Canada 

Open Dental is CDAnet certified and ready for use in all Canadian offices.  The cost is C$129/month for the first year, then C$99/month after that.

You must be using the latest release of Open Dental version 11.0 or later in order to send electronic claims in Canada. To see the Canadian features, you will need to set your computer to English Canadian or French Canadian from your Windows control panel before opening Open Dental.

Database and Claimform

Install our Trial Version.  As long as your computer is set to Canada in the Windows Control Panel before you install, the Canadian database and claimform will be automatically installed.

CDAnet

Handled through ITRANS claim service from Continovation, Inc. http://www.continovation.com/itrans_services/itrans_claim_service.html

In Quebec, non CDA members can use the ITRANS Claim Service, however they will need to pay a non member fee. The details can be found here: http://goitrans.com/itrans_signup/Dentist/itrans_signup_enrolment_forms_non_member.htm

Installation:
On your server, create a new Windows user account (name it CDANetUser perhaps) as well as a password for that user which you do not intend to change. Log of the current user on the server and log in as the new CDANetUser. Install the ITRANS Digital Certificates for each dentist that will be sending electronic claims, as instructed by Continovation. Install the iCA application. Use this installer:

iCAv23140.exe

It will be best to follow all of the default settings for the installation.

After clicking ok on various windows, the ini file will be presented for editing.

If you changed the path during installation, be sure to also change the "iCADirectory" and "CCDDirectory" values in the file above before closing.  Close the window above to complete installation.

Change the settings of the iCAService from within the service manager as follows.  Right click on "My Computer" and choose "Manage".

Select the service manager in the left pane of the window.  Scroll down and find the service named iCAService.  Right click and choose properties.

Change the Startup type to Automatic from within the General tab, then click the Log On tab. 

Click the "This account" radio button and type the name of the user in the top box that you created above (probably CDANetUser), then type the password that you created for the user in the two boxes below. The username and password you type here must exactly match (case sensitive) the username and password you created in the first step, otherwise you will get a 1013 error when you try sending claims. If the password of this user is ever changed, then you must also update the password here inside of the service manager for the iCAService, or again you will begin receiving 1013 errors when you try to send claims. Click OK to close the service properties window.

If your office has the need to submit electronic claims to Alberta Blue Cross (ABC), the only method to do so is over async with a dialup modem. In order to setup ITRANS to use async, contact Continovation support.

Technical Details of Upload:
Files being sent from Open Dental to Continovation will be named input.### (i.e. input.000, input.001, etc...) and will be placed in the C:\iCA folder on the server by default. File names are cycled through until they reach 999 and then start over at 000. The purpose of the file name incrementing is to prevent transactions of different client machines from colliding while they are being adjucated. The iCAService sends the input.### file and renames it to _nput.### to indicate that it was sent.  The reply comes back in under two minutes as output.### in the same folder.  The output.### file is immediately imported into Open Dental and deleted.  If for some reason, you choose to use a different folder to send and receive messages, you must copy ack.tmp and msg.tmp into the new folder.  Those two files are used by iCA.

E-claims Clearinghouse

Set the default Clearinghouse to CDAnet.

Make sure that the Export Path and Report Path are the same and that they match the setting in the iCA setup described earlier.

Carriers and Networks

In the Insurance Carriers list, there is a checkbox at the top for CDAnet Only which lets you view only Canadian carriers. The list will by default contain all carriers maintained by Open Dental. However, you can add or update carrier information if needed. If you have added a new carrier for some reason, make sure to set the Is CDAnet Carrier checkbox and to set the Carrier Identification Number.

The data in the lower half of the window is not editable by users but is instead maintained by Open Dental based on the Carrier Id Number entered.  To add a new carrier or to update an existing carrier, verify that the Carrier Id Number is correct, and then run the Database Maintenance tool, which will set the data in the lower half of the window to the correct values.

Procedures

In the Procedure Edit window, to the middle left, there are some checkboxes called Type Codes.  By default, "none" is selected.  If you need a type code to go out on a claim, you would change it from the procedure edit window for that procedure.

Lab Fees

Lab fees are treated just like ordinary procedures except for a few key differences. For the codes which are lab fees (99xxx), go to the Procedure Code Edit window, and check the box that says "Is Lab Fee". To enter a lab fee for a patient, enter both the regular procedure and the "lab fee" procedure. So you will now have two procedures for the patient, both with their own fee, insurance estimate, etc. The last step is to link them together so that they always appear together and so that they can go out on the claim as one item. Link them from the Chart module. Highlight both procedures, then right click and select "Attach Lab Fee".  The lab fee will then show attached below the procedure in the Chart module and Account module. You can also detach a lab fee from its procedure by right clicking on it in the Chart module. The program will not let you send a lab fee to insurance without attaching it to a procedure first.

Claims

The lower half of the Edit Claim window contains a section specific to Canada.  In the main grid, Lab fees will show on the same rows as the procedures they are attached to instead of as separate rows.

Reversals

When a non-preauth claim is sent and adjucated electronically, ITRANS generates a transaction reference number for the claim so that it can be uniquely identified. Transaction reference numbers are composed of letters and numbers and will automatically show in "Trans Ref Num" box on the left side of the Canadian tab within the Claim Edit window once the claim has been successfully adjucated. Claim reversals require a valid transaction reference number so that ITRANS knows without a doubt which claim is being reversed. ITRANS does not allow claims to be reversed on any date other than the date they were originally adjucated. If a claim needs to be reversed on a date later than the date it was originally adjucated, then the claim must be manually reversed. Once the claim has been manually reversed, it should then be manually deleted from Open Dental so that the patient account is accurate. To reverse a claim that has been adjucated, click the Reverse button just to the right of the Trans Ref Num box. The Reverse button will be disabled if there is no transaction reference number or if the adjucation date of the claim is in the past. Not all Canadian insurance carriers support claim reversal. If you attempt a claim reversal for a carrier that does not support reversal transactions, after clicking the Reverse button, Open Dental will display a message informing you that reversal transactions are not supported by the carrier. In some situations, a carrier may choose to reject a claim reversal even when the transaction reference number and reversal date are valid, and when this happens, the only way to reverse the claim will be to reverse it manually.

Tooth Numbering/Surfaces

See the Tooth Nomenclature box at the lower right of Module Setup.  Change it to FDA notation if not already set.  In Canada, valid tooth surfaces are MOIDBLV(vestibular).  In USA, valid tooth surfaces are MOIDBLF(facial) as explained on the Enter Treatment page.  For USA, we also use V to represent a class 5 location along the gingival margin of the B or F.  For Canada class 5 is represented by "5" instead of "V" to avoid confusion with vestibular.

Clinics

If you are using the Clinic feature in Canada, make sure to use a different provider for each dentist/clinic combination.  Each dentist is assigned an office number which is entered in the Provider Edit window.  So if a dentist is at two offices, the only way to enter two office numbers is to use two separate providers.

Setup Providers
See Setup Providers.

Downloads

This section applies only to existing customers or developers

Importing of claimform:
If you are already using Open Dental and wish to add the Canadian claimform, you can use this file: CanadianClaimForm.xml.  After downloading it, go to the Claimform Setup window and import it. You will also need to place the background gif into your AtoZ folder as described in the section below.

Some existing customers may need to download the new claimform background here: Canada.zip .  It also includes a version 6.8.39 database if you need one for some reason.

Installation of database:
1. Rightclick on the download link and select Save Target As... Save the file to a new folder on your C drive or on your desktop, and unzip it (right click, Extract All...). It will contain a database folder as well as the claim form image.
2. Stop the MySQL service as follows: Right click MyComputer | Manage | Services and Applications | Services, then look for MySQL in the list. Highlight it, and stop the service.
3. Rename the old database at C:\mysql\data\opendental\. You could rename the opendental folder by appending something meaningful to the end. Like this: opendentaloldusa or opendental_2009_11_30. So now, you should not have a folder called opendental in C:\mysql\data\.
4. Copy the downloaded database folder called 'canada' into C:\mysql\data\, and rename it to opendental. So, now, if you open C:\mysql\data\opendental\, you should see about 500 files, starting with account.frm, account.MYD, etc.
5. Copy the claim form gif into C:\OpenDentalData\. So now, if you open C:\OpenDentalData\, you should see all 26 A-Z folders, the gif you just added, and a few other files and folders.
6. Restart the MySQL service.
7. Run Open Dental.

Changes to the Database

This is a list of changes that we will make to the posted database.  Until we make the changes, new users will make these changes themselves.

- Insurance Categories have better defaults.
- At least one provider should be entered and should have a fee schedule assigned.
- Practice setup set to use that provider.
- Verify that IsProsth is set for all crowns, bridges, ortho appliances, and dentures.
- Shorten procedure descriptions and abbreviations.