There were so many possible titles for this article, not of all of which were printable. I'm sure if your job involves collecting money from late payors, you have already thought of some of your favorite money phrases.

Here’s a new feature that may come in handy: In CPR+ v8.2, we incorporated the merge tool of Microsoft Word into CPR+ to improve the power of our database. Under the Batch Processes Menu, we added an option to create collection letters, enabling you to use the information you already have in CPR+ to help collect money for your business.

From the Main Menu, go to Billing & Financial (5) > Batch Processes (2) > Create Collection Letter Export (6). The Collection Letters window will open, where you will make your selections – Patients: A to Z, or any way you’d like to divide them; Total Balance Greater Than: $x.xx; Last Payment Date Less Than: X (Remember to use the <Ctrl+Del> function to insert a date – for this example, I entered negative 30 days so that CPR+ would calculate the date for me.) Total Balance Older Than (in days): X. F2 to Continue.

When the Word Merge For Collection Letters window opens, the default tab is the Existing Templates tab. If you need to create a new one, simply click the Create New Template tab and select the fields you want to include in your letter. Once you press F2 to save your field choices, the Template Name window will open. Enter a name for the template and press F2. A blank Microsoft Word template will open. Note that it already has whatever name you just created. There you can build your letter, inserting the fields you selected from CPR+.

In Word 2007, select the Mailings tab and click on Insert Merge Field list whenever you need to insert a field. Save and close the Word template - Don’t change the name of the template! - it will be saved to the Patients folder.
(DriveLetter:\\...your system folder\BPTemplates\Patients)

Returning to the CPR+ window, click the Use Existing Template tab. Your new template will now appear in the list. The next step is to review the patient names that match the criteria you selected. By default, CPR+ will select all the patients in that list. If you want to make changes, click once to deselect all the names and manually <CTRL+ Click> to pick and choose which ones receive a letter. Once the names are highlighted on the left, select your template from the list on the right. Click the Save & Close button or press <F2> to create the merged documents. Microsoft Word will open again, this time with the newly created form letters. The file will be named "FormLetters1" and will contain one letter for each patient in the list, ready for you to print and send.

Also, a Billing Note will be added to each patient’s record. The subject will be “Created Collection Letter.” The text will look similar to this:

Created Collection Letter On 6/22/2009
Collection Letter Template: New30DayCollectionLetter.DOT

For questions on this or any CPR+ topic, please contact the Training Department.

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The Joint Commission is coming! The Joint Commission is coming! What do we need to do?!

You need to make sure all your physician licenses have been verified. Within the prescriber database, CPR+ allows you to track when you verified the physician licenses, and flag them with the date they need to be verified again. The CPR+ MD License Verification Report allows you to be proactive about this important task.

From the Main Menu, select Reports (4) > Pharmacy Reports (2) > MD License Verification (9). Select the date range for the next verification date you want to include. Call the prescribers and verify the license numbers, updating the verification date and the next verification date as you go.

Run this report at the beginning of the month for the following month (at the beginning of June for July 1 to July 31, for example). Select the option to “Print Physicians with BLANK Verification Dates,” and populate those dates as you work through the list. The next time you run the report, the list should be much smaller even if you include the blank dates.

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