services for a given patient. This payment screen shows, for the selected patient, the services to which the payment has been applied. You are also allowed to put some or all of the payment in as a prepayment to be applied to services later.

In addition, you can enter an adjustment to the payment if you need to refund some or all of the payment back to the insurance payer.

Applying an Insurance Payment

When you apply some or all of a payment to a service, you get this deceptively simple screen. Most of the fields here are for your information and not changeable. In addition to the amount applied to the service, you can also change the amounts owed by the patient and insurance and the write-off, if any. These changes are posted to the service being paid. The program makes sure everything is in balance before you save the payemt.

Patient Payments

Because Aeris uses balance-forward accounting for the non-insurance side of the financials, patient payments are not applied to services. Instead they are applied to the patient's account balance owed by the patient (or by their responsible party). As on the insurance payment, you can enter an adjustment in case you need to refund some or all of the payment to the patient or in case of an uncollectible payment (bounced check, etc.)

CMS-1500 Claims

Aeris lets you print onto preprinted CMS-1500 forms and generate the same information as a print image electronic claim file. The print image file is used to submit claims through clearinghouses to your payers.

Because print image files don't include the form itself, Aeris provides a claim viewer, shown in the screen image. Although not visible in the image, the program's toolbar shows which claim you are viewing and gives you buttons to navigate forward and backward through the claim file.

Patient Statements

Aeris' statements are easy to read and to understand while including all of the necessary information. They are designed to fit standard single and double window envelopes, and give you the option of using the upper portion as a payment coupon. In addition, statements are printed on plain paper, saving you the cost of expensive preprinted statement forms.

Patient List Report

The patient list report is the simplest report in Aeris. It shows the patient name, account ID, date of first contact and the patient's telephone number.

Patient Face Sheet Report

The patient face sheet report is printed directly from the patient list for the selected patient. It is designed to be included in the patient's paper file, if you keep one and to have with you to consult during a patient's visit.

The report has all of the patient's demographic and insurance information presented in a clear, readable format. it also includes the patient's copayment if there is one.

Patient Account Ledger Report

The account ledger report is one of two ledger reports in Aeris. Both of them are printed directly from the patient list for the selected patient. The other ledger report, called simply the Patient Ledger, is less detailed than the account ledger and more readily understood by many patients. Both reports list all of the charges and payments to the patient's account.

Service Notes Report

The service notes report is a patient report and is printed directly on the patient list for the selected patient. It includes all service notes within a range of service dates.

Services by Provider Report

The services report is a list of all services within a date range. The services are grouped by provider and are presented in date order.

Income Report

The income by provider report shows all payments applied to provider income for a selected date range.

Claim Aging Report

The claim aging report shows you a list of claims generated within a date range and how long it took to receive a response (either a payment or EOB) from the payer. Claims with no response are easily identified.