tmccormi wrote on Tuesday, May 12, 2009:
The EOB data entry screen 3.0.1 has a button that says:
Print Selected Statements and a check box for Without Update
Selecting any number of "invoices" and clicking this button presents a dialog box that says:
"Now Printing ## statements and updating encounters" - OK
Nothing prints, what is it supposed to be doing? Where are the statements being sent?
–Tony
sunsetsystems wrote on Tuesday, May 12, 2009:
Looks like something else to document! Before generating statements, you have to configure the file custom/statement.inc.php. This includes specifying the command for printing in $STMT_PRINT_CMD. See the comments in that file for more information.
tmccormi wrote on Tuesday, May 12, 2009:
Some info I have discovered:
It appears to create a file one the server /tmp dir called openemr_statements.txt. This file has some macro code [Your Clinic Name] imbedded.
Several obvious issues with this.
1) The file is not accessible or presented to the end user for for printing or download.
2) The file is formatted for some, specific, undocumented use case, ie: some kind of mail merge application rather than for general use
3) There is no "batching" date/time stamps on the file so subsequent run step on each other.
This needs to be documented and fixed.
tmccormi wrote on Tuesday, May 12, 2009:
I am looking at that file and it does not address the issues adequately. This is way more than a documentation thing.
1) The path to the file does not allow for batching, fixed string.
2) The print command assumes you are printing directly from the server, which is never the case with a hosted service and is not the way I would install even at the clinic.
3) The clinic address information should come from the billing facility record
Wow, we sure can’t expect a end user to be able to edit PHP code. It’s not even a config file.
Since this is in the custom directory I assume it was never part of the base product to do statement billing. Which make me wonder why it’s even an option in the Billing screen.
Documentation won’t fix this one, at least for me operation. I’ll be adding that to a my long list of things that are well implemented for Practice Management and need to be enhanced.
–Tony
tmccormi wrote on Tuesday, May 12, 2009:
Dang typos:
Documentation won’t fix this one, at least not for MY operation. I’ll be adding that to a my long list of things that are NOT well implemented for Practice Management and need to be enhanced.
Tony
sunsetsystems wrote on Tuesday, May 12, 2009:
The print command doesn’t have to print. It can reference a script that does whatever you want with the statement images, including batching.
Yes, setting up statements will usually need some help from a techie. Until someone makes it more plug-and-play, you can at least document that much and tell the programmer where to look. If you think that’s bad, try getting freeb working in an older release! Much progress has been made, but more work on the basics remains to be done. Don’t forget where we came from.
bradymiller wrote on Tuesday, May 12, 2009:
hey,
If anybody is interested where we came from; here’s a page with the openemr installation process from several years ago:
http://bradymd.com
-brady
tmccormi wrote on Tuesday, May 12, 2009:
No argument from me on the progress, even since I started using it at 2.7. The statement thing has just been nagging at the back of my thought process for a while.
In this case I’ll fix that before I waste anytime documenting it. It’s just not workable the way it is.
Of course, a quick wiki post of your explanation and and extract of the scripts comments would be in order.
–Tony
tmccormi wrote on Wednesday, May 13, 2009:
I have posted a summary of this on the wiki:
www.oemr.org/modules/wiwimod/index.php?page=PatientStatementsHowto
Some one check it and make sure I didn’t mis speak on our collective behalf.
–Tony
redlettertech wrote on Thursday, May 14, 2009:
I have been using a workaround for this issue.
- I created another directory under openemr called statements.
- Directed the statement output to this location.
- Modified the code in statement.inc.php to output named files with additional info
- Created a statements_list.php file to display the statement files.
- Add statements as a menu item.
It was a work around we were going to come back to. Our next action item was to write the statement files as pdf and store them under documents associated with the patient It has been a low priority item for us.
Redletter Tech
tmccormi wrote on Friday, May 15, 2009:
RedLetter Tech,
Would you be willing to send me what you’ve done and I add my enhancements and share it back with the community.
–Tony
redlettertech wrote on Sunday, May 17, 2009:
Yes, I would like to contribute to this project but have not been granted permission to write to CVS.
Where would you like me to send the zip file?
Redletter Tech
tmccormi wrote on Monday, May 18, 2009:
Send it to tony ‘at’ mi-squared.com and we’ll merge it with our work get it submitted.
–Tony
sunsetsystems wrote on Monday, May 18, 2009:
More generally, the way to get commit access (assuming you have an ongoing interest in that) is to send your stuff to an existing developer (such as me) for review. It’s likely that you’ll be asked to change a thing or two. After a bit of successful history with such submissions, we’ll get you set up.