Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) Program Underway
The Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program is under way, and outpatient rehabilitation and CORF/OPT services are now subject to review. The program, a wide-ranging cost-containment plan, is expected to cut improper payments in Medicare programs and identify ways to diminish or eliminate altogether any future improper payments, which may include payments for services that are not covered, coded improperly, or duplicate charges. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) plan to expand the program to all 50 states over time (visit www.cms.hhs.gov/RAC to view the schedule).
Outpatient rehab is within the first set of CMS-approved audit issues. The speech evaluation code, and physical therapy and occupational therapy evaluation codes, can only be billed as a unit of “1.” In the section on Timed and Untimed Codes, CMS provides numerous examples of appropriate billing methods.
Provider outreach must occur within a state before any reviews can take place. Connolly Healthcare, which is contracted to perform recovery audit services in Region C, is the first of the four contractors to hold the mandated town hall meetings (visit this site for more information: www.connollyhealthcare.com/RAC/pages/cms_RAC_Program.aspx).
To prepare for a review, physical and occupational therapists should conclude whether they have billed evaluation and/or service-based codes erroneously. If their internal audit finds billing errors, they need to find, via their compliance program, the procedure for making a voluntary refund or perhaps a self-disclosure. Those who feel they may have difficulties may wish to perform the audit through attorney-client privilege.
For more information, visit the Web sites for the RAC jurisdictions, as follows: Region A: Diversified Collection Services (www.dcsrac.com), Region B: CGI (http://racb.cgi.com), Region C: Connolly Consulting Inc (www.connollyhealthcare.com/RAC), and Region D: HealthDataInsights Inc (no Web site yet; racinfo@emailhdi.com).
Source (verbatim): Rehab Management’s RehabToday enewsletter dated 08/27/09
Speech Therapy Documentation Software
More and more speech and hearing centers are looking for solutions to automate their clinical documentation.
In addition to its administrative and financial features like patient registration, referral management, insurance authorization, cross-discipline scheduling, charges, reporting/analytics, and outcomes, Chart Links software offers the following speech language therapy documentation features:
- Speech language pathology evaluations
- Speech language pathology plan of care
- Speech language pathology progress reports
- Speech language pathology patient education
- Speech language pathology marketing
- Speech language pathology scheduling
- Speech language pathology authorizations
- Speech language pathology patient arrival notification
- Speech language pathology compliance
For more information about how Chart Links outpatient rehabilitation software can serve your speech and hearing center, contact us.
Speech and Hearing Center Reduces Therapy Documentation Turnaround Time
Since using Chart Links speech therapy documentation software, Columbus Speech & Hearing Center has virtually eliminated redundant data entry and reduced clinical documentation turnaround time from two weeks down to a few days. This increased efficiency has enabled the Center to add clinicians while decreasing its clerical staff.
Completing and filing clinical documentation posed challenges for the Center before it began using Chart Links. For proper billing, every patient encounter needs to be documented with a progress note. However, progress notes often got lost, were illegible or didn’t get completed in a timely fashion. With Chart Links, clinicians are able to easily complete the progress notes within the system, and business managers can use the system to monitor the status of progress notes before backlogs get out of control.
Similarly, evaluation and treatment documents used to be handwritten by clinicians and sent to word processors to type. The manual process used to take two to three weeks to complete and included typing the notes, clarifying illegible or unclear notes, as well incorporating one to two revisions before the document was finalized. Now, clinicians can enter their evaluation and treatment notes directly into the system, and - once again - business managers can track the status of the process along the way. “Now it’s very easy for the department director to go into the system and see who hasn’t done their evaluation reports or their treatment reports, which helps us avoid major backlogs and helps to ensure we remain compliant with our accreditation and quality standards,” says Karen Deeter, director of operations at the Center.
The increased productivity and efficiency facilitated by Chart Links has enabled the organization to add clinicians, while decreasing the size of its clerical staff.
The Center is realizing the benefits of moving away from paper-based processes. “Chart Links is helping us transition toward the use of electronic documentation throughout our practice, and has substantially reduced the hassles of tracking and filing paper-based documents,” said Dawn Gleason, president and CEO of the Center. “We are now entering electronic audiology files into the system, and we’re able to scan in the historical patient records for the patients who we see on an ongoing basis. Overall, Chart Links has helped us improve our workflow and reduce administrative tasks.”
Based in Columbus, Ohio, the Columbus Speech & Hearing Center serves nearly 10,000 people across Ohio. Center services include: audiology and hearing aid services; speech-language and occupational therapy; as well as the Comprehensive Program for the Deaf, a job placement program for adults who are hard-of-hearing or deaf. The Center collaborates with numerous other agencies and community organizations in a full-time program of education, testing, evaluation, therapy and vocational counseling at the Center, throughout Central Ohio, and across the state.
Read more about our speech therapy documentation software.
Read the full case study on Columbus Speech & Hearing Center.
Chart Links at ASHA Booth #962
Chart Links will exhibit at the 2008 Annual American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention at McCormick Place West in Chicago, Illinois on November 20-22, 2008 in booth #962.
Stop by to see John Rea or Robert Stafford and see our speech therapy documentation tools. Our rehab software streamlines the daily clinical and administrative tasks in a large speech and hearing clinic:
- Therapy Scheduling
- Patient Arrival Notification
- Referral Management
- Authorizations
- Speech Therapy Documentation (plan of care, progress notes, evaluations)
- Speech-Language Pathology Patient Education
- Speech Therapy Marketing
- Regulatory Compliance
- Etc.
Learn more about our speech therapy software and rehab software in general.
For a complete listing of tradeshows at which Chart Links will exhibit please view our tradeshow schedule.
Ann W. Kummer to Speak about Speech Therapy Software at ASHA
We’re happy to announce that Ann Kummer, PhD, CCC-SLP, ASHA-F, will speak at the 2008 Annual American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention on November 22, 2008 in Chicago, IL from 8-9am. The presentation, entitled “It’s Not IF You’ll Computerize, It’s WHEN and HOW,” will cover 10 things that speech-language pathology (SLP) clinics should consider when evaluating speech therapy software to automate their documentation and administration. Dr. Kummer is the Senior Director of Speech Pathology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) and Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
“More than a decade ago, we embarked upon a mission to reduce the documentation and administrative demands within our organization,” says Dr. Kummer. “Today, we leverage information technology to automate our processes, streamline workflow, reduce billing errors, increase coding compliance, and improve the quality, consistency and turn-around time of our documentation.”
In 1995, Dr. Kummer chose Chart Links Rehab Software to meet the unique documentation needs of a speech pathology department that couldn’t be met with a generic clinical documentation or electronic medical records system. Within a year of launching the system, the Speech Pathology Department at Cincinnati Children’s started realizing the benefits of automation, which included:
- 1-2 hours of increased billed time per week per full-time equivalent therapist
- Increased reimbursement resulting from consistent processes
- Decreased support staff costs
- Improved net revenues
- Improved staff and patient satisfaction
The cost reductions in computerizing the documentation and administrative processes continue to deliver a financial return to the organization each year.
Dr. Kummer’s department has been computerized with Chart Links Rehab Software since 1995. She is the author of Business Practices: A Guide for Speech-Language Pathologists published by ASHA. She is also the author of Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Anomalies: Effects on Speech and Resonance published by Delmar Cengage Learning, 2 Edition (July, 2007).
To learn more about Chart Links’ Rehab Software, visit booth #962 at the American Speech-Language-Pathology Association (ASHA) Annual Convention in Chicago, Illinois on November 20-22, 2008, call 888.369.0707, or visit our website.