What I really like is the business intelligence dashboard. My ability to get a pulse on what’s going on is incredible. Quickly, at a glance, I can look at any one or all of my clinics and know how we are doing from a productivity standpoint. We make more informed decisions, understanding why certain things are happening and if we should be doing anything differently. I could go on – there are just so many useful features and reports!”
Phil Moe,Avera Therapy Outpatient Manager
The Challenge
Phil Moe, Avera Therapy Outpatient Manager, had worked with his team at Avera Health for years to extract the most value from their existing systemwide EMR. “In my opinion, we were as efficient within our EMR as we could be, and there were still some challenges,” he reflected. Moe also wanted to push for continuity through all of the outpatient therapy services across the entire Avera system. When he requested baseline data from the network to build his business case, only two sites were able to provide information to inform historical analysis – highlighting the need to invest in systems and processes.
Further, “we had a tendency to apply the most stringent billing rules to all payers,” Moe continued. “Everyone was, and remains, concerned with being compliant, of course. Out of an abundance of caution, we applied Medicare rules to every patient, regardless of their insurance, missing opportunities to bill our payers for all services rendered.”
With many geographically dispersed clinics and clinical software that was not exactly fit to purpose, as well as disparate processes and levels of reliance on software, Moe saw an opportunity to evaluate alternatives and recommend investing in a new platform in 2015. “I had looked at a variety of different systems,” Moe said, “considering a variety of features in terms of integrating with an underlying EMR, what devices could you use, what were the scheduling and billing and integration features, and up-front and ongoing costs.”
Net Health® Therapy for Hospital Outpatient in a few words? First of all, trust me, it works. And secondly, honestly, every single person that I have met from Net Health has been top-notch – people that I would pick for friends. They’re people I enjoy working with, they’re reliable, they’re trustworthy. I’ve developed actual relationships with the people and that is an awesome place to be when you’re working with a company.”
Phil Moe, Avera Therapy Outpatient ManagerThe Solution
Ultimately, Avera selected ReDoc® classic in 2015. The foundation of their attraction to the platform, in Moe’s retelling, was the concept that the software was designed by therapists for therapists – meaning Avera’s clinicians enjoyed benefits such as:
- Intuitive and customizable workflows
- Documentation at point of care, rather than after or in between sessions
- Billing and compliance optimizations, enabling Avera to tailor billing to each payer
- Superior functionality for practice administration and reporting, including the ability to begin tracking data for historical analysis across the system
While ReDoc® classic is oriented around the primary therapist, the latest, cloud-based evolution of the solution, Net Health® Therapy for Hospital Outpatient (formerly ReDoc® powered by xfit), represents a shift in philosophy. The new platform benefits clinicians by focusing on the visit and treatment cycles and putting the patient’s outcomes front and center. When the updated solution became available, it immediately caught Moe’s attention. “I got my first glimpse of the new platform,” Moe shared, “And I thought, ‘Oh, this was what I was looking for.’ It was organized even better and it looked better, too.”
The Results
After migrating to Net Health® Therapy for Hospital Outpatient, Avera recognized a variety of benefits, such as gains in clinical and administrative workflow efficiencies, greater insight into performance, and more agile release cycles for their software. “To put it simply, we generated more revenue with the same staff thanks to Net Health,” Moe stated. At the same time, thanks to compliance assistance built into the platform, Avera has seen a marked decrease in compliance issues and denials, “and our compliance people are thrilled,” Moe shared.
Benefits Avera has enjoyed thanks to Net Health® Therapy for Hospital Outpatient include:
- An additional unit of billing per therapist, per day (this yielded nearly a $250,000 ROI after their first year on ReDoc® classic)
- An incremental $140,000 ROI the first year after implementing Net Health® Therapy for Hospital Outpatient
- A reduction in denials and accelerated payments of claims from all payers
- Rapid deployment of new features or other changes to the platform – from weeks or months, to virtually overnightNe
