Therabill has a tool that will allow you to upload a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file of your client information and have it imported into Therabill. This article will start with instructions for preparing the Comma Separated Values file and then how to use Therabill's CSV client upload tool to import the clients into your Therabill patient database.
Importing a CSV file of client information does take some technical know-how. This article does assume basic knowledge of Excel and how to create a CSV file from Excel. A simple Google search for creating a CSV file from Excel will turn up many results to help you.
An example CSV File
You can download an example CSV file for client import here: https://app.therabill.com/documents/Client_import_CSV_example.csv
The Comma Separated Values File
You are probably going to start by using spreadsheet software such as Excel or Numbers. If you are exporting from other software, we recommend exporting to CSV and then opening the CSV file using spreadsheet software such as Excel or Numbers. This will make it easier for you to label the columns as described below.
Format of the CSV file
For Therabill to import your patient information from a CSV file, Therabill needs to know what column to look in (within the CSV file) for information about the client. In other words, Therabill needs to know which column in the CSV file refers to the client's first name, last name, etc. This is done by properly labeling the columns of the CSV file following our standard column labels (see list below). This is probably best done by opening up the CSV file in spreadsheet software such as Excel or Numbers (on the Mac). The first row of the CSV file must be the column labels. Each row after the column label row will be a client/patient.
Standard Column Titles
Below is a list of column labels and what they refer to. These should be the values for each column in the first row of the spreadsheet. In the list below, the label is shown in bold and is followed by a description of what the label is. Labels should be in all upper case, exactly as they are shown below.
Patient Information
- ACTIVE This field should either be Y or N. If the value is set to Y for a patient, then the patient will be an active client in your client list. If the value is set to N, then the client will be inactive in your client list.
- FIRST_NAME The patient's first name
- LAST_NAME The patient's last name
- MIDDLE_INITIAL The patient's middle initial. If more than a single letter is entered, Therabill will use only the first letter.
- SSN The patient's social security number
- IDENTIFIER An internal identifier for the patient. This is required if two patients have the same first and last name. If when performing the import, you choose to import duplicates, and identifier will automatically be created for two patients with the same first and last name.
- LEGACY_ID This is an external ID. It is useful for storing the patient ID from other software.
- ADDRESS The patient's street address or PO Box (do not enter the city, state, or zip code here).
- CITY The patient's city
- STATE The patient's state. This must be the 2 letter state abbreviation.
- ZIP The patient's zip code. If using spreadsheet software, make sure you do not format this column as a number. If the zip code starts with 0 (zero) and the zip column is formatted as a number, then the first zero will not be displayed.
- PHONE The patient's phone number
- EMAIL The patient's email address
- GENDER The patient's gender. Valid values are M for males and F for females.
- BIRTHDATE The patient's birthdate. All dates should be entered in the format MM/DD/YYYY. If using spreadsheet software, make sure you format the cell to display the date in this format.
- COPAY The patient's co-pay amount. This must be monetary. Do not enter the $.
- ICD1 The patient's primary diagnosis code
- ICD2 The patient's second diagnosis code
- ICD3 The patient's third diagnosis code
- ICD4 The patient's fourth diagnosis code
- ACCEPT_ASSIGNMENT Valid values are Y and N.
- MED_RESUB_CODE Enter a value that will go into Box 22 of the CMS-1500 on this patient's claim forms.
- BOX19 Enter a value that will go into Box 19 of the CMS-1500 on this patient's claim forms.
Responsible Party
The Responsible Party is the name and address that goes out as the Bill To on the client statements.
- BILLTO_FIRST_NAME First name of the responsible party
- BILLTO_LAST_NAME Last name of the responsible party
- BILLTO_ADDRESS The street address (or PO Box) of the responsible party (do not enter city, state, and Zip here)
- BILLTO_CITY The city for the responsible party
- BILLTO_STATE The state for the responsible party. This must be the 2 letter state abbreviation.
- BILLTO_ZIP The Zip code of the responsible party. If using spreadsheet software, make sure you do not format this column as a number. If the Zip code starts with 0 (zero) and the Zip column is formatted as a number, then the first zero will not be displayed.
Referring Physician
The referring physician is the doctor who referred this patient to your care.
- REFERRING_FIRST_NAME The first name of the referring physician.
- REFERRING_LAST_NAME The last name of the referring physician.
- REFERRING_NPI The NPI of the referring physician.
Defaults
- DEFAULT_CHARGE This is the default charge amount that you want Therabill to fill in on the add session form when you choose this patient.
- DEFAULT_UNITS This is the default number of units that you want to be entered when you choose this patient on the add session form in Therabill.
- DEFAULT_PLACECODE This is the default place code that you want to be selected when you choose this client on the add session form.
- DEFAULT_SERVICECODE This is the default service code that you want to be entered on the add session form when you choose this client. If billing insurance, this should be a valid CPT code.
- DEFAULT_SESSIONCLASS This is the default session class that you want to be entered on the add session form when you choose this client.
- DEFAULT_MINUTES This is the default session duration that you want Therabill to make available to you on the add session form when you choose this client.
Default (database ID's)
- DEFAULT_AGENCYID This is a numeric value and must match an active agency ID from your Therabill account.
- DEFAULT_PROVIDERID This is a numeric value and must match an active provider ID from your Therabill account.
- DEFAULT_FACILITYID This is a numeric value and must match an active facility ID from your Therabill account.
Accident Indicators
- ACCIDENT_EMPLOYMENT This field should either be Y or N.
- ACCIDENT_AUTO This field should either be Y or N. If Y is used, then you need to enter the state below and you should also enter an accident date under Dates below.
- ACCIDENT_AUTO_STATE The two-letter state abbreviation.
- ACCIDENT_OTHER This field should either be Y or N.
Dates
- DATE_ACCIDENT The date of the accident. All dates should be entered in the format MM/DD/YYYY. If using spreadsheet software, make sure you format the cell to display the date in this format.
- DATE_FIRST_SYMPTOMS The date of first symptoms (Box 14 of the CMS-1500). All dates should be entered in the format MM/DD/YYYY. If using spreadsheet software, make sure you format the cell to display the date in this format.
- DATE_SAME_ILLNESS If the patient has had the same or similar illness, enter the date here (Box 15 of the CMS-1500). All dates should be entered in the format MM/DD/YYYY. If using spreadsheet software, make sure you format the cell to display the date in this format.
- DATE_FIRST_TREATMENT The date of the first treatment. All dates should be entered in the format MM/DD/YYYY. If using spreadsheet software, make sure you format the cell to display the date in this format.
- DATE_UNABLE_TO_WORK_BEGIN The beginning date for Box 16 of the CMS-1500. All dates should be entered in the format MM/DD/YYYY. If using spreadsheet software, make sure you format the cell to display the date in this format.
- DATE_UNABLE_TO_WORK_END The end date for Box 16 of the CMS-1500. All dates should be entered in the format MM/DD/YYYY. If using spreadsheet software, make sure you format the cell to display the date in this format.
- DATE_HOSPITALIZED_BEGIN The beginning date for Box 18 of the CMS-1500. All dates should be entered in the format MM/DD/YYYY. If using spreadsheet software, make sure you format the cell to display the date in this format.
- DATE_HOSPITALIZED_END The end date for Box 18 of the CMS-1500. All dates should be entered in the format MM/DD/YYYY. If using spreadsheet software, make sure you format the cell to display the date in this format.
Insurance Information
Only insurance information for primary and secondary insurance can be uploaded in the import at this time. If the patient has additional payers, then the insurance cards will need to be added manually after the import. In addition, it is not possible to auto-detect insurance company payer ID's from the import. If you supply insurance information, an insurance card will be created for the client, however, the insurance company associated with the card will need to be filled in manually for each client on the edit insurance card form in Therabill (after you run the import).
- INSCO_NAME: This will be entered as the title of the insurance card. Therabill import cannot automatically match this to an electronic payer ID for the insurance company.
- INSCO_ADDRESS
- INSCO_ADDRESS2
- INSCO_CITY
- INSCO_STATE
- INSCO_ZIP
The INS fields below are the insured and the insured's policy/plan information.
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INS_PRIMARYID This is what will go into Box 1A as the insured' primary ID when submitting a claim to this payer. REQUIRED: Therabill cannot create an insurance card without this field.
- INS_GROUPNUM This is the group number that would go into Box 11 of the CMS-1500 on claims submitted to this payer.
- INS_EFFECTIVE_STARTDATE This should be in format MM/DD/YY. This is the date that this insurance card began. You do not need to supply this information.
- INS_EFFECTIVE_ENDDATE This should be in format MM/DD/YY. This is the date that this insurance card ends. You do not need to supply this information.
- INS_RELATION The relation of the insured to the patient. Valid values are SPOUSE, PARENT, SELF, and OTHER. Optionally, you can leave the field blank.
- INS_FIRST_NAME The first name of the insured.
- INS_LAST_NAME The last name of the insured.
- INS_ADDRESS The insured's address.
- INS_CITY The insured's city of residence.
- INS_STATE The insured's state of residence.
- INS_ZIP The ZIP code of the insured.
-
INS_GENDER This is the gender of the insured. Value values are M and F.
- INS_BIRTHDATE This is the birthdate of the insured. All dates should be entered in the format MM/DD/YYYY. If using spreadsheet software, make sure you format the cell to display the date in this format.
Secondary Insurance Information
Importing secondary insurance is similar to entering primary insurance (see above). Simply add "SEC_" before the field title. For example, SEC_INSCO_NAME, or SEC_INS_PRIMARYID
Uploading and Importing the CSV file of Patient Information
Once you have created your CSV file, you can now upload it and import it by following the directions laid out below.
First, navigate to your client list by clicking Clients in the top green navigation bar and then clicking Client List in the sub-navigation bar. Second, click the Tools button located on the right-hand side of the client list, and then in the menu that appears, choose CSV Upload Client List to open up the import form. You will now see the form shown in the image to the right. At this point, you should already have the CSV file created and it should be located on your computer. You will use this form to upload that CSV file into Therabill. Depending on your computer and web browser, the upload form may look slightly different. The image above shows how it looks in Safari on a Mac computer. Click the Choose File button and your computer will open up a file explorer. From the file explorer, find the CSV file and choose it. Once you choose it, Therabill will upload it and automatically begin processing it.
Error Checking
Therabill does some basic error checking when it uploads the file. It is first going to check the column labels to make sure it knows what each column label means. If you have a column label that is not included in the list of column labels above, then Therabill will alert you by listing the unknown column labels. If this happens, you will need to go back to your CSV file and fix the column labels. If Therabill recognizes all column labels, then Therabill will perform some minor error checking on the values that you have entered. This is not a robust error checking. It is mostly up to you to make sure you have valid data entered within the CSV file. If it finds any errors, then Therabill will list the clients that it found. Clients that have errors will be highlighted in red (as shown in the image to the right). Clients with errors will be highlighted with red font. Click on the error to see a description of the errors (shown in the white box underneath the client name) that Therabill found. In the description, Therabill will indicate the column label along with a short description of the error. You will need to go back to the CSV file to fix these errors and then re-upload the file using the Select CSV File form at the top.
Client List
If no errors were detected, then you will see a list of the client names detected within the file.
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Import Duplicates - If you put a check next to import duplicates then Therabill will import clients with the same first name, last name, and Date of Birth as another client already in your database.
- Do Not Import Duplicates - If you do not check the checkbox labeled Import Duplicates, then when Therabill detects a client with the same first name, last name, and date of birth as another client within your database, Therabill will not enter the duplicate client. If your CSV file has duplicate clients, the first client in the list will be added and subsequent duplicates will be skipped.
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