Product Changes

This outlines changes in the product which have occurred 
since the manual was printed.

Med$ure is shipped compressed in a file called MS.CMP. The
INSTALL.EXE program (type a:install or b:install) will
automatically uncompress the file and install the working
files to your hard disk or a floppy. The README.TXT file
is shipped uncompressed on the distribution disk as a text
file (it is also in compressed form and installed with the
other working files).

If you are going to use Med$ure primarily to file and track,
you do not need to fill in Chapter 1. Simply press F4, choose
File and Track Claims, and enter information as it is asked.

Please read the help screens (using F1)! They have lots of
information and will give you ideas on how to enter your data.

Medicare
Read page 37 including help to learn how to track Medicare.
The help for filing and tracking, page 43, includes specific
ideas for how to track Medicare.

Top Menu Bar
You can reach the Top Menu Bar using the same keyboard and mouse 
conventions followed by Windows. Read the help for the tip 
"Top Menu Bar" on page 1 for a complete explanation on how the 
keyboard and mouse can be used.

Color/Black and White
You can change the screen output of Med$ure to color by 
starting Med$ure with "ms /c". The command "ms /bw" starts 
the program in black and white. Med$ure remembers the last 
active screen color for the next time it is started.

You can customize color. Go to the File guideword and choose
"Color Setup". Press F1 to read the help. Several preset color
options are available, including Army/Navy, Prep, Fourth of
July, and two black and white options.

Demo.rec
Med$ure is shipped with a demo record file which you can load 
and review to see how records are stored in Med$ure. To open 
the demo file, choose the "File, Open" command using the Alt 
key, the "f" key, and the "o" key. Choose the Demo file and 
press F10. Read the help by pressing F1 on the "Read from File"
dialog box if you need a reminder on how to do this.

You can start a new file, using the "File, New" command after 
you have studied the Demo file.  This clears memory and opens
a file called "Untitled".  You can determine the active file by
using the File, Information command.

If you are using 360K floppies to run Med$ure, delete the files
MS.PIF and MS.ICO from the second floppy so that you have enough
room to add data to your own record file. (Isn't it time you
got a hard disk. They really make computing easier.)

No Mouse
If you don't have a mouse, you can start Med$ure with /nm
(for no mouse) command. That is, type "ms /nm" and the
mouse will be disabled.

No Sound
To turn off the sounds that Med$ure makes, start Med$ure with
the /ns (for no sound) command. Type "ms /ns" to start Med$ure
and disable the sound.

Date
To quickly enter today's date (or the system date), type "d" 
in a date field and press Enter.

Summary by Policy and Summary by Provider
Two new reports have been added to page 44. Summary by 
policy will provide a summary of expenses by policy and by 
family member. You can see the amount you have spent on 
deductibles and coinsurance by person and for the family.  
This report also shows the total reimbursed by person. This
will also track Medicare deductible and coinsurance.

If you have a flexible spending plan, they can be tracked 
using this report. By adding a policy called "flexible 
spending," you can track actual reimbursements from your 
flexible spending by filing a secondary or tertiary EOB to 
the flexible spending policy for the amount that your plan 
"pays" you from your account.

Summary by providers will give you the total for each 
provider broken down by pending, reimbursed, and out-of-
pocket.

Printing
Med$ure can print to a pre-printed laser HCFA 1500 form 
as well as a pre-printed dot matrix form. If you are filing 
to a government program, you will need a form printed on 
both the front and back. The pre-printed forms conform to 
government specifications.  

You can print any list or card, while it is on screen, by
choosing File, Print when the list or card is on the screen.

This version of Med$ure includes the new HCFA 1500 form. This
form is dated 12/90 and replaces the form dated 1/84.

Printing to File
You can print any report or form to a file. To print to a
file, choose File, Printer Setup. For Print Destination,
choose "File". Then print a report as you normally would.
You will be asked for a file name, and .PRT will be added
to the name as the file extention.

For the real techies, you can "print" any of these files
by using the DOS copy command, and copying the file to
the appropriate printer. For example, the command
"copy a:johnform.prt /b lpt1:" will copy the print file
"johnform.prt" on the a: drive to the printer on the
lpt1: port. The command switch "/b" tells DOS to copy
the file in binary format.

This is a handy way to print claim forms at home for a
laserJet you don't have. Take them to work and print them 
on the laserJet there.

Transferring Data to a Spreadsheet
You can also print Comma Separated Value (CSV) files of the
expense lists and claim forms. These files can easily be
imported to database programs and spreadsheets. They take
the form of values in quotes, separated by commas. ("value",
"value",etc.) This is handy if you want to analyse Med$ure
data in a spreadsheet. If you print to a CSV file from page
43, you will obtain the entire list of your expenses, claims,
and EOB's. They are in the order of 1st expense, 1st Claim, 1st
EOB, 2nd Claim, 2nd EOB, etc. If the claim or EOB is empty,
then the line for the claim or EOB will be blank. Providers and
family members can be printed to a CSV file from the Records
pull down menu.

File and Memory Management
The File, Information guideword from the top menu bar
gives you lots of information about the file that you
are using. You can find the current file in use and the
path to the subdirectory in which it is stored. You will
also find the total available free memory in your system for
Med$ure data, and how much of that memory is used by Med$ure.

Windows 3.1
If you have a 386 or 486 machine, you can run windows in
enhanced mode. In this mode, Med$ure will run in a window.
You can size the window and fonts to fit your screen using the
Font command (Press Alt-Spacebar and the F). You will be able
to control Med$ure using the mouse in the window. Med$ure
follows windows conventions, so you can easily move between
a Med$ure window and windows applications. You may have to
experiment with colors to get ones that look good in a window.
"prep" from the File, Color Setup command is a color most
people like.

For the mouse to work under windows, you will need to load
a DOS mouse driver from your config.sys or autoexec.bat file.
The windows mouse driver is only for windows applications.

August 1, 1992
