VEDA | Navigation – Billing tab

VEDA

It’s all about billing

This tab allows you to access all the information about your invoices – from submitting them, viewing and amending the ones that have failed validation to viewing responses and remittances from payors. It’s split into four sections:

• Billing Files
• Bills
• Insurer Feedback
• Failed Bills

Billing Files

This is split into two sections:

• Submit Billing File
• View Billing Files

Submit Billing File

This is one of the methods used to submit invoices to the Clearing Service and is most widely used by hospitals. Check with your system provider if this is the method used by them.

Generate your invoices on your Patient Administration System (PAS) or Practice Management System (PMS) and produce the file to be exported – ask your system provider for instructions on how to do this. Depending on the system you use this file will either be in an XML or ASCII format. ASCII is a legacy file format and won’t be available to new providers.

The XML file format is the preferred Industry Standard method. A single XML file can contain invoices for all insurers and for multiple providers when submitting to the same billing site – for example, a central billing site for all hospitals within a group.

Simply follow these steps.

• Click the Billing tab, then Billing Files > Submit Billing File
• In the Add File section click Browse… to search on your computer or network for the billing file you wish to submit
• Once you have located the file, click Open – the selected file will appear in the Add File box
• Click Add and the file will appear on the Files to Submit pane on the left-hand side of the page
• You can repeat these steps if you need to – a maximum of ten files can be added. When you’re ready to submit click Submit All

If the submission is successful the list of files will appear in the Submitted Files pane on the right-hand side of the page and you will see a message displayed at the top of screen. The invoices will now go through the validation process and you can view the status.

View Billing Files

This feature allows you to check on the progress of the invoices that have been submitted for validation through the Clearing Service.

• Click the Billing tab, then Billings Files > View Billing Files
• Select the required billing file from the left-hand Submitted Files pan and the invoices that were submitted will be displayed in the right-hand File Details pane, each showing a Status indication
• You can visually see the status by the colour-coded boxes, but you can also use the mouse to hover over the boxes for further information
  • One green box = Validated, Awaiting Output to Insurer
  • Two green boxes = Awaiting Collection by Insurer
  • Three green boxes = Collected by Insurer
  • One red box = Awaiting Error Correction

If an invoices shows a red box it means it has failed validation and needs to be corrected. You can view the invoice and the reason it failed by highlighting the invoice and clicking View Bill.

View Billing Files page defaults to show files submitted on the day you are viewing, but you can use the Filter Submitted Files section at the bottom of the page to search for any submitted files using any or all of the following criteria: Date, File Name, Status. Select Filter to display the files that match your criteria.

Bills

Click the Billing tab, then Bills.

At the top of the screen you will see a list of payors that are currently accepting electronic invoices, with columns showing how many invoices you have submitted in each of three categories:

• Completed Bills = invoices that have passed validation
• Failed Bills = invoices that have failed validation
• Cancelled Bills = invoices that have failed validation and you’ve then cancelled

Highlight a payor and all the invoices relating to them and these categories are displayed at the bottom of the screen as tabs: Completed, Failed and Cancelled. The Failed tab will always be the first to open – you should correct the errors on these invoices as quickly as possible so they can be resubmitted. Alternatively, you can cancel them. From this page you can do the following:

• Correct a failed invoice from the Failed tab
• Cancel a failed invoice from the Failed tab
• View and print an invoice from all tabs

Correct a failed invoice

• Highlight the invoice you want to correct and click View Bill
• The invoice will open in a new window
  • The top half of the screen is patient and payor information and the bottom half is what is being charged (charge lines)
  • The field(s) with errors will be highlighted in red, with the error and suggestions for correction displayed in the Bill Errors box on the right of the screen – see Invoice errors and how to fix them for further information
• Click on each field that needs changing and amend the information
• Once everything has been corrected, click Update on the top right of the page and the invoice will be resubmitted for validation

If you are having difficulty correcting errors just contact us for help.

Cancel a failed invoice

• Highlight the invoice you want to correct and click View Bill
• The invoice will open in a new window
• Click Cancel Bill on the top right of the page
• A box will pop up asking for a cancellation reason – select this from the drop-down list and click Confirm Cancellation
• The invoice will now appear in the Cancelled tab

View and print an invoice

• Highlight the relevant payor and click on the category tab where the invoice is listed (Completed, Failed or Cancelled)
• Find and click on the invoice required
• The invoice will open in a new window – the top half of the screen is patient and payor information and the bottom half is what is being charged (charge lines)
• To print, click Print Bill on the right of the page

Insurer Feedback

This is split into four sections:

• Remittances
• Shortfall Collection Service
• Unread Responses
• All Responses

Remittances

Electronic remittances can be viewed and printed. They are currently sent by Aviva, AXA Health, Bupa, Bupa Global, Cigna Healthcare, patientzone (if you are using Online Payments or Shortfall Collection Service) and VitalityHealth (for hospitals). We only hold remittances for three months before archiving them, but these can be retrieved for a fee. If you have a subscription to the standard Financial Management Solutions package, remittances can also be download into your own system.

Click the Billing tab, then Insurer Feedback > Remittances. The page has two tabs:

• Remittance Files = displays a list of payors with the total number of remittances available for each in the All column and an indication of those that are Unprocessed
• File Downloads = displays a list of processed remittances with an indication of whether the file has been downloaded

View remittance files

• Click on the Remittance Files tab and highlight the required payor
• A list of available remittances (both processed and unprocessed) will be displayed in the right-hand viewing pane
  • In the Processed column the processed invoices are indicated by a green box – the white box signifies that the remittance is unprocessed
  • To only view unprocessed remittances click the View Unprocessed button – the remittance must be processed to enable it to be downloaded
• Highlight the required remittance and click View
• The full details will display in the viewing pane on the bottom right of the page – use the scroll bar to move through it

 Print remittance files

• Click on the Remittance Files tab and highlight the required payor
• A list of available remittances (both processed and unprocessed) will be displayed in the right-hand viewing pane
  • In the Processed column the processed invoices are indicated by a green box – the white box signifies that the remittance is unprocessed
  • To only view unprocessed remittances click the View Unprocessed button
• Click on the remittance you want and click Print.
• A green Print Document pop up box will appear – choose whether you want a summary or detailed print out from the drop-down menu and click Print
  • The summary version will only show you the key details including the total amount paid and when, with no invoice specifics

Process a remittance

You process a remittance so you can download it. The download facility is only available if you have a subscription to the standard Financial Management Solutions package.

• Click on the remittance you want and click Process
• The box in the Processed column will change from white to green and you will be prompted to click on the File Downloads tab to view them

If you have several unprocessed remittances for the selected payor, click Process all Outstanding at the bottom of the Remittance Files tab to save you time.

Download a remittance

• Click on the File Downloads tab to see the list of all available remittance files
  • You can click the Insurer filter at the bottom of the screen to only show those from a single payor
  • You can also filter by file name if you know it
• Select the remittance file and click Download – a dialog box will display
• Click Save and a Save As dialog box will open – save the remittance file to the appropriate folder

Once you have downloaded a file it will be removed from the list. To view files that have already been downloaded click Show Downloaded.

Shortfall Collection Service

Available to those with a subscription to this service that automates the shortfall notification and collection process. See Shortfall Collection Service for help on how to use it.

Unread Responses

Responses are updates on the processing status of electronic invoices and are currently sent by AXA Health, Bupa and Bupa Global. They are sent until the invoice has reached the final stage of processing i.e. rejected, part-paid or paid and can be viewed and printed.

Unread Responses | mark as read

• Click the Billing tab, then Insurer Feedback > Unread Responses to see a list of response files on the left-hand side of the screen, detailing the date they were received and the number of invoice responses available in each
• Select a file and the list of responses will display in the preview pane on the right-hand side of the screen
• Select the invoice you want to view – the details will display in the viewing pane below
• To indicate you have read the response simply click Mark Read at the bottom of the preview pane

Unread Responses | print

• Click the Billing tab, then Insurer Feedback > Unread Responses to see a list of response files on the left-hand side of the screen, detailing the date they were received and the number of invoice responses available in each
• Select a file and the list of responses will display in the preview pane on the right-hand side of the screen
• To print the whole response file click Print at the bottom of the response file pane
  • A green Print Document pop up box will appear – choose whether you want a summary or detailed print out front the drop-down menu and click Print
    • The summary version will only show you the details you see on the preview pane
    • The detailed version will show you the specific details of each invoice
• You can print an individual response by following the steps in mark as read and clicking Print at the bottom of the viewing pane on the right-hand side

All Responses

Responses are updates on the processing status of electronic invoices and are currently sent by AXA Health, Bupa and Bupa Global. They are sent until the invoice has reached the final stage of processing i.e. rejected, part-paid or paid and can be viewed and printed.

• Click the Billing tab, then Insurer Feedback > All Responses to see a complete list of response files on the left-hand side of the screen – these are files that have either previously been marked as read or that still require attention
• The instructions on how to read and print the files or individual responses are detailed in Unread Responses | mark as read and Unread Responses | print

Failed Bills

Part of the Financial Management Solutions, the Failed Bills Management Tools are available to those with a subscription to the Premium package.