Recording Demographic Information

A guarantor is the person responsible for paying the patient's account bills. Family members typically have the same guarantor, and a patient can be their own guarantor. If you link a patient's address to a guarantor and you modify the guarantor's address, the patient's address and those of all other family members linked to that guarantor will also change. To change the patient’s guarantor, click the button next to Guarantor and follow the instructions below.

1. If the patient’s current guarantor is Self, enter search information and click F2 Find to find and select an existing guarantor or click New and see step 9b to create a new guarantor for the patient.
2. If the patient’s current guarantor is not Self, or if you are creating a new guarantor for the patient, complete the information in the Guarantor Information window or click F2 Find to find and select a different guarantor.
3. Select the Bad Address check box if the guarantor’s address is incorrect and you do not have a correct address on file.
4. Select one or more Mailing Options. Selecting the Head of Household check box designates the guarantor as the person making decisions in the household. Selecting the Mailing List check box indicates that the guarantor is on your correspondence mailing list.
5. Select one or more of the following Actions:
   • Selecting Copy Last Nameto Patient copies the guarantor’s last name to the patient’s last name.
   • Selecting Link Address to Patient copies the guarantor’s address to the patient’s address.
   • If applicable, selecting Unlink as Guarantor removes the guarantor from the patient’s record.
6. If you are going to bill an insurance company for this patient’s services or products, select Add as a New Patient to add the guarantor as an OfficeMate patient. You must also record the guarantor’s information in the Demographic and Insurance tabs in the Patient Demographic window. For more information on recording information in the Demographic and Insurance tabs see Recording Demographic Information and Recording Demographic Information.
7. A list of patients who are linked to the guarantor is displayed in the Linked Patients box.

1. Select or type the patient’s name, address, phone number, email, and default location information in the appropriate yellow highlighted text boxes.
   • Select the Texting OK check box to indicate that the patient is willing and able to receive text messages from your practice on his or her cell phone. If you use the EyeCare Prime interface, appointment reminders, recall notices, and product-ready notifications are sent to the patient’s cell phone. If you are not using the EyeCare Prime Interface, the Texting OK check box is informational only.
   • Click the button next to the patient’s email address to open your default email client and send an email message to the patient. You must set up your computer permissions properly in order to successfully send email messages through your email client.
   • To streamline the process of recording ZIP codes in OfficeMate, add frequently used ZIP codes to the ZIP code shortcut list. For more information on adding ZIP code shortcuts through OfficeMate Administration, see To add ZIP code shortcuts.
2. To enter the patient's previous name or address, click the P button next to the name or address fields.
3. Select the Self or Guarantor radio button to link the patient’s address to him or herself or to the address of the patient’s guarantor.
4. If the patient’s address is incorrect and you do not have a correct address on file for the patient, select the Bad Address check box.

1. Select the patient’s default location from the Default Location drop-down as needed.
2. To track referrals, do one of the following:
   • If the patient was not referred by anyone, select the Referred By > None option.
   • If the patient was referred to your office by another patient:

     1. Select the Referred By > Patient option.

     2. Click the button next to Referred Name.

     3. In the Find Patient window, enter search information in the Selection Criteria section, and click F2 Find.

     4. In the search results, double-click a patient’s name.

        The Demographic window appears, and the name you double-clicked is displayed on the button next to the Referred Name button.

   • If the patient was referred to your office by a professional:
     1. Select the Referred By > Professional [MU] option.
     2. Click the button next to Referred Name.
     3. In the Referring Professional window, double-click a name.

        The Demographic window appears, and the name that you double-clicked is displayed on the button next to the Referred Name button.

     If you select the name of a referring professional, the information from the Referred Name field is not automatically added to box 17 on the CMS 1500 form. The information from the Referred Name field is, however, displayed in the Referrals report and other communications. For information about recording a referring physician’s name that is added to box 17, see Recording Demographic Information. For information about creating the Referrals report, see Referrals.

   • (OfficeMate Administration access required) To create or edit a referring professional, click New/Edit to open the Maintain Referring Professionals window and add or edit a referring professional.

1. Select or enter the patient’s sex, date of birth, social security number, provider, marital status, employment status, employer, occupation, referral source, and preferred language in the appropriate yellow highlighted text boxes.
   • If the patient is a dependent student, you must select Full-Time Student from the Emp. Status (Box 8) drop-down menu.
   • The default selection for the Marital Status (Box 8) and Emp. Status (Box 8) drop-down menus is Unknown. For information on modifying the default selection (if you have OfficeMate Administration access), see To modify list box selections.
2. If the patient is not an active patient, deselect the Active check box.
3. Type the patient’s salutation, chart number, and medical alerts in the appropriate text boxes.
4. Select the patient’s preferred language from the Preferred Language drop-down menu.

   To add languages to the Preferred Language drop-down menu, open the Customization window and click the Preferred Languages tab. For more information, see To select preferred languages.

5. Click in the Race field. Select the check boxes for each racial group with which the patient identifies. Press Tab or click in any other field to exit the race selection.
6. Select the patient’s ethnicity from the Ethnicity drop-down menu.
7. Select the patient’s communication preference (secure messaging, email, mail, telephone, etc.) from the Communication Pref. drop-down menu.

   If you have OfficeMate Administration access, press the F12 key when your cursor is in the Communication Pref. drop-down menu to open a Maintain window and add new selections to the drop-down menu.

8. If the patient has a paper chart, type or select the patient’s last exam date in the Last Exam date field.

   The Last Exam date field is automatically updated when the following actions occur:

   • You record a fee slip that includes a service that has the Update Last Exam check box selected in the Products window.
   • You close or finalize an exam in ExamWRITER that includes a service that has the Update Last Exam check box selected in the Products window.

   You cannot manually update the Last Exam date field to a past date if a more current exam date has been recorded through a service on a fee slip.

9. Click OK to close the Patient Demographic window or click any tab to continue adding or modifying patient information.

1. If a List of Duplicate or Similar patient(s) window opens, you have entered a patient name that is similar or identical to a name already stored in OfficeMate. Complete one of the following tasks to close the window:

   • Click Print to print the list of patients.
   • Click Save as New Patient to save the patient that you are entering into OfficeMate as a new patient.
   • Click on a patient’s name and then click Update Patient to update the patient that you are entering into OfficeMate with the selected duplicate patient’s information.
   • Click Cancel Save to cancel entering and saving the patient’s information and close the List of Duplicate or Similar patient(s) and Patient Demographic window.