5.32 Release Features
CareStack 5.32 invites you to an impressive line-up of features that have been hand-picked and rolled out to offer practices the most beneficial of the lot. The PMS, with its top-notch features, has, with every release, select updates, UI revamps, or integrations all dedicated to saving time, increasing productivity, and producing favorable results for practices across locations.
The amazing yet select features that the 5.32 release confers on its users include: the capability to tokenize ACH Payments, including check payments as well as enabling of payment plans with ACH via CS Pay; added ability to run an operational report on Ortho Cases; pop-up alert notifications for duplicate payments related to CS Pay; quick filtering of transactions requiring attention on Payment Transactions List besides creating receipts for those payments; the choice to generate warnings when applying payments collected in one location to treatment code(s) completed in a different location(s) - plainly a great boon for practices to reduce error and related losses & not to mention the exciting reforms to the Teamworx utility feature to unequivocally complement the presentation of treatment plans.
Clinical
1. Increase Case Acceptance with Teamworx
CareStack is excited to share a major update on the image file attached to the codes and conditions including its descriptions. This reform to the Teamworx utility feature has been initiated to enable users to adeptly communicate the treatment plans to their patients with confidence.
Patient Engagement/Patient Services
1. Copy Responsible Party Details to Dependants
CareStack offers the RP the ability to copy Responsible Party details when filling up an online appointment for their dependant(s). The following feature reflects only when the RP selects Another Person for the question, ‘Who will be financially responsible for this patient?’. This would be most helpful for pediatric practices wherein parents would be filling up information for their children who are, in fact, patients. All that the Responsible Party needs to do is check mark the Copy Responsible Party’s Details box under Patient Details, and the related information, i.e., Email, Mobile, and Address, will be duly replicated for the patients who are added on.
2. Upload Documents for Responsible Party & Insurance Holder Accounts
Navigate to Patient Overview > Documents to access the ability to directly upload and refer documents such as insurance cards, registration documents, ID(s), etc., for Responsible Party and Insurance Holder accounts who are not patients. This is specific to pediatric patients who have their parents added as RP using the workflow Add New Patient > Other > Add New Responsible Party.
Note: The Patient Overview of a Responsible Party would reflect only relevant features on the left-side navigation bar.
3. Quick links to add Preferred name in Office wizard
To access this feature, navigate to Practice Settings > Office Wizard > Forms > Edit > Workflow Details > Proceed > drag Paragraph from Custom Components and drop it in the form to customize > select Quick Links under Paragraph Settings.
It lets you include the preferred names within the Office Wizard > Forms using Quick links. This will reflect the names as captured under the related field in the Add New Patient page > More Name Options > Name (Preferred Name).
You may search or scroll down to select the Quick Links in order to add the preferred name for Responsible Party / Patient, i.e., @PAT_PREFERREDNAME and @RP_PREFERREDNAME.
Note: All values captured within the Nickname field till date can be retained via Quick Links. The Nickname field was renamed as Preferred Name for better understanding.
4. Redesigned Forms
Forms generated via Patient Portal and Patient Connect come with a redesigned outlook.
5. Patient Login Reforms
For easier identification and compliance with privacy standards, when a patient logs into Patient Portal and Patient Connect: Kiosk, the last four digits of their mobile number will be displayed, with the remaining masked by an ‘X’. This happens only if the two-factor authentication has been enabled.
Revenue Cycle Management
1. View Claims and Pre Auth details from the Ledger
a. View Claims Details Modal
i. CareStack offers its users the ability to access the Claims details while visiting the patient's Ledger straight from the procedure code, provided the treatment code has been completed > just hover over the Code Description and click on View Details that appears.
You will see the newly included Claims tab on the Payment Allocation Modal that opens up. This tab includes details of all the claims associated with the code, namely, Claim ID, Carrier, Hierarchy, Status & Actions displayed in a grid-based layout. Selection of View Claim under Actions opens up the Claim slide out for users to take necessary action.
b. View Pre Auth Details Modal
i. In the same fashion as the Claims tab within View Details of a completed code, the Pre Auth Tab includes associated details, namely, Pre Auth ID, Pre-Auth No., Carrier, Pre-Auth Status & Actions. Selection of View Pre Auth Tab under Actions opens up the Pre Auth slider for users to view and take any necessary action.
Note: These two features offer the ability to quickly view any related claims or pre-auths that are specifically attached to that code, for a quicker way to access those details.
2. Location Warning
Patient Payments with Location Warning
This feature was built for multi-location offices that do not want money taken in one location to be applied to a code in another location to help reduce bank reconciliation between multiple locations. Imagine this feature as a softer approach to payment location restrictions. You will be warned, and many areas will default you to not cross apply money, yet every warning can be overridden with intentionally clicking a different option on the screen.
This distinctive ability, upon being enabled, notifies users via a pop-up alert when attempting to apply a payment that was collected in one location to a treatment code that was completed in a different location. This applies to both taking a new payment, applying existing payments, payment plans, the batch posting functionality, and auto applying of payments from external sources.
a. Practice Settings for Warning (Location Transfer of Receipt)
To enable this feature, navigate to Practice Settings > Payments > Patient Payments > select Edit under General Payment Settings > Choose Yes for ‘Enable warning while making a location transfer of receipt’. The following examples are with the feature enabled.
Note: This feature will be off as a default for all clients, meaning the setting will state ‘No’. To enable, use the steps above to change the setting to ‘Yes’.
When the question ‘When Patient Credits are added from Ext (external) sources’ is chosen to leave them as unapplied credits in the patient account, the following 2 line items are removed: ‘Post Credits added from Ext. Sources in Order’, and ‘Apply Patient Credits added from Ext. Sources to’, because those fields are no longer applicable.
In addition to the location warning in the newly created Patient Payments section, we also moved the Text to Pay settings from System Menu > Practice Settings > Payments > General > Others to choose to show the account name or location name.
To access these settings, there are permissions listed under System Menu > Practice Settings > Administration > Profiles > select Manage Permissions against the desired user profile > choose Practice Settings.
Tip: If any of the fields have been marked as ‘No’, the selected user will not be able to access those settings. Hence toggle to ‘Yes’ as and where required.
Note: If the user has permission to edit a setting, then the permission to view the setting will automatically default to ‘YES’.
b. Taking a New Patient Payment
Navigate to Patient Overview > Billing > Payments > Add New Payment. When adding a patient payment that is to be directly applied to codes with patient balances, there will be a checkbox auto marked to ‘Only show codes in Payment Location’. If you uncheck that box and apply the payments to any code, regardless of location, a confirmation warning message will appear upon clicking ‘Add Receipt’, or ‘Pay with Bluepay/Apex/CS Pay’.
Note: When in Practice Settings, ‘Enable warning while making a location transfer of receipt’ is chosen as 'Yes', then the default under add patient payment is to HIDE codes with balances in other locations. That checkbox can always be unchecked, but the amount listed in the “Payment Amount” does not recalculate and stays as is.
c. Applying Existing Payments
When applying an existing patient payment to codes on an individual patient or account basis, there are two ways to do this. Use the ‘Apply Credits’ button on the ‘Add New Payment’ tab, and within the ‘Unapplied Credits’ tab.
i. To Apply Credits, navigate to Patient Overview > Billing > Payments > Add New Payment.
When clicking on ‘Apply Credits’ in the balance summary box on the upper right of the screen, a warning pop-up as the one shown below will appear, asking how you would like to apply the credits. Same as Pay Location will be selected by default, and the unapplied credits mentioned against a particular location will only be applied to the location where the treatment code was completed. Once done, click Proceed.
If you choose any location, the total unapplied credits mentioned in the pop-up will be applied to the total balance due, irrespective of location.
ii. To apply credits from the Unapplied Credits tab, navigate to Patient Overview > Billing > Payments > Unapplied Credits.
If the user selects a receipt from the Step 1 grid: ‘Select credits to post payment from,’ the Only Show Codes in Payment Location box under Step 2: ‘Select procedure code(s) to post payments’ will be check-marked automatically, and the Step 2 grid will only show codes in the same location as the selected payment location in Step 1.
If the user selects multiple receipts from different locations in the Step 1 grid, the codes for all the selected locations will be displayed in the Step 2 grid.
If the user has not selected any receipt from the Step 1 grid, then the Only Show Codes in Payment Location box will remain unchecked and all codes from all locations will be displayed in Step 2.
d. Payment Plans
With Payment Plans, you can link codes at the time of a payment plan creation; link codes to an existing payment plan, as well as link an existing general payment plan to an ortho patient payment schedule. Location warnings will populate across the said areas. Let’s go over each function.
i. Navigate to Patient Overview > Billing > Payments > Payment Plans. When creating a payment plan and linking codes, or linking codes to an existing payment plan, by default, the checkbox ‘Only show codes in Payment Location’ will be marked, which will match the payment location of the payment plan, thus only showing completed codes with patient balances that match the payment location of the payment plan.
Note: If the box is unchecked, you can select codes in other locations. After the codes are linked and you click on ‘View & Sign Agreement’, the following warning message will appear to confirm the actions.
ii. Navigate to Patient Overview > Billing > Ortho Cases > Payment Plans. When the user tries to link an existing general payment plan to the an ortho plan, if there is a mismatch between the location of the corresponding ortho case and the general payment plan, the below warning will be displayed upon selecting the payment plan from the dropdown:
iii. When the user tries to edit the location of an ortho case after a payment plan has been linked to the plan, and it no longer matches the location of the payment plan, the below warning will be displayed when the user selects the non matching location.
iv. When the user creates a new ortho patient payment plan for an ortho plan (rather than linking an existing general payment plan), and if there is a mismatch between the locations of the corresponding ortho case and the ortho payment plan, the below warning will be displayed when the user selects the non matching location:
e. Batch Posting
When the users initiate a Batch Posting on the unapplied credits i.e. from System Menu > Patient Payments > Batch Posting > Post Unapplied Credits; by default, ‘Same as Pay Location’ in response to Apply Credits will be checked by default, which will only post credits to codes in matching locations.
f. External (Patient Portal) Patient Payment
If the patient makes a payment from an external source, such as Patient Portal or Text to Pay, practices can set it to be applied only to the location where the treatment code was completed. If the payment location and the code location are different, the payment will be collected but will not be applied to the balance due.
Navigate to System Menu > Practice Setting > Payments > Patient Payments > General Payment Settings.
i. If you select Tx. Codes Completed on Same Payment Location, the payment will be applied only to the location where the treatment was completed.
ii. If you choose Any Location, the payment collected from the external source will be applied to the balance due irrespective of location.
3. General Payment Plans
a. Editing Payment Schedule Amount in Payment Plans
i. CareStack offers users the ability to Edit an Overdue/Pending Amount on a Payment Plan provided the Pending Schedule has one or more Overdue/Failed schedules. The ability to edit an overdue payment schedule in the past was not allowed, reducing flexibility in the feature. This feature lays the framework for the ‘Link Receipts to Payment Plan’ feature, listed a couple items below in this article. In such an instance, the effect of the change will be applied only to the payment amount in the pending schedule without affecting the Overdue/Failed schedules.
Note: Users will not be able to edit when there is only one pending schedule in the payment plan.
ii. When an Overdue Amount is changed to (Current Overdue Amount + Pending Amount), this increases the overdue amount, which in turn may lead to one or more pending schedules being removed and the number of terms reduced. This happens when the pending amount gets covered while adjusting the Overdue amount.
Let’s take a look at the screenshot below. In this example, you will see 2 Overdue payments of $80 and 2 Pending payments of $80. In such an instance, if one of the Overdue is adjusted to $160, then from the remaining two terms of pending payment, one term of paying the pending amount of $80 will be removed.
Note: Users will not be able to edit overdue payments with no pending schedule.
iii. When a payment Plan has two or more pending schedules and only one overdue/failed schedule, the user can edit a pending schedule amount to cover the future scheduled amount. In such an instance, the remaining pending schedules and number of terms will be reduced.
a. If the initial payment transaction gets declined while creating a payment plan, the users can use the Previous button in the Make Payment section to navigate to the previous pages and retry the down payment without having to begin again.
b. Capturing Signature for General Payment Plan
While creating a Payment Plan, users have four options to select from in order to capture their patient's signature on the Payment Plan Agreement.
i. Use the electronic signature pad to capture the signature if one is available and connected to the user’s system. This option would be shown only if an e-sign pad is connected, else it will remain hidden.
ii. Use mouse input to capture the patient’s signature.
iii. The users can also collect the signature from the patient externally by printing out the agreement and the same can be marked inside CareStack, with the option , ‘Confirm that the patient’s signature has been captured externally.’
iv. Use Patient Connect/Patient Portal to capture signature (Agreement will be saved as Draft)
Note: When opting for the 4th option, users will be notified with the following message, i.e., ‘The patient can sign the agreement either via Patient Connect or logging into their Patient Portal’.
c. Linking a Receipt to a Payment Plan
We have brought in a new addition to Payment Plans i.e. linking an external receipt from the patient ledger that is unapplied, to a payment plan, to fulfill a payment schedule of a payment plan. This feature is helpful in 2 ways;
- When a patient pays an overdue or future payment schedule with a different card than the card on file for an auto debit payment plan.
- When a cash or check payment was made to fulfill an overdue or future payment schedule for a payment plan.
i. Navigate to Patient Overview > Billing > Payments > Payment Plans, open the desired payment plan by clicking View Details, and on the desired payment schedule, click ‘Link Receipt’.
ii. For a receipt to show up in the grid after clicking Link Receipt in the payment plan, it has to be the same dollar amount as the payment schedule, and the same location. If you wish to link a receipt that is in a location different from the payment plan location, simply click the box to ‘Show Receipts in All Locations’.
Note: For reference, the Payment Plan Location and other important information is listed on the upper left-side of the grid, when choosing which receipt to link.
iii. You can also click to Show Receipts without Available Credits, which will allow you to connect a previously applied receipt, that has no unapplied amount left, to this payment plan, if desired.
iv. The types of receipts that will populate in the list of receipts that can be linked are Cash, Check, and Credit/Debit.
v. The Payment Method will be updated from a General receipt to a Payment Plan receipt, after it is linked.
Note: You can only link one receipt at a time, meaning one receipt to one payment schedule. This feature is available for both pending scheduled (future payments) as well as overdue schedules (past payments). The amount remaining in the payment plan will be reduced, and the amount paid will be increased, by the receipt amount.
CS Pay
1. Customization of CS Pay Email Notifications
a. Here is what users can achieve when provided with login access to the CS Pay Portal, via Practice Settings > Administration > Users > select user from the grid > click on Login Details on the user details pop-up > select Edit > checkmark CS Pay for Allow Login to. Upon doing so, an additional field, Send Email Notifications for will automatically appear for the user to select the options for which the email notification(s) will be triggered. The options include:- Check Settlement Failure, Disputes Raised, and Merchant Account Activation.
b. Merchant Account Activation
Once the ‘Merchant Account Activation’ for CS Pay has been checkmarked in Login Details of the said user, then the following email confirmation upon successful activation of their CS Pay merchant account will be generated.
2. Deposit Report
a. In the CS Pay Portal, the Deposit Report is available on the following URL:
https://pay.uat.carestack.com/#/deposit-reports.
i. Users can filter the Payment Transactions using the Select Period option on the table header.
ii. The existing ‘Export Deposit Report’ button, which enables users to download the currently filtered transactions as a CSV file, has added a new column titled ‘Transaction ID’.
iii. Users will see ACH Transactions indicated as ACH under the column header ‘Type’.
b. Ability to Print Deposit Report
The inclusion of the Print Deposit Report will enable users to directly print the report without having to first download the report. To access this feature navigate to CS Pay > Deposit Report > Print Deposit Report.
3. Selection to View Yesterday’s Transactions
a. In the CS Pay Portal, as you navigate to the All Transactions page, you will find in the Select Period section, an option button that lets you make a selection for ‘Yesterday.’
Note: Selecting ‘Yesterday’ lets you filter out transactions from the previous day that are within the time range of 12 am to 11:59 pm. The suggested time range shall be relative to the system time zone of the user who has logged in.
4. Tokenization of ACH Payments
a. To increase efficiency in managing payments made with CS Pay, CareStack brings to its users a handful of advantages.
i. The foremost is the ability to tokenize ACH payments as you ‘Pay with CS Pay’ for Check payments.
ii. To successfully tokenize, users need to input the patient’s Routing Number and Account Number. Checkmark the ‘Save Account Information for Later Use’ to save the bank account on file & click the Pay button to proceed with the payment.
iii. Checkmarking the ‘Save Account Information for Later Use’ will prompt a Confirm Patient Consent pop-up. Choosing the desired option will enable the ‘Confirm & Save Payment Method’ button.
Note: Click on Send Patient Portal Link if you are choosing the third option. This will send the patient an email through which they will receive the link for their agreement, which they can view and easily sign via the Patient Portal.
iv. 5 to 7 working days are expected for Check Payments to reach the merchant bank account and to be settled (provided the charge went through with no issues like a bounced check). If you attempt to make a payment during this time, you will see the 'Settlement Pending' highlighted against the tokenized payment.
Tip: Therefore, the same token for this location cannot be reused until the payment has been settled for this location. Once the payment has been settled, you will be able to ‘Use Saved Account’ to make further payments.
Note: Users cannot tokenize ACH payment methods with zero-dollar payments.
b. Permission to View & Update Card on File Agreement
i. To access this setting, navigate to Practice Settings > Administration > Profiles > select Manage Permission for the desired profile > Practice Settings > Payment Settings > View Payment Method Agreement / Edit Payment Method Agreement.
To enable permission to View Payment Method Agreement, ensure to select ‘Yes’. Also, users who have been given permission to Edit Payment Method Agreement will have the corresponding View Payment Method Agreement permission automatically switched to ‘Yes’. In such a scenario, the permission to View will remain uneditable.
ii. “Payment Method Agreement” has replaced the previously worded “Card on File Agreement”, since this agreement now supports both Card on File, and ACH on file.
5. Payment Plans Using Check
a. The ability to create auto-debiting payment plans using tokenized ACH payments have been introduced. While creating a new payment plan, if the down payment amount is greater than zero and the user chooses the Payment Type as Check, the Enable Auto Debit checkbox will be activated, provided that ACH tokenization of check payment is enabled in the selected location in Practice Settings.
Note: Payment types under the Direct Transfer payment category are currently not supported for auto-debiting. Only payment types under Check can be used to create auto-debiting payment plans.
b. Since check payments take at least 5 to 7 days to settle, while creating the payment plan using the same and if auto-debit is enabled, then the first periodic payment date should be at least two weeks after the down payment date to accommodate the down payment’s settlement period.
c. Once the agreement is signed and when the user moves on to the Make Payment section, the user would be able to either use a previously tokenized bank account or enter the ACH payment details in the payment form.
d. Once the payment has been successfully added and the payment plan is created, the plan status will be Pending till the initial down payment is settled, and an information section will appear helping users understand why the payment plan is still pending.
i. For payment plans that are in Pending state, all its corresponding details will be non-editable.
ii. In case, the initial payment settles after the periodic billing start date, all the schedules that are crossed would get skipped.
iii. If the payment plan was terminated before its activation, all the schedules will be terminated. However, the down payment collection will not be impacted.
iv. Once the down payment transaction is settled, the payment plan status will automatically change to Active.
e. If the down payment transaction fails to settle, then the Payment Plan status will be changed to Failed. The same would be indicated with a warning to inform the user of the same. The schedules will remain in the Pending status.
i. If a payment plan has failed, the user can either terminate or recreate the payment plan.
The user will have two options,
- Terminate Payment Plan: Choosing this option will terminate the payment plan.
- Terminate & Create New Payment Plan: This option will terminate the existing payment plan and create a new plan. In this new plan, all the basic details will be pre-populated from the terminated plan except for the payment details.
ii. A tiny red dot will appear against the Patient Payments option in the System Menu in case of failed payments. This red dot will disappear only when the user terminates the failed payment plan. Besides, an F will be displayed adjacent to Plan Name.
f. i. Post the activation of a payment plan if an interim payment schedule fails to settle or if the initial down payment did not go through, then the ACH payment receipt that was created will be automatically marked as an NSF check after reversing all transactions associated with it, if any.
ii. If the very last payment schedule fails to settle, the payment schedule status will change from Success to Failed, and the payment plan’s status will no longer be Completed but will be changed to Active.
iii. If a payment plan is terminated after activation and then the last settlement has failed, the schedule status will remain as Terminated(F).
Note: If you are utilizing ACH Payment Plans with CS Pay, ensure to update your payment agreement to state that if a payment fails to process, the plan will be terminated automatically. Payment agreements can be found via Practice Settings > Payments > Contract Agreements > General as provided in the image below:
g. The Pay Now button will now be enabled for tokenized check payment plans which will run the payment using the saved ACH token.
h. Changes in Practice Settings for ACH Payment Plans - Users have the option to enable payment plans with ACH Payments, to access, navigate to Practice Settings > Payments > General > Payment Services > click Edit under the CS Pay section > checkmark Check/ACH box within Enable Gateway for > click Save. Ensure the Enable Payment Plan, along with the remaining options, are check-marked as ‘Yes.’
6. Process Refund Via CS Pay - Default to Yes
When attempting a refund for a receipt added via CS Pay, an option such as Process Refund via CS Pay will appear. You will see this option defaulted to Yes. Users can change the said option to No if desired.
Note: If you select a CS Pay transaction and a non CS Pay transaction, ONLY the CS Pay transaction amount will go back to the patient’s card, even though both transactions will show ‘refund’ in the patient’s ledger.
7. Warning for Duplicate Payments
In certain instances, you will see, owing to a disrupted connection or the like, a payment that was made via CS Pay to be debited but not a receipt created for the same. In such a scenario, if the user attempts to retry another payment with the same dollar amount and same payment date, then a warning modal will appear, alerting the user of the Duplicate Payment. The warning modal further offers users the option to a) cancel, b) Ignore and Make Payment or c) Navigate to Payment Transaction to filter out related transactions and create a receipt for the payment that was debited but not recorded.
8. Filter out transactions that require attention & create a receipt
Select Navigate to Payment Transaction and check mark the Show Transactions that Require Attention box to display the transaction(s) for which the payment amount was debited via CS pay, but a receipt was not created inside CareStack. An alternative manner to access this page is by navigating to System Menu > Payment Transactions List.
Click on Create Receipt against the desired transaction to create one, and you will see the related record immediately reflected within Patient Overview > Payments > All Payments, as well as on the patient’s Ledger.
Reporting and Analytics
1. Ortho Case Report
To complement the existing feature of adding Ortho Cases to patients, CareStack has brought in the added ability to run an Ortho Case Report. The key benefit of this report is that it allows users to track all the ortho cases added within the PMS and its related statuses.
To access this exciting feature, navigate to System Menu > Operational Reports under Insights > select Ortho Case Report.
When users run an Ortho report, it enables them to retrieve information related to the Ortho Case Summary and its status as captured in the PMS via Patient Overview > Billing > Ortho Cases > select Ortho Case > click on Payment Plans which lets you view the selected Ortho Case(s) Summary details particular to the chosen patient.
