Physical therapy blog with useful information about physical therapy software, best practices for using technology, physical therapy billing, physical therapy industry events and news from WebPT.
PT blog with with up to date information on how to make the most of your PT management system. Shared comments from PTs are also available on our blog.
Billing is a crucial aspect of running your practice. However, you may be doing a disservice to your business by keeping your billing in-house. Now, before your say, “hogwash!” and list the perceived benefits, let me tell you that those benefits might actually be misconceptions. Let’s tackle ‘em.
Misconception #1: You’ll have more control over your billing.
Proximity does not equal effective control. Just because a biller is inside your clinic doesn’t mean you have the time to supervise them. You’re treating patients, and everyone else in your practice has responsibilities, too. Managing an in-house biller means you’re also managing your entire revenue cycle. That’s a whole lot of extra (and not fun) work—a burdensome amount that you can easily shove onto the back burner—meaning you can shirk that task.
A professional off-site billing service actually offers you more control with less time-consuming responsibility. These services offer complete transparency and dedicated specialists (or account managers). Plus, the service should auto-generate at-a-glance reports for you, so keeping an eye on your revenue cycle is actually that—just an eye, not your entire self.
Today's post comes from WebPT Community Manager Mark Kats.
Several news outlets reported on the recent New England Journal of Medicine study that finds physical therapy to be as effective a treatment for a torn meniscus as knee surgery. This is great news for patients and physical therapists alike. It's also another in a series of great arguments for direct access. Read the full article here.
Speaking of direct access, looks like Indiana will join the now 49 states that allow patients to access physical therapy services without a referral. HB1034 passed Indiana Senate this week and is expected to be voted into law on July 1, 2013.
Meanwhile, the fight to keep SB381 from becoming law in California continues. It's been encouraging to see physical therapists present a united front on this, and we hope you'll continue to put pressure on California Senator Leland Yee (Senator.Yee@senate.ca.gov) to kill this bill. Here is WebPT Co-Founder and PT Heidi Jannenga's take on SB381.
Of course, these are just a few news stories making the rounds this week. Follow us on Twitter (@WebPT) for all things rehab therapy related.
Today’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.
Today's blog post comes from WebPT Senior Writers Charlotte Bohnett and Erica Cohen.
Billing is one of the most important aspects of running a rehab therapy clinic, aside frompatient care. But it can also be one of the most challenging, especially if you’re working with a billing process that doesn’t suit your clinic.
The right billing method should streamline your workflow, increase your profitability, and free up some much needed bandwidth. Just think, what could you do with some extra time. With that in mind, we’re going to devote the next handful of posts to some billing best practices to help you get your life back.
Our first tip covered auditing your existing process; tip two discussed the need to shop around; tip three explained in-house versus outsourced billing; and tip four detailed the importance of integrated billing. Here’s tip five:
#5: Once you select a plan, establish a comprehensive patient registration process.
Regardless of the billing option that best suits your clinic, there are several things you should know before you treat a patient to ensure your claims are processed quickly and accurately.
Here are ten questions you should be able to answer about each patient:
Today's blog post comes from WebPT Senior Writers Charlotte Bohnett and Erica Cohen.
Billing is one of the most important aspects of running a rehab therapy clinic, aside from patient care. But it can also be one of the most challenging, especially if you’re working with a billing process that doesn’t suit your clinic.
The right billing method should streamline your workflow, increase your profitability, and free up some much needed bandwidth. Just think, what could you do with some extra time? With that in mind, we’re going to devote the next handful of posts to some billing best practices to help you get your life back.
Our first tip covered auditing your existing process; tip two discussed the need to shop around; and tip three explained in-house versus outsourced billing. Here’s tip four:
#4: Ensure your billing integrates.
If you’re using an electronic medical record (EMR), it’s essential that your billing software and documentation software talk to each other.
Today's blog post comes from WebPT Senior Writers Charlotte Bohnett and Erica Cohen.
Billing is one of the most important aspects of running a rehab therapy clinic, aside from patient care. But it can also be one of the most challenging, especially if you’re working with a billing process that doesn’t suit your clinic.
The right billing method should streamline your workflow, increase your profitability, and free up some much needed bandwidth. Just think, what could you do with some extra time. With that in mind, we’re going to devote the next handful of post to some billing best practices to help you get your life back.
Our first tip covered auditing your existing process, and tip two discussed the need to shop around. Here’s tip three:
#3: Choose your method—in-house or outsource?
The next question to ask yourself is whether you should outsource your billing or keep your billing in house. Let’s first define each method of billing, then outline the benefits and drawbacks of each.
Today's blog post comes from WebPT Senior Writers Erica Cohen and Charlotte Bohnett.
Billing is one of the most important aspects of running a rehab therapy clinic, aside from patient care. But it can also be one of the most challenging, especially if you’re working with a billing process that doesn’t suit your clinic.
The right billing method should streamline your workflow, increase your profitability, and free up some much needed bandwidth. Just think, what could you do with some extra time. With that in mind, we’re going to devote the next handful of posts to some billing best practices to help you get your life back.
Yesterday, our first tip covered auditing your existing process. Here’s tip two:
#2: Shop Around.
There’s little more complicated than medical billing. Throw in a rehab therapy specialty with therapy caps and timed codes, and there’s plenty of room to make mistakes. And mistakes mean more than lost or delayed reimbursements; they cost time. Time that you or your team could have spent focusing on patient care, family, or anything other than scouring over errored claims to identify and correct the fatal flaw.
That’s why experience is key. When you hand over your income source, it better be to someone who knows their stuff. And that’s always the case, whether it’s an internal employee or an outside company. Whoever has control of your claims must be well-versed in the nuances of physical therapy billing. Having specialized domain knowledge can both increase cash flow and decrease the amount of time it takes to process your claims.
What experiences do you have shopping around? Any tips to share?
Today's blog post comes from WebPT Senior Writers Charlotte Bohnett and Erica Cohen.
Billing is one of the most important aspects of running a rehab therapy clinic, aside from patient care. But it can also be one of the most challenging, especially if you’re working with a billing process that doesn’t suit your clinic.
The right billing method should streamline your workflow, increase your profitability, and free up some much needed bandwidth. Just think, what could you do with some extra time—see another patient, catch up with family and friends, maybe read more WebPT blog posts? With that in mind, we’re going to devote the next handful of posts to some billing best practices to help you get your life back.
#1: Audit Your Existing Process First
Let’s discuss the importance of an initial internal audit to see where your current billing process ranks. Have you already established a system that is ideal for your clinic or is there room for improvement? If you answered yes to any of these questions, it may be a good time to explore alternative billing solutions.
What experiences do you have conducting a billing audit? Any tips to share?
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.)
Today's post comes from Tom Ambury, PT and compliance officer at PT Compliance Group. Thanks, Tom!
“Tom, how can you make a statement that the Medicare 8-minute rule is simple yet diabolically complicated?” I can make that statement because even though this rule has been in effect for years—and thus, people should have the hang of it—mistakes still happen. And when I talk to therapists about it, a lot of confusion still exists.
The 8-minute rule is how we determine what to bill to Medicare. To correctly calculate the charge, you must divide charges into two categories: time based (or “constant attendance”) modalities and procedures as well as supervised modalities and procedures. Constant attendance modalities and procedures include therapeutic exercise, manual therapy, neuromuscular reeducation, therapeutic activities, gait training, ultrasound, iontophoresis, and electrical stimulation attended. Supervised procedures and modalities would include physical therapy evaluation, physical therapy reevaluation, electrical stimulation unattended, and whirlpool.
What the 8-minute rule says—and how it got its name—is if you are performing only one constant attendance modality or procedure, you have to perform that modality or procedure for at least eight (8) minutes in order to bill that charge.
For example, I see a patient for the initial visit, and I perform my initial evaluation for 35 minutes with seven (7) minutes of therapeutic exercise. My charges are one unit of physical therapy evaluation. I cannot bill for therapeutic exercise because I performed that procedure for seven (7) minutes. So, by rule, I would need to perform therapeutic exercise for eight (8) minutes in order to bill it. Most therapists understand this, and your documentation system should prevent this type of error.
Where the diabolically complicated part comes in is when the therapist performs multiple constant attendance procedures or modalities and then must correctly calculate the charge. Complications arise because there’s a cumulative and distribution part of the rule.
When calculating the correct charges for multiple procedures and modalities, you must add the total constant attendance modalities and procedures together to get the “Direct Timed Minutes.” This number determines how many constant attendance units you can charge. At this point, you would determine how many supervised units to charge and determine the “Total Treatment Time.” To add to the diabolically complicatedness, there is also a rule to determine the correct distribution of charges. Let’s go through some examples:
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