Summary since 4.6

Since many clients will be upgrading from version 4.6, this summary lists all non Eclipse-related changes since version 4.6 and up to version 5.5. Eclipse functions are listed in a separate help file.

•	Expanded similar patients list box on Patient tab to allow easier viewing. Included Operation date.

•	Included new shortcuts for patient title - s for Mrs, i for Miss. Removed the Sr option.

•	If a date of birth is entered as e.g. 1 1 23, Access will assume it to be 2023. If the date entered is in the future, it will automatically be set back 100 years so that 2032 becomes 1923. A message is shown to this effect.

•	All characters entered in the DVA number field are capitalized automatically.

•	All characters entered in the health fund membership number are capitalized.

•	First characters of all words in Hospital and Operation fields are capitalized.

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The fields on the Operation page have been rearranged slightly to accommodate Eclipse changes. The tab order is the same, except that the Referral date appears after the Surgeon field, since the surgeon is treated as the referrer. The cursor no longer tabs into the Referral date field - you need to click into it to enter a date.

•	Fields are included for admission and discharge date (may optionally be used for Eclipse).

•	Reinstated the account number search function on yellow Account Number field in the data entry form (was removed in V4.33). This now requires a double click to activate, previously required single click.

•	The name of the user who created and last updated each account is stored on the Status page.

•	Added 'Created By' and 'Last Updated By' fields to the Daily activity report (listings only, not formatted reports).

•	Added User Activity criteria (Updated By) to the List of Accounts, Select > Advanced dialog box.

•	Added a Doctors Notes page to the Options form to record contact details or account preferences.

•	Added a default (Accounts Show page) for the 'Show copayment on fund account' checkbox on the Fee page.

•	Added an option (Misc page) to specify how many suburb characters to enter before populating the list - for slower network installations - default is 3. Increase the number to avoid a slow lookup.

•	The account renumbering buttons were moved from the Provider to Misc page.

•	Added discount field codes to the copayment message options: DA = discount amt; DF = discounted fee; DD = discount expiry date.

•	Added field codes to the discount message to substitute for discount amount ($D) and undiscounted fee ($U).

•	Adjusted the multiple diagnostic services rule B to use items less than 10816 (previously 13000).

•	Adjusted auto-ordering function to recognize 17610-90 item numbers and 'preop' text.

•	The total Medicare rebate is shown at the bottom of the Items page in a green field above the total schedule fee. Individual item rebates can be shown by ticking the Show Rebates checkbox.

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Health fund fee calculations now adjust fees for multiple diagnostic services rules B & C. The fee is the fund's % rate for the specific item, multiplied by the adjusted MBS fee. HBA then rounds to the nearest 5 cents, other funds to the next 5 cents. Previously the fund fee was adjusted by the Medicare amount.

•	The function to Retry/Cancel when a new account is abandoned has been modified to avoid accidental deletions when data exists in the account.

•	Adjusted fee rounding to round up to next highest 5c. Previously 2c and 3c rounded to 0c; 6c and 7c to 5c. Now 1c rounds up to 5c and 6c rounds up to 10c. Rounding up includes the 3rd decimal place e.g. $10.001 rounds up to $10.05.

•	Showed account type in red type just near Total Fee on Fee page, for emphasis.

•	Minor adjustments to co-payment printout to ensure 1. adjustment does not show if the discounted co-payment fee is paid in full, 2. Payment options do not appear if balance is negligible.

•	Adjusted account and co-payment to ensure that no owing amount is shown if a date closed exists. Previously AA used only the status phrase to determine whether to waive fee.

•	Adjusted procedure to add account messages to ensure that a 'please pay remainder' message is not shown if the account is closed.

•	Added a co-payment filter to the batch payments 'Owing list' and the ability to reverse the sort order on most fields.

•	The Medicare Only fee is shown on Fee page (smaller type for de-emphasis) and can be selected as account fee. Medicare only accounts show itemised fees by default.

•	The Medicare Only fee is calculated by adding the rebate calculated for each item after rounding up to 5 cents - this corrects previous rounding inaccuracies with calculating the rebate from the total schedule fee.

•	The Medicare rebate is calculated according to individual item in- or out-of-hospital flags, rather than overall flag on Operation page. This calculates the correct rebate if both in- and out-of-hospital items exist.

•	The Medicare rebate calculation includes an adjustment for the Medicare 'Maximum Patient Gap'. Rates for this will be stored in the Items file in future versions.

•	Improvements in clarity to the amounts paid and owing on the Payments page.

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Added a cheque number field to the payments data entry (standard, batch and misc). User can specify whether or not to tab into the cheque number (Options > Data Entry). The default is no. The cheque number appears on the banking slip and can optionally be added to custom datasheet formats on the List of Payments.

•	The Bank and Branch have been renamed to Bank/BSB and Branch/Acc Num. This allows users to enter the cheque number, BSB number and account number instead of Bank and Branch, as may be required by some banks.

•	Allowed Cash payment type to be set to not appear on banking slip if desired. When printing a banking slip, cash payments can optionally be itemised (check box on print dialog screen).

•	Added correct list of custom payment types to the Misc & Batch payments dialog boxes.

•	Removed drop-down list of older bank slips on dialog box, since may not match user-defined pay types.

•	Payment numbers on the banking slip are shown for each payment type, not for the banking slip as a whole.

•	Allowed individual parts of a batch payment to be specified as copayments. Previously all components of a batch payment had to be either a copayment or not.

•	When a batch payment is processed, the updated status of the processed accounts is shown in a list on the last page. The list may be transferred to the List of Accounts for further review if desired.

•	Added Search function for BPay numbers. Adjusted BPay number to appear on expanded screens (previously disappeared under the tab control).

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After pre-paid accounts are printed, the user is prompted as to whether to update the payment status appropriately. A prompt is required since some users may want to keep status as it currently is since additional editing may be required for operative and fee details. Previously no changes to status were made and the pre-paid status always had to be manually updated.

•	Adjusted the owing amounts displayed in the batch payments data entry screen to show correct figures when discounts and GST are applied.

•	Printing the List of Payments normally shows standard or distributed payments. A new option allows selecting whether to show batch totals or both batch and distributed payments. (The bank deposit slip still show only batch totals as before.)

•	Adjusted the merchant fee calculator to include a BPay transaction fee. The latest rates entered are saved as defaults (must be re-entered after a program update).

•	On the main batch payments listing screen, the advanced selection options now include Payment Type.

•	Group Practice Payment Summary - provided facility for selection of multiple payment types.

•	A Note Flag field was added to the standard datasheet format. This shows Y if notes exist in the patient's account. Double click to view the notes. Notes may be edited.

•	Added ProviderDesignation and ProviderNumber to the optional field list for custom datasheet formats.

•	Provided for the declarations section of the batch header to expand and contract with the amount of text. Also removed the Declarations and Comments headings if there was no data.

•	The doctor's designation (e.g. Anaesthetist) is not entered separately into the Letter signature field. This can be entered in the Options, allowing the designation to appear or not appear as preferred.

•	All printed letters are now saved as separate entries on the documents page with the associated snapshot. Previously only one letter was saved, no matter how many times it was edited and printed.

•	Letters created but not printed are shown on the letters form, but not the Docs page.

•	Added a field code, UF, to substitute for undiscounted fee (since total fee = discounted fee).

•	Adjusted form letter field codes to use accurate MBS 75% and 85% rebates calculated on each item to avoid rounding inaccuracies.

•	Added a field code CD to show the discounted or undiscounted copayment depending on whether the 'Show Discount' checkbox is ticked.

•	Added a function for groups to compact (and re-index) all data files in one process.

•	Added a raw data viewer function to Maintenance Menu. This allows read-only access to all tables to assist in troubleshooting.

•	Added developer function to enable developer to edit read-only data if required.

•	Data file repair function keeps last 3 source files in case repair process fails and original file needed.

•	Minor speed increase in data file updating process by using FileCopy instead of CompactDB in initial copy.

•	Multiuser data files now require an account prefix (previously optional). This appears in the 'Select a provider' list. The field size has been increased from 3 to 4 characters, and accepts uppercase characters only.

•	The list of providers now shows the data file version number for checking update completeness. The list can be sorted by account prefix, provider name or version.

•	The data files currently in use can be displayed by clicking a button on the Select Provider form.

•	The account search function (Find button) can now accept a provider prefix plus account number e.g. ABC1234. This will easily locate an account in another doctor's file without having to specifically open and search that file.

•	Added Item Number criteria to multi-provider search function. Also added an Other field which can be used to search any field in the account record.

•	Added Fee, Copayment, Total received, Copay received to ordering lists in multi-provider search. Showed initial default ordering in ordering fields for clarity.

•	New function to update all data files in a multi-user version to the current data version in one procedure - from Select Provider form.

•	Minor adjustments to the Select User form to allow selecting folder if data location is incorrect.

•	Displayed the current provider's name prominently above the patient's name to reduce the likelihood that accounts are accidentally entered into an incorrect provider's file.

•	Included a <Select Provider> button on the Patient page, and a similar button on the Payment page, for easy access.

•	The Account Number field (in PatientsT) was changed from Integer to Long type. This allow using account numbers above previous limit of 30,000, The recommended maximum is 99,999 to keep the number of digits to 5, although it is possible to go above this. (Also in PaymentStatusLogT and WaivedFeesT.)

•	Autonumber fields added to PatientsT, AccountDetailsT and PaymentStatusLogT to improve data integrity and accessibility.

•	Fixed bug where first reminders would not be shown in the list of accounts.

•	Adjusted age calculation to avoid problem with one year calculated as 0y 12m 1d.

•	Corrected Invalid Null error when Payment Drawer left blank. If an abandoned payment is deleted, this is recorded in the Maintenance Log (previously not).

•	Fixed bug where entering a total My Own fee to distribute over all items sometimes was 5c more or less than specified.

•	Fixed random ordering of documents on Docs page. The list is now ordered by the date printed.

•	Fix circumstances where Cancel button can remain visible after creating a new account, and clicking the button could delete a real account inadvertently.

•	Fixed bug in Extra Items box where no records were found (form filter saved during development).

•	Adjusted Insert Age Modifier function to recalculate Fee page amounts when the age is adjusted and the age modifier is removed automatically. Previously the fee was not adjusted if the modifier was removed.

•	Adjusted capitalization function to avoid trailing capitals after apostrophes, e.g. Worker'S.

•	Fixed bug where a very big batch payment (approx 40) could not be displayed on the final processing page. Have not fixed this definitively, but rather truncated the list to avoid the error message.

•	Minor adjustments to the account footer format to avoid printing a blank second page. This can still happen though if the account includes payments.