Coding Braces
For example, the therapist may tell the patient that he or she needs a knee brace for running. Knee braces may be something your business has that can be coded or billed to the patient. From the examination area, the therapist could access the software and input this information. Because it is a cloud-based software, if the item needs to be ordered, it could show up to one of the at-home workers, allowing the order to be processed by another person altogether.

Sharing Patient Files
Cloud computing software makes it easy for any therapist to pull up any file that is on the server. So, if you were to take on a patient of a colleague, you could easily pull up the files without having to be in a specific room or on a specific computer system.

Access from Anywhere
Better yet, cloud-computing software is accessed through the Internet. This makes it possible to reach your information from anywhere in the world with Internet access. So, if you are working with a client and want to input information while you are at home, you simply pull up the files from your personal computer. This could also benefit you if you are speaking with another therapist for diagnostic help. In that case, you could travel to his or her office and pull up the files directly, which prevents having to bring along patient files in a hard copy.

Back-up Possibilities
A therapy office can use cloud-computing software for saving documents online. Some software provides an online storage database. Other types provide email, security features, and desktop productivity.

Ease of Use
Cloud computing software is also beneficial because it is easy to use. As long as you have access to an Internet browser, you can access the software. This software is also very easy to manipulate when needed. Adding more users to the software’s program is usually easy; often all that is needed is for a user to sign in. Adding space is also easy, as the software often provides manageable ways to upgrade the server capacity your business uses. If you need less space, this is also easy to do.

Your company may want to consider cloud computing software if there is a need for access to files from multiple locations, if there is a need to be able to upload files and information from any location, if you need access to your emails or orders from a home (or other) location, and if you’d like to hire at-home workers. All of the styles of cloud computing software can help you access your vital information from various locations, and it can also prevent you from losing documents stored on a traditional hard drive.

Abby Evans is an avid blogger and loves writing about fitness. In her spare time she is training for half marathons and finding the perfect knee brace for running.

This is presently in development and alpha testing, says Dr. Jay Winburn, president of Prognition Corp., the parent company of Mavenlive.

“At present, bill coding and the payment process is a major stumbling block and irritant for just about every health care provider,” Dr. Winburn says. “It is one of the top reasons cited for leaving private practice and working for large institutions with a specialized staff that handles this process.”

Medical billing and coding is the process health care providers use to submit insurance claims so they can be paid by insurance companies and governments for services they provide patients. Most private and government-owned insurance companies use the same process.

In the past, Mavenlive- used by therapists throughout the world to perform physical therapy assessments and other tasks- has been integrated with existing billing systems. The process of assigning codes, however, is done by hand.  The person doing this has to review the chart to see what was done and then make judgments about what bill codes are appropriate.

When physical therapy clinics submit bills:

• * Medical claims examiners/adjusters at the insurance company process claims.
• * For more costly claims, medical directors review and evaluate their validity for payment by considering factors such as patient eligibility, provider credentials and medical necessity.
• * Approved claims get reimbursed for a certain percentage of the billed services, based on pre-negotiated rates between providers and insurance companies.
• * Claims that are denied/rejected are sent back to providers.
• * Most commonly, denied or rejected claims are returned to providers in an explanation of benefits or other similar document.
• * Providers must decipher the message, reconcile it with the original claim, make any necessary corrections and submit the claim once more.

“It’s not unusual for this to go back and forth several times before the provider actually gets paid,” Dr. Winburn says. The Medicare rejection rate of claims submitted by physical therapists and occupational therapists is the highest of any health care field – 79 percent.

By adding bill coding capabilities to the Mavenlive exercise prescription physiotherapy software, we believe the logic of bill coding can be programmed and mistakes can be eliminated, which should enable clinicians to get paid quicker and more consistently by insurance companies.

Having bill coding under the same software umbrella as the assessment notes and prescription of physiotherapy exercises removes the need to re-enter information, which commonly is an error source.

“Ultimately, Mavenlive will be able to determine when information is missing and the physiotherapist can be made aware of this before the patient leaves,” he says.

If the claim doesn’t qualify, the health care provider will be notified before the patient leaves and can make any appropriate changes to what is recorded or done so the claim does qualify.

“Mavenlive will of course document everything so the health care worker doesn’t have to worry about audits,” Dr. Winburn says. “The bill coding will be derived from what actually occurred during the patient’s visit.”

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So if you’re a therapist in need of quality physical therapy documentation software, read on.

1. Peace of Mind
Couldn’t we all use more of that? Mavenlive’s physical therapy electronic documentation software includes automatic backups in different locations. If you are still using a paper chart system and you had a fire, you wouldn’t know where your patients were in treatment, you would have lost their past history, and if you’re not on an automated billing system, you might not know who has outstanding balances. Information stored in cloud means you’ll never have to worry about losing it.

2. Cut Costs
If there’s anything better than having some peace of mind, surely it would be having an opportunity to save some money. Mavenlive will save you money by streamlining and automating processes. It also can be fully integrated with existing billing systems, which means you don’t have to purchase new systems to use Mavenlive. Because the server exists in the cloud, your practice won’t have to pay for and maintain its own server, either.

3. Save Time
Because of the automated processes in play with the rehab software, you will notice that you save a great deal of time by entering information via a point-and-click method at the point of care, rather than having to go back later and write or dictate patient notes from the visit.

4. Work Any Time, Anywhere
Functioning in the cloud makes you mobile. No longer are you chained to the one computer in your office that has your software loaded. You can access Mavenlive from a tablet, a laptop, or even a smart phone at your office, at home, or at a coffee shop. This means you can catch up on work whenever and wherever it’s convenient for you to do so.

5. Excellent Support
With Mavenlive, not only do you have our support team at your fingertips, but you can ask questions of other users and learn their best practices.

6. Security
Thanks to superior encryption, you can rest assured that your patients’ records are secure and safe.

When it comes to touting our software’s benefits, don’t just take our word for it. See for yourself with a free trial.

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We like to think of our Mavenlive software as revolutionizing the physical therapy industry even further by saving clinicians money in a variety of ways, namely in rendering one particular job position practically unnecessary: the transcriptionist.

To drive home this point, let’s look at the traditional method of getting a letter into the hands of a referring physician. The process starts when a doctor refers a patient for physical therapy rehab. The physical therapist conducts an assessment, perhaps prescribes some at-home exercises and may also schedule a follow-up appointment.

At some point, the therapist dictates notes from the assessment into a recorder, between appointments, during a lunch break or after hours. Then the tape is given to a transcriptionist, who types out the information. If there is background noise, the therapist talks too fast or mumbles when he/she talks, the transcriptionist may hit the rewind button several times to be sure that all of the pertinent information is gathered.

Sometimes there are technical malfunctions. A tape goes bad. A tape is inaudible. If it can’t be heard, the therapist likely will have to re-record those patient notes.Once the letter is complete, the therapist signs off and the letter is mailed to the referring physician.Now let’s look at the same scenario, only this time the therapist uses Mavenlive and an iPad.

After some initial set-up to lay out the information to suit each individual’s purposes, the therapist assesses the patient and enters information almost entirely via point-and-click. Mavenlive’s knowledge-based engine compiles the information to create a letter to the referring physician, which takes very little time. The letter can be forwarded to staff to be printed and mailed.

“You can virtually eliminate the need for the transcriptionist position with Mavenlive,” says Dr. Jay Winburn, president of Prognition Corp., the makers of the rehab exercise software. “Gone are the days of spending hours at the end of the day, thumbing through charts and talking into a recorder. With Mavenlive, all of the information is a click away, as is the ability of getting that information into a letter format.”

Time Savings
Besides saving money by perhaps eliminating the need for a transcriptionist, having the ability to get through a patient assessment using the iPad/point-and-click method also results in a huge time savings.

Mavenlive users continue to comment on how nice it is to have all the necessary information entered at the point of care, and easily recalled whenever it’s convenient, Winburn says. Referral letters and other documentation can be created quickly and easily, and when used on something portable such as a tablet, this task can be done at the office, or in the comfort of your home.

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Dubbed the “SOAP format,” SOAP stands for subjective, objective, assessment and plan. The update was designed to fit each physical therapist’s natural work flow more naturally as they evaluate patients.

It also will contribute to a reduction in the amount of typing required when entering patient information and prescribing rehabilitation exercises, says Chris Metcalfe, vice president of technical development for Prognition Corp., the company that manufactures Mavenlive.

“A tenet of Mavenlive is user-friendliness,” says Dr. Jay Winburn, Prognition’s president.  “Every improvement and update we make is done with the goal of further streamlining processes and making tasks easier at the point of care level.”

This most recent update to our rehab documentation software involves changes to our point-and-click structured documentation form.

“Our clients asked us to put the point-and-click assessment parameter tree in a slightly different format than the one that we used to provide ‘out of the box,” Metcalfe says. “The update was developed with the help of many top therapists throughout the U.S. and Canada who currently use Mavenlive.”

No changes were made to the core Mavenlive architecture, he adds.

“We found that our users simply used our flexible parameter tree to customize so it would better meet their needs,” Metcalfe says. “This made it possible for top level physical therapists to draft a form for all other PTs to benefit from.”

The fact that physiotherapists made the change themselves drives home what we’ve said since Mavenlive software hit the market- it is developed by physiotherapists, for physiotherapists. You continue to drive our improvements, updates and upgrades.

We like to think of it as putting the “custom” in customer.

We’re pretty certain this new format will be an exciting new addition for our existing clients, as well as Mavenlive newcomers.

© 2012 Master Google and Maven Live. Authorization to post is granted, with the stipulation that Master Google, provider of SEO copywriting services, is credited as sole source. Linking to other sites from this press release is strictly prohibited, with the exception of herein imbedded links.

Dubbed the “SOAP format,” SOAP stands for subjective, objective, assessment and plan. The update was designed to fit each physical therapist’s natural workflow more naturally as they evaluate patients.

It also will contribute to a reduction in the amount of typing required when entering patient information and prescribing rehabilitation exercises, says Chris Metcalfe, vice president of technical development for Prognition Corp., the company that manufactures Mavenlive.

“A tenet of Mavenlive is user-friendliness,” says Dr. Jay Winburn, Prognition’s president. “Every improvement and update we make is done with the goal of further streamlining processes and making tasks easier at the point of care level.”

This most recent update to our rehab documentation software involves changes to our point-and-click structured documentation form.

“Our clients asked us to put the point-and-click assessment parameter tree in a slightly different format than the one that we used to provide ‘out of the box,’” Metcalfe says. “The update was developed with the help of many top therapists throughout the U.S. and Canada who currently use Mavenlive.”

No changes were made to the core Mavenlive architecture, he adds.

“We found that our users simply used our flexible parameter tree to customize so it would better meet their needs,” Metcalfe says. “This made it possible for top level physical therapists to draft a form for all other PTs to benefit from.”

The fact that physiotherapists made the change themselves drives home what we’ve said since Mavenlive software hit the market- it is developed by physiotherapists, for physiotherapists. You continue to drive our improvements, updates and upgrades.

We like to think of it as putting the “custom” in customer.

We’re pretty certain this new format will be an exciting new addition for our existing clients, as well as Mavenlive newcomers.

© 2012 Master Google and Maven Live. Authorization to post is granted, with the stipulation that Master Google, provider of SEO copywriting services, is credited as sole source. Linking to other sites from this press release is strictly prohibited, with the exception of herein imbedded links.

Although these barriers don’t exist with Prognition Corp.’s Mavenlive physical therapy rehabilitation exercise software, they are worth mentioning.

A CDSS- an application designed to help health care providers make clinical decisions by analyzing data- must integrate with a health care organization’s existing software, which can be complex, according to SearchHealthIT.  A majority of CDSS are stand-alone products that can’t be integrated with reporting and electronic medical records software. If they can be integrated, combining large amounts of data into existing systems can put a sizable strain on application and infrastructure maintenance.

There are two main types of clinical decision support systems: knowledge-based and machine learning to analyze clinical data. Mavenlive is a knowledge-based system, meaning that it applies rules to patient data using an inference engine, says Chris Metcalfe, Prognition’s vice president of technical development. Then it presents the results to the physiotherapist.

Dr. Jay Winburn, president of Prognition, says its PT documentation software is a leader in the support systems arena, thanks to its knowledge-based engine and its ability to fully integrate with physical therapy billing software, PT scheduling software and other software already in use in physical therapy clinics.

Open Clinical lists the four primary roles of any electronic clinical decision support system as follows:

1. From an administrative standpoint, these systems should support clinical coding and documentation, procedure authorization, and referrals.
2. They should manage clinical complexity and details, such as keeping patients on research and physical therapy exercise protocols, tracking orders, following up on referrals, and preventive care.
3. Control costs by monitoring diagnostics, exercise prescription and other therapies. Ineffective treatment and unneeded tests are eliminated.
4. Decision support- support the clinical diagnosis and treatment plan process; promote using only the best practices; condition-specific guidelines; and population-based management.

“We view CDSS as the wave of the future, due in part to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, which states that health care providers are required to show they are using health IT by 2015,” Dr. Winburn says. “If they can’t demonstrate this measure, they will be subject to reduced Medicare reimbursements starting in 2016.”

While demonstrating a “meaningful use” of CDSS and other health IT may seem a bit ambiguous, the HITECH Act offers some guidelines for meeting the benchmark, he says. Health care practitioners must implement one clinical decision support rule, including diagnostic test ordering, along with the ability to track compliance using the rule. The act states that the rule should apply to a specialty or high-priority condition.

When implemented and used to its fullest extent, CDSS offer benefits beyond maintaining current Medicare reimbursement levels, Dr. Winburn says. They carry significant patient treatment benefits.

For example, the fact that Mavenlive is a cloud-based CDSS makes it possible for physical therapists to share knowledge with each other. If one PT has developed a regimen of rehabilitating patients following knee replacement surgery, he/she can share prescribed exercises with other clinicians.

If a therapist develops new exercises, they can be entered into the system for others to use when necessary. As exercises are entered into the system, the knowledge engine recalls them and lists them as potential exercises to prescribe, based on the patient information entered by the therapist, Dr. Winburn says.

“Although CDSS has been around for several years now, it’s still in a growth stage,” Metcalfe says. “Technology continues to improve and CDSS continues to provide helpful solutions.”

To be really useful, however, it needs to be available in real-time at the point of care. This is where Mavenlive’s cloud solution excels. The physiotherapist doesn’t need to be sitting by a super computer; it exists in the cloud. The only thing needed is access to the Internet. A tablet, which is not a powerful computer, is the ideal device to access the cloud.  Because Mavenlive also documents the patient visit, data doesn’t need to be entered more than once. The same data that documents the assessment is used by the knowledge engine to suggest evidence-based therapy.

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Since Apple released the iOS5 upgrade in October, we’ve toyed with the iPad more and discovered a couple of tips and tricks bound to help physical therapists who use iPads when entering data into our Web-based physical therapy software.

“When working with the iPad recently, I noticed a couple of things that could be useful to share,” says Chris Metcalfe, Mavenlive’s vice president of technical development.

Split Keyboard
The keyboard can be split by going to Settings- General- Keyboard- Split Keyboard. Splitting the keyboard makes it easier for typing with the thumbs, according to the Unofficial Apple Weblog.

“I’ve set my iPad to use this keyboard and I find it much quicker to type when holding it with both hands,” Metcalfe says. “I imagine it might also be quicker for a therapist who is standing while entering appointment notes or entering information for rehabilitation PT exercises.”

Shortcuts
Another neat feature that therapists might like is keyboard shortcuts. To get to this feature, go to Settings- General- Keyboard- Shortcuts This feature enables you to create your own shortcuts. The default is set up to recognize when you type “omw” and replace that text with “On my way!”

This could be very useful in professions where short hand is used a lot. For example, a physical therapist could  create a shortcut for “ROM” (range of motion) or “HEP” (home exercise program).”

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The update to the iOS- which was released on Oct. 12- has solved one of the major limiting factors when using the iPad, says Dr. Jay Winburn, president of Prognition Corp., which introduced Mavenlive physical therapy assessment software in March 2009.

We use a “rich text editor,” which is basically something that looks like Microsoft Word but renders in the Web browser so you can do things such as format your text- which means making your fonts bold or italicized, changing font sizes and making alignment adjustments, to name a few examples, says Chris Metcalfe, Mavenlive’s vice president of technical developments.

This rich text editor never used to render on the iPad, which prevented our users from being able to complete their correspondence letters on the iPad, Metcalfe says. They needed a traditional computer or laptop in order to get these letters produced. Now that this new operating system allows the editor to render, they can use the iPad for all their needs. It is now the ideal device to use when using Mavenlive, which also integrates with any physical therapy coding and billing system.

“This is great news for physical therapists who use Mavenlive for prescribing physical therapy exercises and generating letters to referring doctors,” Metcalfe says. “We want to be sure all of our current users know this is able to be done, as many of them use the iPad but are frustrated that the editor doesn’t render.”

Mavenlive is a powerful, helpful tool when used on an iPad, and iOS 5 makes that an even truer statement now, Dr. Winburn says. This most recent upgrade will provide a richer user experience for physiotherapists.

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Research continues to show that cloud computing has revolutionized the health care industry.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, American Medical News gives a great definition: Cloud computing refers to a number of technology solutions that have three things in common.

• They run on the Internet.
• They use shared resources including storage, processing, memory and network bandwidth with other users.
• They are “on-demand,” which means network storage and other capabilities can be adjusted virtually without the need for in-house IT staff to tear apart computers and add additional wiring and cords.

Medical Office Today lists one of the greatest benefits of cloud computing technology is the way it makes accessing data a simple process.

“There was a time when medical offices devoted a good portion of square footage to records storage,” says Dr. Jay Winburn, president of Prognition, which makes Mavenlive exercise prescription software- a cloud-based product. “Today, all of those records can be stored electronically in the cloud. We’ve certainly come a long way.”

Cloud-based software such as Mavenlive also is more flexible and user-friendly than traditional systems. When rehab exercise software and other types of health care-related software are accessed from the cloud, the user can use a variety of devices to access their information, including iPads, laptops and even smart phones, Winburn says.

Storing information in the cloud and accessing it via a variety of devices also provides the freedom for medical professionals to access the information from anywhere they have Internet access. That could mean their office, their home, or a local coffee shop. “Medical professionals lead busy lives, so this makes it possible for them to work nearly wherever they are when they have a spare moment,” he says.

Catching up on letters to referring doctors can be done from the comfort of your couch at home, if you want. Or you can create a new physiotherapy exercise and enter it into the system while you’re taking a lunch break. When it comes to cost, experts agree that cloud-based solutions provide notable savings, according to American Medical News.

Cloud computing eliminates the need for servers and IT professionals to maintain them, says Chris Metcalfe, vice president of technical development for Mavenlive. “We maintain that here at Prognition,” Metcalfe says. “If something needs to be upgraded or a glitch needs to be corrected, we take care of all of that.”

The cost of cloud-based Mavenlive’s physical therapy software programs depends on the needs of each clinic and their storage needs, Winburn says. However, it’s typically acknowledged in technology circles that cloud-based systems tend to be less expensive and more flexible for medical offices’ needs, according to AMN.

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links.