How To Use EasyAssist
Below is a quick guide to using EasyAssist, and also a screenshot of the main EasyAssist screen.
- Select the State or Territory of Australia where the operation was performed.
- Select the fees schedule that applies to the patient:
- Select Medical Benefits Schedule for the MBS surgical assistant rates (100% and the 75% rebate amount).
- Select the name of a health fund for the Gap Cover fee for that health fund.
- Select Department of Veterans' Affairs for the DVA scheduled fee.
- Select Workers' Compensation for the assistant's fee for the major workers' compensation organisation in your selected State or Territory.
- Select the month and year when the operation took place.
- Enter the MBS Item Number for the procedure in the pink box and press Enter. If there is more than one Item Number for an operation, enter them below the first number, pressing Enter after each one.
- The surgical assistant's item number and fee will be displayed in the bottom half of the screen.
Additional Features
- 'Clear Item Numbers' clears all your Item Numbers instantly. You can then enter the Item Number(s) for another operation.
- 'Copy Fee to Clipboard' copies the Assistant's Fee to the Windows clipboard for easy pasting into other software.
- 'Estimate of Fees' shows you all the information required to obtain informed financial consent from the patient if you are charging a gap: the total fee, Medicare and health fund rebates and patient's out-of-pocket expense.
- 'My Item Numbers' lets you store any item numbers you choose for easy access, reducing the need to look up the Medical Benefits Schedule
- 'Search MBS Online' lets you enter search terms on item numbers for the MBS Online web-based search facility from within EasyAssist - the results display in your default web browser
- 'Online Resources' opens a web page with a list of links to websites of the major Health Funds and health insurance organisations.
- 'Save Preferences' saves your current settings: State/Territory, Health Fund and selected Month. These settings will load next time your start EasyAssist.
- 'Options' shows you an options page where you can choose how frequently EasyAssist checks for updates and whether EasyAssist should display in full screen mode on startup.
- 'Help' loads the comprehensive help file. Read this for detailed information about the EasyAssist program.
- 'Exit' quits EasyAssist.