April is Occupational Therapy Month
Each year in April, occupational therapists, occupational therapy assistants, and students in practice, education, research, and science host a month long celebration showcasing the importance of Occupational Therapy. It’s the time of year when everyone in the profession goes out of their way to tell the world about what they do.
The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) encourages full participation in OT Month, and has made a number of tools available to make organizing efforts a little easier. Go to www.promoteot.com for more information.
New Payment Model for Anthem Blue Cross OTs in California
As reported by the Occupational Therapy Association of California (OTAC), occupational therapy practitioners within Anthem Blue Cross’ network of providers were recently notified of a planned change in Anthem Blue Cross’ payment methodology for the reimbursement of occupational therapy services in California.
This new payment model changes the current payment system to one where providers will be paid $75 per visit regardless of the treatment(s) provided or the intensity of those treatment(s).
As this change in reimbursement could prove to be financially detrimental to occupational therapy practice, the OTAC is encouraging all of its members to be a part of their grassroots advocacy effort to ensure cost-effective and quality occupational therapy services for Anthem Blue Cross clients. They have posted sample letters to use to educate executives at Anthem Blue Cross on the high value of occupational therapy services in promoting health and disability and to voice opposition to the $75 flat rate.
Providence Speech and Hearing Center Selects Chart Links Rehabilitation Software for 25 Therapists
Chart Links, a provider of rehabilitation workflow management software, announces the selection of its electronic therapy documentation and scheduling system by a team of 25 audiologists, speech therapists and pediatric occupational therapists at Providence Speech and Hearing Center, a not-for-profit leading provider of services to the speech and hearing impaired of Orange County, California. The software implementation will include functionality for electronic therapy documentation, cross-discipline therapy scheduling, referrals, insurance authorizations and charges. It also includes a patient demographic and billing interface to the existing practice management system.
“Our mission is to enrich life through the gifts of speech and hearing,” says Linda H. Smith, CEO of Providence Speech and Hearing Center. “Because of the efficiencies we’ll gain by automating our administrative and clinical workflows with Chart Links, we’re projecting an increase in patient load and a drastic reduction in our wait list of 1000 patients, all of whom are children.”
In 2008, Providence provided services to more than 21,000 people. Approximately 80% of Providence Speech and Hearing Center’s work is dedicated to low-income patients who are either uninsured or underinsured.
“We selected Chart Links over other systems because it was built for therapists practicing in an outpatient setting,” says Smith. “By enhancing their productivity, we expect to increase our time spent with patients and improve outcomes.”
Chart Links software streamlines all of the daily tasks associated with a patient’s physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech language pathology, or audiology visit. The software manages adult and pediatric therapy treatment by automating evaluations, flow sheets, plans of care, progress notes, patient education, and clinical correspondence. It also manages payer compliance, provider reimbursement, outcomes reporting, administrative functions, business intelligence and enterprise productivity.
About Chart Links, LLC
For 15 years, Chart Links has developed rehabilitation software that automates workflow for referrals, insurance authorizations, cross-discipline scheduling, documentation, charges, and more. Chart Links allows medical rehabilitation facilities to be more efficient and to provide a higher quality of care by delivering results in the areas of compliance, outcomes, analytics and revenue.http://www.chartlinks.com?source=prweb
About Providence Speech and Hearing Center
Founded in 1965 by Sister Margaret Anne Inman Ph.D., Providence Speech and Hearing Center is the leading service provider to the speech and hearing impaired of Orange County, California. With over 40 years of experience, Providence has grown from a one room house to a multi-million dollar non-profit organization. Providence served over 21,000 appointments in 2008 to over 3,200 unique patients. They offer a full array of speech and hearing services for children and adults alike; and, because they believe everyone deserves the gifts of speech and hearing, they accept most major insurance companies and medical groups as well as providing grants, scholarships and financing options for patients from low-income families. http:// http://www.pshc.org
Version 5 of Outpatient Rehabilitation Software Released
Chart Links has launched version 5 of its outpatient rehabilitation workflow management and clinical documentation product. The therapy software release includes features like flow sheet documentation, a fresh user interface, enhanced time tracking and patient appointment reminders.
“We’re proud to release technology that further enables medical rehabilitation practitioners to improve patient care, measure clinical outcomes and be more efficient,” says Ron Miller, M.D., President and Chief Medical Officer of Chart Links. “We’re committed to developing comprehensive solutions that meet the complex and cross-disciplinary workflows of outpatient rehab care.”
Chart Links Rehabilitation Software is used in charting patient progress for physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology and audiology. It handles the entire outpatient rehabilitation workflow including scheduling, insurance authorization, referral management, treatment documentation, charges, outcomes, reporting and compliance.
Read our press release about Version 5 of Chart Links Rehabilitation Software.
California Pacific Medical Center Implements Chart Links Software
To gain greater efficiency and increased regulatory compliance, outpatient rehabilitation facilities across four campuses of California Pacific Medical Center, a Sutter Health Affiliate in San Francisco, have implemented Chart Links electronic documentation software.
“Our partnership with Chart Links helps fulfill the vision of allowing clinicians in our physical, occupational, hand and speech therapy programs to document electronically,” says Tami Chin, Director of Rehabilitation at California Pacific. “The software streamlines operations and electronically prompts our therapists — during patient documentation — to ensure greater compliance with Medicare CCI edits, modifiers and time tracking. These elements are essential to running an efficient and profitable department.”
Chart Links Rehabilitation Software automates the therapist’s documentation of daily progress notes including evaluations, plans of care, flow sheets, patient education, and charge capture. By automating this and other aspects of the patient management process, rehabilitation facilities realize greater efficiencies in the areas of turnaround time, physician approvals and therapist productivity. The software also helps to reduce overdue documentation and ensure greater compliance with regulatory requirements.
“Large multi-campus institutions like California Pacific cannot afford to remain paper-based,” says Ron Miller, M.D., Chart Links President and Chief Medical Officer. “Computerized scheduling, documentation, compliance and workflow management enable strong management teams — like the one at California Pacific — to improve operational and financial inefficiencies. In addition, our solution is driven by major accreditation and rehabilitation professional standards to help ensure regulatory compliance.”
To read about more customers, like California Pacific Medical Center, that use Chart Links Rehabilitation Software, visit the customer page of our website.