Data import

Data import is where you bring your records over when your clinic switches to NeatPractice. Open Setup > Clinic > Data Import to import a file and to see every batch imported so far.

Only people whose role can manage the practice settings (owners and clinic admins by default) can open this page. Each kind of file also needs the permission that adds those records by hand: managing payers, managing physicians, creating patient charts (with access to all patients), managing coverages, managing authorizations, managing appointments, adding manual charges, or uploading patient documents.

What you can import#

Import in this order, so each file can find what it refers to:

1. Payers: the insurance companies and other payers you bill.
2. Physicians: referring, ordering and certifying physicians.
3. Patients: one minimal chart per row, with a guardian for a minor.
4. Coverages: each patient's insurance, matched to a chart and to a payer you already imported.
5. Authorizations: the payer approvals you were tracking, added to the patient's coverage.
6. Future visits: the appointments already booked from today on.
7. Opening balances: what each patient owed in your previous system.
8. Documents: the files from each chart, uploaded together (see Documents).

Every file is checked against the same rules as the screen that adds those records by hand.

Import a file#

1. Click Import File. The dialog opens.
2. Choose What the file holds and where it was Exported from: ClinicSource, SimplePractice or Other system (CSV).
3. Choose the CSV file. NeatPractice reads it and shows how many rows it would add.
4. Check the Column matching table. Each field shows the column of your file it was matched to. Choose another column to change a match, or Not imported to leave the field out. A field with no match shows Not in the file.
5. Fix any rows listed under the problems and choose the file again. Nothing is imported while any row has a problem.
6. Click Import.

Payers and physicians you already have are skipped, not changed: a payer with the same name, or a physician with the same NPI.

Large files#

A file can hold up to 10 MB. Patient files of up to 500 rows, and other files of up to 2,000 rows, import while you wait. A larger file (up to 20,000 rows) imports in the background: the dialog checks its first rows, and after you click Import the batch shows as Queued in the history until it is done. If any row has a problem, nothing is imported and the batch shows as Failed: open its row menu and click View problems to see the rows to fix, then import the file again.

Patients#

The patient's number in your previous system is kept as the chart's external id, which the later files use to find the chart. Without that number, a row finds the chart by last name, first name and date of birth.

Choose a Default location for the new charts. Rows that look like a patient you already have, or like an earlier row of the same file, are left out. To import them anyway, turn on Import possible duplicates too and say why they are new patients; the reason is kept on each chart.

You can import the same patient file again after fixing some of its rows: a row whose external id is already on a chart that an earlier batch added is skipped and counted as skipped, not listed as a problem.

Coverages#

Each row needs the patient, the payer (by its name in Setup > Payers) and the date the coverage starts. Priority is primary unless the row says secondary or tertiary. Import the payers first: a row naming a payer that is not set up is listed as a problem.

Authorizations#

Each row needs the patient, the start and end dates, and for an approved authorization its number and the visits or units approved. The row goes on the patient's coverage of the named payer that is in force on the start date, or on the primary insurance coverage when the row names no payer. Name the discipline unless your clinic has only one. Status is approved unless the row says requested, pending or denied. Billing codes, separated by semicolons, limit the authorization to those codes.

Future visits#

Each row books one appointment: the patient, the date, the start time, the appointment type (by its name in Setup > Appointment Types) and the provider (by name, such as Jordan Example, or by NPI). The length comes from the end time, the duration in minutes, or the appointment type. Times are read in the location's time zone. A row without a location books at the Default location you choose, else at the patient's location.

Only appointments after now import; leave past visits in your previous system. Every row goes through the same scheduling checks as the appointment dialog. A row with a warning you may override, such as a double booking, imports only when you turn on Book past schedule warnings and say why.

Opening balances#

Each row needs the patient and the amount owed. NeatPractice adds one opening balance charge to the chart, which counts in the patient's balance, statements and payments like any other charge. Name the provider unless the patient's care team has just one, and the date of the balance unless it is today. A balance a responsible party owes goes on the chart of the patient whose account it is.

A zero balance is skipped. A credit balance is listed as a problem: record it as a patient payment instead.

Documents#

1. Name each file after the patient's external id, then an underscore and anything you like, such as P-100_intake.pdf. Import the patients first.
2. Click Upload Documents and choose where the files were exported from and the category they go under.
3. Choose the files. NeatPractice checks that every file matches a chart before anything is uploaded; a file named after no chart is listed, and nothing uploads until you rename it.
4. Click Upload. The files go to their charts one by one and are checked for malware like any chart upload. A file that fails to upload is counted; upload it again on its chart.

Batch history and undo#

Every imported file is one batch in the list, with when it was imported, what it holds, the file name, how many records it added and skipped, and who imported it.

To take a batch back, open its row menu and click Undo batch. Every record the file added is taken back, all or nothing: payers, physicians, patients, coverages, authorizations and documents are deleted, appointments are voided, and opening balance charges are voided. A batch whose records are already in use cannot be undone, for example:

• payers on a coverage, a claim or a fee schedule
• physicians linked to a patient
• patients with an appointment, a visit, a document, a charge or a coverage
• coverages with an authorization or billing history
• authorizations with appointments or visits counted against them
• appointments the patient arrived for or missed
• opening balances with a payment or an adjustment
• documents with a newer version or filed as an approval letter

Undo the later batches first (coverages before patients, patients before payers), or correct those records one by one. An undone batch stays in the list marked Undone.