Blog
Welcome to the PATTI2 Blog. Here we discuss important and relevant issues related to PATTI2 and the homecare industry.
PATTI2... New or More of the Same?
Wow! There sure is a lot of homecare software out there, much of it good and a lot that is not so good. So why do we need another entrant into the market? What's so special that The Phone Works felt it needed to create an entirely new product? The answer is more simple than one might think.
Most homecare software was designed for either the Medicare skilled market or the private pay market. Effectively, those were the only two types of payers in homecare. There was never much (if any) coverage for chronic disease, the 800 lb gorilla in the room.
Medicare rules required patients to be home bound, require skilled services, and require only intermittent care. Medicaid mirrored these policies leaving private pay as the only alternative for millions of Americans.
It was the Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) that finally opened the door and funded the intent of the prior Olmstead Act that required long-term, chronically ill patients to be offered services locally. With the ADA in place, the states began building programs to accommodate long-term, chronically ill patients. These programs, which "waiver" from traditional Medicare & Medicaid rules have become known as "waiver programs." There are two types of waiver programs, temporary and permanent. The waiver programs, known as 1915B&C programs for Home and Community-Based (HCB) Waiver Programs, and 1115 demonstration programs. The states can and often do use insurance companies to manage the payments or verification of services under these programs.
The problem is that the industry was using software either built for managing Medicare patients in a skilled episodic model or private pay software built for billing grandma. But what emerged from the industry payers was a model of complex authorization-based services where the provider agency has to figure out the match between services, schedules, visits, EVV, billing, and payroll. And now, with the introduction of 3rd-party aggregators, this new model - called "managed care" adds a new and more complex layer of compliance. This means some systems have to "dumb down" and add new functions, while others have to "step up" and add new, complex functions.
Unfortunately for the industry, neither side picked up the ball very effectively. This is why The Phone Works developed PATTI2. This newly-designed system incorporates AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) to simplify operations and improve required compliance. Get a demo today and see for yourself what the future of homecare looks like today!
Finally, State-of-the-Art Technology comes to homecare!
It's finally happened! Technology has made it into home care. For far too long, homecare agencies have had to bear the brunt of being an industry too small for the big vendors and too needy for the small vendors. With complex staffing, management, and billing rules to contend with, agencies have always needed the latest, greatest software possible. With vendors coming from both skilled care and private pay to try to meet the needs of managed care agencies, and neither model working for them, the agencies have suffered too long!
PATTI2 is the latest software design, built entirely from the ground up to meet the precise needs of homecare agencies that provide services for Medicaid waiver programs. Oh sure, PATTI2 also meets the needs of private pay agencies, adult day health care providers, VA providers, and others. PATTI2 is built on a model that reflects the agency's actual business model.
No longer will agencies have to misuse data fields to store new data fields required by waiver programs or enter the same client or worker multiple times because their software isn't smart enough to know how to deal with multiple plans of care simultaneously. Even simple things to make the user's life easier have been incorporated int PATTI2, like keeping a tab open when the user has to look up data in another tab, or being able to instantly know who a caller is and how they are connected to a client or staff member.
Billing and payroll automation are other areas where state-of-the-art design simplifies the user experience. For example, managing the data sent to the state aggregator, knowing what was accepted and what was rejected, and not allowing billing for rejected transactions. And yes, PATTI2 does eliminate the need to use costly billing clearinghouses by fully managing your 837 electronic claims submissions and 835 electronic remittance advice (RAs). With PATTI2's comprehensive accounts receivable system, you can know exactly where you stand financially at any time. PATTI2 even lets you see receivables based on your model of revenue recognition (e.g., billing by date of invoice or date of service.)
Find out for yourself what PATTI2 can do for you by scheduling a demo of this outstanding new system. Contact The Phone Works today to schedule your demo (800) 655-6515 or email us at info@patti2.com.
What Exactly Is A Smart System?
There is a lot of talk about smart systems, what they are, what they do, how they work, and why we need them. Let's look first at what a smart system is and what it does.
To understand what a smart system is, it may help to understand what it is not. It is not a system designed to replace your office workers. It does not work independently from your agency. And most importantly, it is no better than the data used to feed it. So what makes a system "smart"?
Smart systems are designed to eliminate the drudgery of repetitive daily tasks, such as looking up billing codes and rates, building complex electronic claims files, or offering complete revenue cycle management. Smart systems are "smart" because they eliminate many common errors that can creep into manual processes.
There is a longstanding rule in IT: "garbage in = garbage out." When your underlying data set is not compliant with your payer's requirements, no system can fix it. But smart systems can identify these issues and alert you to them in real time... before they become a billing or remittance crisis.
PATTI2 incorporates many different ways of ensuring agency compliance with a payer's rule set, no matter how complex. From rounding rules to scheduling against state authorizations, PATTI2 can handle it all with ease, so you don't have to!
AI - Good or Bad?
There is a lot of talk these days about AI (artificial intelligence) and whether it is a great thing that will help humanity conquer diseases, eliminate famine, and expand our knowledge and understanding of our world... or are we creating the rise of the machines and the end of humanity? Well, the truth probably lies somewhere in between.
There are, it seems, different flavors of AI that present different potentials and represent different threats. The hot new AI applications are either task-based, meaning they are limited to performing specific actions within a controlled environment, or appear to be "free-thinking," such as the generative AI apps that use large language models to create what appear to be thoughtful conceptualization in response to inquiries.
In reality, generative AI is nothing more than a sophisticated search engine that compiles results into the requested format. It is a great research tool, but simply cannot (yet) reason as well as humans can or properly put concepts into context. But it can create great lists. There are jobs that generative AI will eliminate, but it will simultaneously create an entirely new industry of generative AI engineers who spend their days creating new research capabilities and improving AI contextualization.
The Phone Works utilizes task-based AI to accomplish mundane tasks such as understanding payer program rules and ensuring compliance, computing schedules from authorizations, and avoiding lots of different data management requirements. There is nothing to fear from PATTI2's AI functions. The limited scope of the functions and containment within specific data tables ensures our AI can never be used for nefarious purposes.
If you would like to learn more about PATTI2 and its use of AI, please contact The Phone Works. We are happy to discuss this and any other issues or questions you may have.
PATTI2 and Health Equity
Health equity is about providing a level playing field for everyone so that all people have the same awareness, access, and means to achieve their optimal health. PATTI2 works to achieve health equity in several ways.
We started by collaborating with the National Minority Health Association to ensure PATTI2 desktop and mobile apps were unbiased. That included helping us to understand how to best meet the workforce where they were (and are.)
Our first step was to ensure the PATTI2 mobile app could be easily translated into multiple languages. This is no simple feat; some work instructions (tasks) don't translate well from English. In those cases, we involved the client agency and worked with them to create and record custom voice and digital prompts that were culturally meaningful. This made the worker's jobs much easier and increased compliance significantly.
We also know from decades of experience that complexity is the enemy of the field worker. Workers told us they want a system that is reliable and easy to use. So we designed PATTI2 to be simple and intuitive, and it is a breeze for workers to use.
There is no real training required, just the download and setup from the app store (iPhone or Android). Workers give permission for the app to use GPS for reporting their EVV at clock-in and clock-out. Where desired, agencies can even set up PATTI2 to notify workers when it's time to clock out!
We would love to show you all the ways PATTI2 helps ensure health equity at your agency. Contact us today to set up your demo of PATTI2, the next generation in homecare software!
Contact
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800.655.6515
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info@patti2.com
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