HOW TO SETUP AND USE TAXES

In TPS 2000 you have the ability to separate the types of taxes that are needed for your area. We have set up an entry tax for Services and a separate tax for Inventory items. You will need to fill in the percentage that is applicable for your area.

Click on the icon on the tool bar to open the System Code Table Registry. From here click on the pull down arrow and select Taxes and Tax Rates.

Note: If you have more than one type of tax or more than one tax rate, enter it in the Tax and Tax Rates section of the system registry.

You may setup as many types of tax as are needed. This may be broken down between county, state and city taxes, or it may be setup as sales and service taxes, whatever is best for you.

Note: If you are not required to collect tax from your patients, leave the percentages at 0.00.

In Clinic Information, tag the taxes that are “generally” applicable for services and/or inventory items.

If there are exceptions (insurance carriers for whom the taxes do not apply, or specific services or inventory items for which taxes are not applicable), you will note this in the carrier policy area of TPS2000.

TO MAKE TAXES NOT APPLICABLE FOR A SPECIFIC SERVICE

Open the Carrier Information screen. This screen opens up to the system CASH carrier (Carrier #2). Click on the “Show List of Records” icon in the upper right of the navigation bar. This will bring up a list of all carriers currently in your system. Find the Carrier for whom you need to make corrections and double click to bring up this record. Now click on the Carrier Policy button in the lower left hand corner of the screen. The first policy for this carrier will appear on the screen. If this is the policy that needs to be corrected click on the Applicable Taxes Tab. Now look at the services listed at the bottom of the screen.

Click on the first service for which taxes are not applicable. Uncheck the taxes that do not apply to this service then click on the button under the TAX column for this service. The line will turn purple to show that this service is an exception to what is normal. If there are more services for which taxes do not apply, repeat this action for each of these services as well.

If an entire category needs to be an “exception” (i.e. nutrition might not be taxed the same as other inventory items, or sometimes, not taxed at all), you will do the following:

Follow the steps above to correct the first item in this category. When the line is purple showing that an exception has been done, then “right” click on the “Applicable Taxes” tab. This will bring up the following screen:

If you select YES, then all other items in this category will follow the tax rules you selected for the item. If you did not wish to do this, click NO.

If there is more than one policy for this carrier and that policy needs to be modified as well, click on the “Show List of Records” icon in the upper right of the navigation bar. This will bring up a list of all policies that are setup for this carrier. Pick the next policy and repeat the steps above. Continue for each policy and or each carrier for whom you need to remove the taxes.

HOW THE TAXES APPEAR IN BILLING

Please keep in mind that taxes, by definition, belong to the end user (the patient). As such, the taxes will appear as a patient responsible amount. You may, however, set the patient claim up so that these taxes will bill to the insurance company. This will not change the responsibility, the taxes will still appear as patient responsible. If the insurance company pays for the taxes, you may apply these funds on the patient side.

The taxes are “folded” into the service and/or inventory amounts on the HCFA forms. Taxes do not appear as separate lines of entry neither on the HCFA nor in the patient ledger. The do show in a separate column in the patient ledger.

To setup the patient claim so that the taxes will be added to the HCFA forms, bring up the patient claim screen. Now click on the Visit Info/Misc Tab. You will see “Bill Carrier For” with several possible selections. Put a check mark in the “Sales Tax” box. This will setup TPS2000 to bill all taxes from this point forward