1.3.6 Release Notes

Several feature enhancements are included in the product update released in late May 2019. The major enhancements in this release include treatment planning workflow improvements, a new Information icon for in progress evaluations, the addition of ICD-10 diagnosis codes with claims, a new Association tab for fee schedules, and improvements to the benefit renewal month functionality, as well as patient notes functionality and imaging functionality.

Treatment planning workflow improvements

When users work with treatment plan cases (Patient > Clinical > Treatment Planner), several changes have been made to improve the workflow for providers.

The list of case statuses that are available from the Status drop-down list now includes Draft, Pending Faculty Approval, Pending Patient Consent, in addition to the existing Accepted and Rejected statuses.

The case categories on the left have been updated to include the following:

• Draft: This contains any cases that are set to Draft status. This means they contain items that have not been reviewed by the patient nor approved by a faculty member. It also contains all treatments that are unassigned to a case.

  Notes:

  • Any cases that were set to New status now display here.

  • When a new case is created, it is set to Draft status.

  • You can add procedures to a case only when it is set to Draft status.

  • The Move/Copy To button is enabled only when a case is set to Draft status.

• Pending Faculty Approval: This displays any cases set to Pending Faculty Approval status. This means they contain items that require approval from one or more faculty.

• Pending Patient Consent: This displays cases set to Pending Patient Consent status. This means they contain items that have been approved by faculty, but still require patient sign off.

  Note: Any cases that were set to Presented status now display here.

• Accepted: This displays any cases set to Accepted status. This means they have been approved by faculty and signed off by the patient.

  Notes:

  • The Create Appointment button is enabled only when a case is set to Accepted status.

  • Only cases set to Accepted status can have their associated treatments completed. However, any treatments that do not belong to a case can be completed.

• Completed: This displays any cases that have all included treatments set to completed and posted to the Ledger.

• Rejected: This displays any cases set to Rejected status. This means they were not accepted by the patient, but contain items which need to remain on record.

Important: With these changes to the workflow, users cannot create appointments from the Scheduler page and add a procedure that is assigned to a treatment plan until the treatment plan has been set to Accepted status. If they create an appointment and click Add Tx Planner to open the Attach Treatment Plan window, but the treatment plan has not yet been set to Accepted status, the plan and the associated procedures will not display.

New Information icon for in progress evaluations

When users work with evaluations (Academic > Student Evaluations or Faculty Evaluations), any evaluation set to In Progress now displays an information icon. When clicked, the icon displays the number of student providers and faculty members that must still complete the evaluation.

ICD-10 Codes automatically included in claims

You can now include ICD-10 diagnosis codes along with procedure codes when submitting a claim to a dental carrier.

Note: This is where conditions are automatically pre-linked with diagnosis codes. Pre-authorization requests for treatment can also now include ICD-10 diagnosis codes.

When working with quick exams (Patient > Clinical > Quick Exam), you can diagnose a condition and plan treatment for the condition. Once you complete the treatment and create the claim, the ICD-10 codes are automatically attached.

Note: ICD-10 codes can be removed or re-added.

Tip: Hover your cursor over the ICD-10 code to display the diagnosed condition name.

When you print or electronically submit the claim, the ICD-10 code(s) display in box 34 of the standard dental claim form.

Notes:

• ICD-10 diagnosis codes were linked to conditions in a previous software update. There is no need to edit the standard condition codes in your system to add ICD-10 codes.

• Reporting or including diagnoses codes does not guarantee reimbursement by either medical or dental payers.

New Associations tab for Fee Schedules

The Fee Schedules page (Settings > Production > Fee Schedules) now displays a new Associations tab. When you select a fee schedule, it allows you to review all the places the fee schedule is currently assigned. This may include locations, insurance plans, providers, and patients.

You can click each arrow to review individually or click Expand All to expand the entire list of associations and see the details.

Important: The tab just provides information; you cannot make any configuration changes from this page. To remove an association with a fee schedule, you must go to the source to modify or remove it.

Examples: A provider user account or an insurance plan.

Improvements to benefit renewal month functionality

When updating an insurance carrier's benefit renewal month (Home > Insurance > Carriers > listed Plan/Employer), the change becomes effective starting in the next instance of the month, in this year or next.

Examples: If you select a month that has not passed yet, it takes effect in that month this year. If you select a month that has already passed, it takes effect that month next year.

Improvements to patient notes

Several changes have been made to patient notes:

• When you change the sorting order, axiUm Ascend now maintains your sort preference. This is specific to the user, allowing you to maintain your preference from other workstations as well. The default sorting order displays notes in chronological order with the oldest displaying at the top.

  Note: This applies to notes functionality both in the Overview page > Patient Notes widget and the Patient Information page > Notes tab.

• When adding a note, a new Insert Date button allows you to add today’s date to the note at your cursor location.

  Note: You can still set the overall date of the note with the calendar picker.

• The Ellipsis icon has been removed and an Edit  icon and a Delete  icon have been added. This allows you click directly to edit or delete a note.

  

Improvements to imaging functionality

The Imaging module has several enhancements and new features, including direction integration with VistaScan image plate scanners. Other items include:

• The ability to resume completed exams.

  This allows you to replace the images, if necessary.

  

• The ability to change the image load size. 

  A new button in the tool bar helps with diagnosis by allowing you to load intraoral and extraoral x-ray images at a smaller or larger size that retains the original image quality. By default images display at the largest size, but you can click the button to size them up or down as necessary.

  

• A Pan control panel now displays directly above the Zoom slider bar when you zoom in on an image.

  This makes it quick and easy to place the image in the view area.

  

• New imaging exam types named CAD/CAM Scan and 3D Volume have been added to the Imaging Procedures list.

  To support these scan types, new custom procedure codes named CADCAM and VOLUME are automatically associated with these procedures.