EMR Adoption, Selection and Implementation Checklist, medical records

EMR Solution: Monitoring and Improving Staff Productivity

by Nitin Chhoda PT, DPT | Jun 22, 2015 | Electronic Medical Records, Physical Therapy Documentation, Physical Therapy Management

Did you know that electronic medical records can not only make the documentation process faster but they can also help to monitor staff productivity?

Critical business metrics (time in / time out, number of patients seen, number of units billed) can give the practice owner important insight on how to improve the business more and increase profitability. EMR An efficient practice is a productive practice, and one that’s able to treat more patients, expand and prosper. The key to that dream clinic is an EMR or electronic medical records system.

The system has a number of functionalities to help clinicians monitor the productivity of every staff member, identify problem areas or processes, and improve productivity throughout the clinic.

To maintain a steady cash flow within the clinic, practice owners must ensure that each staff member is seeing as many patients as possible each day, but without sacrificing the quality of care provided to each client.

Electronic Medical Record

An EMR can include date and time stamps, or a handwritten copy of the attending therapist or staff member, allowing practice owners to monitor how many patients each staff member is seeing and how much time they’re investing in each.

It’s imperative that practice owners implement an EMR specifically developed for a physical therapy clinic. It will contain the crucial elements needed by the practice and offer customization options that reflect the way the clinic is operated.

Following the implementation of an EMR, it’s normal for productivity to decrease as staff members become familiar with the new system. Speed and efficiency will increase the more they use the system.

The Greatest Challenges

Loss of productivity is one of the greatest challenges facing clinic owners. The problem may be staff members who are stealing time from the practice with extended breaks or lackluster performance, or the problem could lay within the office processes.

An EMR will provide the information needed for practitioners to pinpoint problem areas and take steps to effect improvement. Staffing requirements change as practices grow and an EMR provides clinicians with the information needed for the strategic allocation of employees.

Practice owners strive to maintain a full patient schedule, but some clients may require more involved treatments that are time intensive or there may be an increased need for specific services at certain times of the day.

All of those types of statistics are readily available with an EMR, allowing practitioners to schedule staff for optimum effect or terminate redundant employees. Improving on staff productivity isn’t confined to therapists within the clinic.

An EMR provides the tools to monitor and improve upon billing, coding and reimbursements, along with scheduling and communicating with patients.

Practitioners who have implemented an EMR can coordinate efforts with other healthcare providers to eliminate information gaps or duplication of tests that delays treatment. EMR solution EMR Must Be Fully Understand

Many therapists fear the loss of productivity that immediately follows the implementation of an EMR without fully understanding the benefits to be had once employees are trained in the system.

An EMR offers metrics to identify the most productive employees and areas within the practice where processes and workflow can be improved.

Identifying problem staff and more efficient ways to operate the practice results in significant savings and greater revenues for therapists who want their clinics to grow, prosper and thrive.

EMRs increase profits, efficiency, documentation and staff productivity throughout the practice. An integrated EMR represents a major change for any clinic and provides practitioners with the tools needed to streamline their business, monitor and improve staff productivity, control employee costs and increase revenues within the 21^st century practice.

Medical Management — How to Streamline with EMR

by Nitin Chhoda PT, DPT | Jun 9, 2015 | Electronic Medical Records, Physical Therapy Documentation, Physical Therapy Management

One of the many and major benefits of using electronic medical records system is the ability to streamline the entire documentation and billing process.

This can significantly improve productivity and boost cash flow. Nitin Chhoda explains how to streamline your practice with a simple, efficient and integrated EMR system.

Correct medical management is the key ingredient to a healthy, growing practice. The way therapists manage their clinics will determine whether they succeed or fail.

Practice owners must think like business owners instead of medical providers, a task that many find difficult to reconcile with the everyday treatment of patients.

Assistance With the Help of EMR

Electronic medical records system offers valuable assistance and significantly lightens the load of medical management. Effective medical management of a physical therapy practice involves more than just getting more patients in the door.

It means identifying problems and issues within the clinic, tracking trends, and streamlining the entire range of office procedures. Along with improving client care, superior management means being reimbursed in the timeliest manner possible.

Reducing administrative costs and efforts, while planning for the future, are all earmarks of an efficiently run clinic that will experience exponential growth.

The Benefits of EMR

The most obvious benefit of an EMR in medical management is the ability to identify where unknown problems have crept into office procedures. Time is money in the business world and a physical therapy practice is a business with all the attending problems, issues, wasting of resources and marketing requirements.

Therapists who embrace the features of an EMR will see increased revenue, cost reductions, more effective marketing efforts and better utilization of resources.

Therapists will first notice an increase in cash flow through faster payments via electronic reimbursement submissions. The entire medical management claim and payment system is accelerated and funds can be deposited directly into the clinic’s account.

EMRs eliminate the days of waiting for claims to reach their destination and the return of paper checks that must then be physically transferred to the bank. EMRs provide clinics with the means to capture one-time and recurring payments online via credit or debit cards.

Determine Best Payers

Clinicians can easily determine the best payers through the metrics available in an EMR.

Therapists can ascertain each client’s insurance coverage and eligibility for services, and have the data entered long before the patient’s appointment, allowing for quicker medical management billing and coding that attains a new level of accuracy.

Information is power and EMRs place a wide range of data at a therapist’s fingertips to evaluate medical management staffing needs and deploy clinicians where they’re most effective. It may be possible to eliminate employees or practice owners may discover they can add staff to expand services into spas, corporate and home health programs, and senior facilities.

EMRs provide data that equips therapists with medical management information on local and national demographics, along with treatment trends, that can be used to formulate streamlined and more effective marketing campaigns that target groups by age, gender, location, services or insurance providers.

High Tech Communication

The ability to communicate with clients via multiple methods, including voice and text messaging, offers clinics 21^st century technological tools with which to work. The term paperwork is destined to become obsolete with EMRs that record and store documents digitally.

As therapists fine tune their EMR documentation software to reflect their individual practices, medical management in all its many facets will become more streamlined and efficient than ever before, allowing clinicians to market their clinics more effectively, increase cash flow and manage practices for greater efficiency and profitability.

Don’t Judge an EMR by the Cost of its Software

by Nitin Chhoda PT, DPT | Jun 1, 2015 | Electronic Medical Records, Physical Therapy Documentation, Physical Therapy Management

Many physical therapists find that using physical therapy EMR is expensive. However, Nitin Chhoda emphasizes the many benefits of EMR systems and how the initial expenses can be justified with the long term savings down the road.

Patients and practitioners are living in an exciting age of technological advances that detects diseases earlier and saves lives, but the ability comes with an impressive price tag.

That cost extends into the office with EMR technology and it’s an expense for which many medical professionals aren’t prepared.

The cost of implementing an integrated EMR varies widely, dependent upon the type of system that is utilized.

Practice owners can choose to install an on-site system that they must service themselves, or choose a vendor-maintained package that comes with a monthly fee. Free EMR systems are available, along with those with price tags of up to $80,000. It’s a major expense for any size clinic, but can be devastating for smaller practices on a budget.

EMRs should address the basics

An EMR should speak to three primary functions in the office environment. It should allow practice owners to submit reimbursement claims online to expedite cash flow, provide complete patient documentation, and maintain a client health record that enables clinicians to deliver a superior level of care.

An EMR encompasses of host of functionalities for marketing, client communications and collections, but should address the essentials first.

Cost doesn’t always mean quality

There’s no guarantee that an $80,000 EMR system will perform any better or offer more sophisticated abilities than one that’s free. EMR vendors offer valuable services and resources, but clinicians should remain cognizant that the ultimate goal of such firms is to make money. It’s impossible for a one-size-fits-all system to accommodate the needs of every type of healthcare facility. There will be gaps and inconsistencies that will adversely affect a clinic’s revenues.

Don’t forget the hardware

Implementing an EMR requires hardware, whether it’s hosted by a vendor or housed on-site. For vendor supplied installs, the web-based functions will be maintained on the company’s servers, but clinics will need to purchase laptops or tablets to access the EMR, along with routers, cables, servers and terminals. The cost is much more extensive for practice-maintained electronic medical records housed on-site.

The high cost of tech support and maintenance

Technical support is essential to ensure the smooth running of an intricate EMR system. Clinicians should determine the full extent of the available support before committing themselves and their livelihoods to a nebulous promise. Tech assistance should be available around the clock and include experts that will come to the clinic if needed.

Learning to use the system in easy steps

Staff training can represent a significant financial outlay if employees must travel or miss work to learn the system’s operation.

Many vendors offer on-site and online training as part of their services, but the real cost to clinics will demonstrate itself through an initial loss of productivity and interruption of the normal workflow.

The costs associated with implementing an integrated EMR are varied and they’re expenses that most clinic owners don’t even consider. They look only at the initial cost of the software, without considering the implications of staff training, hardware and IT professionals.

There are many expenses that may not be immediately obvious, but they’re elements that will cost clinics dearly in revenues if they’re not settled before implementation.

How to Minimize Your Accounts Receivable

by Nitin Chhoda PT, DPT | Apr 29, 2015 | Electronic Medical Records, Medical Billing, Physical Therapy Billing, Physical Therapy Documentation, Physical Therapy Management, Physical Therapy Marketing, Physical Therapy Software

Accounts receivable is one of the biggest problems for private practices. Across the nation, there’s millions of dollars that practices are still waiting to collect from insurance companies. The problem is twofold. Practices aren’t using integrated software that performs automatic functions and many billers are being forced to enter each bit of data manually. That leaves them less time to concentrate on collecting from payers.

To remain financially secure, clinicians must do everything they can to shorten the revenue cycle for each patient and get paid faster. That means streamlining the biller’s job with software that contains automation and one-touch functionalities, along with scrubbing and editing abilities. Next to the clinician, a biller is the most important person in a practice. They’re highly trained professionals that keep revenue flowing into the practice.

Accelerated Submissions

In Touch EMR™ and In Touch Biller PRO are the two most advanced software systems available. The integrated systems work together to provide billers with tools that facilitate the entire billing process from start to finish. Efficiency is extremely important in today’s economic climate and In Touch EMR™ allows practitioners to create a claim and submit it to the biller by the time the patient leaves the office.

The system contains essential time-saving features that notify billers of potential problems that could delay the claim, such as incompatible CPT codes. If an inconsistency exists, billers can edit the claim as needed. The claim is automatically optimized, batched and sent the same day. The biller doesn’t have to manually load and send.

Where’s The Claim?

A critical part of the biller’s job is to track, monitor and follow up on submitted claims. In Touch Biller PRO enables billers to track each claim at every stage of the process. The software tells billers exactly where the claim is and its status, an ability that’s missing in most systems, but one that allows billers to track and process claims seamlessly.

The system automatically posts ERAs to patient accounts without the need for billers to do the task manually. That one ability alone provides an enormous time savings that can add up to $1,200 or more per month and thousands each year.

Next t to the clinician, the biller is the most important person in a practice. Any opportunity to streamline his/her job with automation should be implemented. In Touch EMR™ and In Touch Biller PRO makes the biller’s job easier, shortens the revenue cycle and allows practitioners to get paid faster.

What to Look for in Billing Reports

by Nitin Chhoda PT, DPT | Apr 29, 2015 | Electronic Medical Records, Medical Billing, Physical Therapy Billing, Physical Therapy Documentation, Physical Therapy Marketing, Physical Therapy Software

Billing is the cash flow engine of the private practice. It should be simple, streamlined and efficient. Billing software can be used to check patient eligibility and post ERAs, along with sophisticated functions that include scrubbing claims, posting payments and billing secondary insurance with the click of a button.

Perhaps one of the most important functions is the ability to generate detailed yet simple reports. Such reports offer clinicians the means to determine if billers are being as efficient as possible and provide them with an accurate overview of the practice’s financial health.

Utilizing Metrics

An aging report provides a wealth of information. It shows therapists how much money that’s owed but hasn’t been collected. Practitioners can look up accounts receivable by payer and break it down utilizing a variety of different metrics ranging from location to procedure.

Practice owners can ascertain which payers reimburse slowly and providers that aren’t billing as much as others. Reports can be created by ICD and CPT codes to discover which procedures earn the most for the practice and which patients generate the most revenue. In Touch EMR™ has the ability to generate reports with sophisticated measures and customization options.

Data And Proofs

In Touch EMR™ provides clinicians with the ability to know exactly where their money is. They can do it themselves without waiting for the biller. Reports can be created for a week, month or even the last six months. The reports can be taken to the biller or the payer if needed. In Touch EMR™ enables practice owners to view their practice from a higher level and gives the clinician ammunition to address payment issues.

The reports provide therapists with the data needed to address biller problems and expedite the billing process. In Touch EMR™ reports show practitioners where potential problems exist and the point of origin. Therapists may find that they need to stop doing business with specific payers and providers.

It can take an average of a month to collect from insurance companies, but clinicians should be aware that it can take longer when working with Workers’ Compensation, out-of-state clients and auto accident claims. Clinics that experience a lot of these types of claims should be aware that the revenue stream may be delayed through no fault of the biller or provider.

The power and potential of In Touch EMR™ provides clinicians with valuable metrics and tools to diagnose the health of their practice and if the billing department is doing a good job. The integrated system gives practitioners the ability to create their own reports independently of the billing department. In Touch EMR™ gives practice owners the tools to run their lifestyle, not a system that runs them.

How to Streamline Patient Intake

by Nitin Chhoda PT, DPT | Mar 25, 2014 | Electronic Medical Records, Healthcare Practice Management, Physical Therapy Documentation

Scheduling and patient intake doesn’t have to involve time consuming manual data entry and can be completed automatically with the In Touch EMR™. The software provides practices with automatic functions to save time and streamline the before, during and after workflow. Completely HIPAA compliant,

In Touch EMR™ contains military grade protection to safeguard all patient information. The software is compatible with multiple browsers on PCs and Macs.

Simple And Fast Patient Intake

The patient process begins when a client calls for an appointment. The Web-based In Touch EMR™ allows front desk personnel to obtain the necessary information and schedule an appointment online. The front desk can then create a client chart automatically with the touch of a button.

In Touch EMR™ iPad App

The In Touch EMR™ is the only EMR technology that has its own iPad application. It eliminates paper charts, scanning documents, and filing cabinets full of records. Once a patient arrives for their appointment, they can complete the rest of their intake information with the iPad.

Clients can use the camera in the iPad to take a photo of themselves, their driver’s license and insurance card. The photos are sent directly to the patient’s chart that was automatically created when they scheduled their appointment. Clients can upload medical reports, referrals and prescriptions, along with emergency contacts, complaints, symptoms and medications with a click of a button.

With the integrated abilities of In Touch EMR™, front desk staff can verify insurance eligibility online with hundreds of payers across the U.S. and more can be added as needed. The information comes directly from the payer, virtually eliminating claim denials. The entire process happens before the clinician becomes involved.

Enter The Clinician

The client’s chart has already been created automatically and contains all the needed data for the clinician. Custom templates can be generated to reflect individual practices and with In Touch EMR™, practitioners have the advantage of state-of-the-art voice recognition for documentation. With a click of a button, clinicians can complete their documentation and it’s automatically sent to the biller.

In Touch EMR™ streamlines the patient process from scheduling to billing and is the only EMR that has its own iPad app. The software automatically performs many of the time consuming tasks for which front desk staff is traditionally responsible, allowing them to focus their attention on other concerns such as marketing. The significant savings in time translates to money in the bank and a more efficient and profitable practice.