If you receive a Medicare PKI Certificate Installation CD in the mail, which contains your updated security certificates, please note this means Medicare was unable to update your certificates automatically and you may need to install these certificates manually.

This article will guide you through the process of updating your Medicare certificates via the CD manually.

Part 1 - Loading your PSI store
​
Note: This is to be completed on a computer that has both Front Desk and the Medicare Online Claiming software installed. Typically only the 'reception' computers have Medicare Online installed as they are used for billing and claiming.

1) Go to your Control Panel and search for 'PKI Certificate Manager'

2) After opening the PKI Certificate Manager, we must now open your certificate store that contains your Medicare certificates.
​
a) Click Setup...
​

b) Select 'Use an Existing Store' and click Next.
​

c) Browse to C:\ProgramData\Smartsoft\Front Desk and open the hic.psi file.

If the hic.psi file is not present in this location please confirm this is a computer used for Medicare Online Claiming before contacting Smartsoft for assistance.

3) Leave the PKI Certificate Manager open and proceed to Part 2.

Part 2 - Obtaining your PSI Store Passphrase

To proceed with Updating your Certificates you will need to know your PSI Store Passphrase. To obtain your passphrase please do the following:

1) Download the PSIPassphrase utility from the following link:

PSI PassPhrase Utility

2) Open the downloaded PSIPassphrase.exe file.
​

3) When presented with the Front Desk login screen, proceed using your normal Front Desk credentials.
​

4) Record the displayed PSI Store Passphrase.

With your PKI Certificate Manager open and PSI Store Passphrase ready, you are now able to update the certificates in your certificate store.

1) Insert your Medicare PKI Certificate Installation CD into your CD drive.

2) Return to the PKI Certificate Manager.

3) From the right menu, click the Install...button.

3) When prompted enter your PSI Store Passphrase and click Next:

4) Use the Browse button to select your CD drive, which has the Medicare PKI Certificate Installation CD inserted.

5) Enter the PIC number if prompted, which is normally provided in a letter with the installation CD.

6) Click Finish to import the displayed certificates.

7) Success! You have now imported the set of certificates required for online claiming.

Note: If you have multiple computers configured for Medicare Online Claiming you will need to repeat this process on those machines.
​
Please also note that although these new 'certificates' show an expiry date of 2024, the Medicare Online Claiming service is still scheduled to be decommissioned on September 30, 2022. The service will not continue until June 2024.

Alternatively, you can copy the newly updated certificate store file from this machine (C:\ProgramData\Smartsoft\Front Desk\hic.psi) and paste it into the same directory on your other machines.