EZ 2000 Manual - Claim Forms

Claim Forms  

Daily users would never use this section. Its only purpose is to make alterations to printed claim forms.  See the E-Claims section for information on sending e-claims.

In the Main Menu, click Setup, Claim Forms.

Importing Claim Forms
To import most claim forms, you need two files:  an .xml file and the background image file (.gif or .jpg).  You may have some claim forms that only require an .xml file.
1. Save the .xml file and the image file in your A to Z folder.
2. Click Import on the Claim Forms window and select the .xml file. 
The new form will appear last in the Edit Claim Form list.  Once the .xml file is imported, it is no longer needed by EZ, and you may delete it from your A to Z folder.

Reassigning Claim Forms
If a new claim form is replacing an existing one, you can easily reassign all Insurance Plans that use the form.
1. Import the new claim form. 
2. Highlight the old form in the Edit Claim Form list.
3. Click the Reassign dropdown arrow and select the new form. 
4. Click Reassign.  A message will appear indicating how many insurance plans are affected by the reassignment.

Editing Claim Forms
Editing a claim form is mostly for advanced users. If you need to make significant changes, click Make a Copy to copy one of the supplied claim forms, then rename it something meaningful.

Double click on a form to bring up a large edit window.

The only items you might normally change are in the upper right corner.

Description:  The name of the form as it appears in the Edit Claim Form list.
Is Hidden: If checked, this claim form will not show as an option in the Insurance Plan Edit window.
Print Images:  If checked, the background claim image will print.  If unchecked, the background claim image will not print. This is useful if you are printing on a preprinted form (e.g. DentiCal).
Offset X, Offset Y: Change these values if the alignment is slightly off for your preprinted form. The numbers can be positive or negative and will shift all elements on the page by the given number of pixels in 100'ths of an inch.

You can delete a claim format as long as it is not being used by any insurance plans. 

Create Your Own Claim Form
You can add your own claim form from scratch, but it is very involved and takes a lot of time. Here are more detailed instructions.

1.  Prepare a background first.  Scan a paper form at a high resolution, maybe 600dpi grayscale. In Photoshop, increase the contrast to make the black lines look blacker and the white areas whiter. Also erase any black flecks that remain. Resample the image to about 250 dpi, 8 bit b/w palletted, and save it in the A to Z folder as a gif (preferrable), or as a jpg.
Hint: On the edit window, .gif image size can be easily adjusted by changing the width and height, but .jpg image size cannot be changed. If you save as a .jpg, set the compression and smoothing for as small a file size as possible without losing detail, somewhere between 200 and 500 Kb. The larger it is, the longer it will take to print.

2.  On the Claim Form window, click Add to create a new claim form.  Click Add again and enter the background's Image File Name first. Do some trial printing to make sure it's sized right and is positioned on the page so that it won't get cut off on one side. If using a gif, you can adjust size by entering Width and Height. You may also have to adjust the xPos or yPos (not the offsets).

3.  Once you are happy with the quality of the background, begin to add more items using the existing forms as examples. Move items by clicking and dragging or by using the arrow keys.
- To make the movement larger, press Shift while pressing an arrow key.  If you press the shift key while pressing an arrow key, the movement will be larger.
- To select groups of items to move as a unit, press Ctrl while clicking. When you have groups selected, any change you make in the four text boxes at the bottom will apply to all items in the group.

The dollar amount fields are right justified, so the x position will function differently (for now, click to the right of an amount field to highlight it). Also, be careful not to accidently drag when highlightling items, especially groups; it's still a little touchy. Set the width or height to zero to get rid of the surrounding rectangle and to not restrict the area of printing. Also, the screen will flicker a little as you drag, but it's certainly tolerable, and it's not worth the time required to reduce the flicker since it's used so rarely.

The above discussion does not include e-claims. It is much harder to add an e-claim format (for instance, for foreign countries), but a programmer could do it.