HCFA's Laws, Regulations, Manuals CD-ROM Instructions ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | Introduction | To Get Started | Table of Contents Search | Field Search | To Quit | Introduction The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA)'s CD-ROM contains the 1991-94 versions of the portions of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) pertaining to HCFA (and updates through the Federal Register), as well as portions of the Social Security Act pertaining to HCFA. (The library carries the current version of the CFR; also, the CFR is available on the Internet going back to the complete 1997 edition and part of the 1996 edition.) However, the CD-ROM's most frequently requested contents are its program manuals (including the Medical Carriers manual). See the CD-ROM jewel case (or the Table of Contents) for a complete listing. Caution: Unfortunately, the HCFA software opens new windows without closing old ones. After a while, this can slow down the computer dramatically. You can move from one window to another quickly by clicking on the Windows menu and making a selection. However, it is best to close a window when you are done with it, or to wait and close several windows every few minutes. To Get Started * Double-click on the HCFA CD-ROM icon. * A HCFA window will come up with a smaller Main Search Screen window inside it. There are two ways to find information with the HCFA CD-ROM: using the Table of Contents, or performing a search at the "Main Search Screen." Table of Contents You can search the Table of Contents (sometimes a much easier search, depending on what information you have). To search the TOC, go to the toolbar and click on the second button from the left, which looks like a page of an outline (or from the menu choose: Search and then Table of Contents). The Table of Contents exists in outline form. There are eight "levels" to this outline. At first, you will see only the top level of the contents, with folder icons next to them. Click once on the folder icon of the section you are interested in to open it to the next level. Documents are represented by icons that look slightly different from folder icons (folders have tabs at the top; documents don't). You may also click on the arrow icons to expand the entire outline one level at a time (the left- and right-pointing arrows) or to level one or the fully-expanded level eight (left- or right-pointing arrows with bars). Search (Type in keywords, phrases, codes, numbers) To conduct this type of search, click on the button with the magnifying glass icon at the center-left of the toolbar (or from the menu bar at the top of the screen: choose Search and then New Search). Search Tips * Case Sensitivity The search does not appear to be case sensitive. In other words, you can search 'child' or 'Child' equally. * Phrases Enclose phrases in quotations marks, i.e. "child support." * 'Or' Default If you put two words together in the Word or Phrase search field without enclosing them in quotation marks, the search program will look for documents that contain either one OR the other word OR both. It doesn't look for them together. If you want the words together: o use quotations marks, o perform a proximity search, o or use the AND search field for the second term.. * Truncation If you want to retrive documents that have the word 'citizen' but also 'citizens,' 'citizenry' and 'citizenship,' you can type 'citizen*' into the search field and it will search for all of them at once. For example, you can type "senior citizen*" (enclosing in quotes to search the phrase) to pull up documents with the phrase 'senior citizen' and 'senior citizens' at the same time. * Proximity You can perform a proximity search in order to find documents where your specified search words appear within a certain number of words of one another. For example, if you wanted to find documents that contain phrases such as 'support of a child,' 'child support' and 'child in need of support,' you may want to perform a proximity search. To do this, place the terms together in the Word or Phrase field in braces, i.e. {support child}. To specify how close you want the words to appear, select Search from the top of the screen, and then select Search options from the Search menu. You will then be able to specify the proximity. For example, if you choose '5' the search will look for the terms within 5 words of one another. Type the number you want in the Proximity field, select OK, and then run your search. * Manual Mnuemonics and Section Numbers If you click on the downward-arrow buttons to the right of the search fields (look like long skinny boxes), the program will pop up a list of possible search terms. This may help you decide what kind of information goes in which search box, especially regarding the Manual Mnuemonics and Section Numbers. * Narrow Your Search to a Portion of the CD-ROM There is a button near the center of the button bar with two yellow folder icons. If you click on it, you will see a menu listing the collections on the CD-ROM. (From the menu bar: choose Search and then choose Select Collections) Initially, they are all highlighted in blue which means that by default you are searching all the collections on the CD-ROM. However, if you click on specific collections, they will become un-highlighted, excluding them from your search. This can dramatically reduce the number of bad results if you know, for example, that you are looking for something in a manual and not looking for a regulation in the CFR (Code of Federal Regulations). To Quit At any time you can click on the Exit button: (or go to the File menu and choose Exit.) When you are done, please log off the computer: * In the Program Manager, go to its File menu and select Logoff. * Click on Yes to okay the logoff. If you have any questions, please ask a librarian. Stephen Sposato Government Publications Department Chicago Public Library Last Updated: 7/98 ------------------------------------------------------------------------