Cerner SMART APP, FHIR integration information

[Sobhan Babu Neeli]

Hi,

We are planning to build a smart app to integrate our clients who is using Cerner for payment processing and started going over the documentation. The below is what we are planning to implement on a high level, Could you please clarify below queries.

1. We need the ability to receive patient information real-time and in a batch. What is the specific API for this ?
2. We need the ability to receive patient visit/account information including balances owed (real-time and in a batch). What is the specific API for this ?
3. We need to post the patient payments (made in our applications) real-time into your EMR systems. What is the specific API with full specifications ?
4. We need the ability for the patients and providers to launch our web-based "app" via SSO from within their EMR applications. We expect the SSO process to provide the patient and account information including account balances as part of the SSO. Do you support this ? If Yes :

1. We need the specifications to build and publish an "app" out of our current web based patient portal.
2. We need the full specifications of the SSO process.

5. As an alternate to the above, we need the ability to launch our application within your EMR (as a frame/overlay) so the payment/card information can be provided without PCI issues and then a payment confirmation be posted back to your EMR in real-time. This is like a hosted form model of integration (as opposed to an SSO). Do you support this integration model. If Yes:

1. We need the full details on how we can build our "app" and publish it to your market place.
2. Need full details on how to integrate with your EMR application and configure our application.

7. If we integrate with Cerner via these APIs, would we be able to connect to all of our clients who might be using different implementations and/or versions of your EMR on their locations ? This is an important consideration for us an we assume we would be able to connect to all Cerner clients irrespective of their version and implementation. We dont anticipate additional coding/configurations for either us or our clients as it is not practical.

Apart from this, i also have confusion b.w MILLENNIUM vs SOARIAN, how these will be used. Based on my needs i assume we need to understand MILLENNIUM API integration with FHIR and build SMART app. Please clarify.

Thanks in advance.

[Jenni Syed (Cerner)]

Hi,

All of our functionality that we expose is documented here: https://fhir.cerner.com. You'll note that no financial resources are exposed (largely due to maturity and priority issues), and in DSTU 2, there's no good way to represent some of what you've mentioned above. For example, even in the upcoming R4 release from HL7, there's no model to post a payment from a patient or guarantor within the standard.

SMART on FHIR supports a launch in context. You can read more about what context can be returned by the standard here: http://docs.smarthealthit.org/ If launched from the EHR (provider user), the patient id and encounter would come back, which can be used to search the FHIR API for information. Even if we supported Account, it's not a standard item returned in SMART.

For patient launch, there's a standalone launch that would allow you to get the patient id or search for patients that the user has authorization for. Again, you would need to use the SMART context + FHIR APIs to build out this workflow. You can read more about SMART and Authorization support on our site above.

Our FHIR server is cloud hosted. As such, the API is consistent for all our clients regardless of code base.

Millennium is likely the EHR that the Client supports, though you can confirm with them in your discussions. 

Regards,

Jenni

[NSB]

Thank you for the response Jenni. 

Re. the first point, if we do not have a standard at present i assume in being prioritized. What are the alternatives from Cerner Clients? does EHR/Cerner support the batch processing to post the payment? if you could shed some light on this aspect would be grateful.

I will dig into more details of the documents that you mentioned, will get back any further queries.

Thank you.

[NSB]

Hi Jenni,

Could you please update on the below query? Also i come across another query, if we do not have batch,as an alternative do we have Webhooks to pull the details of new bill /encounter against the patient. Also is there any we can post the payment notice / advise against patient?

Thanks in advance.

[Jenni Syed (Cerner)]

Hi,

This group is specifically for our FHIR and SMART implementations, and we don't have expertise in other options to integrate (eg: more traditional interfaces). Also, other options may vary by client site. You may want to reach out to the specific client you're working with to see what options they have enabled at their site, if any.

We don't currently support Subscription out of FHIR either (which is where a webhook would come into play).

Regards,

~ Jenni

[NSB]

Thank you for your response. 

Could you please let me know or point right support group / contact where i can reach to see if any Cerner Specific REST/Webservices/Backend API's available to support our needs to start with later on we may plan to migrate them to FHIR specification.