Students ranging from elementary to college, have faced an unprecedented mental health challenge. US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona states, “Even before the disruption, isolation, and trauma of the pandemic, youth rates of anxiety and depression, and other mental health challenges were on the rise, and too many students suffered in silence.” With more than one in three high school students reporting poor mental health, students’ mental health has reached a critical point.

Research has shown that children and young people learn more, report feeling safer, and develop more trusting relationships with their peers and teachers when their social and emotional needs are met with certified and accessible mental health professionals. Based on that research, the US Department of Education has identified over $1 billion for school based counseling through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act over the next five years.
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These funds will not only allow schools to increase the number of mental health professionals on staff, it will also provide resources to build the necessary infrastructure to ensure success. Mental health screening, prevention, reporting and ongoing therapeutic interventions are crucial for a successful school based mental health program. For more information on funding, you can view this website for more information on this funding here.
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If you are a behavioral health provider for school/education, addictions, substance use disorder, social worker or any provider offering services to students in K-12, college or universities, and are looking for additional resources to assist your prevention, treatment and/or recovery process for practice, OakTree Practice Management has the tools to streamline your workflow. Get a free demo by clicking here.

Happy new year everyone! I hope you received that new computer you always wanted. If so, did it come with a brand new operating system? If you have not heard, Microsoft has released a new Windows version this year. Some computer manufacturers have already installed or included a free upgrade to Windows 11 with your purchase.
There are two versions of Windows 11: The Home edition and Pro edition. The difference is the Pro version contains additional networking and security features (such as Bitlocker), as well as the ability to join a domain.
 
If your organization is considering purchasing Window 11 Home or Pro edition and have a subscription to MyAccuCare.com then we want to reassure you that you should not have any problems accessing our website. To receive the best experience we highly recommend installing Chrome as your browser of choice when working with MyAccuCare.com. Go to https://www.google.com/chrome/ for the latest version.
 
Ron Alai, Director of Customer Support
Orion Healthcare Technology
 
Still have a support question about MyAccuCare.com? Contact our support staff by submitting a request or call 1-800-324-7966 ext. 6400 or 6401.
 
Are you thinking of subscribing to or adding new licenses/features to MyAccuCare.com? Please contact us at https://www.orionhealthcare.com/contact.html

Businesses are about making money, yet focusing on this alone does not ensure a successful business. In therapy, the business is helping people find healing in their lives. The individuals’ needs should always be put first. The dynamic between running a business and helping people can create conflicting priorities. It is a balancing act between making money and helping the person in front of you. It has torn agencies apart and contributed to bankruptcy in private practice. So, the real question is how do you maintain healthy boundaries between running a business and still help the person in front of you?

In agencies, it is important to have both voices at the table. Conflict occurs when the money or census numbers always rule decisions. It causes burnout in staff and that creates bad care for the individuals in service. On the other hand, if you are too structured and cannot bend to allow for people to get in when they need, you miss opportunities to help someone. The balance is respect, knowing when boundaries are being set by one side or the other that there is a deeper meaning behind these boundaries. Having a check and balance system to review processes and admissions is vital to the health of an agency. You have to have equal voices in clinical and business to be successful.

In private practice so many go bankrupt because of the difficulty of managing the business side of treatment. Haggling with insurance companies, getting co-pays from clients, and discontinuing services when there is a lack of payment or frequent no shows. We don’t become therapists to not help people but often forget that healthy boundaries are part of what we teach. Respect for ourselves and our time is just as important as the care we provide for others. The world is changing and it is easier to get assistance with billing, but we struggle with spending the time, energy or money on an entity that can help with the business in private practice.
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There are no easy answers in this balance except respect for yourself, your peers, and your business to find and manage the ever-changing balance of care and making money. 

One very common question I receive from addictions, substance use and mental health treatment providers is how they can go COMPLETELY paperless within their organization. I would say a majority of providers understand that it’s not as simple as implementing an electronic health record and “poof” we’re there! Just like anything, there’s some proper planning and some questions to answer before moving towards that goal of going “paperless”.

What is your definition of going paperless?Yes, ideally, every paper and pencil form that clinicians fill out would be in electronic format right? Well, from my experience, most of the time going paperless doesn’t really mean fully paperless. Many agencies have other stakeholders that influence their workflow. For example, an agency that contracts with a state authority or private contract, might have a paper form requirement, thus you still have a paper trail.

So what most agencies mean when they talk about going paperless, is to have a way, to replace the paper filing cabinet with an electronic filing cabinet. Therefore, even if you can’t fully replace paper forms with electronic ones, because of an outside authority or influence, you can still find a way to electronically FILE those records, so that the client’s CHART is paperless.

Basic features your EHR should have when going paperless

• Web or cloud based: At minimum on a local network. If the system can’t be accessible from multiple workstations, it limits accessibility. With today’s environment (and the work from home/remote access needs), secure cloud-based systems are an essential need.
• Create/customize your own forms and/or fields: This is a great way to convert your agency’s specific paper forms into a digital format. Other benefits include: capturing raw data for reporting and analysis, flexibility and scalability to meet grant reporting requirements, and standardizing data collection (i.e. making responses to certain fields restricted to certain answers). Some EHR vendors will convert your forms for you at a more efficient cost than having one of your staff do it.
• Upload external records/files/images: Client insurance, driver’s license, artwork, etc. Other external records you typically put in their file cabinet, should now be scanned and uploaded into their e-chart.
• Electronic Signatures: Use of stylus or other e-signature devices can allow your agency to store staff and supervisor signatures (from the stylus) so when they enter their password it automatically stamps their signature onto a document. It should also allow clients and/or collateral to physically sign off using the hardware for each record (it should NOT store the client’s signature).

There are other features to consider, however, I believe these are some of the core things you should look for when evaluating your workflow and readiness to “go green”.

Dylan Lambrecht, Account Specialist/Orion Healthcare Technology
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If you are looking for an EHR system to go paperless, Orion Healthcare Technology can help! We offer an EHR cloud-based clinical and billing software suite called AccuCare which can integrate with your daily processes and procedures. This product offers features to customize your own forms, upload external files and capture electronic signatures. This secure, HIPAA ready software, can take the worry out of clinical documentation and record keeping. They offer multiple options for cloud-based storage which we would be happy to discuss with you in detail. If you don’t have the staff or the time to build the forms yourself, you can hire us to build the forms within your database. The option is yours!
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To our loyal customers and the healthcare field:

As COVID-19 makes its way across the globe, it’s affecting our communities including the addictions, mental health and substance use disorder community. As we continue to monitor Coronavirus (COVID-19) developments closely, I wanted to take this opportunity to keep you posted on our developments concerning COVID-19 for business continuity and the future of telehealth with AccuCare.

Business Continuity
We implemented our business continuity plans to maintain a safe work environment for our staff while also ensuring our operations run as smooth and effectively as possible for our customers. Some of those actions include:

• We have ensured that our staff can work from home as needed, in order to prevent the spread of any illnesses, so we can continue to operate smoothly
• Help Desk (Tier 1) and Tier 2 support are capable of working remotely, allowing us to provide uninterrupted customer support to those in need
• Our AccuCare servers continue to provide secure and fully backed up access to your system
• We ask that you continue to use our support ticketing system (via www.myaccucare.com or email [email protected]) to submit your issues, or call us at 800.324.7966

Telehealth and AccuCare EHR
In addition to our support and operations, we have escalated our efforts in adding a Telehealth component to work with our AccuCare EHR System. We understand the need for this feature and how valuable this can be, especially with the current health crisis the world is facing. With that said, we are working diligently with our development team and several partners, to provide a telehealth feature that can work with our AccuCare System along with an implementation guide to help you get started. Stay tuned.

Thank you again for your continued support. We appreciate what you do for the field, and we will continue to use every effort to deliver uninterrupted services to all of our customers. We hope you, your staff, your clients and your families, remain safe and healthy through this time.

Sincerely,
Sandra A Jones
President, Orion Healthcare Technology, Inc.

The term revenue cycle management (RCM) refers to the financial process surrounding a healthcare appointment. RCM can also often be referred to as behavioral health or medical billing. No matter what name you give it, RCM takes more skills and knowledge to complete than you may think. Keep reading to learn about the steps in the revenue cycle and the benefits of outsourcing its management.

The Complete Revenue Cycle
How many steps does the revenue cycle have? The answer depends on who you ask. Many sources list about seven to nine different steps in the process. Here are nine medical billing steps to give you the full picture:

1. Charge Capture: The provider assigns their clinical services charges in a centralized system.
2. Coding: While the provider gives each service a charge, they can also match them to the proper ICD codes.
3. Pre-Registration: During their first contact with a client, the provider obtains basic clinical and financial information.
4. Registration: After pre-registration, the provider will get further information and the client’s permission to create a clinical record.
5. Claim Submission: Before requesting a payment from the client, the provider must submit a claim to the insurer using software or by contacting them.
6. Third-Party Follow-Up: If necessary, the provider will also get in touch with any third-party payers.
7. Utilization Review: The insurance company determines if the service received is covered under the plan and clinically/medically necessary.
8. Collections: Once the insurer reviews the claim, the provider can calculate the client’s bill and charge it to them.
9. Remittance Processing: After the client submits their payment, the provider reviews all aspects of the bill and accepts or rejects the payment.
   

The order of these steps can vary, but they all have an important role to play in behavioral health/medical billing. Making a mistake during one task can result in mistakes in further steps. Accuracy and efficiency are critical to successful RCM.

Benefits of Outsourced Revenue Cycle Management
While behavioral health/medical billing seems simple at first glance, it requires dedicated attention, resources and skills. Both small and large healthcare practices can have difficulty giving billing the care it needs. Outsourced billing services have the training and resources to complete RCM correctly and efficiently. An established RCM provider will look out for you by keeping records secure and finding ways to increase reimbursements. RCM services can complete the billing steps for you so you can focus on your clients.

Working With Orion’s Outsource Billing Service
Thanks to decades of experience, Orion Healthcare Technology’s outsourced billing team provides accurate and fast RCM services. We specialize in the behavioral health and addiction fields, so we understand how to bill for these unique services. Physicians and other general healthcare professionals can also take advantage of our services. If you request our outsource billing services, we only charge an affordable percentage fee based on your collected payments.

Our cost-effective solutions help healthcare professionals better serve their clients. If you would like to learn more about our services, contact us online today.

America’s opioid crisis places a severe burden on public health. However, early intervention can prevent abuse and addiction before they happen. Health professionals have many opportunities to identify abuse and address it before it worsens. Learn how to pinpoint potential opioid use disorders and save lives.

The Opioid Abuse Epidemic
Our country has an opioid crisis that affects everyone’s well-being. Between 1999 and 2016, the public dangers posed by opioid addiction skyrocketed. In 2016, fives times as many opioid-related overdose deaths occurred as in 1999. Over the course of nearly two decades, more than 630,000 people died from drug overdose. Now, 115 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. We haven’t lost all hope, however. Health professionals like you can save patient lives with early detection.

Preventing Substance Abuse by Recognizing the Signs
Opioids change the brain chemistry of someone who uses them. They create imbalances in the pleasure-reward system that can result in a reliance on opioids to feel positive feelings. The longer that someone takes opioids, the more likely they are to build dependency. Withdrawal symptoms become more severe when a patient has to stop taking opioids after an extended time.

Many patients can handle the effects of opioids without developing an addiction. However, the nature of this drug makes it easy for dependence to escalate into abuse. Health professionals need to identify the risk of abuse happening before it turns into a dangerous condition.

Opioid Abuse Risk Factors
Certain patients have a higher chance of developing opioid abuse and addiction than others. These opioid abuse risk factors include:

• Past or current personal substance abuse
• Past or current family substance abuse
• Untreated mental illness
• Younger age (between 16 and 45 years of age)
• History of sexual abuse

Not all patients with these traits will abuse opioids or become addicted. However, they should have extra care and attention to ensure they have a positive treatment experience.

Anyone with a high risk of opioid use disorder benefits from early intervention. However, specific populations have a critical need for it, including:

• Patients who drive under the influence
• Pregnant patients
• Adolescents who could develop lifetime addictions

Using the Opioid Risk Tool for Abuse Prevention
The AccuCare EHR’s Opioid Risk Tool (ORT) uses a research-supported assessment to identify the risk of abuse in your patients. After you answer a few questions, the tool calculates a score indicating their likelihood of aberrant behaviors, which are actions that suggest abuse and addiction. AccuCare’s ORT can help you monitor at-risk patients and potentially save lives.

About the AccuCare EHR SystemWe developed AccuCare to assist behavioral health professionals in managing their practices. This online application lets you:

• Organize patient records
• Schedule appointments
• Conduct assessments
• Manage treatment plans
• Write progress notes
• Prescribe medications
• Bill co-pays and insurance
• And more

Our team adds regular free updates such as the ORT to help you serve your patients more effectively. To learn more about the AccuCare system, contact us today. Request a free software demo to test out AccuCare’s features yourself.

Accurate and efficient billing is crucial to running an effective behavioral health practice. But, you can have difficulty with revenue cycle management if you don’t have the resources. Outsourced medical and behavioral health billing can help these practices serve clients better.

Here are five ways your practice could benefit from outsourced revenue cycle management services.

1. Increased Accuracy and Compliance
As healthcare technology grows, compliance policies change to make room for it. If you don’t have someone to keep track of these updates, you have to take time away from serving clients. Since outsourced services specialize in billing, they already understand how to stay compliant. Their staff members also dedicate themselves to maintaining accuracy. Thanks to these factors, your clients receive accurate and compliant billing, and you have more time to help them.

2. Maximized Security and Privacy
You want to keep your clients’ personal information safe to follow HIPAA and protect them from harm. An established revenue cycle management provider will make their security policies transparent. As best practices for data safety evolve, so do their confidentiality measures. You and your patients’ information stays secure in a professional services’ hands.

3. Improved Efficiency
Outsourced behavioral health billing services understand how to process claims quickly and accurately. If you choose a service that trains your staff members, they can also help your team work faster. Companies that have direct relationships with insurance providers can improve efficiency even further. Since they don’t have to send their claims to a separate clearinghouse, your billing gets processed more quickly.

4. Reduced Costs and Increased Profits
The money invested in a quality billing service often increases a practice’s profits. You avoid spending money on the latest billing software, equipment and training. Improved accuracy and efficiency help you receive higher reimbursements from your claims, as well. With an expert handling your revenue cycle management, you can rest assured you’ll make the most out of your money.

5. Happier, Healthier Clients
We saved the most important benefit for last — client satisfaction. Outsourced medical billing allows you to achieve your goal of increasing client wellness. Letting a professional service process your claims gives you the time and resources you need to focus on the people you serve. It also reduces the stress put on your staff, making it easier for them to provide quality care.

Outsource Billing Services From Orion Healthcare Technology
Did you know that Orion Healthcare Technology offers outsourced behavioral health billing? While we specialize in behavioral health and addictions, we also serve medical practices. Our team members understand the best practices in the industry and aim to get you the highest reimbursements possible. We charge a percentage-based fee calculated from your collected payments. That means providers of any size have the chance to benefit from our billing services.

Would you like to learn more about revenue cycle management services from Orion? Visit our outsource billing services page or get in touch with us online. We also have a Frequently Asked Questions page that provides even more information.
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On Oct. 24, President Donald Trump signed The SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act. This bipartisan bill aims to resolve the opioid crisis by increasing access to addiction treatment and promoting recovery. Learn more about this opioid epidemic bill and the importance of tracking addiction outcome measures in your practice.

About the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities ActThe SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act opioid legislation opens up new ways to fight opioid addiction for patients and researchers, including:

• Expanding access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT): The bill will make therapies like MAT more accessible to people with opioid use disorders. MAT involves the use of medicines like buprenorphine to reduce withdrawal symptoms.

• Allowing more patients with Medicaid to access treatment: Patients who rely on Medicaid now have more opportunities to get treatment for opioid use disorder.

• Increasing research funding: Medical researchers now have more resources to help them find solutions to the opioid crisis.

This bill also acknowledges that addiction is a disease. Confirming it as a medical condition helps reduce the stigma around addiction and reject the idea that it comes from a moral failing.

The Importance of Tracking Outcome Measures for Treatment EffectivenessBehavioral health professionals have a part to play in the fight against opioid addiction. Many of the underlying causes of opioid abuse involve mental health conditions, a history of substance abuse or trauma. Patients count on the behavioral health field to address these issues. With behavioral health at the forefront of addiction causes, professionals can track outcome measures to find aberrant behavior. AccuCare simplifies the process with the Opioid Risk Tool (ORT).

AccuCare’s Opioid Risk Tool (ORT)The ORT feature in our AccuCare online system allows you to detect a patient’s risk of opioid abuse with a simple questionnaire. After you enter the answers to questions about trauma, substance abuse history and mental health, ORT generates a score. This number indicates the patient’s risk of developing an opioid abuse disorder.

We based the ORT feature on a research-supported screening tool with more than 90 percent accuracy. Patients who receive a high score have a greater chance of performing aberrant behaviors that suggest opioid use. ORT acts as the start of a conversation that could save a patient’s life.

Contact Us Today
At Orion Healthcare Technology, we empower behavioral health professionals to improve patients’ well-being. To learn more about AccuCare and ORT, call us at 844-359-0540 or request a free demo.

Revenue cycle management, also known as RCM, involves the steps taken to bill clients and their insurers. In the behavioral health and medical industry, providers must follow a specific procedure to charge payments. When completing this process, they have to comply with every relevant regulation. In this blog post, we’ll explain the revenue cycle and the benefits of outsourcing behavioral health/medical billing.

What Is Revenue Cycle Management?
In revenue cycle management, a provider or company uses behavioral health/medical billing software to record and process payments. RCM covers the entire revenue cycle, which includes the following steps:

• Charge Capture: Converting a provider service into a billable charge

• Claim Submission: Sending a claim to a health insurance company

• Coding: Assigning an ICD code to each diagnosis and service

• Collections: Calculating the total bill and receiving the client’s payment

• Preregistration: Collecting the client’s insurance and payment information before their appointment

• Registration: Obtaining further client information to assign them a medical record number

• Remittance Processing: Posting or rejecting the client’s payment

• Third-Party Follow-Up: Collecting payments from third-party insurance providers

• Utilization Review: Reviewing the use of behavioral health/medical facilities and services in relation to their costs

Benefits of Outsourcing Revenue Cycle Management
As you can see, RCM involves many functions that need expert management to do correctly. If you make a mistake early on in the cycle, it can carry on to the next steps. Small medical and behavioral health practices often don’t have the resources to handle this process. In some cases, even larger providers can’t take on the work effectively.

That’s where outsourced billing services come in. They help healthcare providers by:

• Increasing Profits: RCM professionals understand how to enhance your billing efficiency. They also save you the costs associated with RCM training.

• Improving Security: A good RCM provider will offer full transparency about their process. They will also take every measure necessary to keep your clients’ personal information safe.

• Enhancing Customer Service: With someone else focusing on the complicated task of RCM, your staff can use more resources to serve clients. They have the extra time and energy to offer them premium care.

Outsourced Behavioral Health Billing From OrionOur outsourced billing team helps behavioral health professionals take care of RCM. Providers in the mental health and addictions fields prefer our services because of benefits like:

• More Than 30 Years of Experience: We understand how to adapt to the changes constantly happening in the industry.

• Percentage-Based Fees: Every month, we charge a fee based on a percentage of the payments you collected, not the payments charged.

• Behavioral Health Focus: Our team members understand the ins and outs of billing specific to the behavioral health field.

• In-House Clearinghouse: We have direct connections with more than 1000 insurance companies, allowing us to submit claims faster.

• AccuCare Integration: Our AccuCare EHR software works seamlessly with our billing services to increase efficiency and accuracy.

If you would like to learn even more about our outsourced behavioral health billing, contact us online today. An Orion representative will get in touch with you within one business day.