March 29, 2024

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What’s the Return on Investment (ROI) on a Physical Therapy EMR Anyway?

If you’re a PT, OT or SLP who runs your own private practice and considering a physical therapy EMR, you can actually see how much ROI an EMR can generate for your private practice. They’re easy to find online searching under physical therapy ROI calculator.

What Makes One EMR Different From Another?

There are many physical therapy EMR options available in the market. Picking the solution that’s right for your practice doesn’t have to be a daunting task. During your search, it’s important to always stay focused on the needs of your practice, not the software. Using an online ROI calculator and simply inputting numbers like your average monthly visits, average net revenue per visit, annual revenue, number of unpaid claims, billing cost per claim, percent of appointment reminders reaching your customers successfully and the number of no-shows and cancellations into the calculator can really help you see the potential benefits of going from paper to electronic can really be. In fact, electronic medical records are quickly becoming the way of the near future. In most cases, switching to a physical therapy EMR produces positive results.

Improve Revenue

Physical therapy software improves revenue and collections by allowing providers to instantly submit claims and receive status updates in real-time via bi-directional clearing house integration. There are physical therapy EMR systems out there that automatically capture every billable treatment directly from the PT documentation, so therapists always have the support for a denied claim should one occur. Through this automated process, organizations have increased their charges by as much as 10-20 percent. Therapy practice solution can also alert you when a patient approaches their authorized treatment limit and display a patient’s referral status before each visit. All these functions of an EMR can significantly help improve revenue in your practice.

Reduce No-Shows and Cancellations

With private practice facilities currently averaging 12-18 percent no-shows and cancellations per year, appointment system reminders are emerging as a way to reduce or eliminate them all together. Your current automated reminder system could be costing as much as $.25/reminder. Manual calls take up staff time and are costly as well. There are some physical therapy scheduling software programs out there that can automatically send text, phone or email reminders to patients and are including at no additional cost. Make sure you go with a software solution that offers automated reminders at no cost – there really is such a thing.

Keep Your Referring Physicians Happy

Physical therapy EMR systems can also help you keep your referring physicians satisfied. Many EMR solutions out there are designed to strengthen relationships with referring physicians and ultimately help grow your practice. The nice thing some practice management solutions feature are instant one-page summary plan of care reports that provide referring physicians with information on their patient’s treatment, which are commonly sent by fax or a secure online portal – all before the patient even leaves the office.