WebPT Blog - physical therapy
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0 CommentsMay 9, 2013| Mark Kats
Once signed by the governor, Missouri Senate Bill 159 will give patients greater access to physical therapy at a lower cost. The Missouri APTA Chapter has been working on pushing this bill through for two years. Great job! Learn more here.
May is Better Hearing and Speech Month. Take a few minutes to educate yourself about different communication disorders and the services speech-language pathologists and audiologists provide. Here's some information on school-based SLPs. You can also follow the #BHSM hashtag on Twitter for more.
And finally, this week is Nurses Week. On behalf of everyone here at WebPT, we'd like to thank all the hard working, caring nurses out there. Thank you for all that you do!
Of course, these are just a few news stories making the rounds this week. You can also find us on Facebook for more PT, OT, and SLP news and updates.
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Apr 24, 2013| Charlotte Bohnett
You’ve taken steps to go green within your clinic. Now it’s time to let your community know all the good you’ve done—not just to gain additional customers, but also to encourage other businesses in your community to follow suit. Here are five steps to marketing your green efforts.1.) Know your audience. According to an Entrepreneur article, Matt Villano explains that “marketing your business as green is a great idea—provided your customers are into that sort of thing.” Scope out your community. Do your customers seem interested in the green topic? Are local businesses in other industries touting their greenness? Assess your current and potential audience to make sure they’ll be receptive to your marketing. In short, never simply assume people will want to visit your business just because you’re greener than your competitors.
2.) Define your green. The term “green” means different things to different people. Perhaps you’ve taken several steps to conserve electricity and water in your practice or you’ve started a carpooling program. In either case, it’s important to define your green both to your practice and your audience. Most importantly, make sure what you’re doing truly is green or beneficial to your community and environment, because misrepresenting your “greenness”—also known as “greenwashing”-—can prove monumentally detrimental to your business.
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Apr 23, 2013| Erica Cohen
So, you’ve decided to take your clinic for a walk on the green side―you’re changing out your light bulbs, reading memos on screen, and implementing a carpool incentive. Hooray! That makes us―and Mother Earth―oh so happy to hear. But if you’re working in an office building with other companies, how can you get everyone else on board so your efforts don’t get lost in the mix―especially if ya’ll have shared utilities?First, acknowledge what you’ve already achieved. Even if it doesn’t seem like it, the changes you’ve made matter. And they’re making a difference. Big or small, every little bit helps, so take a few moments to celebrate your―and your team’s―efforts. You’ve done a great thing.
Second, start campaigning. Get the word out, grassroots style. Start talking to your neighbors, coworkers, patients, and even your landlord about the efforts you’ve made―and don’t forget to include your results. Saved money on your electric bill? Share! Reduced your paper towel supply purchasing order? Talk about it. Think about what motivated you to go green, and then communicate your efforts in a way that inspires and motivates others.
Need some help motivating? Check out Arizona State University Social Psychologist Dr. Cialdini’s Principles of Influence. For example, his Social Proof principle states that people will do things that they see others doing. Translation: lead by example.
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Apr 22, 2013| Brooke Andrus
As you’ve probably noticed, we’ve dedicated a sizeable portion of this month’s blog space to helping you and your clinic conserve resources and become more environmentally conscious. But let’s not forget about the most important resource of all—your time! You might assume that you need a major systematic overhaul to improve work efficiency in your clinic. Not so. In this case, small investments pay big dividends. Here are some quick tips to help you get the most out of every minute:1. Establish a process. Once you’ve fine-tuned your routine, educate staff and patients about what you expect from them. This is especially helpful for repeat clients; once a patient learns the drill, he or she will move through it quickly on subsequent visits.
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Apr 11, 2013| Charlotte Bohnett
Today's blog post comes from Senior Writers Charlotte Bohnett and Erica Cohen.
It was 14 years ago when Brian Kunich launched his successful physical therapy career. After several years working in private practice, Brian discovered that while he was an excellent practitioner, as a clinic owner and manager he was at a serious disadvantage when it came to controlling clinic supply expenses. Because his priority—as it should be—was on treating his patients and growing his business, ordering clinical supplies became an after hours responsibility. Thus, time to shop around was at a premium.Determined to help clinics simplify the buying process—and save money—Brian mapped out a plan for an eCommerce platform. And he knew the perfect company to work with in order to bring his plan to fruition—WebPT, the same company who developed and delivered the ultimate EMR and practice management solution for rehab therapists. In October, 2011, Brian (a WebPT Member) attended WebPT’s first user conference, Evolve. There, he spoke with friend, former colleague, and WebPT Co-Founder Heidi Jannenga.
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Apr 9, 2013| Erica Cohen
Depending on where you live, your relationship with the sun may be anything from estranged to, well, in our case in Phoenix, quite smothering. But regardless of locale, we can all use a little help turning our love-hate relationship into something well, positive—environmentally and cash flow positive, that is. Here are some how-tos for harnessing the sun’s powers for good—as well as some other tips on things you can do in your practice to help conserve energy and thus, bring down your in-clinic costs while helping out Mother Earth.First things first, get an energy audit. According to an article on Inc, most local utility companies offer businesses free on-site consultations on how they can reduce energy use. In case you missed the word free, i’ll repeat it now: free. Why not get an expert opinion on where you can improve your clinic’s conservational status and thus your costs? It certainly can’t hurt.
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“What Box Does my G-Code Go Into?”: Responding to Outdated Questions Related to Paper Billing Claims
Mar 20, 2013| Stacey AbelmanToday’s blog comes from WebPT’s Billing Onboarding & Operations Manager Stacey Abelman. Thanks Stacey!
Members often ask: where does my G-code go? Or what box does my NPI go into? Additionally, we—as the WebPT Billing Service—receive such requests as “I need my facility address changed in Box 32” or “I need to use my Tax ID instead of my SSN in box 24j.” But these “boxes” that Members sometimes refer to don't exist anymore in modern billing. In fact, they’ve become my personal four letter word. For a typical practice, 99% of claim submissions are electronic and sent in an ANSI 5010 837 format. If you are still printing paper claims for more than 1% of your payers, let’s be frank, you're outdated. And in this situation, trust me, you don't want to be outdated.
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Mar 11, 2013| Erica Cohen
Today's blogs post comes from WebPT Co-Founder and PT Heidi Jannenga, Marketing Manager Mike Manheimer, and Senior Writers Erica Cohen and Charlotte Bohnett.
Last month’s webinar on Medicare was our most highly attended webinar to date. And that’s really not surprising, because wherever Medicare goes, questions follow. But unfortunately, we couldn’t get to them all live. So we thought we’d put together a blog post will all the great questions you asked and our answers. That way, you can access it wherever, whenever you want. Ready to jump in? Here’s your Medicare Q&A.
(P.S. Are you a first timer to thiswebinar or looking for a refresher? Click here to rewatch the webinar.)
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Mar 6, 2013| Erica Cohen
Today's blog post comes from Geoff Elledge, WebPT Billing Specialist. Thanks, Geoff!
One of the primary reasons medical providers depend on certified coders is for their ability to maximize practice revenues. To do so, certified coders must understand how and when to use modifiers—and there are a lot—from the common sides of treatment, like right (RT) and left (LT), to the more challenging modifier 59.
The CPT Manual defines modifier 59 as the following:
“Under certain circumstances, the physician may need to indicate that a procedure or service was distinct or independent from other services performed on the same day. Modifier 59 is used to identify procedures [and/or] services that are not normally reported together, but are appropriate under the circumstances. This may represent a different session or patient encounter, different procedure or surgery, different site or organ system, separate incision/excision, separate lesion, or separate injury (or area of injury in extensive injuries) not ordinarily encountered or performed on the same day by the same physician. However, when another already established modifier is appropriate, it should be used rather than modifier 59. Only if no more descriptive modifier is available, and the use of modifier 59 best explains the circumstances, should modifier 59 be used."
Got that? Yeah, we know. It’s a bit dense and doesn’t seem the most relatable. But that’s because modifier 59 is intended mainly for surgical procedures, so the definition leans a great deal that way.
So how does modifier 59 come into play in the therapy setting? If you’re providing two wholly separate and distinct services during the same treatment period, it might be modifier 59 time! The National Correct Coding Initiative (NCCI) has identified procedures that therapists commonly perform together and labeled these “edit pairs.” Thus, if you bill a CPT code that is linked to one of these pairs, you’ll receive payment for only one of the codes. It’s therefore your responsibility as the therapist to determine if you’re providing linked services or wholly separate services. This will determine whether modifier 59 is appropriate.
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Feb 25, 2013| Erica Cohen
Last weekend, WebPT rolled out a new addition to the WebPT Medicare Allowable Fee Schedule and Cap Alert System: the Medicare Allowable Cap Report. We are so excited for this new feature launch that we thought we might take a few lines of our blog to walk through the WebPT Fee Schedule and Cap Alert System basics.
