Quick Start: My First Claim

From a new client to a printed CMS-1500 claim and its payment

WhoA solo practitioner or a small office doing its own billing
WhereAdmin, Clerk, Clinician and Finance screens
You needA blank red CMS-1500 form in your printer

1. Once: your practice

  1. Admin › Locations: your practice name, Tax ID and address, as they should print on the claim.
  2. Admin › Insurance Carriers: check the carrier is there (with its mailing address — it prints on top of the claim); add it if not.
  3. On the Location, Pin Numbers: the carrier, the payee name as it should print (e.g. Antonio Gino, PhD) and the number the carrier gave you.

2. The client (Clerk screen)

  1. New client → Insurance (carrier, Primary, the member ID) → Episode of Care (first service date, marital status, employment) → Authorization (number, carrier, dates). PsyTrace opens each form after the one before.
  2. No authorization needed by the carrier? Use its short name as the number (e.g. BCBS).

3. Diagnosis and encounter (Clinician screen)

  1. Diagnoses: the Episode's diagnosis.
  2. New Encounter: date, procedure (CPT), units, authorization, location. It is filed as Not Billed.

4. The claim (Finance screen)

  1. Click the Episode, then the Invoices list › New › CMS_1500 › Primary Insurance.
  2. The encounters not yet billed are listed in claim groups. Click Select on the group: up to 6 encounters are ticked, oldest first.
  3. Check Dx 1-4 and the claim boxes, then Save and Print. Print with Margins: None, Scale 100%.
New CMS-1500 invoice: a claim group with its Select button, Dx 1-4, claim boxes, totals
New CMS-1500: Select ticks the group's encounters; check Dx 1-4, then Save and Print.

5. The payment

  1. When the carrier pays: click the claim in the Invoices list › Payments.
  2. Choose the line, the date, the amount, the check number; Paid or Partial; leave the invoice Open or Close it. Save Payment. See Payments.

Done! One whole cycle, from seeing the client to the claim and its payment, with no billing clerk needed.

Copyright © 1999-2026, Antonio Gino, PhD