5.40 Release Features

Introducing the 5.40 release with impactful updates designed to simplify your daily workflow. This release presents significant enhancements across multiple modules, especially in Clinical, RCM, Referrals, Reporting, Patient Engagement, and Scheduling, all designed to provide a smoother experience for practices.

Top highlights include:

• A brand-new Prescriptions Report with flexible filtering options.
• The all-new Insurance Manager feature to streamline insurance carrier and plan setup with customizable templates.
• Significant improvements in Referrals to save as draft for Refer-Outs, edit referral provider details from the referral portal, and configure multiple refer-in forms for required locations. With modes of communications enabled for incoming referrals for both the referral provider and referred patient, we’ve made it even easier, and there's more!
• Customize the sections to include in the Routing Slip, with the ability to preview before finalizing.
• A centralized space to access and generate Custom Reports on demand.
• Schedule Batch Statements weekly, biweekly, or monthly based on chosen criteria.
• Print Blank Forms directly from the Office Wizard.
• Introducing Patient Survey to easily gather valuable patient feedback.
• Ability to add an extra layer of security with Two-Factor Authentication.

But that's not all! 

• Unlock the full potential of Insurance Payments with quick links, real-time tracking of code balances and transactions, automated balance recalculation for line-level payments, and a streamlined account summary for improved financial clarity.
• Option to add Appointment Flags to appear on the appointment tile.
• A helpful ‘Learn More’ button across Operational Reports.
• Effortlessly send and receive images, GIFs, and emojis using the new MMS support.
• Leverage Referral Effectiveness View in Refer-in report offering key metrics, comparison filters, and grouping options to track trends and analyze performance.

5.40 has even more enhancements; dive deeper to discover the full update!

Front Office

1. Production Calendar

• Practice Managers, based on the location they have access to, can ‘Add’ or ‘Edit’ Provider Availability Schedules. However, users can view the schedules of all other locations regardless of their access level.

2. Lab Cases

• To populate the location in a Lab Case, either: (1) select a location or (2) select an appointment first, and its location will populate automatically. If an appointment is selected, the appointment’s location will override the selected location.

3. Appointment Status

• Easily reorder Custom and System Appointment Statuses with a simple drag and drop.
• System and Custom appointment statuses are now displayed together in the Appointment Status grid, allowing users to view Descriptions for all statuses.

4. Clipboard

• Clipboard now displays the notes directly on each tile, making it easier to view the saved notes. 
   

5. Landing Page

• Ability to set the Front Office Dashboard or the Scheduler as the default landing page with a one-time setup. This preference can be changed anytime from User Settings.

 6. Routing Slip

• Users can now choose which sections to include in the Routing Slip at the account and location levels, with a new option to Preview before finalizing. 

• The Routing Slip now includes an updated header for improved readability.
  • Header: Patient Name, Patient ID.

7. Appointment Flags

• Access Appointment Flags settings from the Scheduler Setup menu and Practice Settings.
• Ability to configure Appointment Flags to appear on the Appointment Tile (up to a maximum of four) once an appointment is booked.
• Create Custom Flags with a short code and a unique colour to highlight specific appointment requirements.

• Ability to set up Appointment Flags in Scheduler Settings to reflect on Appointment tiles.
• Additionally, visible on the Scheduler Print, both in black-and-white and color formats.

8. Appointment Slide-Out

• Practices can now make it mandatory to add at least one code to the appointment when an appointment is created. Practices can contact support to enable this option.

Clinical

1. Fee Schedule 

• Users can now apply undulation to the Amount for a Future Date through percentage-based increases or decreases across the Fee Schedule and Table of Allowances.
• For HMO and MEDI plans, users also have the option to select Insurance Amount, the Patient Amount, or both, for applying undulation. For Max. Allowable and UCR, we can apply undulation on the  Fees.

2. Treatment Planner

• Ability to sort grouped treatments on the Treatment Planner from Newest to Oldest and vice versa, and the selected order will be retained even if the user navigates to another page and returns.

• Users can now change the Provider Type of a completed code to an in-house provider only if the Billing Order is N.

3. Chart

• We have split the Occlusal Surface for premolars and molars to allow Treatments that apply to a portion of the surface instead of the entire area.

• Introduced three new Materials Zirconium, Silver Diamine Fluoride, and Bioclear. 

• The Odontogram with all Draw Types is now available on tabs like Notes, To Start, To Complete, To Review, and Documents, allowing users to reference it easily while taking notes.
• A new Show Fee Estimates checkbox has been introduced, which users can uncheck if the fees need to be hidden.

• Ability to add multiple teeth to a Procedure Code, replacing the previous limit of three teeth per code.

• While adding Completed Codes from the Care Panel or the + Code slide-out without selecting an appointment beforehand, a link-to-appointment pop-up will appear.
• This pop-up allows users to link the code to an existing Appointment or a specific Date of Service (DOS), with the default location and DOS prefilled based on the location selected in the patient’s chart.
• The same applies when adding codes from the Ledger, where you can modify the date while adding a code.

 

4. Perio Chart

• Users can now view the bleeding condition on the Lingual teeth in both the Perio Chart and Print, regardless of the 'Show Lingual Teeth' toggle.
   

• Added a new Mobility Comparison (MOB) view to the Perio Graph and Numeric Comparison, allowing users to better track the mobility of all teeth.

• The Perio Chart Print now shows separate legends for color-coded indicators and abbreviations with descriptions. The Numeric Chart print includes a legend mapping all abbreviations to their full terms for clarity.

• Users can change the Provider and Location in the Perio Chart during an ongoing perio-exam.
• For completed perio exams, changes can be made only within 24 hours after completion.
• The Perio Chart displays shortcut recommendations for users to mark conditions such as Bleeding and Suppuration.

5. Implant Tracker

• The Type of Work field is no longer mandatory when adding a new Implant.

6. Clinical Summary

• Added a Fluoride Section and a View Codes button for all items with associated procedure codes, allowing users to easily access related codes.

7. Care Notes

• Location-level restrictions have been added to Care Notes. Users can now edit and create Care Notes templates only for the location(s) to which they have access. 

Referrals

1. Previous, Save as Draft for Refer Outs

• Users can now return to previous steps to make changes while creating a Refer-out.
• Ability to save a referral as a draft and return to edit it later.
• Utilise the edit icon next to each step on the left to go back and update its details.
• Users can preview the referral letter to see how the print will appear before signing.

2. Referral Hub Enhancements

• Ability to call if click-to-call is enabled for both the Referral Provider and the Referral.
• Option to message or email the Referral if correspondence is enabled.
• Use provider chat to message the Referral Provider, provided they have access to the referral portal.
• Send emails to the Referral Provider if correspondence is enabled.

On selecting a Referral:

• View referral details in the left panel with options to link an existing patient or create a new patient and book an appointment.
• View referral engagements added in the ‘Referral Engagement’ tab, provider chat (if the provider has portal access), and referral form with attached documents in the ‘Referral Documents’ section on the right panel.

3. Outgoing Referrals in Referral Portal

• External providers previously had no way to track referrals sent to practice users in CareStack, often resulting in delays and the need for manual follow-ups. The new Outgoing Referrals section in the Referral Portal solves this by allowing external providers to create referrals, easily access and monitor their status, and communicate directly with receiving practices via provider chat, enhancing transparency, reducing back-and-forth, and streamlining the entire referral process.

• The detail view of the referrals includes an option to chat with the provider about the referral.

4. Update Provider Details in Referral Portal

• Clicking the username on the top right enables referral providers to edit details. 
• Update the details such as Name, Date of Birth, Gender, and Phone.
• Updates saved will be reflected across all accounts where the referral provider is added.

5. Refer-in Form

• Multiple Refer-in forms can be configured in Practice Settings for the required locations as needed.
• Enable or disable all non-mandatory questions in the existing refer-in forms.
• Ability to add a custom list of Procedures/Consultations to each configured form.

• Added options to include a tooth selector, customize the form name, and add either an account logo or a custom logo to the form.

RCM

1. Insurance Manager

• Introducing Insurance Manager, a new feature designed to streamline the setup of insurance carriers and plans through customizable templates to help practices save time, improve accuracy, and manage insurance information more efficiently.

2. Insurance Payments

To enhance efficiency in Insurance Payments and boost user satisfaction, the Insurance Payments feature has been upgraded with the following improvements:

• Quick Access links have been strategically enhanced and placed for user convenience. After posting insurance payments, utilize the Ledger, Details, Generate Statement, and Text to Pay quick links to easily confirm any outstanding patient or insurance balances.
• Quickly view the Balance Due, Net Balance, and current transaction details using the Ledger quick link.
• Instantly access the patient's primary and secondary insurance information from the Details quick link.
• If there is a net balance, use Generate Statement to review the Insurance and Patient payables, and share the statement with the patient via RevSpring.
• For any remaining Patient due or cumulative amount after transferring insurance due to the patient, send the Text to Pay link to the patient.
• The ability to Apply Credits, allowing users to clear unapplied credits for a patient or account member.
• An enhanced Account Summary section displays key details such as balance due, total due, net balance, and unapplied credits.
• Separate views for Patient and Account Balance information.

• Ability to view Plan Details at the claim level.
• Users can directly view code transactions for each code and identify the code balance in real time for line-level payments.
• When making an insurance payment, the system auto-calculates the difference between the Insurance Amount and Insurance Payments and determines the action to be taken.

3. Statements

• Schedule Batch Statements: Users can now schedule batch statements to auto-generate weekly, biweekly, or monthly based on the selected Generation Criteria.
• ETA on progress of Statement Generation: As a batch is being generated, the completion percentage and estimated time of completion will be displayed.
• Enhanced Batch Generation: We've optimized performance to support the parallel generation of up to 3 statement batches.

4. Ledger 

• Users can now add a completed procedure code and assign it to a past date.

• Easily add Global Adjustments and Payments via the newly updated Add Payment/Adj. button (previously Add Payment button).

• Right-click a Ledger line item to view the category-specific context menu that offers quick access to relevant actions. For instance, a right-click on a pending claim provides the option to print, close, and void a claim.
• Introduced an updated color scheme in Patient and Account Ledger, for Insurance Receipt, Collection Pay, Statements & Claims.

5. Payment Plan Control Center

• The Next Payment Amount and Next Payment Date columns on the Payment Plan Control Center page have been separated and now include the option to sort from newest to oldest or vice versa.

6. Insurance Plan

• While adding a subscriber to a family during insurance plan setup, a new checkbox, ‘Same as Responsible Party’s Address’, has been introduced. Selecting it copies the address automatically, helping users save time.

• When adding a Medicaid Insurance Plan, other family members will be automatically deselected, ensuring only the subscriber remains active on the plan.

• When adding insurance and selecting a Subscriber from the existing patient list, the Age and DOB are now displayed to help users quickly identify the correct subscriber.

• Users can search for a Group No. without including special characters, and matching results will still appear.

• To activate a Terminated Plan, simply remove the termination date and update. This replaces the previous workflow of setting a future termination date and saving.

• The display of the 'Inactive' label above Inactive Plans has been reinstated.

7. Pre-Authorizations

• On the Pre-Authorization page, users can multi-select pre-auths in submitted status and perform a Bulk Void. However, this action will remain disabled if the selected pre-auths are in draft status.

• If a plan has create claim set to 'No', users will be prevented from creating a Pre-Authorization Request for the selected code, and a 'Create Pre-Auth Warning' modal will appear. 

Reporting & Analytics

1. Prescriptions Report

• The newly introduced Prescriptions Report provides a comprehensive view of all prescriptions entered into the system. 
• It supports filtering by prescribing user, provider, or specific drugs, making it easy to generate reports that focus on prescriptions entered by a particular user or for a specific drug. 
• The report features a simple, single-view format with three mandatory fields: date range, location, and the columns to display, offering flexibility and ease of use.

2. Refer In Report 

Introduced 3 new columns, namely:

• Broken Appointment Count of patients linked to the referral source,
• Lifetime Applied Payments represent the total sum of applied payments (both patient and insurance) over the lifetime of patients referred through a particular referral source, &
• Planned Treatment Amount shows the value of planned treatments within the selected date range, excluding procedure codes marked as completed, deleted, or referred out.

• A new column for the patient’s ZIP code has been added to the Detail View to help users quickly identify patient locations.

• To gain deeper insights into the referral performance, we have introduced the Referral Effectiveness View to help practices analyze key metrics such as production, patient volume, and collections over a specific time period, and compare them to previous periods. You can group the data by referral source, location, or referral subcategory, and quickly view:
  • The count of patients from each referral source.
  • The production and collection associated with those referrals.
  • The percentage contribution of each referral category.
• The newly introduced Compare Performance filter for Previous Period and Previous Year lets practices track trends and understand how referral performance evolves.
  • This view helps identify high-performing referral channels, uncover underperforming ones, and guide strategic decisions, whether it is reallocating marketing budgets or refining front-office processes.
    
    

3. Insurance Pending Procedures Report

• Gross Insurance Production (DOS), the newly included column, provides the value of gross insurance production for the associated procedure codes in both the Summary View and Detail View. 
• In the Detail View, at the patient level, two additional columns are available: Balance Due Insurance and Insurance Adjustments to provide helpful context before the user performs an action.
• Now, you can use the ‘Exclude codes with no insurance balance due‘ checkbox to focus only on codes with a balance, allowing you to prioritize more efficiently.

4. Payment Log Report

• The generated report will still display the contributing transactions, even if the value amounts to $0, owing to transactions like refunds or reversals.
• We've added the Day-by-Day Summary View to give practices a daily overview of collections by payment category or payment type.

• Easily track and analyze earnings and adjustments with the enhanced Payment Log report. The Summary view now includes Net Collection and Collection Adjustments columns, while the Transaction view includes the Collection Adjustments Table for deeper insights.

5. Appointments Report

• The Appointments by Provider and Appointments by User reports’ Detail View now includes two new columns for improved insights into cancellations or no-shows:

  • Cancel/NS On: Date when the appointment was marked as cancelled or no show.
  • Cancel/NS By: User who cancelled the appointment.

6. Front Office Dashboard

• Users can now Hide the daily metrics on the left and restore it anytime by clicking 'Show Daily Metrics' with their preference retained throughout the login session.

7. Trend Analysis Dashboard

• Introduced a checkbox for Carestack Recommended Metrics, along with a Clear All option to deselect all metrics simultaneously, replacing the need to remove them individually.
• Provider and Location names are now standardized in Trend Analysis and Scorecards, showing the short name followed by the full name, making it easier to find the right provider or location.

 

8. Custom Reports

• The newly introduced Custom Reports Module provides a centralized space to access all your existing custom reports and request new ones. For accounts with custom reports, this module offers the convenience of generating reports on demand, with the flexibility to choose specific date ranges, up to one year at a time.

NB: This module will be visible only if your account has existing custom reports.

9. Operational Reports

• Column descriptions, previously available in select reports, are now extended to more reports and will appear in the generated report.
• Location-Based Restrictions in Reports: Users can now only generate reports tied to their assigned locations, enhancing data security.
• A Learn More button has also been added to guide users to the related Zendesk article.
• Merged carriers in the report filters are now either removed from non-transactional reports like the Insurance Plans and Pending Eligibility/Verification, or listed at the bottom in the transactional reports like the Insurance Pending Procedures, Payment Log, Deposit Slip, and Claims, making the list clearer and easier to navigate.
• We have two new setup options to configure how Patient Visits and Hygiene Visits are calculated.
  • Practices can now define what counts as a patient visit by choosing between Code Completion, Checked-Out Appointments, or Both. They can also exclude specific codes for more accurate data.
  • Hygiene Codes are configurable as well. Practices can select which codes count toward hygiene visits.
  • Based on the configured KPIs, the calculations for patient visits and hygiene visits will be affected. These updated metrics are accessible under the Performance tab on the Homepage.

Patient Services

1. Patient Documents

• Users can select multiple completed documents and ‘Share to Patient Portal’ at once from the Completed or All tab. 

2. Patient Connect

• Option to set Email addresses as non-mandatory when filling out patient information on the Kiosk. However, if a patient is subscribed to email notifications, an email address will still be required, even if the field is set as non-mandatory.

• Extended Location Grid Restrictions across Patient Connect in Practice Settings.

• In both Kiosk and Office Mode in Patient Connect, users can access only their permitted locations.

• The Kiosk now displays a Session Timeout modal during periods of inactivity, notifying users of the remaining time in minutes before the session expires. Users will have the option either to ‘Continue Session’ or to ‘Logout’.

• The Kiosk now supports capturing Profile Images during new patient registration.

3. Patient Portal

• While filling out forms, patients receive an alert prompting them to save their progress when they navigate away from the forms section or click the browser’s back button.

4. Online Appointments

• A location filter has been added to the Potential Patients section on the Online Appointments page. By default, both No Location and the User's Permitted Locations are selected.
  • If a patient accesses the portal using only their contact number (without selecting a location), the entry will be tagged under No Location.
  • If they use a location-specific or account-specific link with a selected location, the entry will be tagged to that specific location.

• Location grid restriction now applies to the Home Page, Appointment Reasons, and Branding and Design in Online Appointments.

5. Letters

• Letters added to a patient requiring a signature will be automatically shared in the Patient Portal and Kiosk for easy completion and signing.

6. Office Wizard

• Ability to share the documents in the Patient Portal once completed. To enable this, checkmark ‘Share by default to Patient Portal once completed’ while creating a new form or editing an existing one.

• Introduced a new quick link, ‘Patient Title,’ for forms and letters.

• Office Wizard now enforces location restrictions, allowing users to access forms and letters for their permitted locations.
• Ability to Print Blank Forms from the Preview and the Home Page of the Office Wizard.

Patient Engagement

1. Patient Alerts

• You can now select individual alerts to snooze or delete them as needed.
• Additionally, users can snooze an alert indefinitely by selecting Always from the drop-down.

• Easily identify the snoozed alerts by the Snoozed label in the Alert Level column, with the snooze reappear time shown in the Snoozed Until column.

2. Edit Patient slide-out.

• Update contact details for all family members in one go: Mobile, Address, Email, & Additional Contact Information.

3. Patient Snapshot

• A quick link to Appointments is now available on the Patient Snapshot for faster access to the related page.

4. Patient Memo

• Introduced the spell-check feature to prevent spelling errors while adding or editing Patient Memos.

5. Email Template

• Easily insert PNG, JPG, or JPEG images directly into your Email Template from your system.

6. MMS

• Users can now send and receive Images, GIFs, and Emojis via IRIS Chat, Correspondence, and +Message.
• To enable MMS:
  • The practice should contact CareStack Support ([e-mail]) to initiate the process.
  • Support will share the MMS addendum for review and signature.
  • Once the signed addendum is received, MMS will be enabled for the practice.

7. Reputation Management

• Users now have the option to choose Yelp and Facebook while sending Review Requests, expanding the range of supported review sites beyond Google and CareStack.

• Ability to save an Automation in Draft status, allowing users to return later to easily complete it without restarting the process.

• Practices can now reply directly to CareStack Reviews. 

Introducing the all-new Patient Survey feature to help practices gather valuable patient feedback, enhance customer satisfaction, and improve overall operational efficiency.

• Survey Creation: Easily create surveys from scratch or use predefined templates, offering flexibility in gathering patient insights.
• Survey Customization: Customize surveys with various question types like short answer, long answer, rating, etc.
• CSAT & NPS: Track patient satisfaction with CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score), which measures ratings across multiple criteria, and NPS (Net Promoter Score), which gauges patient loyalty and likelihood to recommend the practice.
• Redirect to Review: Automatically redirect satisfied patients to review platforms such as Google, Facebook, or Yelp based on the NPS or CSAT scores, safeguarding and boosting the practice's online reputation.

Security

1. Two-Factor Authentication

• Log in more securely with two-factor authentication via an OTP to your email for verification. 
• Ability to configure for All Users in Account or All Users in Selected Locations.
• Additionally, practices can choose to bypass two-factor authentication for allowed IP addresses.

2. IP Restriction

• Practices can now enable the Override IP Restriction using OTP feature, providing users with secure access to CareStack even from IP addresses outside the allowed range.

 

General

1. Task Manager

• The Patient Search Bar in Task Manager now displays the last ten recent patients.
• Click and drag Checklist items to change their order.

• Click the patient name in a task to quickly view their Patient Snapshot.

2. Notifications

• You can now subscribe to specific locations for different types of notifications. This allows you to receive notifications only from locations you're interested in, helping you avoid alerts from irrelevant ones.

Note: You can only subscribe to locations that are part of your allowed list.

Explore the new and updated features and share your insights with us. We're eager to hear from you. 

Stay ahead with the exciting 5.40 updates, rolling out to practices by early June!