How to issue bills using older key values

From time to time the government informs the doctors that the rates for CNS-reimbursable medical services change at a given date. This change is expressed by the so called key values (= “lettre-clé”), a factor with wich every base-rate (= “coefficiant”) is multiplied in order to obtain the actual rate, in Euro.

Example
On July 1st 2010 the key value has been increased from 3.5959 to 3.6857, which resulted in a rate increase for the C1 consultation from

• 35,10 EUR = 9.57 (C1 coefficient) x 3.5959 rounded to 1 decimal to
• 35,90 EUR = 9.57 (C1 coefficient) x 3.6857 rounded to 1 decimal.

On January 1st 2011 a new key value of 3.6790 has been set, which, considering rounding, still results in a new rate of 35.90 EUR for C1.

Here is a list of the most recent key value changes together with their dates of applicability

• 2011-01-01 - 3.6790
• 2010-07-01 - 3.6857
• 2009-03-01 - 3.5959

It is important to note that the key value change only applies to bills issued with a date at or after the date of change (July 1st 2010 and January 1st 2011 in the above examples). Even when the change date is reached you can still issue bills with older dates, and they will be calculated according to the old key value. To do so GECAMed maintains two key values: the value before and after the change date.

It may happen that you need to issue a bill with a date that lies in a period before the old key value. In the above example that would be before July 1st 2010, assuming that we are now in 2011. As GECAMed does only save key values for two periods any bill issued with a date before 2011-01-01 will use the older key value (3.6857), even if its issue date is before 2010-07-01 (key value 3.5959).

In order to issue those bills with the correct key value you have to temporarily reconfigure (i.e. set back) the key value for the appropriate period:

1. Log in as user with administration rights.
2. Open the “Admin” module.
3. Open the tab “Update Nomenclature”.
4. Select the key value for the nomenclature that you use in your bills .
5. Double click it to open the change dialog.
6. Write down the “Current Value” and the “New Value”.
7. Into the “New Value” and the “Current Value” fields enter the key value that should be used to create the old bills.
8. Confirm the changes by pressing the “Save” button.
9. Now create all bills that lie within the validity period of the above entered key value, making sure that you manually set the propper date for each bill.
10. After you have issued all old bills, undo your changes in the “Update Nomenclature” tab (using the values you wrote down in step 6.) and save.
11. After the old values are restored you can go on issuing bills as usual.

The above described procedure for key value manipulation works equally well for base rates (“coefficients”), as base rates also dispose of two values and a change date.