I do the computer stuff for a dentist. We recently converted his claim
submission operation from paper to electronic (WebMD/emdeon). Now he is
interested in sending the x-rays on a Pre-Authorization. There is a
company National Electronic Attachment that sells software (FastAttach)
that lets you attach a copy of an x-ray to the Pre-Authorization form
when it is transmitted electronically. The problem is that you have to
scan the x-ray into the computer and create a JPG before it can be
transmitted.

FASTattach walks you through a scenario where it assumes you have a flat
scanner with a film attachment (e.g. HP Scanjet XPA). It tells you how
to scan the xray(s) and hot to adjust the brightness and contrast to
satisfactory levels before saving it to a file. I think the FASTattach
software is easy enough to use and I can easily train the receptionist
to do that part. However, I've  had a lot of experience editing graphic
images and I'm not sure how much training I'll need to provide the
receptionist.

I'm also not sure how much time will be saved doing the scanning the
operation.  At the moment I'm inclined to tell the dentist to stick with
 the US mail to send the x-rays to the insurance company on a
Pre-authorization.

Is anybody here using a scanner to scan x-rays into JPG format?