5 Spooky Things Physical Therapy Practices Can Encounter

Cauldrons are bubbling, jack-o’-lanterns are lit, and cobwebs are dangling from every corner. It might be Halloween now, but it’s always a good time for savvy physical therapy clinics to brush up on five common spooky and scary things physical therapy practices can run into. Dust off the cobwebs and light up the jack-o-lantern to unveil a skele-ton of suggestions that’ll help propel your business forward. This spooky season, carve out some time to learn how to avoid ghostly patient engagement, haunting billing practices, and three other spooky things physical therapy practices may encounter. 

1. Time-Consuming and Error-Prone Billing Processes

There’s almost nothing quite as frightful as completing services and being underpaid for your work. The only thing that might be scarier is providing free therapy services when reimbursements go unfulfilled. Unfortunately, these are the situations that can occur with manual billing processes. 

As a physical therapy practice owner, you have a complex role. Your job involves trying to balance delivering excellent services to patients while also successfully managing your finances. Failing to do either can make for a pretty spooky month or season. 

Revenue cycle management (RCM) is a tedious, multi-step process that’s complicated by coding requirements, contracts, insurance payouts, and more. If you’re not on top of the specifics of this area, it’s easy just to accept denials, thus leaving money on the table. 

In fact, a recent review of RCM pinpointed and shared some common misconceptions some medical practices have regarding billing. Some of which may sound familiar to you, like: 

• “Denials are an unavoidable part of clinical practice[; therefore,] accept them.”
• “Small losses aren’t significant[, so don’t] pursue them.”
• “Delayed payments are OK [because a] line of credit will cover the loss.”

These thought processes can make it challenging to maintain a profitable practice. However, we also understand that finding the time to address denials and following up on claims is no easy feat. 

Invest in an RCM System 

To help make billing more seamless at your physical therapy clinic, it might make sense to look into an RCM system. 

TherapySource, an all-in-one physical therapy EMR software, is designed to help businesses get paid faster without requiring additional work from your staff. Between templates and shortcuts and automated billing workflows, your practice can generate claims that comply with local payor rules so you experience fewer denials and boost productivity. The proprietary Intelligent Coding Engine also optimizes reimbursements so you get paid more.

2. Regulatory Compliance Challenges 

Compliance might sound like a scary, spooky term, but fear not! Sure, the continuously changing regulatory landscape can feel like a daunting process, but failing to comply is much more of a nightmare. A physical therapy clinic risks lawsuits, massive fines, and even the loss of licenses when they don’t remain compliant. 

As a business owner, finding ways to properly manage administrative functions associated with compliance might sound like witch-ful thinking, but it’s certainly possible. The key, though, is to be aware of what it takes to abide by the law and utilize technology to propel you forward. 

HIPAA and HITECH

While you likely didn’t get into physical therapy to understand information technology, being aware sets you up for success. For instance, let’s quickly look at the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH). These rules are set up to protect patient records and have guidelines that come with some horrifying penalties if they’re not followed. 

A physical therapy clinic should make sure they’re compliant with these protections by: 

• Ensuring that all patient emails containing protected health information (PHI) are encrypted 
• Changing each physical therapist’s password every 60 to 90 days 
• Utilizing antivirus and malware protection 
• Having a process in place for releasing authorized medical records 

Implementing EMRs, like TherapySource, that properly secure patient records 

Policies, Documentation, and Laws 

Do you participate in Medicaid, Medicare, or any private payers for reimbursements? If yes, that can seem like another major source of mysteries, as these payers have their own compliance expectations and regulations. Compliance for them may involve having written policy and procedure manuals. 

Wondering what other hocus pocus you need to be aware of? Proper documentation. How you and your team prepare progress notes, evaluations, and more is also crucial. These documents help streamline insurance billing processes, limit malpractice issues, and support continuity of care. On top of that, state medical boards require accurate medical records for each patient. 

The compliance requirements list goes on, but teamwork makes the dream work. 

3. Lack of Patient Engagement

Want to know what’s really spooky for physical therapists? Patients who aren’t fully engaged in their rehabilitation. While we know that patient mobilization following an accident, surgery, or illness provides better outcomes, it’s truly a matter of getting the patient to boo-lieve it. 

Patient engagement in the healthcare industry has become a global priority. But why is that? Well, research shows that engagement boosts treatment adherence and patient compliance with clinical protocols. When patients are aware of and have health literacy, patient satisfaction improves. And on top of that, engagement’s impact on your practice’s bottom line can’t be overlooked. 

Therefore, with patient engagement being the huge quality driver that it is, it’s a good idea to assess different ways to increase it. 

Pinpoint Why Engagement Is Suffering 

Not sure what’s driving poor engagement at your physical therapy clinic? It could be a combination of things, but it typically pertains to: 

• Pain linked to the patient’s condition 
• Uncertainty regarding recovery 
• Fear about their prognosis and if physical therapy may hold them back 
• Personal autonomy/bodily integrity
• Feeling disempowered if they’re completing physical therapy outside of their home
• Time and transportation barriers
• Financial concerns 

By knowing why they’re disengaged, you can make efforts to meet them where they’re at and steadily increase engagement. Always aim to look at the patient’s view of their rehabilitation journey. Taking a patient-centered approach promotes collaboration, shared decision-making, and engagement. 

Enjoy No Tricks, Just Treats with Advanced EMR Software

Although EMRs were created to manage clinical information, they can also aid with patient engagement. These days, patients are highly interested in accessing online portals to view their medical information. Evidence suggests that scheduling appointments and securely messaging providers through an online portal may boost patient satisfaction, self-management, and convenience. 

Tools like the Patient Engagement Suite make it easier for a physical therapy clinic to connect with their patients and access those benefits mentioned above. Practices can use it to send suggestions, feedback, and motivational reminders your patients can implement at home. It also makes it simple to send personalized messages to patients via email and SMS.

Improve the patient experience by using the Patient Engagement Suite to let your patients book appointments without calling the office and complete electronic intake forms at their convenience. Over time, these features help build brand loyalty, increase revenue, and enhance patient acquisition and retention. 

Telerehabilitation May Provide Fang-tastic Results, Too

Implementing telerehabilitation at your physical therapy clinic is another way to foster patient engagement. There is evidence that the clinical practice guideline for telerehabilitation supports similar outcomes as in-person services. 

Interestingly, attendance and adherence rates for telerehabilitation were higher than in-person appointments in one study. It seems that patients enjoy the flexibility of telerehabilitation, which boosts their satisfaction. For health care providers, this approach even saves money. 

By implementing these wicked recommendations, you and your patients are more likely to get what you want. 

4. Unknown Outcomes Data

Being unaware of your practice outcomes data is like walking through a dark, haunted corn maze and having no idea how to get out. Without a clear path, something that can be clarified with data, you’ll find it challenging to know which direction to take your physical therapy practice. You need data to avoid the ghosts, ghouls, and monsters that stand in the way of your success.

The American Physical Therapy Association stated, “Outcomes are important in direct management of patient care.” Outcomes data helps to guide best practices and evaluate the success of clinical interventions. 

However, a recent study found that most physical therapists are unfamiliar with quality improvement (QI) methods based on patient outcomes. Therefore, if you are familiar with QI, you can put your physical therapy clinic ahead of the game. 

In addition, measuring patient experience, which hasn’t yet been completely explored in physical therapy, is another potential way to improve clinical effectiveness outcomes. It also allows you to zero in on what works well for your business and which areas need improvement. 

Utilize FOTO Analytics, if You Dare

Are you ready to let the ghoul times roll at your practice? Well, Net Health’s Focus on Therapeutic Outcomes (FOTO) can help you achieve better outcomes for your practice as a whole, your staff, and your patients. 

FOTO helps practices: 

• Produce patient outcomes data that may help you negotiate increased rates with payers
• Boost performance by identifying clinicians’ strengths and monitoring their progress 
• Assess patient satisfaction using Net Promoter Score surveys
• Provide streamlined reports so you can stay compliant with MIPS/QCDR standards
• Share evidence-based care data that helps clinicians make better care decisions 

5. Difficulty Marketing the Practice 

Let’s face it: building a successful business without marketing is almost impossible, especially in the age of the internet. You can know all the physical therapy best practices in the world, but if you don’t have any patients to implement them on, it won’t matter. So, how do you let people know that your business even exists? Well, we’ve got a few spells – uh, tips, for that.

Social Media

If you want to connect with your audience, you must meet them where they are. Statista reports that there are 5.17 billion social media users worldwide. It’s very likely that the people in your local area are utilizing these platforms; you just need to find the best way to reach them. 

Keep in mind that if you’re not on social media, your competitors probably are. And if they’re not, it would be an excellent opportunity for you to be the first in your local area and within your industry to lead the way. 

Referral Program

Already have a client base? Then, it’s a good idea to strategize how you can use that base to further increase your patient volume. After all, word-of-mouth packs a powerful punch—why not maximize its effects? 

Brainstorm potential ways you can incentivize your referrers and referees. Offering discounts and vouchers are common ways to get people through the door. 

Email and SMS Marketing

Email marketing is another way to build brand loyalty and share information about your programs and services (and products, if you have them). 

One survey found that half of marketers say email marketing is their most impactful channel. Plus, it’s often how customers want to hear from you, with over 55% of individuals saying email is their number one way to hear from businesses. The average open rate for an email marketing campaign is 36.5%, but personalized emails have a 26% greater open rate. That’s six out of every 10 people opening your email if it’s personalized!

SMS marketing is also gaining popularity as people are more open to receiving brand text messages. While finding the right frequency for texts is important, individuals are likely most interested in getting information about discounts, appointment confirmations and reminders, and even personalized birthday messages through text messages. 

Tools like the Patient Engagement Suite make it easy to personalize communications that attract and retain patients. You can even automate your promotion process, so these marketing techniques don’t take you away from spending time with your patients. This all-in-one solution is an excellent choice for physical therapy clinics aiming to increase revenue and expand their business. 

Business Growth is Brewing this Spooky Season

Who says your physical therapy practice has to deal with a bad case of the boos this Halloween season? We’ve explored many different ways you can tackle the various ghouls and goblins that might pop up in business. So, take heed, as this is the perfect season for avoiding these scary pitfalls indeed.