Physical Therapy Management & Physical Therapy Documentation

Physical Therapy Billing: Using Revenue Cycle Management Software

by Nitin Chhoda PT, DPT | Jun 1, 2015 | Physical Therapy Billing, Physical Therapy Documentation, Physical Therapy Management

An integrated electronic medical records system includes revenue management software that can streamline your physical therapy billing.

Nitin Chhoda explains why this type of software can be a critical component of the ‘big picture’, allow your entire physical therapy billing process to become streamlined and profitable.

The first step toward solving a problem is always acknowledging that a problem exists. In physical therapy billing, this means evaluating the revenue cycle and the staff that is responsible for billing.

Nobody likes to have their job evaluated, especially when the goal is to find inefficiencies and problems.

Revenue cycle management software allows the practice to evaluate and make the necessary changes to physical therapy billing processes at the same time as the billing staff gets exciting and powerful new tools.

Giving the Staff Reason for Optimism

Start the process of evaluation of the revenue cycle with one question in your mind: which tasks could the right software take from the billing staff?

In other words, don’t look for what the staff is doing wrong, look for the places where their jobs could be made easier if you implement physical therapy billing software that includes revenue cycle management improvements.

If the staff feels they are being evaluated, you will have a harder time identifying problems, and making improvements will be more of a challenge.

But if the staff understands that the process of evaluation is impersonal, that the hope is that their physical therapy billing job will get easier, then they will cooperate and be upfront about the problems they experience.

It will be easy to get the staff to talk about problems with duplicate entry. However, physical therapy billing staff members will be protective about admitting to error frequency and revenue recognition delays and errors. The best way to get everyone on board is to make sure they don’t feel threatened.

Revenue Cycle Management Software Solutions

There is a lot of good news in the EMR world these days. New physical therapy EMRs provide revenue cycle management solutions that are very successful at improving efficiency.

In particular, you will find that duplicate entry is eliminated and not just within the physical therapy billing department.

With a fully integrated and mobile EMR, you can reduce the entry of patient information to a single occurrence, and it will happen when the patient picks up the tablet computer and enters their information.

Streamlined Billing

Of course the real time saver will be software that handles recurring billing in a streamlined and intuitive way. Physical therapy billing staff still needs access to each claim that is being submitted, so they can review and make changes based on the actual visit.

But if the treatment plan is set and pre-approved, the entire billing schedule can be set up to generate claims automatically. The biller only has to enter the information once, and then their job is to check for errors or inconsistencies.

Changing the job of physical therapy billing staff should be a priority for every physical therapy private practice manager or owner. Even if you hire a billing company, there are incredible advantages to planning and preparing so that each time the company sends a claim, you are much more likely to receive the payment in a timely manner.

Managing the revenue cycle will bring more visibility, make compliance more simple, and make the physical therapy billing team more productive.

Healthcare Practice Management: The 4-Prong Approach

by Nitin Chhoda PT, DPT | Jun 1, 2015 | Healthcare Practice Management, Physical Therapy Documentation, Physical Therapy Management

To manage a practice, it’s important to adopt a multi-faceted approach that consists of four ‘pillars’. This allows for a more efficient, streamlined and successful practice, according to Nitin Chhoda.

Managing a healthcare practice management is a lot like running other small businesses, except for a few glaring differences.

In general, a small business can predict how often and how well they will be compensated for products or services.

This is because the client or customer who received the products or services is the same as the payer. In healthcare practice management, the payer is often a third party, in the form of a health insurance company or a governmental program.

To ensure that a medical practice is financially secure, healthcare practice management must take a 4-pronged approached; everything within the practice needs to be integrated with the rest of the practice. Most importantly, scheduling, documentation, billing, and marketing must all be integrated to get the most efficiency and productivity from the staff.

Start with Scheduling

Making your scheduling of healthcare practice management efficient is fairly obvious; for every open appointment slot of each day, there should be a patient coming in to the clinic. The problems arise when there are either not enough patients or patients cancel appointments and the slots are never filled.

Historically, medical practices haven’t had much of a choice when it came to making the scheduling process more efficient or precise. But with technological advances, scheduling has evolved so that filling slots is easier and tracking patient visits becomes automated.

Scheduling and Marketing

To get the most from your schedule, it turns out that the healthcare practice management will have to do some marketing. Usually this means projecting a certain image to the general public and attempting to entice patients to come to your practice rather than alternatives.

Marketing is also important as patients move through the system, and encouraging referrals from current patients should be part of the healthcare practice management plan. Without good marketing, it will be hard to keep your schedule full.

Scheduling and Documentation

Of course, usually it is the receptionist who handles both scheduling and the pulling and re-filing of medical records. The responsible healthcare practice management staff member must take the time to look over the schedule and pull the correct records each day.

They must also know when to schedule the next visit based on the clinician’s notes from the current visit. This entire process can be automated and streamlined with current technology.

Documentation and Billing

And the bottom line for any healthcare practice management will be collection of payments from the payer, whether that is the patient or their health insurance company.

Medical billers and coders need access to those medical files, too, and they need to know what the clinician has been doing to help the patient get better.

Integration

By realizing that there are important connections between the four major parts of a practice, healthcare practice management can look for the ways that communication and transfer of information has become inefficient within the practice. Efficiency can only be improved when management is seeing the connections and assessing the performance of each aspect of the practice as it relates to the rest.

Physical Therapy Billing: Simplifying Enrollment with Insurance Companies

by Nitin Chhoda PT, DPT | Jun 1, 2015 | Physical Therapy Billing, Physical Therapy Documentation, Physical Therapy Management

There are times when new practices are unable to enroll with major insurance companies. In this article, Nitin Chhoda provides some valuable tips on how to simplify the complicated process of enrollment and get your practice in-network with the payers you wish to work with.

Although physical therapy billing is complicated by the various billing requirements of insurance companies and government programs, some private practices are finding ways to simplify the process.

In fact, physical therapy billing is being redefined by physical therapy documentation software and EMRs.

The changes that are being make streamline the process, improve claims acceptance from insurance companies, and improve the patient experience.

Applications to Insurance Companies

For each insurance company that a physical therapy practice would like to bill, an application process must be completed and even certification may be required. Insurance companies have a lot of power in this regard and the process can be time consuming and costly.

These physical therapy billing applications cannot be taken lightly, and the terms of the final contract with each insurance company should be carefully reviewed.

The contract terms will determine just what you can bill for and what the limits are for each insurance company. Not only will this inform what the physical therapy billing staff does, but it should also be used to instruct physical therapists on how to work with patients to get the most benefit from the limits imposed by the insurance companies.

The Most Efficient Way to Enroll

There are now services that offer to apply on behalf of your practice for a fee. In many cases, this can be worthwhile, as the time and energy it takes to complete this kind of application takes physical therapy billing or management staff away from other duties.

Hiring a specialist to do this temporary work may be the most efficient way to enroll with a number of insurance companies as well as government programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

But this still involves a great deal of attention, at least from physical therapy billing and management. You may want to start by determining exactly which companies you want to enroll with.

Not every insurance company will be worth working with, especially if the limits are particularly low or they have a particularly high rate of rejection and denial of claims. Once you have drafted a list of potential companies and programs, you can work with an application company to get enrolled more quickly and efficiently.

Integrating Insurance Requirements into an EMR

A fully integrated and flexible physical therapy EMR can provide clinicians with the correct weighted procedures and treatment options so that when the information is transferred to the physical therapy billing staff, the billing process can be seamless and smooth.

A physical therapy billing and documentation software solution can help make enrollment smoother for physical therapy billing staff as well as for management. Once the terms are set, the specific can be entered into your EMR.

Without wasting time looking up the details of each insurance contract, the physical therapy billing staff can fill out the necessary claims and submit them more quickly and accurately than ever before. If the requirements are integrated into the EMR, everyone benefits including the practice as a whole.

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.

Automated Vs. Manual Patient Follow Up

by Nitin Chhoda PT, DPT | Jun 7, 2014 | Physical Therapy Management

Clinicians put a lot of effort into patient reminders, but they still don’t know if clients are going to show up even after they’re reminded. That uncertainty points out the advantages of automated patient follow up. There’s no need to set aside blocks of time for patient reminder calls.

Manual follow up and patient reminders consume a significant amount of staff members’ time that could be better spent on dealing with patients in the office and conducting marketing activities. An automated system is more efficient and offers increased access to healthcare for those who really want it.

24 Hour Notice

Twenty-four hours before the patient has an appointment, an automated system sends the patient a text or voice message to confirm or reschedule. In Touch EMR™ provides practitioners with multiple means of contacting clients that allows them to confirm or reschedule appointments automatically with the touch of a button.

Depending upon the client’s choice, they can confirm their appointment on the spot or be transferred automatically to the appropriate staff to reschedule. In Touch EMR™ slashes patient no-shows. It also provides staff with opportunities to fill those empty appointments to maintain patient flow. Messages can be customized according to the clinician’s preferences.

It’s All About The Numbers

Some clinics are experiencing record no-show rates. The Affordable Health Care Act, changes in insurance and higher co-pays has led many clients to delay or suspend their care due to monetary considerations. Any practice that has more than an eight percent cancellation rate definitely needs an automated system to cut down the work and increase the number of patients that actually show up.

Breaking Down Barriers

While many practitioners have made the transition to an EMR, they continue to avoid contacting patients via email, text or voice message. The fear of violating HIPPA regulations is often cited. No confidential information is exchanged during a patient reminder.

Caring Attitudes

Patients want to feel that their clinician cares about them as more than a paycheck. One of the best ways to foster that perception is through automated contact. It takes little time with an automated system, it’s a good marketing strategy and wins patient loyalty.

Leveraging technology to stay in contact with patients has never been more important. It’s essential to gather all forms of contact information from patients, obtain their permission for that type of communication, and their preferences for messaging. Text and voice mails are typically answered within five minutes of their receipt, making them an ideal way to reduce no-shows.