A locum refers to a physician who temporarily performs services for another physician during an absence. There are two ways that you may enter a locum into Genie for appointments and billing purposes. This article will explain both methods, allowing you to choose which is more suitable for your practice.
If the locum provider is expected to remain at your practice for more than a few weeks, it may be suitable to create a new Genie username for this provider. This means that the provider will have appointments and billing listed under their own name, and can easily be viewed in financial reporting. As this provider will be using their own Genie username, the provider may be required to register their provider number for use at your practice. It is recommended that any locum arrangements are discussed with Medicare prior to commencing billing to ensure your clinic is compliant with any Medicare requirements.
To create the new username, the Genie Administrator will need to navigate to File > Add or Change User > Add User, then proceed through the prompts to create a new username. Once the new user has been added to the login window you will need to navigate to File > All User Preferences and double click on the new username. The preferences will then need to be configured with the locum’s details. When configuring the User Preferences, the Payee Provider Number listed should be that of the absent provider that the locum is filling in for. This provider number will be sent to Medicare with any claims, and will determine the bank account Medicare deposits their payments into.
Once the provider has started practicing at your clinic, and their preferences have been correctly configured, you will be able to invoice as you would for any standard provider at your practice. For more information on adding and configuring new users, please see the Adding a New User article.
Locum - as an Address Book entry
If the locum is only expected to provide services at your practice on a few occasions you may not wish to create an entire new user profile. Instead, you may book appointments as if these were for the absent provider, and make a note at the time of invoicing that these services were provided by a locum.
In order to invoice using a locum provider, they will need to have a record in your Genie Address Book. This can be checked by navigating to Open > Address Book and searching for the intended locum when prompted. If there is a record for this provider, please double click to ensure all details are correct and up to date, and that the option for Acts as Locum has been ticked, as in the image below.
If there is no Address Book record, you should create one by selecting the blue plus 
icon in the top left of the Address Book window. In the new Address Book record that opens, complete all relevant information (ensuring you include the provider number) and ensure the option for Acts as Locum has been ticked, as in the image below. Select Save when you are finished creating the record.
When creating a standard invoice you will need to specify that a locum performed these services when adding the item numbers.
To specify a locum, select the Add Item to Invoice button, and add the item as normal. Before selecting Save, you can select the doctor 
icon located at the end of the Notes field, in the bottom left of your invoice window. When prompted, search for the Address Book record of the locum who provided this service, select the correct record if there are several results, then select OK. The note field will now show Locum: Firstname Surname ProviderNumber, and you can complete the invoice as normal. Please note that the locum should be specified on all item numbers added to the invoice.
When creating an ECLIPSE invoice you will need to specify that a locum performed these services from the same window you would add item numbers to.
To specify a locum when creating an ECLIPSE claim complete the first window as normal, ensuring the absent provider has been specified, then select Next. In the second window, before adding any items, you can specify the Servicing Provider using the doctor icon in the top left. When clicking on this icon, you will have the options to choose Assistant, Locum, or Other. Select Locum and you will then be presented with a list displaying all Address Book records that have been marked as Acts as Locum. You will need to select your locum from this list.
Once the locum has been specified, you may proceed to add item numbers to the invoice and complete as normal. You will note that when adding item numbers to the invoice, the Service Text will now show as Locum: Firstname Surname – ProviderNumber.
As these services have been provided using the name of the absent provider, all banking and financial reporting will also be under this provider's name. Given this, the best way for reporting would be to use the dates you know the locum was providing services under the absent provider's name, and manually substituting the provider where required. Alternatively, it is possible to create a custom report for all sales that have service text containing the locum’s name. If you require instructions on performing this search please contact Genie Support.