PracticeSuite Release Note
Product Release Version: 19.7.0
EHR Version: EHR-18.0.0
Product Release Date: October 2020
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Part – 1 Enhancements
1.1 Patient Statement Generation
1.1.1 E-Statements
PracticeSuite has introduced the e-statements feature which provides Practices the convenience to send patient balances through the electronic mode. The e-statements with the integrated payment gateway service is a great tool that Practices can utilize to eliminate lost in mail situations, reduce payment defaults and for faster patient collections. With the e-statements, patients can easily view their outstanding balance and quickly make payments. Please note that this is an on-demand feature and customers will need to contact Sales or Support to activate the e-statements. Once enabled, users from the regular statement generation screen can send e-statements to patients in tandem with the other existing statement generation options. The following are some important information regarding the e-statements.
a. E-Statements Setup: The email and SMS setup for the e-Statement such as mail host, Auth. Mail ID, Auth. Password, SMS Operator, Message, etc. will need to be entered in the e-Statement tab in Notifications under Advanced Setup menu. The fields are similar to the legacy appointment reminders setup. Image 1.1.1a is the new tab ‘e-Statement’ in the Notification screen.
b. Delivery Method: On clicking the ‘Send e-Statement’ button, an email with the portal link and a SMS with the statement # will be sent to the patient’s registered email and cell # (email and cell phone details will be picked from Patient Demographics). The system uses a standard template for the messages.
Image 1.1.1b depicts the format in which SMS would be sent.
Image 1.1.1c is a sample email confirmation message sent.
c. Error Handling: If the sending fails, the corresponding error info can be seen in the “eStatement Errors” section towards the bottom of the statement generation (C2) screen.
d. Warning for Missing Contact Info: Alerts are displayed on the generation screen for all patient records where either the cellphone number or email address is missing.
e. E-Statement Exemption: If a patient needs to be exempted from e-Statements, check the box ‘Do not Send e-Statements’ in the ‘Other Attributes’ screen of the Patient Demographics page.
1.1.2 On Account Hyperlink
The on-account amount (unapplied amount) column in the patient statement generation screen has been made a hyperlink. By clicking on the on-account hyperlink, opens up the payment screen displaying all payments of the patient that add up to the on-account amount.
The revised Patient statement generation screen is displayed in Image 1.1.2.
In the image below, the red boxed options are the newly added ‘Send e-Statement’ button and ‘eStatement Errors’ link. The buttons shown with red arrow have a label change. ‘Search’ button formerly named ‘Generate’ and ‘Detailed Stmt.’ was labelled ‘Gen. Detail’.
1.2 Installment Plan Improvements
Installment Plans can now be edited and even inactivated. Installment plans will use the following statuses as described in Table 1.2.
| Installment Status | Description |
| New | Presets this status when a new installment plan is added. |
| Active | Changes to this status on generation of the first installment bill/letter. |
| Period Complete | Status selected by the system on generation of the last installment bill/letter. End dates the installment plan on completion of the cycle. |
| Paid | Users can select this status after completion of the installment period. Comments mandatory. |
| Pre-Closure |
Users can select this status at any stage of the installment plan. This will end date the installment plan. Previous status should be ‘Active’ to pre-close the plan. Comments mandatory. |
| Inactive |
Users can select this status at any stage of the installment plan. This will inactivate the installment plan. Previous status should not be Paid or Pre-closure to inactivate the plan. Comments mandatory. |
Table 1.2
Note: There are no changes in the installment letter generation workflow. As the workflow was previously, adding an installment plan will still stop patient statements for the dates added in the installment plan and a custom installment letter which has to be setup in the Letter Master is instead generated for those dates.
The revised Installment Plan screen is shown in Image 1.2.
1.3 WorkQueue- Improved UI and Enhanced Workflow
Work queue gets an enhanced UI with a dashboard section for quick view of the various KPIs and displays the count of claims for each KPI. The dashboard screen will show the categories on the left pane and a pie-chart representation of the categories on the right; see Image 1.3a.
Categories in the work queue screen will be alike to the H2 Operational ( Drill down) Dashboard. Image 1.3b shows the checkbox next to each KPI in the H2 report. Users can check the box next to the desired KPI to add the specific KPI to the work queue screen.
The category named ‘Need More Info Queue’ is populated from the Collection Manager. The sub categories of Need More Info Queue’ are also pulled from Collection Manager screen.
1.4 ICD 10 List Updated with 2021 ICD 10 CM list
The inbuilt ICD 10 repository has been updated to the 2021 ICD 10 CM list. The 2021 ICD-10-CM codes is applicable for encounters occurring from October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021.
1.5 H13. KPI Dashboard Update
1.5.1 A new KPI item named ‘Average Daily Charge’ is added to KPI Dashboard.
1.5.2 Net Collection Rate and Gross Collection Rate to be shown based on DoS in addition to the accounting date.
1.6 Appointment Color Coding in Schedule History and Clinical Desktop
Color coding preference (color coding for either Appt. Type or Status) selected in the Scheduler Option screen will henceforth also reflect in the Patient Schedule History, Clinical Desktop and Search appointments screens.
1.7 UB04 Charge Entry – New Rev Code
A new Revenue Code- “1006” (description – “Behavioral Health Accommodations; Outdoor/Wilderness”) added to the UB-04 Rev. Code repository in PracticeSuite.
2. Bugs
2.1 D10 and D15 Reports Not Matching
D10. ‘Running A/R Report’ and D15. ‘Aging Report were previously not tying with each other when they’re run for the same accounting period. This has been resolved.
2.2 C12 Report showing ‘No Record Found’ Error
C12 ‘Patient Visit Summary Report’ when run with a particular service location in the search filter returned ‘No Record Found’ error. This bug is now resolved.