Schedule Appointment (Legacy)

1. On the Patient Actions Bar, click Scheduling, and then click Schedule Appointment.
2. If your practice is part of an athenaEnterprise organization, you can select a provider group at the top of the page. The provider group that you are logged in to is selected by default.

3. Use the menus at the top of the page to specify a time of day, appointment type, department, and provider.
   Note: You must select at least one of these filter options.
   
   The calendar is automatically updated to reflect availability for the next 4 months.
   

The dates on the calendar are color-coded:

• GREEN highlight:
  any day that has matching open slots with:
  
  • the same appointment type.
  • a generic appointment type slot of the same duration.
  • a series of consecutive generic appointment type slots that together equal the duration of the searched appointment type.
    
• YELLOW/ORANGE highlight (use caution):
  any day that does not have slots with:
  • a generic appointment type slot of the same duration.
  • a series of consecutive generic appointment type slots that equal the duration of the searched appointment type. That is, open generic appointment type slots exist, but there is not enough time based on the duration of the appointment that you searched for.
    
• RED/BROWN highlight: Slots matching the criteria are all filled.
• WHITE/BLANK: No open slots match the search criteria.
• BLUE bold type: Today's date.

4. Click the date that you want to schedule in the 4-month calendar view.
   

The Appointments [Department] heading appears below the calendar, showing the selected department (selected from the department menu at the top of the page).
A grid showing all appointments that match the selected criteria on the selected day appears under the heading. Providers and departments are displayed across the top; appointment times are displayed down the side.


 

Under the Appointments heading, the following headings may appear, depending on your schedule data:

• Daily Notes — Displays any daily notes for this day, department, and provider.
• Unscheduled Appointment Ticklers — Lists outstanding appointment ticklers for this patient.
• Upcoming Appointments — Lists already scheduled appointments for this patient.
5. If unscheduled appointment ticklers appear, select each appointment tickler that should be marked as scheduled after you schedule this appointment.
   Note: If your practice assigns point values to appointment types, provider utilization rates appear in the column headers, and the columns are ordered by each provider's utilization rate, with the lowest utilization rate providers on the left. For more information about appointment type point values and utilization, refer to Appointment Types.
6. Locate the slot that you'd like to schedule.
   You can click a different calendar day to display the appointment grid for that day. You can also click the navigation links (<<Previous Available, <Previous Day, etc.) to find the desired day.
7. Check the box for one or more appointment slots.
   The Appointment type(s) menu appears at the bottom of the page and includes the slots that you checked.

Select the appointment details

8. Appointment type(s) (at the bottom of the page) — Select an appointment type.
9. Primary insurance — Select the primary insurance for the appointment.
10. Secondary insurance — Select the secondary insurance for the appointment.
11. Notes/Reason — Enter the reason for the appointment.
    To display this note on the schedule, check the Add appointment note to homepage schedule box to the right of the note.
12. Urgency — Select this option if the appointment is urgent.
    This field appears only if your department has the Walk-in Encounter Management feature enabled.

Specify authorization information, if needed

13. Authorization — This field appears only if the patient has at least one insurance policy. Select an existing authorization or referral number from the menu, if applicable. To create a new authorization or referral, select Add new. Additional fields appear.
    Note: If a patient cannot furnish authorization information at the time of scheduling, you can bypass this step until check-in time. The authorization is saved on the Authorization Worklist.
• Notes — Enter any notes about the authorization.
  These notes appear on the Insurance Authorization page.
• Referring provider — Click Choose/view to display the Referring Provider Lookup tool. In the tool, you can search for the referring provider by number, name, specialty, or NPI number. Enter your search information and click Find.
• Type — Select Pre-cert or Referral.
• Insurance authorization number — Enter the insurance authorization number.
• Effective date — Enter or select the effective dates for this authorization or referral.
• Authorized visits/units — Select Visits or Units from the menu, and then enter the number of approved units or visits in both fields. athenaOne automatically decrements the number of authorized visits or units.
• Referred-to provider — Select the provider to whom the patient is being referred.
  This field automatically displays the name of the provider with whom you are scheduling the appointment.
• Specialty — Select the specialty of the provider to whom the patient is being referred.
  This field automatically displays the specialty of the provider with whom you are scheduling the appointment.
• Diagnosis code — Enter or select the diagnosis code associated with the authorization. You can type a period to access the Diagnosis Lookup tool in the ICD-9 or ICD-10 fields.
• Procedure code — Enter or select the procedure codes associated with the referral. You can type a period to access the Procedure Lookup tool.
• Additional information — Enter any additional information that you want to record about this incoming authorization.

Specify "condition related to" fields and appointment recurrence

14. If the patient's condition is related to employment, auto accident, other accident, or if another party is responsible for the patient's condition, set the appropriate option to Yes. (Your practice setup controls whether these fields appear or are required in your practice.)
    If you set Auto accident to Yes, the State in which accident occurred field appears. Enter the two-letter state abbreviation for the state where the accident occurred.
    
15. Recurrence type — Select None. (To create a recurring appointment, see the steps to create a recurring appointment.)

Medicare authorization

16. Medicare authorization — If the Advanced Beneficiary Notice checking feature is enabled for your practice, this field appears for patients with the traditional Medicare Part B plan as an insurance. This field ensures that you check the combination of CPT and diagnosis codes before you render a service to a patient and that you collect a signature on the CMS approved waiver form. You can find additional details about the ABN requirements and form at: https://www.cms.gov/BNI/02_ABN.asp.

    • Expected procedure code — Enter a CPT code or type a period (.) to open the Procedure Lookup tool.
    • Expected diagnosis code — Enter an ICD-10 diagnosis code, or type a period (.) to display the lookup tool. You can search for the ICD-10 diagnosis code using ICD-9 codes, ICD-10 codes, or SNOMED terms.
      

Schedule the appointment and note any messages

17. Click Schedule Appointment(s) (at the bottom of the page). A summary of the newly scheduled appointment appears, or one of the following messages appears:
• You may be prompted to enter an authorization number if the appointment insurance package requires it and you have not already done so. If the patient cannot furnish this information now, you can bypass entering the number here and enter it at check-in or at charge entry.
• athenaOne warns you if you click a slot that has already been booked (double-booking).
• athenaOne warns you that the selected time slot was just booked and presents a Find Another Slot button.
• athenaOne warns you if the total duration of the checked slots is less than the duration of the selected appointment type.

 

Tip: To better manage your urgent care and walk-in appointment workflow with athenaClinicals, refer to Walk-in Encounter Management Feature.

1. Display the Schedule Appointment page: On the Patient Actions Bar, click Scheduling, and then click Create Walk-in Appointment.
2. Select a current slot or click Create new slot at the top of the page.

If you need to create a new slot

3. Department — Select the department.
4. Provider — Select the provider.
5. Appointment type — Select the appointment type.
6. Date — Enter or select the date for the slot.
7. Start time — Enter the appointment's start time in the form: hh:mm AM (for example, 8:30AM or 4:00PM).
   Tip: To set the current time as the start time for the walk-in appointment, type t (or T) in the Start time field.
8. Duration — The duration defaults to the configured duration of the Appointment type you selected. For example, if you selected "SAME DAY 15 (15 min)" as the Appointment type, the Duration field displays 15. You can edit the Duration field if needed.
   
9. Notes — Enter any notes about this appointment, and select the Add appointment note to homepage schedule option to the right of the note.
10. Urgency — Select this option to mark this appointment as urgent. (This field appears if your department has the Walk-in Encounter Management feature enabled.)
11. Primary insurance — Select the primary insurance, if applicable.
12. Secondary insurance — Select the secondary insurance, if applicable.
13. Patient's condition related to — Select an option, if appropriate.
14. Click Add Appointment.

If you schedule the appointment in an existing slot

15. Select a time slot.
16. Appointment type(s) — Select the appointment type.
17. Primary insurance — Select the primary insurance, if applicable.
18. Secondary insurance — Select the secondary insurance, if applicable.
19. Notes/Reason — Enter any notes about this appointment, and select the Add appointment note to homepage schedule option to the right of the note.
20. Urgency — Select this option to mark this appointment as urgent. (This field appears if your department has the Walk-in Encounter Management feature enabled.)
21. Patient's condition related to — Select an option, if appropriate.
22. Click Schedule Appointment.

 

Note: To schedule a patient using an appointment set, the multi-resource scheduling feature must be enabled, and at least one appointment set must exist for the scheduling department.

1. Display the Multi-Resource Scheduling page: On the Patient Actions Bar, click Scheduling, and then click Schedule Appointment. On the Schedule Appointment page, click Multi-Resource.
2. Provider group — If your practice uses provider groups, select the provider group from the menu.
3. Department — Select a department.
4. Appointment set — Select an appointment set.
   The appointments that make up the selected appointment set are displayed in the Appointment fields.
   Note: You configure appointment sets on the Appointment Sets page. You cannot change the components of an appointment set on the Multi-Resource Scheduling page.
   The Department and Appointment set menus work in tandem to restrict the selection of appointment sets available for a department and, conversely, the departments available for a selected set.
   Note: You must select a department or an appointment set; you cannot leave both fields unspecified. athenaOne warns you to select either an appointment set or a department to begin the search.
5. Start search from — You can specify the first possible day and date for the appointments; the default search is from today.
6. Time of day — You can specify a range of times for the appointments; the default search is for all hours of the day.
7. Day of week — You can specify days of the week for the appointments; the default search is for any day of the week.
8. Click Search for Same-Day Availability.
   
9. Use the calendar to select a day with available appointments for this appointment set. You see one of the following:
   • Department's appointment list for the selected date.
   • Option to select Use first available appointment set or Manually schedule appointments.
     Note: If you select the Use first available appointment set option, athenaOne shows you the earliest possible time for the first appointment; this time may not be the best one for two or more appointments that you want to schedule as close together as possible. If the option presented is not optimal, select the Manually schedule appointments option to locate appointments that are closer together.

10. Select the appropriate appointment slots for the multi-resource appointments.
11. Click Schedule Appointment(s).
    The Appointment Saved page appears.
    Note: athenaOne warns you if the appointment set cannot be scheduled. Possible reasons for this warning include:
    • You forgot to schedule a component.
    • You scheduled the components out of order.
    • You did not accommodate the required time lag.
      
12. Click Save Information.
13. To print the appointment information, click Print Appointment.

Note: By default, athenaOne creates a billing slip for each appointment for the same patient on the same day. If you want athenaOne to create a billing slip only for the first of multiple appointments, contact the CSC by selecting Support > Create Case or Call in the Main Menu.

1. Display the patient's Quickview page: In the text box at the top right of the Main Menu, enter the first three letters of the patient's last name, followed by a comma, followed by the first three letters of the patient's first name. Click the search icon. On the Find a Patient page, click Quickview for the patient you need.
2. Scroll down to the Appointments heading and click cancel or reschedule next to the appointment to reschedule.
   
3. Reason for Cancellation — Select a cancellation reason.
4. Click reschedule selected appointment(s).
   Note: If you do not select a Reason for Cancellation, athenaOne prompts you to do so.
5. Schedule the appointment as you normally would.
   
6. Click Reschedule Appointment(s).
   The original appointment details appear next to the new appointment details.
   
7. Click Save Information.
   
   Note: You can also use this functionality for recurring appointments. You can reschedule one, some, or all instances of a recurring appointment.

1. Follow steps 1-11 above to locate and schedule the first appointment in the recurring series.
2. Recurrence type — Select Daily, Weekly, or Monthly to schedule similar appointments on a recurring basis. Additional fields appear. Indicate the frequency for the appointment using the options provided.
3. Recurrence end date — Indicate the end date for the recurring appointments.
4. Create individual appointments — Select this option to create individual, unrelated appointments (like any other appointment in athenaOne) based on the recurrence schedule you specified.
   Note: If you select this option, you cannot access the Recurrence Preview results, which appear in the Task Bar, or any recurrence information for the scheduled appointments. In most cases, this checkbox should be left unchecked.
5. Click Preview Recurrence to review the result of your selections. The Recurrence Preview results appear in the Task Bar.

Using the Recurrence Preview

6. Review the information in the Recurrence Preview results that appear in the Task Bar.
1. At the top, a short description of the recurrence pattern appears.
2. For each appointment, the date, time, and appointment details appear, indicating the availability of slots on the specified dates and times.
7. If all the desired slots are available and no changes are needed, click Schedule Appointment(s) at the bottom of the Task Bar.
8. To reschedule an appointment if the slot is available, click the change link, or to locate a slot for an appointment when the desired slot is not available, click find slot. When you do, the Schedule Appointment search fields appear in the Workspace, while the Recurrence Preview results remain visible in the Task Bar.

Finding alternative slots

9. Use the appointment search filters to locate an alternative time slot.
10. Check the desired appointment slot as you normally would.
11. Appointment Type(s) — Select the appointment type for the new time slot, as you normally would.
12. Click the button to Add Appointment To List. When you do, the new appointment selection is added to the list of recurring appointments in the Task Bar.
13. Repeat steps 10-13 for each recurring appointment that requires modification, until all the appointments that you want to schedule in the list have dates displayed in green.
14. Click Schedule Appointments(s) at the bottom of the Task Bar to schedule the list recurring appointments. The Recurrence Preview window closes automatically and the Appointment Saved page appears in the Workspace, listing all the appointments that were scheduled successfully. Appointments with dates in red are not scheduled.
15. You can print this page and give it to the patient as a handy reminder.
16. At this point, the appointments are scheduled. You can use the Authorization menu to add an authorization or referral number for these appointments. If you do, click Save Information to save the update.

1. On the Patient Actions Bar, click Scheduling, and then click Schedule Appointment.
2. Ensure the provider's availability before you proceed.
3. Click on the day (number) that you want to schedule in the four-month calendar view. The dates on the calendar are color-coded:
• GREEN: Day has slots available matching the criteria.
• RED: Slots matching the criteria are all filled.
• GRAY: No uncancelled, unfrozen slots matching the criteria.
• BLUE: Today's date.
4. Click the Create new slot link (the link is in the Appointment heading). The Create New Appointment Slot view appears.
5. Department — Select the department.
6. Provider — Select the provider.
7. Appointment type — Select the appointment type.
8. Date — Enter or select the date for the slot.
9. Start time — Enter the appointment start time in the form: hh:mm AM, (for example, 8:30AM or 4:00PM).
10. Duration — Enter the duration in minutes (for example, 15, 30, or 45) for the slot.
11. Authorization — This field appears only if the patient has at least one insurance policy. Select an existing authorization or referral number from the menu, if applicable. To create a new authorization or referral, select Add new. Additional fields appear.
12. Notes — Enter any notes about this slot.
13. Primary insurance — Select the primary insurance for the appointment.
14. Secondary insurance — Select the secondary insurance for the appointment.
15. If the patient's condition is related to employment, auto accident, other accident, or if another party is responsible for the patient's condition, set the appropriate option to Yes. (Your practice setup controls whether these fields appear or are required in your practice.)
    If you set Auto accident to Yes, the State in which accident occurred field appears. Enter the two-letter state abbreviation for the state where the accident occurred.
16. Click Add Appointment to create the new slot and schedule the appointment.

Note: athenaOne checks off only adjacent appointment slots when booking an appointment type with an extended duration. If you choose to book the last slot before lunch, or the last slot of the day, athenaOne displays a warning:

 

"You are attempting to book an appointment of length X minutes into a slot that's only Y minutes long. Extend slot(s) to accommodate?".

 

Click OK if you want the duration of the checked slot to extend to accommodate the appointment type. No new slots will be created or checked. Click Cancel to return to the Schedule Appointment page without booking the slot.

 

1. From the patient's Quickview or from the View Patient Appointments page, click the recurrence n/n link next to the recurring appointment. The Recurrence Preview appears in the Task Bar.
2. At the bottom of the worklist of appointments, click add appointment to list. The Schedule Appointment page appears in the Workspace.
3. Locate the appointment slot as you normally would, and select the appointment type from the Appointment Type menu at the bottom of the page.
4. Click the button to Schedule Appointment and Add to List. The Appointment Saved page appears in the Workspace, and the new appointment appears in the View Recurrence worklist in the Task Bar.

1. From the patient's Quickview or from the View Patient Appointments page, click the recurrence n/n link next to the recurring appointment. The Recurrence Preview appears in the Task Bar, listing all the appointments with times and dates.

1. From the patient's Quickview or from the View Patient Appointments page, click the recurrence n/n link next to the recurring appointment. The Recurrence Preview appears in the Task Bar, with the Reason for Cancellation menu and the Cancel All Appointments button at the bottom of the list.
2. To cancel all appointments within a recurring appointment, select the appropriate reason from the Reason for Cancellation menu.
3. Click Cancel All Appointments.
   Note: When you cancel all appointments within a recurrence, the recurrence information is no longer available.

 

The Authorization field appears at different stages of the appointment workflow, so that you can add a new authorization or referral when it becomes known to you. Best practice is to add a new incoming authorization when you schedule the patient's appointment on the Schedule Appointment page.

 

You can add a new authorization by selecting Add new from the Authorization menu on any of these pages:

• Schedule Appointment
• Check-in
• Claim Edit

When you enter an authorization or referral on these pages, it is saved and associated with the primary insurance on the appointment or claim. You can click the Audit history link to display the history of previously saved authorizations and referrals.

 

On the Authorization Worklist page, you can view and filter all incoming and outgoing referral and precertification insurance authorizations. On the Insurance Authorization page, you can track, update, and complete incoming and outgoing insurance authorizations.

 

To add a new authorization on the Schedule Appointment page, Check-in page, or Claim Edit page:

1. Authorization — Select Add new from the menu. Additional fields appear.
   Note: If a patient cannot furnish all the authorization information, the authorization is still saved on the Authorization Worklist.
2. Notes — Enter any notes about the authorization.
   These notes appear on the Insurance Authorization page.
3. Referring provider — Click Choose/view to display the Referring Provider Lookup tool. In the tool, you can search for the referring provider by number, name, specialty, or NPI number. Enter your search information and click Find. For more information, see Referring Provider Lookup.
   Note: This field does not appear on the Claim Edit page.
4. Type — Select Pre-cert or Referral.
   
5. Insurance authorization number — Enter the insurance authorization number.
6. Effective date — Enter or select the effective dates for this authorization or referral.
7. Authorized visits/units — Select Visits or Units from the menu, and then enter the number of approved units or visits in both fields. athenaOne automatically decrements the number of authorized visits or units.
8. Referred-to provider — Select the provider to whom the patient is being referred.
   This field automatically displays the name of the rendering provider (or the provider with whom you are scheduling the appointment on the Schedule Appointment page).
9. Specialty — Select the specialty of the provider to whom the patient is being referred.
   This field automatically displays the specialty of the rendering provider (or the provider with whom you are scheduling the appointment on the Schedule Appointment page).
10. Diagnosis code — Enter or select the diagnosis codes associated with the authorization. You can type a period to access the Diagnosis Lookup tool in the ICD-9 or ICD-10 fields.
    After you enter a diagnosis code, a description of the code is displayed to the right of it.
    Note: If the diagnosis code that you entered is not coded to the highest level of specificity, a warning appears next to the code.
11. Procedure code — Enter or select the procedure codes associated with the authorization. You can type a period to access the Procedure Lookup tool.
    After you enter a procedure code, a description of the code is displayed to the right of it.
    Note: The exact procedure code is required if you select Units from the Authorized visits/units menu. The procedure is validated against your fee schedule.
12. Additional information — Enter any additional information that you want to record about this incoming authorization.

1. On the Patient Actions Bar, click Scheduling, and then click Schedule Appointment.
2. Schedule an appointment as you normally would, using the Schedule Appointment page.
3. Click Print Appointment.
   
   The confirmation displays all the fields in the Appointment Info section.
   

1. Display the Schedule Appointment page: On the Patient Actions Bar, click Scheduling, and then click Schedule Appointment.

2. Click Print upcoming appointments.
   Select the upcoming appointment reminders to print. You can select up to 10 appointments.
3. Click Print. The printout includes the department address and phone number information, as well as the appointment details.

 

When you are scheduling a patient for an appointment, a warning appears if the patient is already scheduled for an appointment that overlaps with the selected slot. If you wish to continue scheduling the appointment at that time, click Continue. If you prefer to pick a different slot, click Cancel and choose another slot.

 

Note: If you are a practice that schedules simultaneous appointments on a regular basis and would prefer to disable this feature, please contact the CSC by selecting Support > Create Case or Call in the Main Menu.

 

• When a new patient calls for an appointment, complete all the demographic information on the Patient Registration page. You should also record the name of the insurance during registration to determine whether any prior authorization is required (for example, BCBS-MA requires a referral before a visit).
• When an established patient calls for an appointment, require the patient to provide current address, phone numbers, and insurance to confirm.
• When a patient with a self-pay balance calls for an appointment, identify all balances to the patient, make a request for payment, and, for balances that reach a certain level, require patient payment as a prerequisite to appointment scheduling.
• Explain your practice policy for referrals and authorizations clearly, and confirm that the patient understands it.

 

athenaOne does not allow you to schedule different appointments for the same provider within the Multi-Resource scheduling workflow.

 

You can hover over the checkbox for an available slot to display a tooltip with the time and provider's username. When you are scheduling across several providers, this tooltip helps you keep track of which time and provider you are about to schedule.

 

Press the End key on your keyboard to go to the end of a long page. When scheduling an appointment, you can save time by scrolling less.

 

You can use the Appointment Wait List page to fill patient requests for earlier appointments.

 

When you create a walk-in appointment, athenaOne assumes that you want to create an appointment at this department on this day. To set the current time as the start time for the walk-in appointment, type t (or T) in the Start time field.

 

If you click multiple appointments, an appointment is scheduled for every column checked. For example, if you click the 9:00AM and 9:15AM slots for Dr. Green, along with the 10:00AM and 10:15AM slots for Dr. Blue, two appointments are created for the patient.

 

When you schedule a patient appointment that spans multiple slots, the patient name appears only once per scheduled appointment in the Today's Appointments worklist or in the schedule.

 

You can use the Schedule Resource Types page to create resource types that appear in the Provider / resource menu. Creating resource types can be useful if you have multiple resources (for example, machines, rooms) or providers able to perform the same services. See the Schedule Resource Types page for more information.

 

At the bottom of the Charge Entry tab, there is a button labeled Mark Checked Appointments As Not Requiring Charge Entry. If charge entry is accomplished at checkout time, you should follow the parent appointment (the one scheduled for the billable provider) all the way through to the Charge Entry tab to ensure that the correct billable provider information is copied into the claim. Then you can enter all the charges on the parent appointment and mark the other appointments as not requiring charge entry.

 

If charge entry is accomplished in batch mode, you can still mark the other components of the multi-resource appointment as not requiring charge entry. Just check off the appropriate appointments and click Mark Checked Appointments As Not Requiring Charge Entry.

 

At the bottom of the Check-in page, under the Check In Other Appointments For This Patient heading, checkboxes appear for appointments scheduled for the patient on the same day and department. You can select the related multi-resource appointment slots to tie the slots together throughout the athenaOne workflow up to the Charge Entry page.

 

The checkboxes on the Charge Entry tab reflect any selections you made on the Check-in page. On the Charge Entry tab, you need to select a reason for not requiring charge entry for any selected appointments.

 

On the Appointment Types page, you can set colors for appointment types to make the scheduling grid easier to read at a glance.

 

 

You can add a note to an appointment as follows:

• When you schedule the appointment — On the Schedule Appointment page, enter a text note in the Notes/Reason field. The note appears on appointment schedules, on the Quickview page, and when you edit the appointment.
• After you schedule an appointment — On the Quickview page, under the Appointments heading, click the Add note link for the appointment.
• At check-in time — On the Check-in page, add any notes for this appointment in the Notes/Reason field.

 

If your athenaEnterprise organization uses provider-based data permissions, you can search for and schedule appointments across provider groups.

 

Your provider group user permissions determine which provider groups you can search. When you select "any provider group," you see all provider group schedules that you are currently able to see individually.

 

You can only schedule in one provider group at a time unless you are using the multi-day appointment series tool that is a part of the multi-resource scheduling functionality. After you select an appointment slot, you cannot select another appointment slot in a different provider group.

 

Insurance information Notes

• When you schedule a patient in a provider group in which the patient is not yet registered, you can view a read-only version of the insurance information.
• When you search across provider groups and click an appointment slot in provider group that you are not currently logged in to, and the patient is registered in that provider group, athenaOne cannot display insurance or prior authorization information. You must then select the provider group from the menu when scheduling, instead of searching across all provider groups.
• When you schedule within the current provider group or in a provider group in which the patient is not yet registered, the insurance information appears.

 

Daily notes appear on the following department-specific and provider-specific appointment displays:

• At the top of the Schedule Appointment page
• At the top of the View Appointments page

 

All open matching slots are highlighted in bright green.

 

All booked slots are highlighted in brown.

 

All open slots that do not match the appointment criteria are highlighted in gray-green.

 

Column headers

The column headers display the provider username and department.

 

If your practice assigns point values to appointment types, the provider utilization rate also appears here:

• P: shows the provider's total point value for all appointments.
• U: shows the provider's utilization percentage, which is calculated as total booked points divided by total available points.

The columns are ordered by each provider's utilization rate, with the lowest utilization rate providers on the left. For more information about appointment type point values and utilization, refer to Appointment Types.

 

Slot Height

There are several factors that can affect the slot height, including appointment note, the length of the patient's name, and medical record numbers. For this reason, the slot heights are not exact representations of time duration but are intended to approximate duration and more clearly display overlapping appointments.

 

Time Increments

Times are listed down the side of the page based on the start times displayed in the view you selected.

 

Slot-Checking

There are several different ways to search for and book an appointment slot.

1. If you search for a specific appointment type first, athenaOne automatically checks off the correct number of slots so that the duration of the appointment type you've searched for corresponds to the number of slots checked off.
2. If you search for -any appointment- and then select the appointment type from the menu at the bottom of the page before checking off any slots, athenaOne continues to check off adjacent slots until the duration of the appointment type you've selected corresponds to the number of slots checked off.
3. If you search for a specific or generic appointment type and check off slots on the page, and then, after the slots are checked off, select or change the appointment type at the bottom of the page, athenaOne does not automatically check additional slots. athenaOne displays a warning message if the slots checked and the appointment type duration do not match. You can then either click Continue working on this page to select additional slots, or you can click Book This Appointment, which forces the appointment selected into the slot checked. 

When this occurs, the size of the original appointment slot is preserved, and the appointment is forced into the existing slot. If the duration of the appointment type booked does not match the duration of the appointment slot checked, both durations appear next to the appointment type.

 

The duration listed in green is always the appointment duration. The duration listed in red is the original appointment duration (which was overridden via the Book This Appointment button).

 

This is true if you are booking a single slot or a multi-slot appointment. For example, if you check off two 15-minute slots and choose a 45-minute appointment type, the second slot indicates the discrepancy.

 

This is also true when you are booking a longer appointment type into a shorter slot type or a shorter appointment type into a longer slot type.

 

If you intend to book an extended appointment, make sure that you check off — or verify that athenaOne has automatically checked off — the appropriate number of slots.

 

 

If your practice has the Advanced Beneficiary Notice feature enabled, you can enter procedures and diagnosis codes to check appointment scenarios to determine whether Medicare Part B covers the service or procedure. If Medicare Part B does not cover the service, athenaOne indicates that an Advanced Beneficiary Notice (ABN) is necessary. You can print the most current version of the CMS ABN form, including the procedure code and the reason that we do not expect the service to be paid. After you review with the patient the reason the service is not expected to be covered, you obtain the patient's signature on the form.

 

This functionality ensures that you check the combination of CPT and diagnosis codes before you render a service to a patient and that you collect a signature on the CMS approved waiver form. Medicare authorization appears on the scheduling and check-in pages only when the patient has the traditional Medicare Part B plan.