Physicians

The physician list holds the doctors and other practitioners who refer patients to your clinic, order therapy or sign plans of care, so you enter each physician once. Open Setup > Clinical libraries > Physicians to see the list with each physician's NPI, practice, roles, office phone and fax, how many patients link to them and whether they are active.

Anyone with access to Setup can see the list. Only people whose role can manage physicians (owners, clinic admins, front desk and billers by default) can add, change or delete them.

Find a physician#

Type in the search box to match a last name, first name, NPI or practice name. Use the Status filter to show only active or only inactive physicians.

Add a physician#

1. Click New Physician. The form opens in a dialog.
2. Enter the physician's 10-digit NPI and click Look up NPI. NeatPractice checks the number and fills in the name, credentials, taxonomy, practice address, phone and fax from the public NPI registry. Review what it filled in; you can change any of it.
3. Choose the physician's Roles: Referring, Ordering, Certifying, or any combination. Pick at least one.
4. Add the office email and fax, and choose the Preferred signature channel (see below).
5. Click Create Physician.

If you do not have the NPI, click Search NPI registry, enter the last name (and the first name if you know it), choose the state the physician practices in and click Search. Click Use next to the right person to fill in the form.

If the NPI already belongs to a physician on your list, NeatPractice shows a link to that physician instead of letting you add a duplicate. Two active physicians cannot share an NPI.

To change a physician later, click the name or choose Edit from the menu on its row. The physician opens in a dialog over the list; make your changes and click Save Changes.

Roles#

• Referring: the physician who sends patients to you; claims name them as the referring provider.
• Ordering: the physician who orders the therapy, which some Medicaid plans ask for on claims.
• Certifying: the physician who signs plans of care.

Linked patients#

Open a physician and click the Patients tab to see every episode of care that names them, with the role they hold there (referring, ordering or certifying) and the episode's status. You see only the patients whose charts you can open.

• Link Patients: pick one or more patients and a Role. The physician takes that role on each patient's open episodes, replacing whoever held it. Inactive physicians cannot be linked.
• Unlink: select open episodes in the list and click Unlink. The physician comes off them in every role.

Discharged episodes keep the physicians they were treated under, so they cannot be selected. Linking and unlinking need permission to edit patient charts.

Signatures#

Record how this physician's office prefers to sign plans of care:

• E-sign link: an email to the office with a secure link to review and sign. Add the office Email.
• E-fax: a fax to the office. Add the office Fax.

Leave it as Not set until you know how the office works.

Import, export and print#

Click Export CSV to download every physician with their NPI, roles, practice, address, phone, fax, email, signature channel and status. Click Import CSV to add physicians from a file in the same format; a physician whose NPI is already on your list (or, without an NPI, whose name is) is skipped. Click Print for a PDF of the list. See Import, export and print.

Delete or deactivate a physician#

Turn off Active for a physician you no longer work with; inactive physicians stay on past records but leave pickers. You can delete a physician only while no patient links to them. When patients do, NeatPractice tells you how many and you deactivate the physician instead.