New Features and Updates

General

Patient

• New Balance Due Insurance Optional Column:  Some healthcare providers rarely bill patients directly, instead focusing primarily on the balance owed by insurance companies rather than the patient's balance. The patient search screen (results dialog) already displayed the balance owed by insurance, but this information was not shown in the recently opened table. In this release, We added the Balance Due Insurance as an optional column (hidden by default) within the Patient Search screen's Recently Opened list. 

• New A/R Control Filters Related To Payment Portal Invites: We recently added an option to Send Payment Portal Invites as a batch action from Patient A/R Control. In this release, we added new filters within A/R Control to determine whether or not a patient has enrolled with the payment portal. Customers can now search by a new Date Search Option "Days Since Last Payment Portal Invite Sent," or by the Claim Search Option "Payment Portal Status" (Invitation Not Sent, Invitation Sent but Not Registered, Registered). For more information on determining if patients have enrolled in the payment portal, please visit our Search For Patient Balances Help Article.
  

Claim

• Updated the Claim Search Capability: When users receive communication from the payer about a claim, it often includes the payer’s claim number: the ICN (Internal Control Number), Claim Control Number, or Original Reference #. These numbers are automatically populated on the claim after the ERA is applied, so the ability to find claims by the ICN is a great tool to have when working on appeals. In this release, we updated the Claim Search capability to include searching by all three claim control numbers, making it easier to locate specific claims during the appeals process.

  

• New Optional Column For Document Count:  We added a new optional column (hidden by default) to the Claim, Patient, and Payment sections that display a count of the documents associated with each item. This column helps indicate if a patient, claim, or payment has a document association before opening it. 

  Please note that this column option will only appear on the search screen after a search is performed, not on the Recently Opened List.

  

Payment

• Updated The Refund Receipts:  Previously, when refund receipts were generated, they appeared identical to a standard receipt, except that the refund amount was displayed within parentheses. To make these receipts more easily identifiable and comprehensible, we modified the refund receipt by adding the word "Refund" to the text and displaying negative numbers with a negative symbol instead of using parentheses, making it clearer. 

New Features and Updates

General

Appointments

• New Appointment Setting to Hide The Status of Received/Applied Intake Forms:  Some users who have tightly packed schedules (double/triple booked) may struggle to see the specifics of their appointments due to the two types of icons we show (the eligibility icon and the forms icon) taking up a lot of the appointment space. To help with this, we introduced a setting that allows users to hide the checkmark that indicates forms that have been submitted.

Visit our Configure User Appointment Settings Help Articles for more information on how to turn on this setting.

Patient

• New Patient Broadcast Communications Feature: Patient engagement is the collaborative process between healthcare providers and patients aimed at improving patient health. Over the past few years, the significance and prevalence of patient engagement have grown considerably. Research indicates that when patients feel involved and take an active role in their medical care, they achieve improved health results. Simultaneously, providers observe increased patient satisfaction and retention.

In order to meet the growing needs of both providers and patients, CollaborateMD has developed and introduced a new Patient Broadcast Communications feature. This feature allows providers to send targeted one-way communications to multiple patients using various methods (text, email, or phone). Customers can set campaigns with customized parameters to target specific patients, helping them with their healthcare needs and encouraging retention or usage of optional/elective medical services through intelligent marketing.

For more information on using our new Patient Broadcast Communications feature, please visit our Broadcast Communications Help Articles. For instructions on how to enable and configure the feature, visit our Manage Broadcast Communications Help Article.

• New A/R Control Filters:  Some of our customers have very particular workflows and have requested to be able to search in A/R Control by Referring and Rendering providers. This would enable them to send out statements only for claims from a particular provider. To address this need, we added the ability to filter by Rendering or Referring Provider within A/R Control, allowing customers to send statements only for claims from a specific provider or referrer. These new filter options were added under a new header within the A/R Control Filters called "Claim Search Options." Additionally, the existing Payer, Charge Balance, and Charge Status filters have been moved under the Claim Search Options. 

  For more information on these new filters, please visit our Search For Patient Balances Help Article.

  
  

Reports

• New Report Fields For Contract Name:  We previously had a number of fields that could be used to show the contract price that applies to a charge. In this release, we added  "Contract Name" as a report field under those same data sections . This new field is available under Charge/Debit Data > Charges > Current Payer (as well as Primary/Secondary/Tertiary Payers).
  

• New Report Fields For Patient Communication Preferences:  We added the ability to include information about communication opt-ins in reports, enabling customers to conduct targeted outreach to patients to encourage them to opt-in. The following new communication preferences report fields have been added under Patient Data > Communications:              
  • Electronic Payment Plan Statements Communication Preference 
  • Electronic Statements Communication Preference
  • Marketing Communications Preference
  • Receipts Communication Preference 

New Features and Updates

General

Patient

• New Statement Batch Print Search Options:  We added the Default Provider and the Default Referring Provider as search (filter) options within Statement Batch Print, so only patients with the selected default referring or rendering providers are returned. This option will not affect the generated statement, which will continue to include all charges regardless of the rendering or referring provider on the claim.  

Payment

• Updated The Default ACCOUNT CREDIT &  APPLY ACCOUNT CREDIT Memos:  We updated the default account credit memo, created when an account credit is generated based on a payment or adjustment, to include more information about the credit. In this release, we also updated the APPLY ACCOUNT CREDIT memo line to include additional details (such as the source and check number) that will be visible in the Manage Account and Activity screens once the credit is applied. 

  

  
  
• New ERA Auto Post: Added a new ERA Auto-Post billing option that can be configured by Payer and pay priority (primary, secondary, etc.). Once enabled and configured, the Electronic Remittance Advice will automatically check for errors or warnings on most ERAs and, if the ERA is free of issues ("clean"), will automatically apply the payments with no interaction or review required.  For more information on configuring this new ERA Automation billing option, please visit our ERA Billing Options Tab Help Article.

New Features and Updates

General

Appointments

• Added UI Improvements To The Scheduler's Eligibility & Forms Icons:  We reduced the size of the Eligibility and Forms icons and allowed them to take up vertical space when available, enabling more appointment information to be visible on the scheduler.  We also changed the color of the "intake forms sent but not filled out" icon from yellow to gray, distinguishing it from the "intake forms not sent" icon.

Patient

• Updated The Statement Tracker "Status" Column: Updated the Statement Trackers Status column to include the "user printed name." This allows users to see the print status, as well as the individual who printed the document, which improves the auditing process.

Claim

• New Enhanced Auditing (Show History) for Claims:  CollaborateMD has been working on a new enhanced auditing project that provides offices with an easy and transparent way of auditing changes made in the application. We previously released our new Enhanced User Auditing feature in the Customer Setup and Patient sections of the application, allowing users to see a detailed list of changes made to specific records throughout the application. 

  In this release, we are expanding our Enhanced Auditing functionality to the Claim section enabling users to track modifications, changes, and updates made to claims within CMD for better auditing and accountability. With the new "Show History" feature, you can now determine which user changed specific Claim information in the software and when, by providing an auditing table with all updates or changes made to a record, including the user, date and time, and the item changed.  

  These new auditing records are also included in our existing User Audit Report, making it an even stronger tool for auditing multiple records simultaneously. The Show History capability has currently been deployed in the Customer Setup, Patient, and Claim sections, and we will be adding it to other sections of the application systematically.

  For more information on using our new Add New Same/Similar Code List feature, please visit our Enhanced Auditing Help Articles.

  
  
• Status Control's  "Current Payer" Column Update: Updated the Status Control results screen to show more details about which payer is displayed. The "Current / Primary Payer" column will now be "Current Payer," and will include the payer priority (primary, secondary, tertiary) in parentheses if the filtered charge status is a payer status. 

Customer Support

• New Signature Type Column Within Agreement Lookup: Added a new column, hidden by default, to the agreement lookup screen. This column will store and display the "Signature Type" (based on the Provider Action field received from ePS) and includes a new report field under Agreement Data. The possible actions for the "Signature Type" are:
  • * Electronic Signature
  • * Online Enrollment
  • * Wet Signature
  • * Other

Payment Portal

• New UI Updates to The Payment Portal: Added some UI enhancements to the Payment Portal related to new colors and margins for better consistency and a better customer experience. We also updated the Payment Portals password requirements to now require at least 12 characters and disallow the reuse of any previous passwords.