Getting Started

Aesto Health’s Patient Accounting Archive (PAA) offers a user-friendly solution to effectively archive the detailed patient financial records from a customer’s legacy EHR solution. With a multi-level approach to the features available, every customer can get what they need for a scalable way to address a variety of legacy patient accounting data needs.

Basic Patient Accounting Archive Program Level

Detailed Patient Accounting Archive

The Patient Accounting archive provides simplified access to patients’ detailed financial history. Within a patient’s chart view, users can easily navigate through a comprehensive overview of outstanding balances, payment history, charge details, and billing notes at the visit level.

Standard Patient Accounting Archive Program Level

All Basic features plus:

• Batch Posting

With batch posting, customers can process payment and adjustment transactions on multiple accounts within a batch, allowing for a simple and concise effort when focusing on legacy accounts.

This feature is conducive to an environment where billers can focus more of their valuable time working down their current AR while not sacrificing revenue from older accounts.

• Custom Dunning Letter Management

Customers can create and configure custom dunning letters from the Patient Accounting Archive, allowing for a streamlined effort to communicate with customers about overdue payments, options for next steps, and directives to avoid involving collections. Customizable templates and settings allow each customer to tailor their dunning letters to align with branding, existing workflows, and communication preferences. Built-in customizable logic uses the account status and balance to automatically generate the list of accounts that should receive each dunning letter. This allows for a perfect balance of automation and client control over which patients receive these letters each statement cycle.

• EOB Posting

In addition to processing patient payments, the Patient Accounting Archive offers the Explanation of Benefits (EOB) posting tool. This tool allows billers to post balance-impacting transactions from insurance payers to their patients’ accounts, plus non-balance-impacting details such as co-pay amounts. With configurations customized per payer, several transactions may be applied to multiple accounts simultaneously, providing a streamlined posting and notation experience all on one page.

• Guarantor Statement Generation

Within the Patient Accounting Archive solution, users can generate guarantor statements regularly for as long as there are still balances to be collected upon. Guarantor statements provide a comprehensive summary of outstanding balances and payment history for individual responsible parties. With multiple export options, billers can send statements to guarantors by printing PDFs or producing CSV files to provide to third-party partners.

Outside of the regularly exported guarantor statements, users may also generate patient detailed bills as needed. These are available on any account, regardless of balance or financial class, and can be exported as a PDF to present detailed charges, payment history, and visit details to a patient.

• Basic Custom Reports

Aesto Health offers a collection of commonly requested reports, including but not limited to a Patient Demographic Export, Credit Balance Report, and Aged Trial Balance. This list is subject to change based on customer feedback and updated regulatory requirements.

*Additional reports not available in the included list may be subject to additional fees.

Frequently Asked Questions 

What types of organizations need the Patient Accounting Archive?

Most commonly, organizations first seek Aesto Health for clinical data migration services. After the clinical work has been completed, the financial data is often the only reason a customer maintains long-term access to their legacy EHR system, so these customers employ the Patient Accounting Archive to fully encompass their patients’ legacy data.

The Patient Accounting Archive also serves as a valuable standalone solution for customers seeking a way to decommission a legacy practice management system.

When will the financial conversion begin?

There are many factors that may play into when the Patient Accounting Archive project should commence. Depending on the size of the organization, timing to work down outstanding claims varies between 3 to 12 months after migrating to a new EHR. Additionally, organizations looking to avoid renewing expensive contracts with the legacy vendor may wish to expedite their plans to start their Patient Accounting Archive project. Ultimately, it is the decision of each customer on timing, and it is important to communicate goals clearly with the Aesto Health sales executive and project manager.

Can claims be generated from DataCapture?

Currently, the ability to generate claims is not available within the Patient Accounting Archive. It is a minimum requirement for all PAA customers to have completed the generation and submission of all claims through the legacy EHR system and/or clearinghouse before beginning the PAA project with Aesto Health. If new claims are needed after access has been lost to the legacy EHR system, customers should confer with their clearinghouse on any available options.

Once the conversion project has begun, how long will it be before I can begin posting in DataCapture?

There will be an unavoidable gap between when users stop using the legacy EHR system and when posting can begin in the Patient Accounting Archive solution. For most systems, this gap is two to three weeks, but many factors outside the control of the client or Aesto Health can contribute to longer timelines. Examples include but are not limited to: lengthy data export and delivery timelines from legacy vendors, inadequate data available for balancing, and delays in completing quality assurance checks and sign-off.

As a reminder, Aesto Health must receive sign-off from the customer on the data loaded to the Patient Accounting Archive before posting within the archive can begin.

How long do I need to have access to my legacy EHR system?

Customers must have access to both the legacy EHR system and the database throughout the conversion process. If a backup from the legacy EHR vendor is expected, access to the legacy EHR system’s user interface (UI) must be maintained throughout the conversion process. It is recommended that customers maintain the ability to get a new backup from the legacy EHR system, if needed, before the end of the financial conversion process.