HCFA – LAYOUTS AND ALIGNMENTS

 

 

The billing forms (or Claim Form Types) are preset for you in the TPS2000 program. The Claim form code refers to the template that will be used to fill out your preprinted HCFA or other billing form.   Even if the carrier is Cash, this is the form you would use if an insurance company was being billed.

 

There are 4 form templates in "TPS!" that print on the Red HCFA paper form.  They are HCFA Work Comp/L&I Form,  HCFA Red Med 1.7 (Medicare Federal format), HCFA Red Med WA (Medicare SPECIFICALLY for Washington State) and HCFA General Red 1.7 (This will be used for any other carrier needing a Red HCFA form).

 

For the most part, you will use the HCFA General Red 1.7 for almost all carriers (with the exception of Medicare).  This template  will fill out the blanks on the Red HCFA form with the data requested by the field.  In other words, if the block is titled Insured's ID number, then that is what will print on the HCFA form from our program.  It also places the carrier’s name and address at the top of the form.

 

The HCFA WorkComp\L&I is identical to the HCFA General Red 1.7 except it prints the Dr's W.C./L&I number in box 33 UPIN field. 

 

The HCFA Red Med 1.7  is currently setup to me the Federal Medicare Standards.  What that means specifically, is that there will be no Carrier Name or Address printed at the top of the HCFA form.  The word NONE will print in box 11 unless there is an insurance that is Primary to Medicare.  The remaining boxes in 11 (a, b, c and d) will remain blank.  The Diagnosis Change date will fill into box 14 and the Last Xray Date or Last Exam Date (Part Date) will fill into box 19 and the for local use box 19 area will print to the right of this date to handle the ICD 9 overflow.  The Providers Medicare ID number will print in box 24K and in box 33.

 

If, for your  area, you may have the name and address at the top of the form for Medicare (please be sure that you check with your Medicare provider to be sure that this is OK), you may add this to the form layout.  However, in most states, the Federal format is the accepted version.

Adding the Carrier Name and Address

The easiest way to add this information into the HCFA Red Med 1.7 is as follows:

Go into [B] Billing.  Click once on a form that is using the HCFA General Red 1.7 form and click on [Edit].  At the top of the form you will see the four boxes that make up the Carrier Name and Address.  Hold down the SHIFT key and click on each of these four boxes so that all show as selected.  Now hold down the CTRL key and press the letter “C” to copy these boxes.  Now hit ESC and open the HCFA Red Med 1.7 form (using the [Edit]).  Hold down the CTRL key and press the letter “V” to paste these four lines on the top of this template.  Now to save, hold down CTRL and press the letter “W” and say yes to SAVE. 

 

Aligning the HCFA forms

The easiest way to align the HCFA forms is to RESET to DEFAULT then test with their printer.  Please check the following items:

1)                  Are you using a laser or ink jet style printer?  If yes, is it an HP or does it emulate an HP printer?

2)                  Have you made customizations to the HCFA form?  By this, I am not so concerned with aligning the boxes.  I am more interested in you having CHANGED the items being pulled into these fields.  If you have, you should not use the reset to default but manually align these templates.

To reset to the default layout you will do the following:

A.                 Close the Billing area of TPS2000.

B.                 Open the Reports Menu.  Arrow down to the HCFA General Red 1.7 line.  Click ONCE to select this report.

C.                 At the bottom of the window, click on the button [Restore Default].  You will see a message about Over writing your existing format, say Yes.

D.                Next a window with several form templates will come up, it should already be highlighted on the HCFA General Red 1.7.  If it is, hold down the CTRL key and press the letter “W” to save this format.

E.                 Repeat for the HCFA Red Med 1.7 and any other templates that you are currently using.

After you have reset the defaults (I suggest that you reset the HCFA General Red 1.7 and the HCFA Red Med 1.7 at the very least.   Print out a test form.  If they feel that it requires further “tweeking”, please fax us this printout so that we can see what is needed.

Usually, if any further changes are needed, they will be minor.  To align slightly (up or down 1 line or less) use the Align features in the [B] Billing area of the program.  You have the control to move up or down by ¼ line increments.

NOTE:   Do not use the align feature (unless the need is ½ line or less) on the Dates of Services area of the HCFA.  There is a danger that you could align this area OUT of the Detail section of the form.


Open the Billing area and find patient that uses the form you wish to align.   Click once on there name to select her then click on the [Align] button.  This will bring up the following screen:

 

These areas move ¼ line or ¼ character at a time.  So in the areas on the left (Header Information, Detail and Footer Information) it moves ¼ of a line height.  The area at the top of the screen moves the form left and right ¼ of the width of a character (letter) at a time.  So to move the entire form to the left ½ of the size of a letter, you would click the down arrow at the top of the screen until it read .5000. 

 

Please keep in mind that if you need to move the dates of service, the align area may not be the best way to move these.  If you need to move this area more than ¼ of a line (.250) either direction, it is best NOT to use this area.  Windows makes this a bit tricky as it is not a set line placement but a somewhat nebulous so far from the top of the page and so far from the bottom of the page.  It is very easy to “loose” the 6th line of service if windows doesn’t think there is enough room to print this.

 

When you have made the changes you needed,  click the SAVE button and test print this again.