Summer, 2024 Updates

Some features below may not be available to you yet as not all clinics will receive the update at the same time.

EHR Users/Access

Users can initiate their own password reset

Users that have 2-factor authentication (2FA) set up for their EHR login can now request their own password reset from the login page. That will send a verification code to the phone number that they used for 2FA. Or the user can request that the code be sent via automated voice call.

2-factor authentication now has a voice call option

Users who are having trouble receiving the 2-factor authentication (2FA) verification code via text message can now request the code via automated voice call.

To set up 2FA, hover over your initials in the top EHR menu and click on Two-Factor Authentication.

Charges & Payment processing

2-Discount based on wholesale price

Discounts can now be set up based on the wholesale prices of the underlying charge(s). A discount based on the wholesale price will add the applicable percentage and/ or dollar value to the wholesale price(s) to reach the charge retail price(s) for that transaction. Whereas a discount based on the retail price would decrease the retail price charged by the applicable percentage and/ or dollar value.

Improvements to charge/ credit balance allocation between shared family accounts and for charges with insurance responsibility amounts

Applying the balance of charges/ payments from one patient’s account to another patient’s account can be useful for managing family/ small group billing in Cerbo. For example, this functionality allows for adding charges to each family member’s account directly, but applying all of those charge balances to the primary payor’s account for the purpose of generating a single statement or invoice. This update includes improvements to prevent allocation errors where charge balances are applied to an alternate patient’s account (e.g., a payor’s account) and/ or when charges with insurance responsibility amounts are edited.

Improvement to group/ corporate invoice

With group/ corporate billing in Cerbo, you can specify a subscription amount that the group will be responsible for (per patient), as well as which categories of charge are covered by the group. When a group invoice is generated, it will show the total of subscription fees for all participants in that group, as well as the total (by charge category) for covered charge categories. The improvement with this update makes it possible to click to exclude certain charge categories from a specific invoice (for example, if there were no charges in that category for the invoice period).

Option to show the non-discounted total on service receipts and estimates

There is a configuration option that is now available by request to support@cer.bo to show both the non-discounted and discounted totals on service receipts and estimates that include discounted charges. This is useful, for example, to show the savings that are available when a patient purchases a package (total with discount) versus purchasing the same items and services a la carte (non-discounted total).

Propelr integration now supports ACH, including subscriptions via ACH

The new merchant service integration with Propelr now supports ACH payments, including ACH subscriptions. ACH, which are direct bank payments, offer substantial cost savings in terms of merchant fees compared to credit card payments.

Fix for family/ small group subscriptions where the primary member does not have their own subscription

Cerbo has the ability to link multiple family or group members’ subscriptions to a single payor’s subscription, so that they are all processed in one payment on the payor’s chart. And the individual subscriptions still show up in each family or group member’s billing history. In some cases the payor will not have their own subscription – for example, where the payor is a company (with a corresponding “dummy” chart), or a parent who is not a patient. The payor in those cases can be set up with a $0 subscription. Previously, subscriptions could be linked to a $0 subscription, but didn’t process automatically. The current update makes these process automatically.

Automated ACH subscriptions

Previously, ACH subscriptions generated a notice when due, but had to be manually processed. With the current update, they process automatically, like credit card subscriptions.

Bulk charge deletion

Charges that are not associated with inventory dispense records can now be bulk-deleted from the expanded billing history. This would be done by checking the boxes to the left of the charges to be deleted, and selecting the delete option from the Manage Checked drop down menu.

Additional visibility for the paid/ unpaid status of estimated charges

When redeeming estimated charges (by converting them from estimated to regular charges) within an encounter note, the Add as Charge window now shows which estimated charges are paid versus unpaid. If any are partially paid, that partial payment amount shows.

Performance improvements for the insurance payments page

The insurance payments page now loads much more quickly, even for clinics with many open insurance billable charges listed.

Communication

Search added to Admin > Manage > Radiologists

There is now a search option in the Radiologists/ Imaging contact book in Cerbo. This was previously available when managing Specialists or Laboratories, and will now be available for Radiologists as well.

Outbound emails from Cerbo now include a plain text version

Emails from Cerbo (appointment notifications and reminders, notifications about a document to review, and manually-sent emails from the patient’s chart) now include a plain text version. They are still sent as formatted HTML, but with a link for the recipient to convert to plain text, for example if their email program is not rendering the HTML correctly/ well.

Calendar sync URLs are now available for Resources (not just for users)

If a clinic is using Resources for scheduling, there is now an option to get a calendar sync URL for each resource, which can be used to “subscribe” to the Resource calendar from an external calendar (such as Google Calendar, or iCal). Subscribing from an external calendar makes the applicable Resource (or User) calendar show up in the external calendar. This is a one-way sync of information.

Reporting

New option to mass-update patients’ statuses from the Advanced Patient Search

You can now mass-update patients’ statuses from the “Send to Report” dropdown at the top right of the Advanced Patient Search results. This can be useful, for example, to filter for patients that have not been seen in a certain period of time, and do not have upcoming appointments scheduled, and then mark them as Inactive status. Inactive status patients cannot log into the Patient Portal. And their status can be changed back to Active at any time from their chart as needed.

Overhauled Sales Tax Report

The sales tax report now runs dramatically faster. And includes more details on excluded transactions.

Optimized Calendar Report

The printable Calendar Report (found under the Scheduling menu) was optimized to allow for exporting large date ranges, even for high-volume clinics.

Revenue per Patient report – filter by payment type added

The Revenue per Patient report can be used to see at a glance all patients with appointments/ encounters and their total charges/ payments for a specific date range. This report now has a filter to include only specified payment types of the patient payments that are shown.

Export users’ task histories

Under Reporting > Non-Financial Reports, there is a new report to export all users’ or selected users’ scheduled and/ or standing task lists. That export can be filtered by user, task type (scheduled versus standing), and task status (open or complete).

Improvements to the End of Day/ Week/ Month Report for Propelr users

For Propelr users, credit card and ACH payments in the Deposits section on the End of Day/ Week/ Month Report are now broken down by ACH as well as each card type. This was already true for Bluefin users.

For Stripe users that collect credit card information on the registration form, Cerbo no longer performs a zip code validation

Stripe users may have patients add their credit card information on the online new patient registration form. Previously, Cerbo performed a zip code validation, which was excluding many international codes.

Adjustment to how insurance billable amounts show in the Allocation Summary Report

The Allocation Summary Report didn’t previously reflect edits to the insurance paid amount in the allocations and de-allocations for a specific reporting period. Now edits to a charge’s insurance paid amount reflect in the allocations and de-allocations on that report.

Calendar/ Scheduling

Patient tags that are set to show on the calendar now show on the printable calendar report

Patient tags can be set to show on the patient’s chart and/ or on the patient’s scheduled appointments.

If the patient has multiple appts in one day, marking the first one as checked-in status will mark the rest as checked-in status

Changing the status of the patient’s first appointment of the day to “Checked In” will automatically change their subsequent appointments that day to checked in status. This removes the need to manually mark each appointment as checked in individually.

Patient Documents

Patient documents moving to Amazon S3

Patient documents are being moved to Amazon S3, versus being stored on the same servers as the Cerbo application and other Cerbo files. In practical terms, the benefits of this move to clients include:

  1. Being able to upload and store larger documents. The current maximum document size in Cerbo is 16MB. The move to Amazon S3 will allow for larger documents to be uploaded and stored.
  2. Documents will download more quickly. In general, documents can be downloaded from Cerbo relatively quickly already. But larger documents in particular can be slower. And moving patient documents to Amazon S3 will allow for faster document downloads.

Medications/ Supplements/ Allergies

Additional information sent with eRxs

eRxs now include the clinic name and the prescriber suffix. This information was added because it was requested by specific pharmacies, or is now required in certain jurisdictions.

New option to bulk-delete alternate plan options that have never been used

From Admin > Manage > Alternate Plan Options, you can now bulk-delete alternate plan options that have not been assigned to patients’ charts. Any that have been assigned to patient’s charts cannot be deleted, but can be individually marked as Inactive so that they don’t appear when searching for items to assign to a patient.

Added the ability to manage alternate plan sub-profilies from Admin > Manage > Alternate Plan Options

You can now manage secondary dosing profiles for supplements and other alternate plan options via Admin > Manage > Alternate Plan Options. Previously, only the default dosing profiles could be edited there, and secondary dosing profiles had to be edited in the course of prescribing the supplement (or other alternate plan option).

If a provider adds justifying diagnoses on a prescription, those now show on the faxable/ printable prescription

Previously, justifying diagnoses that were added to a prescription only showed on eRxs. Now, they also show on the printable/ faxable/ saveable prescription.

If a patient has NKDA in their allergies block, that will be automatically removed if a drug allergy is added

NKDA (indicating that the patient has no known drug allergies) in the patient’s Allergies block will now be automatically removed if a drug allergy is added.

Encounter Notes/ Treatment Plan

Additional option when cloning encounter notes

Encounter clone option now allows selecting specific alternate plan types to clone (or not). Previously, you could only select to clone all alternate plan types/ options, or none. Now you can clone certain alternate plan types and not others.

If encounter notes are set to open in a new window, that now applies to both new and existing notes

There is a configuration setting to make it so that encounter notes open in a new browser window, versus a new browser tab. Previously, this setting applied only to new notes. This change makes it so that if this is set for a clinic, both new and existing notes will open in a new browser window.

Improved encoding handling in Chart Parts and encounter notes

Improvements to encoding handling in Chart Parts and encounter notes to better handle Spanish-language characters and avoid display issues in the EHR, encounter summaries, and the printable/ faxable encounter note.

New review all/ accept all options for diagnoses, non-supplement alternate plan items, and medications that are associated with Chart Part templates

“Associated actions” with Chart Parts (diagnoses, prescriptions, orders, supplements, etc.) come up as “Suggested Actions” when the Chart Part is used. Orders and supplements suggestions could already be mass-reviewed, saving time when adding lab panels and supplement protocols. We added the option to mass accept suggested diagnoses with the current update and to mass-review suggested medication prescriptions and non-supplement alternate plan items. For each type of item, that is done by clicking on the plus sign to the left of one of the suggestions, and can save substantial time/ clicks when constructing complex treatment plans from Chart Part templates.

Patient Portal

Improvement to “Log into Portal as Patient”

When logging into the patient portal as the patient (from the patient’s chart), the system will show a warning if the user is already logged into the patient portal as a different patient (e.g., in another browser tab). This helps to avoid errors if, for example, the user is logging in so that the patient can complete/ submit a form.

Saved patient questionnaire remains available

If the patient has saved an in-progress draft of a questionnaire, that will remain in their portal even if the display rules for that questionnaire would otherwise dictate that it no longer show for that patient. This avoids potential frustration where an in-progress draft is not submitted and the form would otherwise disappear based on it’s display rules.

Improvement to the loading time of the encounter history page

For patients with many past encounter notes and corresponding encounter summaries on the patient portal, the encounter history page sometimes loaded slowly. That page now loads much more quickly, even where there are many encounter summaries.

The online new patient registration form now supports dates of birth in the future

For clinics that provide pre-natal and newborn care, the online new patient form can now be used to register an as-yet-unborn child using a future date of birth (their expected due date). Which would then be adjusted in the patient’s chart when the baby is born.

API

  • New API endpoint to “read” patients’ preferred pharmacies.
  • New properties returned when fetching patient charges via the API that include the details of any payment(s) that are allocated toward those charges.
  • New API endpoints for estimated charges.

Lab and Third Party Integrations

State Immunization Reporting improvements and additions
  • Various new vaccine codes (Prevnar 20 and others) added for state immunization reporting.
  • Integration with West Virginia Statewide Immunization Information System (WVSIIS).
  • Integration with the District of Columbia (DC) Immunization Information System (DOCIIS)
  • Integration with Missouri Immunization Information System (ShowMeVax)
New option to send a fax to a dummy fax number

There is now an option to send a fax from Cerbo to a dummy fax number (any number that starts with 999-555-01…). This can be useful, for example, to fire webhooks (for clinics that use our API/ webhooks to communicate with external systems). Or to generate a cover page with document download codes, for example to share with a person that doesn’t or cannot use the portal and doesn’t have a fax number.

The Heads up Health summary frame can be expanded within the patient chart, or popped out into a new window

Clinics that use the Heads up Health integration can view the Heads up Health summary for the patient within the patient chart in Cerbo. That Heads up Health frame in Cerbo can now be expanded within the patient’s chart to view more information. Or popped out into a new window.

The Wellevate integration was merged with Fullscript and removed

Wellevate was acquired by Fullscript, who fully merged Wellevate into their own systems a short while ago. Accordingly, we merged the Cerbo-Wellevate integration into our existing Fullscript integration and removed the Wellevate integration for clinics that previously used Wellevate.

New bi-directional lab integrations with CGM Medicus and CGM LabDAQ
New option, available by request, to auto-file mass historical lab results that are sent by the lab via the integration

Some labs can send historical result data via the existing integration between Cerbo and the lab. And this is something that clinics may request, especially when they first get started with Cerbo and establish that new integration. There is now an option on the Cerbo side to automatically file any of those mass-delivered lab results that can be matched to a specific patient. Any results that cannot be matched to a specific patient will remain in the Imported Results queue for manual filing.

LabCorp codes for Access Medical orders

When submitting orders to Access Medical Labs, there is now the option to generate a lab-provided requisition form with LabCorp order codes included. This is useful for instances where the draw is happening at a LabCorp facility (which is relatively common for Access orders).

Access Medical labs integration can now support multiple integrated accounts for a single clinic

If a single clinic has multiple accounts with Access Medical Labs, those can now all be integrated into the same Cerbo build. That means that the person sending an order to Access can now select which account to send the order under. And results for all of the integrated accounts will come into Cerbo electronically.

Improvement to keep lab results separate/ non-merged if they are distinct but sent under the same name

Each lab sets their own naming schema for the discrete results fields that they measure. That may mean that the same result from different labs is sent under different names (in which case users can merge the results in any patient chart in Cerbo). It can also mean that different results from different labs are sent under the same name, and will show up in the patient’s chart in Cerbo as if they are the same result. If different results are being erroneously merged (because they’re sent under the same name), Cerbo can now set them to remain separate. If this is done for specific results for one clinic, that will be effective across all clinics using Cerbo.

New option to add the kit number for Genova kits sold from the office

There is now an option to designate the Genova kit number in the “Send to Genova” window. This is useful for clinics that sell Genova kits from their in-office inventory so that the kit is linked to the order, and Genova doesn’t send/ charge for another kit.

DICOM images now can be previewed and viewed in the EHR

DICOM images (high resolution medical images used, for example for imaging/ radiology) previously had to be downloaded and viewed in a special viewing program. Now a preview is created in Cerbo so that they can be previewed and viewed directly in the patient’s chart in the EHR. The images will still need to be downloaded and viewed in a DICOM viewer to see them at full resolution.

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