Release 19.2 Updates

Once again, we’ve spent time researching and developing features that will add value to your practice and allow for a more efficient workflow. Release 19.2 will be implemented on Saturday, August 10th, 2019. When you come back to the office on Monday morning, here are a few of the updates you can expect to see.

Credit Card Payment Updates

We’re happy to report that we are upgrading our payment system to an all-in-one solution that allows your patients to pay in the most convenient method to them. If your practice is currently utilizing the Stripe integration, we will help you seamlessly upgrade to the new PaySimple plan at no additional cost to you. PaySimple offers simple credit card processing in your office, during their intake process, online, or on the go. If you would like to learn more about PaySimple, or to set up credit card processing for your practice, simply go to: Setup > Company Profile > Settings > PaySimple – you will be prompted to complete a form to sign-up. You can also contact our support team to learn more.

Phase 2: Billing Updates – Receipt Posting, Auto-Claim Submission, and Statement Scheduling

Due to the comprehensive nature of this release, we are implementing the updates in two phases.  The billing updates – specifically the functionality related to receipt posting will be part of the second phase occurring on August 17th, 2019 and ready for your office on the following Monday, the 19th.  Here are the updates you can expect.

Receipt Posting: We’ve heard your pain points and focused on making receipt posting a much easier process for your billing staff. Billers will no longer be required to work at finding payments. Your EHR will now automatically look for payments and connect them to the patient’s account.

Auto Claim Submission: This new process will improve the efficiency of your billing overall. Now you will be able to set rule that will allow you to auto-submit claims that are ready to send. You will need to opt-in to the program. It is not automatic. This will mostly help practices that are doing a lot of volume. The claims can auto-submit at any time your practice chooses. This can be done by going to Setup > Payers > Settings > Claim Status. On the ‘Read to Send…’ statuses, you will be able to opt-in to Auto Claim Submission.

Auto Statement Build: This is another process that will need to be turned on for your practice, but will provide greater efficiency in your workflow. Under settings you will click “Request Preparation.” You will then put the date of the last build, and the date you want the next auto statement build to occur. Please note, at this point in time you cannot set the next build date to occur on a regular basis. You must manually set the next auto build date for each time you want to process a large batch all at once.
We are happy to say these are the first of many billing updates to come!

MyMedicalLocker Patient Portal

Currently, your patients have been receiving different user experiences based on what device they use to access the patient portal. Some features worked better on certain devices than others. We heard their complaints and have spent an enormous amount of time upgrading our patient portal, MyMedicalLocker to operate under one single website that will work seamlessly regardless of the device your patient uses to login. The apps your patients have currently downloaded will continue to operate until August 31st, 2019. At that point in time, if a patient tries to log into the app, they will be given an error message with a link that redirects them to the new website login page.

Additionally, there are many new features that provide an increased opportunity for patient engagement.  Your patients can now easily access all family members in addition to inputting multiple providers who are connected to MyMedicalLocker.  Also, when a practice is in MyMedicalLocker, they can easily click into the practice and click the phone number to be connected to your office immediately.  There is also a Google maps feature should they need directions.  Make sure your practice has updated the office number and address in the settings section of your database, so the correct information shows to the patient when they login to the patient portal.

Some additional fixes we made to MyMedicalLocker include the ability to access their camera on any device, upload documents even from their phone, accessing their local storage and even the ability to login using facial recognition if they’ve bookmarked the login page on their phone.  All of these updates, along with a simplified navigation and updated look will make it easier for your patients to get more engaged in their personal health.

ONC Certification

Our 2015 ONC Certification is complete and we’re ready to help make your Meaningful Use or MIPS reporting as efficient as possible for 2019.  Here are some cool features that will make it easier for you to earn the most points possible.

Your MIPS and Meaningful Use dashboards are separate making it easier for you to focus on the objectives that apply to your practice.  You’ll now have the ability to simply click on an objective to open a window that explains what you need to measure to ensure success.

Please note:  In prior years, controlled substances were not included in the electronic prescription measure.  Starting with the 2019 reporting period, controlled substances are now part of the numerator and denominator.

Both Meaningful Use and MIPS are heavily focused on interoperability and getting your patients to engage with you as a practice.  Your patient portal will be very important as they want you to encourage patients to send messages, access their care plan, schedule appointments and more via electronic access.

There is also a new Patient Engagement objective regarding Patient Generated Health Data.  If your office utilizes our digital patient intake system, Intelligent Intake, this will help you meet this measure.  In essence, they would like patients to have the ability to share documents with your practice and other health data electronically.

One of the best features that we have updated during our ONC certification is the ability to get forecasted information regarding your patient’s care plan.  This allows you to understand the care you’ve provided to date, and get recommendations on next steps to form a robust care plan for the patient.

Adding providers to either dashboard is as easy as ever.  You’ll simply pick “stage 3,” and select 90-day reporting when utilizing the MIPS dashboard.

It is important to note that Meaningful Use will also be reporting on Quality but will not be using our partner, MINGLE.  Instead, we are integrating with Dynamic Health Solutions and will provide additional information as needed.  This applies to Medicaid practices using Meaningful Use and not MIPS.

MIPS Dashboard

You will now be able to calculate all the interoperability measures both at the provider and the group level.  When adding a provider to the MIPS dashboard, it will request that you choose individual or group.  Then you will have to associate the provider with a TIN.  Please Note:  If you have issues with the TIN, you may simply need to remove the hyphen from the number in order to get the system to accept it.

Changes have also been made regarding clinical support.  You will now have the op9tion to buy clinical support rules from our new partner.  If you click on the help rule, info buttons will then appear on the timeline summary screen with access to clinically relevant information about the patient’s active medications and diagnoses.  We also updated the clinical message section to now show clinical message details

Additionally, the system will now track clinical reconciliation at the encounter level so that you are always informed of whether the encounter was reconciled.  Providers can simply open the appointment to ensure tracking occurs correctly.  We also upgraded the ability to track reconciliation at the allergen, medication and problem areas.  There are new checkboxes next to each individual selection which are automatically checked on your behalf as reconciled.  You will only need to deselect in the instance the reconciliation did not occur.  Finally, immunization data will also be shown on reconciliation in addition to the forecast.  Providers can click on each forecast for additional information. Now when you get a clinical summary, you will be able to open it, attach it to the file and then choose an appointment to associate with it.

Intelligent Intake

We’ve listened to the practices already utilizing our digital intake module, Intelligent Intake, and made some tweaks where needed.  Keep reading for some of the upgrades to look for after the new release.

First, we fixed the notification issue on the chart tab along with the photo merge errors.  We also upgraded your options and created additional intake forms giving you double the number you used to have.  You’ll find 10 custom intake forms instead of 5 to make your intake process more efficient.

We also created a flag for clinical data that needed to be merged to the patients’ chart, so it is easily identifiable with the user needs to take that step.  Additionally, when a patient is paying their balance on the intake form, it no longer disappears.

E-Fax Integration Fixes

A lot of our partners use our eFax integration.  We wanted to let you know of some incredible upgrades to this feature too.  Your practice can now fax compound prescriptions to the pharmacy solving a lot efficiency issues for you and your patients.  Additionally, the patient’s favorite pharmacies list will show up making it easier to send prescriptions to their pharmacy of choice.

One of our favorite updates is the option to fax a patient note to their entire care team.  Once you’ve signed off on the patient note, the system will automatically suggest for you to fax notes to the larger are team involved in the patient’s care.  This feature integrates with the contact list.  You can quickly add all caregivers in the patient setup screen.

Hospital Rounding Functionality

Previously, on a daily or weekly basis you would designate a location for the provider to do his rounds.  However, sometimes schedules change, and our system didn’t work as efficiently at that time.  After Release 19.2 is complete, providers will be able to choose the option to see all patients at an individual location regardless of their schedule. This will improve your rounding experience a great deal.

Additional features that you will enjoy, include the ability to copy charges, delete a round, cancel an appointment from the mobile app, add a hospital round and new patient whenever necessary. All of these features will make your workflow much more efficient.

Introducing OptimizeRx

We’ve integrated with a partner, OptimizeRx, to help your patients stay engaged with their medications and remove financial barriers to getting these prescriptions.
With this integration, your patients will have the ability to receive a discount coupon for the exact medication that was prescribed by your doctors – this coupon can go to the patient, as well as the pharmacy.

No practice action is necessary, as this will be happening behind the scenes, but if you choose to opt out of this program please contact the iSalus Support Team.

Conclusion

As with all our releases, we will be announcing the release before it happens this month.  You can be assured that our team will be ready to help you understand or utilize any of the new functionality we’ve built for you.  We look forward to continuing to partner with you in the future and will work tirelessly to continuing our research and product development to meet each of your needs.  Our team will continue to pioneer patient engagement so that healthcare becomes personal again.