Canadian Lab Fees

[jourdo]

Our office is having some frustration with regards to the lab fees on different procedures. Right now, it looks like you can only have one lab fee and assign it a dollar value of X. However, different procedures have different lab fees and it can become time consuming to change the lab fee on each procedure from X to Y. Also, "attaching" the lab fee can be a big job especially if you are talking multiple crowns or partials, etc. Are there some options in the pipeline (or stuff already there that I just don't know about) that would make dealing with the Canadian lab fees a little easier?

I'm not a programmer, but wonder if some of this is possible.

Could you have a space for a lab fee attached to all procedures? Then assign it to the 99111 code when necessary. I'm not sure I am totally making sense with that, but it is the best way I could describe it. This was every code will have a lab fee option, even though most will be 0. Then you could get away with different amounts for the lab fee.

Is there a way to automatically attach lab fees to the procedures that need it?

[jordansparks]

Yes, I understand. We'll get started on it.

[jourdo]

Bump to see how this option is going.

Any progress?

Could we in theory create extra codes like 99111.1, 99111.2, etc for the different lab charges? I believe someone said doing this with procedure codes works and the .1, .2 does not actually show up on the claim form.

Just trying to figure out a system that is easy for the staff instead of looking up the lab costs.

Thanks!

[jordansparks]

I thought we did just enhance lab fees within the last few months. The enhancement was to have the lab fee inside the procedure edit window for 99111. But I don't see on the version pages where it was added. We will research it and then update this page:
http://www.opendental.com/manual/canadi ... ments.html

[grahamde]

We have, within the last few minutes, finished updating our manual with the most recent information regarding Canadian lab fees. The newest features require that you are at the most recent version of 12.4. If you are not already using a recent version of 12.4 or later, please update before continuing. Canadian users have always been able to attach one or two lab fees to a procedure using the Attach Lab Fee option in the progress notes of the Chart. With the latest updates, an easier way to enter lab fees is to use the Procedure Edit window, Canada tab. When lab fees are entered using the Procedure Edit window, each lab fee is created using lab code 99111, and the code can be changed manually in the Chart if needed. We plan to automate lab fees a bit more in the future, which is now documented at http://www.opendental.com/manual/canadi ... ments.html. For more detailed information regarding lab fee entry, see the lab fees section of http://www.opendental.com/manual/canada.html.

[grahamde]

One more note. Open Dental already truncates lab codes to 5 characters, so if a lab code "99111.7" is used, the code "99111" will be sent to insurance.

[jourdo]

Awesome info guys! I didn't realize it had been addressed. I'll check it out asap.