For use with NexHealth Scheduling, Payments, and Verification.
About this article: This article covers the online booking form - the form patients fill out when scheduling an appointment through your online booking link. This is separate from the NexHealth Forms product, which handles patient intake forms, consent forms, registration packets, and other forms sent to patients before or after their appointment.
Looking for help with patient intake forms or form packets? See How do I set up Forms?
Looking for help customizing what patients fill out when they book online? You're in the right place.
Overview
Add custom fields the online booking form
Request insurance information in online booking
Next Steps
Add custom fields the online booking form
The online booking form captures patient information as they book online. We recommend keeping it as brief as possible, but it is possible to add additional fields.
1. Navigate to the gear icon and select Settings.
The gear icon is in the top right. |  |
2. Choose Online booking form from the menu on the left.
The Default online booking form fields (First and last Name, email, phone number, zip code, legal sex, and date of birth) cannot be customized or removed. NexHealth uses this info to match the patient booking online as a new patient or existing patient.
As well, if a patient checks the box for "By leaving checked, I agree with the Call/Text Consent," they will resubscribe to communications which they may have unsubscribed from previously.
3. Click on + Add an online booking form field.
You’ll see a list of options.
Payment online booking form option is only available to customers using NexHealth Payments. Reach out to our team to learn more about Payments. This option will allow you to capture a credit card on file to charge in the event of a no-show or cancellation.
4. Select a field.
Click on a field type which you wish to add.
5. Enter field Label and which patients to display to.
You can label the field anything you like. A dropdown Show to patients lets you select whether to show this field to All patients, Existing patients only, or New patients only.
Note fields will also require you to enter the note text. Multi-select and Single select fields will also ask you to enter the options for these fields.
6. Check whether to require the item and/or Add to all locations.
Use checkboxes to require the item or add it to the booking form for all locations.
7. Drag and drop fields to reorder.
Drag and drop fields to reorder them using the grab bars (six dots) on the left side of the field.
8. Click Preview online booking.
Preview the online booking form using the Preview online booking button. This will show you what the patient will see when booking.
9. How does Online Booking sync with my EHR?
The following fields are synced from the online booking form to your EHR:
First name: synced.
Last name: synced. Dentrix (on-prem) truncates to 20 characters.
Email: synced.
Phone: synced.
Date of birth: synced.
Legal sex / Gender: synced. Eaglesoft accepts Male/Female only; other EHRs allow Other.
Zip code: synced.
Insurance carrier: synced as a plain-text name. The EHR agent looks it up or creates it. No automated verification happens at booking.
Insurance plan: synced as a plain-text name. The EHR agent looks it up or creates it.
The following fields are not synced from the online booking form to your EHR:
Street address, city, state: collected on some forms but not written back to the EHR. Only zip code syncs.
Middle name: read from EHR only - values entered on the booking form do not sync back.
Custom fields (notes, single-select, multi-select): stored in NexHealth and visible on the appointment, but do not sync to the EHR.
EHRs that support new patient creation from online booking
If the patient doesn't already exist in your EHR, NexHealth can create a new patient record at booking time for the following EHRs: Athena, Cloud9, Denticon, Dentrix, Dentrix Ascend, Dentrix Enterprise*, Eaglesoft, ECW, ModMed, NextGen, Open Dental, Orthotrac.
*Dentrix Enterprise has patient creation off by default. Contact NexHealth Support to enable it.
The following EHR's do not support new patient creation from online booking: Curve, Dolphin, DrChrono, MDland, PracticeWorks, and Softdent. For these EHRs, the patient must already exist in the EHR before booking will sync. If a new patient books online, the appointment will be captured in NexHealth but a corresponding EHR patient record will not be created automatically.
EHR-specific required fields for new patient creation
Some EHRs require additional fields beyond the NexHealth defaults before they will create a new patient record:
ECW: requires first name, last name, phone, and date of birth.
Eaglesoft: requires gender (Male/Female only).
NextGen: requires first name, last name, and phone. DOB is not required.
All other supported EHRs: require first name, last name, and phone as the standard minimums.
Guardian bookings
When a guardian books for a minor, the guardian's phone and email are used as the contact information if the patient (minor) has none on file.
Request insurance information in online booking
In Settings, you can customize your online booking form to ask for Insurance information.
If you have Verification, we strongly recommend using the integrated Dental Insurance Verification Form to collect insurance information. Reach out to our team to learn more about Verification.
You can easily send the form via your reminders through Smart Form automation and have the patient's insurance automatically verified once they complete the form.
Automatic verification is not yet available from the information provided on the online booking form, and we find that patients are more likely to not complete a booking if there are too many steps. Simplify insurance verification for you, and make online booking even easier for your patients!
1. Navigate to the gear icon and select Settings.
The gear icon is in the top right. | |
2. Click on Insurance under the Scheduling options.
Use the sidebar on the left.
3. Toggle on Ask for insurance.
A green toggle will indicate that this setting is on.
4. Click on +Add insurance.
This will bring up a new screen.
5. Type in insurers and click Add, or Upload CSV.
You may add multiple insurers at once. You may also copy these settings to all locations. |  |
You may also use Copy in the main Insurance screen to copy these insurers to all locations.
6. Click Save.
Patients' insurance information will appear in the details of the appointment in the NexHealth Activity feed and on the patient profile. |  |
7. Remove insurers from your list using the trash icon.
FAQ
Is the online booking form the same as NexHealth Forms?
No. They are two separate products with different purposes:
The online booking form is what patients fill out when they book an appointment via your online booking link. It captures basic information needed to schedule (name, contact info, optional custom fields, optional insurance, optional payment method).
NexHealth Forms is a separate product for sending intake forms, consent forms, registration packets, medical history forms, and other forms before or after an appointment. These are typically sent via reminders or manually as form requests.
Will custom fields I add to the online booking form sync to my EHR?
No. Only NexHealth's default fields (name, contact info, DOB, legal sex, zip code) and insurance carrier/plan sync to the EHR. Custom fields are stored in NexHealth and visible on the appointment, but they are not written to the EHR patient record.
Why isn't the patient's full address syncing to my EHR?
Only zip code syncs back to the EHR from the online booking form. Street address, city, and state are not written to the EHR. Address details flow from EHR → NexHealth, not the reverse.
Why didn't a new patient get created in my EHR after they booked online?
A few possible reasons:
Your EHR may not support patient creation from online booking (Curve, Dolphin, DrChrono, MDland, PracticeWorks, and Softdent do not).
A required field for your EHR may have been missing - see the EHR-specific required fields section above.
For Dentrix Enterprise, patient creation is off by default. Contact NexHealth Support to enable it.
Does insurance entered on the online booking form get verified automatically?
No. Insurance entered on the online booking form is sent to the EHR as a plain-text carrier and plan name. For automated verification, use the Verification Form.
My patient's middle name on the booking form didn't update in the EHR. Why?
Middle name is read from the EHR only - it does not sync from the online booking form back to the EHR. To update a middle name, edit it directly in your EHR.