Intelligent and integrated reporting capabilities automate, streamline and enforce new CMS functional limitation reporting requirements.
Portland, ORE. – May 29 2013, – Clinicient, Inc., a leader in Outpatient Rehabilitation business solutions, today announced support for Medicare functional limitation reporting in its industry-leading web-based EMR software.
As part of the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) was mandated to collect data on beneficiary function on claim forms to inform future Medicare payment reforms. To help CMS collect this data, therapy providers must include non-payable G-codes and modifiers that capture the beneficiary’s functional limitations at the outset of the therapy episode, at a minimum every 10th visit and at discharge. A testing period for reporting is in effect through July 1, 2013. After that date claims without G-codes and modifiers will be returned unpaid.
Functional limitation reporting adds to the growing list of documentation demands placed on therapy practices. If not handled effectively, reporting can be a time-consuming burden on therapists and lead to reporting gaps that may put a practice at risk. “Clinicient has been out in front of these new Medicare reporting requirements and alleviates risks for therapy practices by providing an easy and automated process to track and report functional limitations,” said Jim Plymale, CEO at Clinicient. “We’ve taken the guesswork out of reporting for therapists with integrated reporting tools that streamline reporting and prevent claims from being submitted without proper G-codes and modifiers. This makes it easy for therapists to support the CMS data collection effort and ensures claims are never denied payment for missing functional outcome data.”
Clinicient EMR Simplifies Functional Limitation Reporting for Therapists
Clinicient has always made it easy to track patient goals and report progress. Now, with the latest updates to the Clinicient system, therapy practices gain additional integrated reporting capabilities that make functional limitation reporting an easy part of their normal documentation process.
Highlights include:
- Functional Limitation Wizard – guides therapists through the reporting process and puts everything therapists need to report right at their fingertips with limited scrolling and moving through multiple screens
- Automated tracking, coding and reporting – saves therapists time and effort and ensures coding accuracy
- Functional limitation reporting prompts, alerts and workflow tools – provides ongoing reminders for therapists to complete reporting requirements
- Functional assessment tool –converts common functional assessment scores to Medicare impairment ratings automatically
- Sign-off controls – prevents claim submissions without appropriate G-codes and modifiers so claims are never sent back unpaid
- Single system with billing – automatically passes g-codes directly to claims, ensuring the claim always matches documentation, reducing audit risk
These tools enhance the robust set of compliance features already embedded in Clinicient software and leverage the company’s extensive experience helping customers comply with complex Medicare rules. “With the new functional limitation reporting requirements, Medicare is adding even more documentation burdens on therapy practices. It can be confusing and cumbersome to keep up. Luckily, Clinicient understands the challenges we face. They’ve educated us and taken the complexity out of reporting. For example, using the functional limitation wizard and the functional assessment conversion tool our therapists can use their best clinical judgment when making assessments and easily report as required. This helps us provide our patients great care and ensures we get paid what we are rightly owed,” said Paul Christensen, Physical Therapist and Owner of the OPTM Physical Therapy Group in Northern California.
Functional Limitation Reporting is just one of the reforms to the Medicare payment physical therapists must stay on top of today. Plymale adds “Manual Medical Review, PQRS, therapy caps and functional limitation reporting are all having a huge impact on therapy practices. To minimize Medicare compliance risks, practices need an integrated EMR system that provides a logical structure to produce legible, understandable and defensible documentation. Systems can’t just look simple to use. They need to have depth under the covers and demonstrate proven success handling Medicare requirements for outpatient rehabilitation therapy in this challenging environment.”
Based on more than ten years of experience in Medicare compliance for outpatient rehabilitation therapy practices, Clinicient understands the unique needs of therapists and has simplified functional limitation reporting. For more detailed information on the Clinicient solution, click here.
Watch a 2 minute overview of the Clinicient solution to see how easy functional limitation reporting is with Clinicient:
