Makers of Practice Magic Psychotherapy Billing Software
History of Cornucopia Software
Cornucopia Software may be the oldest software company in existence that has been devoted solely to personal computer software. In 1972, Phil Manfield, then a graduate student in Mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley wrote the first spell checker to run on a PC. At that time, IBM produced only main frame computers, "Apple" referred to a fruit, and the term "PC' had not yet been coined. There were no MS-DOS or Windows operating systems. There was no Microsoft. The dominant operating system was CP/M and there was a proprietary system, TRS-DOS, used on Radio Shack's home computer, the Model I.
He began advertising and selling copies of his program, Microproof, which later evolved into Electric Webster. In response to the immediate and unexpected volume of orders for these products, he hired office staff, and Cornucopia Software was born. During the early years of Cornucopia, Manfield switched his field of study to psychology, obtained a Ph.D., and opened a private psychotherapy practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. Cornucopia's staff also handled his psychotherapy billing.
As spelling checkers became commonly included in word processing programs, the demand for independent spelling checkers tapered off, and by 1988 Cornucopia Software was down to one employee. Faced with the eventual prospect of having to do his own psychotherapy billing, Manfield decided to write a psychotherapy billing program that would accomplish the essential billing and accounting functions of running a psychotherapy practice, while minimizing the keyboard time required. The result was Practice MAGIC.
Practice MAGIC
In the eightteen years since then, thousands of copies of Practice MAGIC have been sold. The program has changed and matured. Features have been added and data input has been further streamlined. But we have maintained a low price to make the program accessible to everyone: $129.95 for a three year version of the program with yearly updates thereafter for $39.99. There is also an unlimited version of the program for $179.95 that does not require yearly updates and an $89.95 version that only fills out CMS-1500 and HCFA-1500 forms and provides none of the other billing and practice management functions. Beginning in August of 2001 Practice MAGIC also began providing a Palm Pilot hotsync capability, and an electronic billing feature that works with most clearing houses. Since 2004, additional features have been added, including a choice of statement formats.