PracticeSuite Release Note

Product Release Version: 23.5.0
EHR Version: EHR-18.0.0

        Product Release Date: April 2024

© 2024 PracticeSuite

Disclaimer: All rights are reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or information storage and retrieval systems – without written permission of the publisher.

The products that are referred to in this document may be either trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the respective owners. The publisher and the author do not claim these trademarks.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this document, the publisher and the author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained in this document or from the use of programs and source code that may accompany it. In no event shall the publisher and the author be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this document.

Printed April 2024 at PracticeSuite, Inc., 3206 Cove Bend Dr., Suite A, Tampa, FL 33613

Part 1- Product Enhancements

1.1 EHR

1.1.1 Adding Lab Orders to Closed Charts

Additional lab orders can now be added after reopening a closed chart.  Previously, new orders could not be added to an existing closed chart.

1.1.2 Sticky Notes for Patients

A new sticky notes feature has been introduced on the charting screen and it can be accessed from both the charting area and the patient demographics screen. Users can click on the notes icon at the top right-hand corner of the screen to add a new note or to view existing notes. A sticky note can only be voided or deleted from the patient demographics screen.

 

Image 1.1.2

1.1.3 Clinical Desktop

1.1.3.1 Refill Request Page Update

The Rx Refill Request page, which opens from the prescription pane on the Clinical Desktop screen, has a new tab named “Rx Status Page” (see Image1.1.3.1) and mirrors the contents on the NewCrop (e-Rx vendor’s) status page.

Note: Users can view the contents, however, no changes can be made from the screen.

Image 1.1.3.1

1.1.3.2 Recent Charts to Open by Default

The Clinical Desktop screen now opens into the provider’s recent charts tab instead of the upcoming appointments list (Image 1.1.3.3).

1.1.3.3 Repositioned the Tabs

The tabs “For Review” and “Reminders” on the Clinical Desktop screen have been repositioned.

Image 1.1.3.3

1.1.4 Visit History Tab Enhancements

1 The “Con. Sheet” header on the visit history tab has been renamed “Encounter Sheet”.

2 Two new filters have been added for DOS and the rendering provider. The rendering provider drop-down will be a multi-select filter.

3 Appointment reason will appear in the listing instead of the diagnosis codes.

4 An expandable button has been introduced to show the diagnosis codes.

Image 1.1.4

1.1.5 Check-Out Desk Updates

Users can now access the patient’s visit notes, referrals, and follow-up screens from the check-out desk.

Image 1.1.5

A. The check-out listing will have the patient referral count if the patient has referrals added via charts.

B. The listing will display the next follow-up date if the patient has follow-up appointments scheduled.

C. The expandable button will open the patient and appointment details along with the referral, follow-up, and view note buttons.

D. The referral button opens the referral page to view the referral details and the follow-up button opens the follow-up screen to show the follow-up appointments.

Note: The follow-up button will be unavailable if the chart was created without an appointment.

E. The View Note option opens the clinical note in PDF format.

1.1.6 UI Upgrade for Order Print Page 

The print page for lab/radiology orders that appears when you click the print button in the clinical note screen (narration page) has been upgraded to the new UI.

Also, the date and time displayed on the print will be the ordered date and time instead of the current date and time, as was earlier. 

        Image 1.1.6 

1.1.7 Patient Name Tooltip

To make it a little more intuitive for users, the tooltip on the patient name mouse-over will stay on the screen longer.

1.1.8 Confirmation for Voiding Charts

To prevent accidental voiding of charts, the system will hereafter prompt for user confirmation when attempting to void a chart. 

1.1.9 Date and Time Reinstated

The date and time options have been made available for even the Level-2s that do not have any Level-2 downs.

1.2 Lab Hub Updates

1.2.1 New Status introduced

A status named ‘Review Pending’ has been introduced in the lab Hub screen. This is to filter results for which the lab charts are in the ‘FOR_REVIEW status.

1.2.2 Status Bucket Display

Like the XSuperbill screen, a few statuses in the lab hub will be displayed as buckets with orange-colored bubbles showing the number of unread items. The newly introduced buckets are Pending Orders, Unprocessed Results, and Review Pending. The user can click on a status bucket to view the results in that bucket. 

Image 1.2.1

1.2.3 Result Page Updates

A. A new link has been introduced on the result page- Lab History (see Image 1.2.3). The user can click on this to go to the ‘Summary’ page on the Lab Tab in the charting screen. (Same as clicking on the Lab History option on the ellipsis on the right side of the listing.)

B. The ‘Mark as reviewed’ will also be enabled for results without orders. Previously, it was enabled only for results that had orders sent.

Image 1.2.3

1.3 ERA

1.3.1 Partial ERA Refund

Previously, for the successful automatic processing of reversals/refunds through ERA, the paid amount in the ERA should have exactly matched the applied amount of the claim. This requirement has been discontinued. If the paid amount is either less or matches the applied amount, the system will automatically post the reversals.

1.3.2 Bank Deposit Date

The field for entering the bank deposit date is now available on the ERA header. This field was made available on the payment screen in one of the previous releases.

Image 1.3.2

1.4 Scheduler

1.4.1 Appointment Reasons through Lookup

Appointment reasons can hereafter be listed from the lookup. A new lookup type named “Schedule Reason” has been added to configure this lookup list (please refer to Image 1.4.1b and Image 1.4.1c). Additionally, a configuration setting on the Scheduler Options screen has been made available to enable the listing from the lookup (Image 1.4.1a). Checking the box “Show Schedule Reason From Lookups” enables the feature.

Image 1.4.1a

Image 1.4.1b

Image 1.4.1c

1.4.2 Follow-up Appointments

Users can now add a follow-up appointment by choosing one of the two field options: 

a. Provide the number in the “Days” field

or

b. Select a date from the calendar icon

All time slots, both booked and available, will be displayed to the user by default. To exclude all blocked slots and see only the available slots for the selected date, the user can check the “Show Available Time Slots Only” box. The duration for the follow-up appointment will always copy the duration of the original appointment, however, if users need to modify the duration, it can be done by editing the appointment.

Image 1.4.2

1.4.3 Patient Name Display on Mouse Over

On the calendar screen, mouse over the appointment to show the patient’s full name and the appointment time as a tooltip.

Image 1.4.3

1.5 To Do Enhancements 

1. The “To Do” (Task Management) screen can now display all users’ tasks. A new “User” filter has been added to the screen to enable users to list tasks by user and the filter is always defaulted to the logged-in user (please see Image 1.5a). The user list will only have the users that have tasks assigned, along with the count of tasks (in parentheses). The current user will always be defaulted to in the drop-down list, regardless of whether there are any tasks assigned to the user.

2. The “Priority” filter has also been made available to filter tasks based on priority.

3. The “Active” status has been retitled to “Pending”.

4.  Only the first three lines of the task/message will be visible on the listing screen. Clicking on the task will open the task editor screen to either review the task or modify it.

5. The “Mark as Complete” check box has been repositioned to the beginning. Users cannot mark the tasks of other users as complete.

6. All users can now add a note or log an activity from the task edit screen. Activity history is displayed as a running list and includes the date and time stamp (see Image 1.4b). A delete icon is also provided beside each activity line of the user and, if needed, can be used to delete the activity. 

Image 1.5a

Image 1.5b

1.6 Report Central- Search Option

A search filter has been introduced on the Report Central screen for users to search reports by their title.

Image 1.6

1.7 Patient Demographics

1.7.1 Restricting Insurance Changes in Case

A new configuration setting has been added to the Billing Options screen to permit or restrict changing the insurance(s) within a Case. In the Billing Options look for the option “Do Not Allow Insurance Edits on Billed Claims”. Selecting “No” here will permit users to modify the insurance in the Case even if a claim is filed with the insurance. On the other hand, if “Yes” is selected, the system will always restrict users from changing the insurance in the Case.

Image 1.7.1

1.7.2 Letter Search Option

A search filter has been added to the pop-up window for generating patient letters. Additionally, users are now able to resize this window as needed.

Image 1.7.2

1.7.3 View Appointment Details from Schedule Hx

The listing on the scheduler history tab is now a clickable link that opens the appointment details screen. Click on any row in the listing to open the appointment details in a view-only mode.

Image 1.7.3

1.7.4 Ledger – Added New Search Filter

A search filter for filtering the list with the accident date has been added to the patient ledger. The accident date is also included in the PDF output of the ledger. 

Image 1.7.4

1.8 WorkQueue

The header section on the Next Action popup window has a few changes, as follows:

A. Claim# is now a hyperlink and opens the claim form.

B. MR# has been added.

C. Tax ID, Rendering Provider, and Service Location values will be displayed on the screen. Additionally, the fields on the header have been rearranged.

Image 1.8

1.9 Fee Schedule Changes

The system will default to display only active procedure codes on the fee schedule screen. A new check box filter, “Include Inactive Codes,” can be used to display the inactive codes along with the active ones.

Note: ‘Inactive’ codes mean those procedure codes that are end-dated.

Also, the Fee Schedule screen has a few label changes:

A. “Add CPT” has been renamed “Add Procedure Code”

B. “Import CPT From” relabeled to “Import Procedure Code From” and

C. The pop-up page “New CPT” is retitled to “New Procedure Code”

Image 1.9

1.10 Provider Off-time Screen

The provider off-time screen will list the off-time description instead of the practice status.

Image 1.10

1.11 New EDI Rule for Last Seen Date 

A new rule has been made available to copy the date of a similar illness as the last seen date on EDI Claims. For the rule to work, users will need to enter the last seen date into the field “Similar Illness Date”. 

<PAYERID>: LASTSEENDATE:SIMILARILLNESSDATE

1.12 Clinical Quality Measures- Added Four New Clinical Quality Measures

The table below lists the new measures added.

Quality ID Description NQF ID
39 Percentage of female patients aged 65-85 years of age who ever had a central dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) to check for osteoporosis 0046
176 Percentage of patients aged 18 years and older who has been newly prescribed a biologic and/or immune response modifier that includes a warning for potential reactivation of a latent infection, then the medical record should indicate TB testing in the preceding 12-month period None
178 Percentage of patients aged 18 years and older with a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for whom a functional status assessment was performed at least once within 12 months None
180 Percentage of patients aged 18 years and older with a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who have been assessed for glucocorticoid use and, for those on prolonged doses of prednisone >5 mg daily (or equivalent) with improvement or no change in disease activity, documentation of glucocorticoid management plan within 12 months

1.13 RCM Screen -Denial Category Field Size Increased 

The field size of the denial category field in the RCM setup screen has been increased threefold to accommodate all the denial codes.

Part -2 Reports

2.1 ‘I8. Summary Encounter line Activities Report’

2.1.1 New Filter to Only Show Refund Lines

A new checkbox filter named “Show Reversal/Refund lines Only” has been added to the I8 report to exclusively show the lines with refunds and reversals.

Image 2.1.1

2.1.2 Allowed Amount Included in Accounting Period Excel

The ‘Accounting Period Activities’ Excel will include the allowed amount. As in other payment reports, the allowed amount will be sourced from the payment posting screen if the amount was entered at the time of payment posting, if not, the amount entered in the fee schedule will be used.

2.2 ‘G5. Collector Worklist Report’- LE Info Added

The legal entity info has been added to the Collection Manager Excel and CSV, and the G5 report.

Part 3: Resolved Items

3.1 EHR – Modern Tool Charting Issue

Users had to click the “Begin Charting” option to reflect any changes made to the rendering provider, DOS, or location (the fields in the chart header). This issue was in the modern tool and has now been corrected. Hereafter, the above changes can be updated by just saving the chart.

3.2 Report Mismatches

3.2.1 J23 and J9 Report

J23. Service Location Wise Month End Close Report numbers did not match with J9. Daily/Month End Close Report when filtered by the legal entity. This has been addressed.

3.2.2 D1 and D2 Report

D1. Summary- Insurance Aging Report and D2. Detailed- Insurance Aging Report showed a mismatch in charge, payment, and adjustment amounts, which has now been corrected.

3.3 Missing Images in Faxed Letters

 Letterheads and provider signatures in the letters used to be stripped from the message when they were faxed.  This is now resolved.