CMS has made changes to how Evaluation and Management Codes will be calculated beginning Jan 1, 2021. E/M codes will now have the option to ignore History (HPI, ROS, History) and Exam as part of the visit calculation. This shift allows providers to focus more on pertinent clinical documentation and less on data entry. In place of the data requirements from the past, E/M 2021 focusses on Medical Decision Making and Time Spent. This means there are no changes required for templates in 2021 E/M coding.

Criterions EHR will be Updated to Accommodate E/M 2021 Changes

For 2021, the Criterions EHR is updating the Medical Decision Making calculation to the 2021 standard as well as providing options to select how much time was spent during the visit. The E/M page for Medicare patients will be redesigned to allow providers to use the various methods of calculation.

Enabling these options will be available in the Practice Defaults, allowing for activating the 2021 E/M calculation for Medicare only, or switch to all carriers as others accept the changing rules.

More information regarding E/M 2021 can be found from CMS here.

As part of our goal to provide a trusted and secure platform for our customers, we are implementing a change in security requirements for using Criterions EHR effective August 1, 2020.

We are planning to deprecate vulnerable data encryption protocols (TLS 1.0 & 1.1) and will be supporting TLS 1.2 and newer going forward.

This deprecation will affect you if you use an older browser.

Clients using Internet Explorer:

• If you have Windows 7, updating the Internet Explorer version may not work. When you are accessing the Criterions EHR website in the Internet Explorer version 11, the EHR may not allow you to login.
• Microsoft does not provide updates for Windows 7 Operating System any longer.
• Microsoft officially phased out support for Internet Explorer versions 7 through 10, that means the Microsoft will no longer release Security Update Patches for the browser.
• Windows 7 has an IE version 11.0.9600.18015, however, Criterions EHR will not work on this version anymore due to security reasons.
• Criterions EHR only works on Internet Explorer version 11.900.18362.0 of Windows 10.

Recommended Browsers:

EHR works well with the following Browsers:
• Latest version of Google Chrome
• Latest version of Firefox
• Latest version of Microsoft Edge

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us using the form below and a member of our team will be in touch:

How can practices gather the information they need from patients for effective medical treatment while contact is limited to the minimal amount necessary?

Criterions EHR has an available patient portal that allows patients to document information while at home. The capabilities of this portal are currently being expanded to cover more of the intake process and reduce a patient’s time in the office. To achieve these goals, Criterions is working on the following new function for patients to populate information at home:

Consent Forms

One hurdle many practices are facing is how to capture consent forms from the patient from home. Our new solution will allow practices to assign consent forms (HIPAA Waivers, Agreements to Pay, etc.) to the patient to be signed though the portal. Signed or declined forms will be filed in the patient’s documents.

Additional Initiatives

We are also working on a few other initiatives including:
- Scanning and uploading driver’s license/insurance
- Custom questionnaires for your patients
- Text messaging to check in

We would love feedback from our current customers on these initiatives. If you would like to participate in a survey to help us learn how to best implement these new functionalities to benefit your practice, please reach out to our Support Team at support@criterions.com 

Any questions or concerns? Contact us below:

In compliance with HIPAA regulations we are updating our Business Associate Agreement with all Criterions ‘Covered Entities (clients).  This is mandatory for us to service your account.

To simplify this requirement and eliminate any question for conformity, we have reproduced the latest sample template provided on the Health and Human Services’ website. 

To update your BAA with Criterions, please complete the form at: https://form.jotform.com/criterions/hipaa

There is no need to print this form as it will be electronically signed with a copy emailed to you upon completion. Thank you.

Questions? Contact our team:

Please update to TCMS version 4.9.3 as soon as possible. There are many enhancements, additional security provisions and some bug fixes for minor issues.

If you need any assistance or have any questions on how to update, please call us.

What’s included; enhancements to Patient Receipts, the Payment Analysis report, Workers Comp forms, Favorites in the Documents Tab, Eligibility checking on secondary and tertiary insurance carriers, Closing report, Referral Source report, and New HP1 forms.

Minor tweaks to: internal NDC tables, Referral Source report, the Fax Queue, No Fault batch management, Workers Comp Case management, reported allowed amounts of self pay payments, ERN posting, Debits display in ledger history, adding write-off reasons, auto-write-offs on zero-payments, Payment Analysis report, and the patient balance display in the Patient Search screen.

Questions? Contact our team: