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Billing Module Hospital Information Management System

HOSPITAL INFORMATION

MANAGEMENT SYSTEM OPD BILLING MODULE

LAKMEDIPRO (PVT) LTD

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Billing Module Hospital Information Management System

Contents

Billing Module ..................................................................................................................................................... 1

Table of Figures .................................................................................................................................................. 3

Billing .................................................................................................................................................................... 4

User Friendliness ............................................................................................................................................. 4

Payment Methods ........................................................................................................................................ 5

Discount Schemes ......................................................................................................................................... 7

Client Database ............................................................................................................................................ 7

Flexible Revenue Model .............................................................................................................................. 7

Flexible Item Characteristics ..................................................................................................................... 11

Membership Schemes ................................................................................................................................ 11

Department-VICE billing ............................................................................................................................ 11

Packages ...................................................................................................................................................... 12

Referring Doctor Details ............................................................................................................................. 12

Distributed billing ......................................................................................................................................... 13

Flexible Printing ............................................................................................................................................ 13

Reprinting ...................................................................................................................................................... 13

Cancellations ............................................................................................................................................... 14

Refunds ......................................................................................................................................................... 14

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Billing Module Hospital Information Management System

TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Three out of 20 different themes available to user .................................................................... 4

Figure 2: Two different zoom levels ................................................................................................................ 5

Figure 3: Different Payment Methods Possible as Source of Payment ................................................... 6

Figure 4: Additional Details Recorded for Cheque Payments ................................................................. 6

Figure 5: Single Bill Item has been added by user ...................................................................................... 8

Figure 6: Two Fees has been generated as Hospital Fee & Staff Fee ..................................................... 8

Figure 7: Different Discount Schemes ............................................................................................................ 9

Figure 8: Search clients from the database ............................................................................................... 10

Figure 9: Add new client from Billing Window ........................................................................................... 10

Figure 10: Adding Investigations or Services From Three Different Departments ............................... 11

Figure 11: Three Bills for Separate Departments Have been generated from a single event of billing

............................................................................................................................................................................ 12

Figure 12: Record of Referring Doctor Details at the Time of Billing ...................................................... 13

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Billing Module Hospital Information Management System

BILLING

Billing module handles issuing bills for services or goods given to customers by any department of

the institution. Billing module is commonly associated with other modules like Laboratory,

Pharmacy, Petty Cash or Professional Payment.

USER FRIENDLINESS

The application is focusing on improving the user experience. Most of the works are automated

and there is minimal handling of computer for a particular task. Billing interface is also made in a

way it is very easy for the cashier to invoice a customer.

The users can select a theme appropriate for their choice. The size of the screen can be easily

adjusted to match individual preferences. The menu visible to user depends on the role based

privileges so that easy for the user to locate the required functionality.

Figure 1: Three out of 20 different themes available to user

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Billing Module Hospital Information Management System

Figure 2: Two different zoom levels

PAYMENT METHODS

Payments can be accepted as cash, credit, cheque, credit card or bank slips. Authorized users

can use staff members or agencies as source of payments. (Refer Figure 3). Depending on the

selected payment method, required data may be needed to be added in addition. For example,

if cheque is selected as the payment methods, it is mandatory to enter the issues bank, cheque

data and cheque number. (Refer Figure 4)

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Billing Module Hospital Information Management System

Figure 3: Different Payment Methods Possible as Source of Payment

Figure 4: Additional Details Recorded for Cheque Payments

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Billing Module Hospital Information Management System

DISCOUNT SCHEMES

The user can be selectively allow to use different discount schemes. These discount schemes

automatically calculate the discount depending on the discount scheme, payment methods

selected, credit company and client membership type. For example, only the chief cashier may

be able to use the discount scheme called ‘Company Director Discounts’ which will add 20%

discount for cash payments or 15% discount for credit card payments. The other cashiers may be

able to use ‘Doctor Discount’ which will add 10% discount for cash payments or 7% discount for

credit payments.

CLIENT DATABASE

The clients can be searched from the database easily or can add a new customer inside the same

billing frame without any fizzle. (Refer Figure 8 and Figure 9 )

FLEXIBLE REVENUE MODEL

The data structure is made in a very sophisticated and detailed manner, so that the complex

logics involved in the billing process is completely hidden from the end user. For example, take

the following example.

PAP smear by Rd. Kamal

When that is billed, the following people or departments must get there income as follows.

1. Rd. Kamal, VOG, Rs. 1200.00

2. Rd. Saman, Pathologist, Rs. 800.00

3. Assisting Nurse , Rs. 200.00

4. OPD Department, Rs. 200.00

5. Pathology Lab, Rs. 600.00

When the cashier is bills a PAP Smear, only he has to select that single item. But all the revenues

will be generated as once designed by the user who is responsible for managing item fees. The

total charge will appear as an income to the billed department and will also be listed in the Shift-

End Summery and Day-End summery for the cash handover. The revenue will be listed under each

person or department for payments and analysis purposes. (Refer Figure 5 and Figure 6 )

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Billing Module Hospital Information Management System

Figure 5: Single Bill Item has been added by user

Figure 6: Two Fees has been generated as Hospital Fee & Staff Fee

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Billing Module Hospital Information Management System

Figure 7: Different Discount Schemes

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Billing Module Hospital Information Management System

Figure 8: Search clients from the database

Figure 9: Add new client from Billing Window

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Billing Module Hospital Information Management System

FLEXIBLE ITEM CHARACTERISTICS

The items can be marked as discountable or not. When calculating the discount, those items that

are labelled as discountable will be given discounts. Charges for any item can be marked as

editable. Only such marked item fees will be available to edit at the time of billing, charges of

other items are not allowed to be changed by the cashier.

MEMBERSHIP SCHEMES

Clients can be registered by the system and can be allocated to various membership schemes

like Platinum, Gold or Silver. Depending on the membership scheme and the payment methods,

different services can be discounted at different rates automatically.

DEPARTMENT-VICE BILLING

Each Investigation and service has assigned to a specific department. For example, FBS is

performed at the Biochemistry department whereas FBC is performed in the Haematology

department. The user do not have to have any idea about the relevant department and all he

has to do is to add investigations or services to the same window. There will be generation of

multiple bills with different bill numbers which groups the requests to separate departments. (Refer

Figure 10 and Figure 11)

Figure 10: Adding Investigations or Services From Three Different Departments

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Billing Module Hospital Information Management System

Figure 11: Three Bills for Separate Departments Have been generated from a single event of billing

PACKAGES

When several services are bundled together and given a different fee structure, it is called as a

Package. Any number of packages can be created and there fees can be configured to vary

depending on the package, payment method, discount scheme or membership. For a single

package, the user has to enter client details and add the packages. Then bills will be generated

separately for each department.

REFERRING DOCTOR DETAILS

Billing process can also record details about the referring doctor, so that analysis can be easily

done in back office. (Figure 12)

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Billing Module Hospital Information Management System

Figure 12: Record of Referring Doctor Details at the Time of Billing

DISTRIBUTED BILLING

Billing can be at one physical location to another physical location as this application can be

hosted in internet. For example, gall branch can bill a TSH performed at main branch in Colombo.

FLEXIBLE PRINTING

The bill printing settings varies significantly from one place to another. The software is flexible

enough to accommodate different printer settings. There are department-vice preference to for

printing so that each department can have their own way of printing bills. Some front offices use

3 inch wide point of sale printers (POD Printers), where others are use 5.5 inch papers on impact

printers. Some papers are pre-printed with company details while others prefer to print every detail

in the bill through the program on blank papers. The application can easily cater to the above

requirements due to the flexibility of department-vice printing preferences.

REPRINTING

Authorized users are allowed to take reprints when required. Searching bills are very easy using

client name, address, bill number, bill date or bill total. The bill will contain a label which states that

this is a duplicate bill.

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Billing Module Hospital Information Management System

CANCELLATIONS

Bills can be easily searched for cancellation by authorized users.

In cancellations, the whole billing process is reversed. The total bill fee will be paid back. All the

items for that particular bill will be cancelled as well. For example, if two investigations had been

added by the bill that was cancelled, will be marked as not available to proceed. It is not possible

to issue reports for those investigations. If investigations has already been performed, such bills are

not allowed to be cancelled, unless there is a special permission from an authorized person to

cancel such as that violates the business usual practices.

The re-payment method for cancellation can be decided by the cashier as authorized by the

management. For example, repayment of credit card bills can be cancelled and pay as cash to

the client if the management has already decided to handle the case in that way.

The cancellation process will be added to that particular days shift end summaries and day end

summaries. When the bill that was cancelled had been billed in a previous day, there will be no

change in the previous day summaries. Attempts to cancel the same bill by accident by more

than one users simultaneously from one or more locations are not allowed by the system.

REFUNDS

Multiple Refunds can be done by authorized users easily after searching the relevant bill using

various criteria like client name, bill total, requested investigations or bill number.

In refund, part or full charge of each individual bill component can be cancelled. For example,

when one bill contained UFR and Urine Culture & ABST, only part of the Culture & ABST can be

refunded to the patient. Multiple refunds for the same item can be done provided the total

repayment amount do not exceed the original payment. Multiple users can refund the same bill

from one or more locations, but will not allow them to exceed the total payment.

The refunds, as in the case of cancelled bills, will not affect previous summaries, but will be added

to the current summery only.