Year-End Procedures for THOMAS (Suggestions)

At Genius Solutions we understand that the end of the year can be a very stressful time for your office.  In hopes of streamlining your process we have come up with these recommends to close out last year properly.  We do not recommend posting any of next year’s charges until these steps have been completed.  During this process everyone should be out of THOMAS, and this checklist should be followed in the order given.  The length of time required to complete these functions will vary depending on the size of your practice and the amount of data that you have in your system.

Choose your THOMAS below- eT or dT

eTHOMAS End-Of-Year

1. Complete all payment and charge posting (both insurance and patient) that have been received up to, and including, 12/31 of this year.
2. Check “Other Claim Status” [Billing tab, Other Claim Status in the left menu]. All open/hold/rebill/inquiry claims should be reviewed. Verify that all claims that can be billed are changed to the appropriate status. Only claims in an unbilled (U), rebill (R), and inquiry (I) status will be prepared.
3. Prepare “Billed But Unpaid” claims for all of last year [Billing tab, Claims in the left menu.  Check off only “Billed But Unpaid” claims.  The system will ask for a “from” and a “to” date.  These dates are billed dates NOT dates of service. ] After preparation, this file should be transmitted to your clearing house and any paper forms mailed, as appropriate.  Work all edit reports and rejections from any last year claims as they are received.  This step is particularly important because of coding and filing regulation changes that often take effect in January.
4. Prepare and send the last of this year’s unbilled electronic claims (including inquiry claims).
5. Prepare and send the last of this year’s unbilled paper claims.
6. Back up your system before running any maintenance.  This back up should be final for this year and stored off-site indefinitely. Although backing up is extremely important on a daily basis, it is even more so at year-end because if for any reason you need to pull the data, as it was in your system at year end (i.e. audit), a permanent off-site back up copy is the best way.  This off-site back up would also protect you in the event that something happened in your office, because horrible and strange things really do happen!
7. We always recommend that you send in a disc for us to check once a year, now would be a great time, make a 2nd copy of your end-of-year back up.   We won’t keep the copy for you after testing, but we can do a “data check” here at Genius Solutions to make sure that the files you are backing up are actually on the disc and useable if needed.  (Don’t forget to call in to support for the proper way to do this.)
8. “Fix All Counters” [Utility tab, Maintenance heading, Fix All Counters] Fixing counters helps correct any data base errors that many be caused by old item deletions, or other errors.
9. “Reconcile” all accounts [Utility tab, Maintenance heading, Reconcile]. This will recalculate the transaction ledger. If items have been changed or removed in the patient or insurance transaction ledgers, the balances may be off. Reconciling corrects any of these balances.  
10. Log out of THOMAS, then log in to the eTHOMAS Maintenance program using your usual THOMAS username and password (This icon should be located on your server and looks exactly like your eTHOMAS icon with a red M in the upper left corner.).  Once logged into Maintenance click the “Reindex” button.  It will ask you if you would like to “pack files”. We recommend that you do pack files (i.e. choose “Yes”).  When you delete information from THOMAS it is not necessarily removed right away. Packing permanently deletes any information that you have tagged for deletion. This process can take a long time, especially if you have a lot of data.
11. Log out of Maintenance then log back into eTHOMAS.  Run Find Unapplied [Utility tab then Maintenance heading then Find Unapplied]. This brings up a listing of patient payments and credits and transactions that are currently unallocated.  Click Apply to the right of each payment and credit to allocate.
12. Run all reports your CPA wants for year’s end.  The most common report run for this purpose is the “Year To Date” Report [Reports tab then Financial heading in the left menu then Year To Date Report,] but ask your CPA now if they need any additional documentation, BEFORE you begin posting next year’s charges and payments.
13. Run “Delinquent Claims” Report [Reports tab then Financial heading in the left menu then Delinquent Claims Report] – Work all non-paid claims. Especially those that will reach filing limits early next year.
14. Run an “Aging by Patient” Report [Reports tab then Financial heading in the left menu then Aging by Patient]. Review all balances including credit balances for patient account that need corrections. If your office writes off balance under a certain amount (i.e. any patient balance under a $1.00), do so at this time.
15. Run an “Aging by Financial Class” Report [Reports tab then Financial heading in the left menu then Aging by Financial Class] Review all balances including credit balances to see which payers are paying promptly/slowly.
16. Prepare and send all patient statements.

dTHOMAS End-Of-Year

1. Complete all payment and charge posting (both insurance and patient) that have been received up to, and including, 12/31 of this year.
2. Check Other Claim Status [from the Main Menu under option 5 (Insurance Billing) then option 1 (Paper Claims) then option O (Other Claim Status)]. All open/hold/rebill/inquiry claims should be reviewed. Verify that all claims that can be billed are changed to the appropriate status. Only claims in an unbilled (U), rebill (R), and inquiry (I) status will be prepared.
3. Prepare “Billed But Unpaid” claims for this year [from the Insurance Billing screen option 4 (“Billed But Unpaid” claims)] The system will ask for a “to” and “from” date to prepare.  These dates are billed dates NOT dates of service.  After preparation, this file should be transmitted to your clearing house and any paper forms mailed, as appropriate.  Work all edit reports and rejections from any last year claims as they are received.  This step is particularly important because of coding and filing regulation changes that often take effect in January.
4. Prepare and send all last year unbilled electronic claims (including inquiry claims).
5. Prepare and send all last year unbilled paper claims.
6. Back up your system before running any maintenance.  This back up should be final for this year and stored off-site indefinitely. Although backing up is extremely important on a daily basis, it is even more so at year-end because if for any reason you need to pull the data, as it was in your system at year end (i.e. audit), a permanent off-site back up copy is the best way.  This off-site back up would also protect you in the event that something happened in your office, because horrible and strange things really do happen!
7. We always recommend that you send in a disc for us to check once a year, now would be a great time, make a 2nd copy of your end-of-year back up.   We won’t keep the copy for you after testing, but we can do a “data check” here at Genius Solutions to make sure that the files you are backing up are actually on the disc and useable if needed. (Don’t forget to call in to support for the proper way to do this.)
8. “Reconcile” all accounts [from the Main Menu under option 8 (System Utilities) then option 6 (System Reconcile Accounts)]. This will recalculate the transaction ledgers for you. If items have been changed or removed in the patient or insurance transaction ledgers, the balances may be “off”.  “Reconciling” updates and corrects these balances.  
9. Pack your system [from the Main Menu under option 8 (System Utilities) then option M (Maintenance Menu) then option 3 (Pack All Files)].  When you delete information from THOMAS it is not necessarily removed right away. Packing permanently deletes any information that you have tagged for deletion.
10. Run all of the reports your CPA wants for year’s end.  The most common report run for this purpose is the “Year To Date Report” [from the Main Menu under option 6 (Financial Reports) then option 2 (Year To Date Report)] but ask your CPA now if they need any additional documentation, BEFORE you begin posting next year’s charges and payments.
11. Run a “Delinquent Claims” Report [from the Main Menu under option 6 (Financial Reports) then option 9 (Delinquent Claims Report)] – Work all non-paid claims, especially those that will reach filing limits early next year.
12. Run an “Aging by Patient” Report [from the Main Menu under option 6 (Financial Reports) then 4 (Aging by Patient)]. Review all balances including credit balances for patient account that need corrections. If your office writes off balance under a certain amount (i.e. any patient balance under a $1.00) do so at this time.
13. Run an “Aging by Financial Class” Report [from the Main Menu under option 6 (Financial Reports) then 3 (Aging by Financial Class)] Review all balances including credit balances to see which payers are paying promptly/slowly.
14. Prepare and send all patient statements.

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