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Kareo Helps Physical Therapy Nonprofit Do More with Less
By Alesa Lightbourne | September 08, 2021
To kick off our Kareo as a Partner series this month, we are spotlighting our customer, NeuroHope of Indiana. By partnering with Kareo, this nonprofit clinic reduced system costs by 91%.
Like many nonprofits, NeuroHope of Indiana originated from an exciting dream – build an affordable, world-class specialty clinic for Midwesterners with spinal cord injuries.
But it shared something else with other nonprofits. Not enough resources to grow and fully achieve their mission. They discovered a way to stretch financial resources, boost efficiencies and expand services all at the same time. How? By partnering with a software partner that understood the needs of a small clinic.
Here’s how it happened.
During its early years, NeuroHope of Indiana managed by cobbling together a physical therapy package, QuickBooks and basic spreadsheets. An outside company did the billing. The results were predictable. “It was too hard to integrate scheduling, authorizations, practitioner notes and payments. We couldn’t use the system to make recurring appointments or track authorizations.
Whenever a patient cancelled an appointment, we had to make manual adjustments. Even little tasks took forever,” says Natalie Robison, practice manager. “We clearly needed one system to integrate everything. But we didn’t exactly have a lot of extra money lying around.”
When Robison checked out EMR systems, she found them complicated and expensive. Then she tried Kareo. “Kareo was really easy to use,” she notes. “It gave us everything we needed in one seamless package. And to our surprise, with the prepayment discount we got an entire year of Kareo for the cost of one month on our old system!”
NeuroHope uses Kareo to run just about everything. Practice management, financial tracking, in-house billing, and more. “Kareo makes it easy to do everything myself. I can process claims and invoices, both for self-pay and insurance patients. I can go to my agenda screen and drill down to review patient balances. I can make adjustments, or check insurance eligibility and authorizations,” Robison says. “We used to track insurance payments in Excel. Each time a remittance advice came in the mail, I’d have to manually enter deductions, payments and write-offs.
Kareo eliminated all this with built-in checks and balances. This feature alone saves me at least three hours a week,” she continues.
Robison found that Kareo gives her both the data and analytical tools to be a smarter clinic manager. “Kareo’s custom codes let us track our various income streams separately. For example, we sell gym memberships, electrodes, t-shirts and many other things. Kareo identifies each source of revenue, so we know exactly where every penny comes from.”
"Kareo is making us more accountable, letting us do more with less, and moving us faster towards achieving our mission,”
Other reports make the clinic more efficient. “At the end of the year, our director can pull productivity data. We can calculate the number of patients on insurance versus self-pay. We can compare spinal injury versus brain trauma patients.
Before, this took at least 10 hours every December. Now we have the answers in seconds,” says Robison. “We also prepare lots of reports for the state and foundations that give us grants, all with the help of Kareo. If audited, we can extract specific data from the system. Reports that required two or three hours are now just a click away.”
To Robison’s delight, getting the clinic up and running on Kareo took less than a month. “Kareo’s online training was thorough and intuitive. The system is straightforward and appealing to the eye. I learned almost everything on my own. I didn’t even need to book a training session.” The same was true for others in the office. “Our providers and staff members found they could easily navigate through the charting features, for instance, without even watching training videos,” Robison notes. The clinic has a lot of interns, who also find the system simple to learn. Fortunately, Kareo permits unlimited users.
Better yet, since Kareo only charges for provider licenses, the rest of the office can use the system for free. NeuroHope of Indiana now has the tools it needs to both thrive and grow. “By partnering with Kareo, we are better stewards of scarce resources. We have reduced system costs by 91%. We’re saving hours of work every week. In short, Kareo is making us more accountable, letting us do more with less, and moving us faster towards achieving our mission,” says Robison.
If you are a non-profit or small independent practice looking to open a new practice or clinic, or refresh an existing one, download our free Beyond the Basics one pager on what actions to take to prepare for your launch or refresh. You can access it here or visit us at Kareo.com
Like many nonprofits, NeuroHope of Indiana originated from an exciting dream – build an affordable, world-class specialty clinic for Midwesterners with spinal cord injuries.
But it shared something else with other nonprofits. Not enough resources to grow and fully achieve their mission. They discovered a way to stretch financial resources, boost efficiencies and expand services all at the same time. How? By partnering with a software partner that understood the needs of a small clinic.
Here’s how it happened.
1. Scrap the Stand-alone Systems
During its early years, NeuroHope of Indiana managed by cobbling together a physical therapy package, QuickBooks and basic spreadsheets. An outside company did the billing. The results were predictable. “It was too hard to integrate scheduling, authorizations, practitioner notes and payments. We couldn’t use the system to make recurring appointments or track authorizations.
Whenever a patient cancelled an appointment, we had to make manual adjustments. Even little tasks took forever,” says Natalie Robison, practice manager. “We clearly needed one system to integrate everything. But we didn’t exactly have a lot of extra money lying around.”
2. Find an Easier (and Cheaper) Solution
When Robison checked out EMR systems, she found them complicated and expensive. Then she tried Kareo. “Kareo was really easy to use,” she notes. “It gave us everything we needed in one seamless package. And to our surprise, with the prepayment discount we got an entire year of Kareo for the cost of one month on our old system!”
3. Let the Software Do the Work Today
NeuroHope uses Kareo to run just about everything. Practice management, financial tracking, in-house billing, and more. “Kareo makes it easy to do everything myself. I can process claims and invoices, both for self-pay and insurance patients. I can go to my agenda screen and drill down to review patient balances. I can make adjustments, or check insurance eligibility and authorizations,” Robison says. “We used to track insurance payments in Excel. Each time a remittance advice came in the mail, I’d have to manually enter deductions, payments and write-offs.
Kareo eliminated all this with built-in checks and balances. This feature alone saves me at least three hours a week,” she continues.
4. Stay Savvy with Accurate Reports
Robison found that Kareo gives her both the data and analytical tools to be a smarter clinic manager. “Kareo’s custom codes let us track our various income streams separately. For example, we sell gym memberships, electrodes, t-shirts and many other things. Kareo identifies each source of revenue, so we know exactly where every penny comes from.”
"Kareo is making us more accountable, letting us do more with less, and moving us faster towards achieving our mission,”
--Natailie Robison, practice manager
Other reports make the clinic more efficient. “At the end of the year, our director can pull productivity data. We can calculate the number of patients on insurance versus self-pay. We can compare spinal injury versus brain trauma patients.
Before, this took at least 10 hours every December. Now we have the answers in seconds,” says Robison. “We also prepare lots of reports for the state and foundations that give us grants, all with the help of Kareo. If audited, we can extract specific data from the system. Reports that required two or three hours are now just a click away.”
5. Get Everyone Onboard - Fast
To Robison’s delight, getting the clinic up and running on Kareo took less than a month. “Kareo’s online training was thorough and intuitive. The system is straightforward and appealing to the eye. I learned almost everything on my own. I didn’t even need to book a training session.” The same was true for others in the office. “Our providers and staff members found they could easily navigate through the charting features, for instance, without even watching training videos,” Robison notes. The clinic has a lot of interns, who also find the system simple to learn. Fortunately, Kareo permits unlimited users.
Better yet, since Kareo only charges for provider licenses, the rest of the office can use the system for free. NeuroHope of Indiana now has the tools it needs to both thrive and grow. “By partnering with Kareo, we are better stewards of scarce resources. We have reduced system costs by 91%. We’re saving hours of work every week. In short, Kareo is making us more accountable, letting us do more with less, and moving us faster towards achieving our mission,” says Robison.
If you are a non-profit or small independent practice looking to open a new practice or clinic, or refresh an existing one, download our free Beyond the Basics one pager on what actions to take to prepare for your launch or refresh. You can access it here or visit us at Kareo.com
Submitted by cher.knebel on Wed, 2021-09-08 10:59
About the Author
Alesa Lightbourne is a prize-winning author, professor and former dean of an international business school. As a freelance writer, her clients have included Fortune...
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