Live September 2008
The Health Focus Live system is designed to save money, reduce patient wait-time and ensure membership accuracy. The release date for this facility is September 2008. Practices wishing to use this facility would need to register with Health Focus.
Flexible
The setup utility allows the Health Focus Live system to be used from any workstation in a network or as a stand-alone system. You can in fact use it local on each computer in a network as long as the listening software is installed on each computer and it has access to the Internet. Dial up systems are not supported.
Quick Response
Most responses occur within a second or so. This is however dependant on the quality of your ADSL line or Internet connection. For slower connections, there is an option in the setup defaults to increase the time out. Generally, a one second time out is sufficient.
Immediate Rejections
In the event that the membership number is invalid, or the medical aid cannot find a match, you will be shown on the screen. This could be a result of the patient being linked to the wrong medical aid, in which case the medical aid code would be incorrect. But on the other hand, it could be that it is indeed a wrong membership number.
Easy to Setup
In order for the system to be functional the listener service must be installed. This is quick and easy and requires no technical skills. However, it is essential that the Health Focus Live code be entered in all medical aid schemes. This can be done automatically via the auto-FTP update, or a file provided by Head Office.
At a Glance
When the Verify button is not available, it indicates that either the medical aid is not activated, or that the Health Focus Listener service is not running. This can easily be checked on the task bar, where a visible indication is available.
Health Focus Live is supported by Health Focus and it’s national network of dealers.
It’s a logical choice. Over 80% of medical aids can be accessed via Health Focus Live covering over 6 million lives. Now there is no excuse for rejections, bad debts, payment delays and time wasting!
Setting up Health Focus Live
It’s really quite easy. After you have installed the Health Focus Listener, you have to tell the program where your default mail directory resides and the delay timeout. The mailbox is where the temporary files are created and dropped, and the timeout determines how long you should wait for a response. Generally the response is about one second, but if you have delays with your internet connection, this would have to be increased.
Ensure the Medical Aid Codes are activated
Health Focus Lives needs to know which medical aid and which scheme it has to check. So it has allocated a unique number to each scheme. The complete list is available from Health Focus, but invariably your head office will be able to supply you an updated list. If your system has been activated with the automatic update, then your medical aid tables will be updated at the practice automatically, and you can start using Live.
Click a button to Verify Membership
Wherever you see the Live button, you have access to membership verification. The button is available in Invoicing, the Wizard and in the membership file.
You will be able to see from the image on the button whether the validation process is active or not. In addition, the status is shown on the main menu, advising you all the way of what's happening.
Membership Validation on Hand
In a second or so, the membership details appear. Click on a button, and you can update your database with the dependants.
Update Your Database
Now that you have the medical aid information on hand, simply click on the "X" activate button, and you have the option of updating your database with the dependant information.
You completely eliminate any errors because the information is taken directly from the medical aids database.
It’s live, so the in formation is current and up to date. Eliminate call waiting and patient inconvenience.
You have the opportunity to edit the dependant information, although this is generally not necessary as all the information required by the medical aid for proper and swift processing of a claim is updated automatically.
As soon as you are happy with the update, the new dependant is automatically in your patient selection list in the invoice and Wizard. Just select the particular patient and process your transaction as normal.