Time for Spring Cleaning

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Time for a little “Spring Cleaning”

by Julie Thompson

Our Customer Support Team, here at Datacon Dental, has had the opportunity to look at some of your Practice Management Systems while helping you with various tasks. We have noticed that many could benefit from a little “Spring Cleaning.”
Items that raise a red flag are severely outdated recall, outstanding insurance forms, and old User Defined Lists, to name a few.

One item that should always be monitored is remote system access. As more people setup remote connections to their Datacon Dental System from home via pcLink, it is vital that you immediately restrict access to an employee that leaves the dental practice. To do this, simply remove their initials from the Datacon Dental System and Time Clock user files. This prevents that employee from entering your system using their user logon. The steps are simple and will give you peace of mind for the security of your software.

Much like any other cleaning, tidying up your data files is not necessarily a task that you or your staff are clamoring to tackle! Why not allow the Datacon Dental Support Team to clean it up for you?

Our Support Team will connect to your system via modem or DSL, run programs to remove old data, clean up the User Defined Lists, inactivate old dental patients, and run a few diagnostic programs to keep your Practice Management System running at its best!

This service has been discounted to $80.00 per hour. The process usually takes about two hours, however some systems may require more time. We will work quickly and efficiently to make your system run smoothly.

Give us a call today to schedule your “Spring Cleaning!”

Become a Power User!

Friday, December 4th, 2009

In today’s economy, you need to be a Power User!

Are you using your computer to its greatest advantage? This workshop provides an overview of how the Datacon Dental Practice Management System can streamline many areas of your dental office routine:

• TRACKING PATIENTS
• RECALL / SCHEDULING
• TREATMENT PLAN
• INSURANCE TRACKING
• FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS
• PATIENT VISIT OPTIONS
• RETRIEVING AND ANALYZING INFORMATION

This class is offered online, at your dental office, or here at our Santa Rosa, CA training facility.

Contact us today to sign up for this POWERful class.

Watch your email for Datacon’s eNewsletter, it contains a discount training coupon.

*Not receiving our email newsletter yet? Signup with the link on the right to receive all these updates automatically!

Online Backups

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Protect your business with secure online backup.

Datacon Dental is pleased to announce its we’ve partnered with Data Deposit Box. With this online - off site backup service, you don’t have to worry about loosing critical dental patient data due to a disaster.

With this innovative new service, files that are lost due to power surges, data theft, server failure, fire, or even hackers are easily retrieved. And your business can continue with limited interruption.

Just contact Datacon to setup you secure data backup today! (800)773-78978

Or email us at info@datacondental.com

Note: Online backup will not work with the old Alpha Micro systems.

Pediatric Study Group

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Pediatric Study Group

Mark your calendars. On October 29th, 2009, Datacon is holding the fourth in a series of seminars to demonstrate how your practice can become a paperless dental office!

This study group provides an excellent opportunity for our pediatric clients to analyze the tools your Datacon system provides, and allow you to make educated decisions in your endeavor to go paperless.

The morning and afternoon sessions include subjects such as scheduling, email and digital x-ray integration, referral tracking and communication, electronic consent forms, periodontal charting, treatment planning, electronic chart notes, and downloading data to an iPhone or BlackBerry.

Datacon Demo Videos

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Soon To Be Released ~

Version 3.6 Demonstration Video!

A demonstration video is coming soon to Datacon’s website (www.datacondental.com)! The video will give you a quick tour of the many features and benefits of our newest software, Version 3.6.

The latest version of 3.6 contains many features enabling you to streamline your day. Approximately one-third of our clients are already enjoying the additional benefits of this software. The features include: Advanced Tooth Charting (showing existing restorations, features to handle multiple teeth and quadrant treatment, and the complete history of a specific tooth), the new graphics and layout in the Perio Charting area, focusing on easier navigation, enhancements to the Chart Note area, Treatment Plan area, Scheduling advancements and much, much more!
Slated for release later this year are step-by-step training videos. As with the demonstration video, these will be accessible via our website.

Be sure and check back  for more video tutorals!

Insurance Coverage

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

Insurance Coverage Changes

by Flo Janes

If you have ever had an insurance claim rejected due to the relationship not matching the carrier records, we have an easy fix for you!

You don’t have to start from scratch if you have accidentally posted a patient’s relationship as “self” and need to change it to “spouse, ” or if you have posted incorrect information on the coverage change and need to updateit. All you have to do is override the information on the existing coverage.

When you are updating coverage, hit the Search Key (F6) on the date field, find the coverage change date that you want to override, and SELECT. Go to the section that you want to change and enter the correct information.
Hit ESC/EXIT and post this to the patient’s ledger. This will override the old entry and replace it with the corrected information.

When billing an insurance form, the current coverage is used as the default coverage for billing purposes. If you want to bill procedures from a previous coverage period, all you have to do is hit the Search Key (F6) before you choose the carrier, then type in the date of service or the date the coverage began for that transaction. The system will then pull the insurance information that was active for that date.

You DO NOT want to search to find the last coverage date if you are making a new coverage update. This is only for editing existing coverage. However, searching will show you their existing coverage so you will know when to start your new coverage. We do not recommend using the first of the year unless your patient is seen on or around that date. Coverage dates should be the first billable visit date of new transactions, not when the patient’s coverage began.

You don’t want to back date coverage to prior years unless it is truly needed for billing purposes. Often times we see patients whose first visit was in 2009, yet their coverage change was posted as 1998 (their start date of coverage). You don’t need to use the date their coverage began, only the date that will be their first billable service.

Today’s Complex Threats

Monday, July 20th, 2009

  Securing the Web Against Today’s Complex Threats

Smart Phone Downloads

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Downloading to a Smart Phone

By Flo Janes

If you have a “Smart” phone, and would like to take home information from your Datacon system, you can create a document to assist with the download.
For example, at the end of the day you can download a list of patients that were seen so that you can make post-op calls later that evening. You can also download a list of patients with overdue payments so you can contact them from home.

Below are instructions on how to download an MS Excel spreadsheet and email the document to your smart phone. The example below is for a list of patients that are being seen today.

Within your Datacon system, create a word processing document to be merged with appointments for day, as a Plain text report with No page breaks. Select Edit the original document. Type in the following lines, hit tab between each field (this makes it a Tab delimited document).

Name        Home Phone     Cell Phone <print’to pc.xls>
< >
<name>  <home’phone>    <cell>

The “print’to pc.xls” launches MS Excel and relies on a “Download to MS Excel” printer option that will need to be set up on your printer menu before using. “<>” creates the file in a report format - there are no spaces in between the angle brackets.
Now from MS Excel, click on File, Send to Mail Recipient as an attachment.
It’s that easy!

Insurance Fee Schedule

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Insurance Fee Schedule

By Laura Andersen

Datacon has the ability to use an insurance fee schedule to calculate estimated insurance portions on fees, while posting UCR fees. This is done by setting up an Indemnity insurance plan through Employers and Insurance Plans and then connecting your patient to it with a coverage update.

The plan requires the fee schedule to be set up with plan fees and the plan type set as Indemnity. Once set up and connected to the patient, all treatments entered through Diagnosis Records or Charges will estimate off the plan fees while the fee showing on the transaction will be your standard UCR fee. This modified estimate will show on the treatment plan screen as well as on your printed treatment plan documents.

If you use an “insurance and patient estimates” note on your statements or route slips, these estimates will also be figured from your plan fees, increasing or decreasing the patient portions for the difference.
If you need help setting up a new insurance plan, call our Support Department and we will walk you through it.

Text and Email Reminders

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Text & Email Reminders

By Flo Janes

Did you know you can now text message through your Datacon server? With the new 3.6 version of software, you can send a patient a reminder that they have a dental appointment scheduled or a quick text that you are running ahead and they could come earlier for their appointment. You can text message (SMS) in addition to emailing your patients for many different purposes.
You no longer have to use a third party software like Smile Reminders, Dental Senders or Teletask to utilize these cool new features. There is an hourly setup fee for this feature but there is no residual cost.
Some internet providers are using or will be upgrading technology that may prevent this functionality on the Alpha Micro servers. The Mac servers are fully compatible. Call Datacon if you would like to have this great time-saving feature set up on your system.