PracticeSuite Release Note
Product Release Version: 25.0.0
EHR Version: EHR-18.0.0
Product Release Date: August 2024
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Printed August 2024 at PracticeSuite, Inc., 3206 Cove Bend Dr., Suite A, Tampa, FL 33613
Part 1- Product Enhancements
1.1 EHR
1.1.1 e-Sign and Locking Feature
A major change for securing the encounter notes and locking them from being modified has been made available with this release. This new feature will effectively replace the traditional checkbox signature method and helps to secure the notes.
After a clinical note is completed, it can be electronically signed and locked and permits modification of the notes even after completing them, however, once the note has been signed and locked by the provider, no further edits are permitted for the note.
Providers can electronically sign and lock completed charts from the charting action screen or the Visit Hx screen. After signing and locking the note, the edit option will no longer be available on the Visit Hx and narration.
Additionally, in conjunction with the electronic signature, the co-signature feature has also been introduced with the upgrade.
The recent tab on the clinical dashboard and the Visit Hx screens will display the status (signed or unsigned) for the completed encounter notes.
Only the rendering provider can e-sign and lock the clinical note. Additionally, if the provider is a mid-level, a supervising provider can be assigned to the provider, giving both the mid-level and the supervising ability to be co-signers for a note.
To co-sign the note, the “Required on Chart” should have the check on the Provider Master screen, and the supervising provider should be selected. Please note that a new checkbox named “Required on Claim” has been added, however, it is currently unavailable and will be made available in a future release.
Note:
1. The footers on the clinical note will always display the provider names instead of the user names. If a chart was created or completed by a user other than a provider, then the user name will show up.
2. e-Signature functionality is only available in the Modern charting tool version in which the progress note font is set to ‘Modern’.
1.1.2 Referral Management
In this release, the referral management module receives a significant upgrade, with the following key highlights:
Referral Screen
1. Document attachment feature: The referral screen will have the option to attach multiple patient documents. To attach, click on the 
icon to open the Doc. Manager and after selecting the file(s) click on “Done”.
2. Adding additional diagnosis codes: Users can search and include additional diagnosis codes when saving the referral details. Diagnoses already entered into the encounter note are defaulted on the referral screen and those can either be removed, or new codes added. These additions/deletions would not affect the existing encounter note.
3. Adding insurance information: The insurance the referral applies to can also be selected from the screen.
4. Adding remarks: A new tab named “Remarks” has been made available on the referral screen. Here, users can enter any comments related to the referral and this activity is logged on the screen.
5. Assigning referrals: The task assignment feature has been included on the screen. The “Assigned To” drop-down can be used to select a provider for assignment.
6. Adding new patients: Also, clicking on the 
button beside the patient field opens the patient’s demographics screen for adding a new patient into the system.
Referral Listing Page
1. The ellipsis at the right end of the referral entry provides the options to create a referral report in PDF and for composing and sending an e-fax (see highlighted portion in Image 1.1.2b).
1A. The generated PDF will have the following information:
| Patient details – name, address, DOB, gender, phone, and the practice address. This section may also include the service location, service date, rendering provider, and referring provider. |
| Insurance information – insurance name and member ID of the patient and the diagnosis codes. |
| Referral Letter for the referring provider. |
| Attachments may include any relevant patient documents attached from the referral out page. |
1B. The eFax screen will have the following values defaulted on the screen:
The patient’s name and the fax number of the referring provider (if a fax number is associated with the provider). The attachment section will include the referral and any associated patient documents.
2. Referral statuses can be one of the following: NEW, PENDING, COMPLETE, REJECTED, ON HOLD, or VOID. Each status is color-coded for easy identification on the referral listing screen. By default, the screen displays only the referrals with the NEW status. Select ‘ ALL ‘ to view referrals with different statuses or choose a specific status from the drop-down menu labeled ‘Status’.
3. By using the “Assigned To” (user) filter on the display, users can access a list of referrals that have been assigned to them.
Referrals within the Charting Screen
A. Referrals can also be added from the encounter note. To use from within charts, create level-1 components for Referral In and Referral out. Level-1 codes should be used as follows:
Referral in: REFERRAL_IN
Referral Out: REFERRAL_OUT
To access the Referral In and Out Level-1 components, click on them. These components will open the corresponding screens where users can input the referral details. The screen also displays any created referrals; updates made within the note will be reflected on the referral screen, and vice versa.
B. If the chart has a corresponding referral, the charting action screen of the related chart will have a section named “Referral” with options to view and edit the referral.
1.1.3 ‘Review Center’- New Tab in Clinical Desktop
The newly launched “Review Center” tab consolidates and displays the encounter notes of various statuses onto a single screen without users having to switch tabs. The tabs ‘For Review’ and ‘Ready for Exam’ have been removed, and distinct sections have been established on the Review Center page for ‘Ready for Exam’, ‘For Review’, and ‘Pending e-Sign’.
On the listing, completed charts will show the status as either signed or unsigned. Use the checkbox named ‘Pending E-Sign’ to filter the charts that have a pending e-signature. The ‘View Note’ opens the encounter note in a pop-up window.
1.1.4 Procedure Code/ICD search
Hereafter, the charting screen’s ICD and procedure code search will rely on keywords instead of the smart search feature.
1.2 ERA Automation
PracticeSuite has launched an advanced AI-driven solution for automating ERA posting and operating on pre-set user-defined rules. The automation settings can be found in the Advanced Setup under the Billing Options screen, where users can add new auto-posting rules or modify existing ones. Please see Image 1.2a.
On clicking “Configure”, it opens the auto-posting setup screen and displays the list of rules that have been set up. Users can see a list of predefined rules based on existing payer requirements currently used by the system to process the ERAs. Users can either deactivate or modify them as needed.
To add a new rule, click on the “Add New” button at the top right-hand corner of the screen. On the setup screen, the users can input the required parameters and click “Save”.
Once the rules have been configured, click on the “Auto Post” option on the ERA listing screen to have the ERA automatically processed and posted. During the beta phase, users must select the auto-post option to process the ERAs; however, in the subsequent product release, full automation will be implemented, making this step unnecessary for processing the ERAs.
The ERA auto-post feature will automate the payment creation and the posting of each line in the ERA. The following actions are automated in the process in the following order:
1. The reversals (takebacks) are first processed.
2. Next, the system populates the line status (Next Action) based on the configured auto-posting rule(s). If the workflow rules are not added, the normal auto-posting workflows will be in effect.
3. After the ERA is posted, a toast notification will appear on the screen with the following message – “ERA Auto Posting Successfully Completed”. Additionally, the line activity within the Charge Master will display “ERA Auto Posted (AI).”
Kindly be aware that this is a beta version. Further refinements and improvements to the feature are anticipated in the upcoming releases. We are also seeking feedback on this new feature and invite customers to reach out to our support team to share their thoughts.
1.3 X-Superbill Automation
PracticeSuite continues to advance its automation capabilities by also introducing the bulk charge processing feature for the XSuperbill screen. X-Superbill automation can be enabled from the Billing Options screen. Pre-existing claim validation rules will apply automatically to check for warnings or errors when processing the charges.
Users have the option to specify payers, providers, procedure codes, and modifiers that should be excluded from automatic processing. For the exclusion filters, payers are to be specified using payer ids and providers by their codes from the Provider Master. Separate using commas (“,”) for multiple entries in a field.
Once the setup on the Billing Options page has been completed, click on the “Auto Process” option under ‘More Filters’.
Note: The automation process will only include insurance charges that are in the ‘NEW’ status. Charges in other line statuses and also, cash cases are excluded from the processing.
The following actions are automated for the X-Sb processing and in the following order:
1. If there are no errors or warnings in claim validation or system validation at the patient or charge level, the charge will be processed and set with the appropriate status.
2. If an encounter has any of its lines having CCI errors, then the entire encounter will be moved to the CCI_ERROR bucket. The line status will be HOLD and the sub status – CCI_ERROR.
3. If an encounter has no CCI errors but has any one line having a validation error, then the entire encounter will be moved to the HOLD_VALIDATION_ERROR bucket. The line status, in this case, will be set to HOLD, and the sub status will be HOLD_VALIDATION_ERROR.
4. In the absence of CCI errors and validation errors in the lines of an encounter, if any of the lines have a warning, the encounter will be pushed to the HOLD_WARNING bucket. The line status will be set to HOLD, and the sub status will be HOLD_WARNING.
When the X-Superbill automation completes successfully, the system will display a message indicating the number of charges processed and moved to their respective buckets.
Kindly be aware that this is a beta version. Further refinements and improvements to the feature are anticipated in the upcoming releases. We are also seeking feedback on this new feature and invite customers to reach out to our support team to share their thoughts.
Upload Charge
This newly introduced feature provides users the ability to bulk upload charges from the front-end system using a charge CSV file. The CSV file should adhere to the specified structure and format. All the successfully imported charges show up on the X-Sb screen. If there are any formatting errors in the file, the system throws a front-end error.
If any required data is unavailable in the file (such as the rendering provider in the file not being added to the provider list), it would not import that row from the charge file and such post-processing errors can be seen in the E9. Interface Log Report.
1.4 eFax- Delete Option in Inbox
Users now have the option to delete faxes and the deleted items are moved to the ‘Trash’ folder. The activity (user, date of deletion, etc.) is logged in the eFax audit log.
1.5 To-Do Screen
1.5.1 Export Option for Tasks
The To-Do screen will have an Excel output option so that the assigned tasks for the user can be exported and printed, if necessary. If the user provides certain search criteria, the Excel output will also show the results filtered. To view all tasks in the system related to a single patient, users can access the To-Do screen via the patient’s demographics module and generate Excel. Tasks without a specified due date will be listed at the bottom of the Excel file.
1.5.2 Full User Name Display
In the task assignment Add and Edit screens, the user search field will have the user’s full name along with the user ID.
1.6 Document Manager- Image Printing
Users now have the option to directly print documents from the Document Manager, eliminating the need to download them.
1.7 UB04 Screen Upgrade
The UB04 charge screen has been upgraded to the new UI.
Part -2 Reports
2.1 ‘K3. Patient Clinical Analysis Report’- Selective Document Download
The K3 Report now offers a feature allowing users to selectively download patient documents. A new search section called ‘Patient Documents’ includes search fields for document type and document created date. Users can conveniently select multiple documents at once (by pressing Ctrl).
By default, the report will only bring up the visits of the patient within the selected date range. To view all the visits of the patient regardless of the inputted date, check the box ‘Include all visits for the patient(s)’.
2.2 Accession# Added to C4 and C10 Reports
The detailed CSV output of ‘C4. Generate Patient Pre-Collection Letter’ and ‘C10. Generate Patients in Collections List’ will now include the accession # of the encounter.
2.3 ‘I21. Billing Process Turn Around Report’
The I21 report has undergone refinements to improve its performance.
Part 3: Resolved Items
3.1 EHR- Copy of Active Medications From Facesheet
If a medication was both discontinued and reactivated on the same date of service, it wouldn’t be copied when using the ‘Copy from History’ button. This is now resolved.