Best OT EHR
Occupational therapy EHRs are one way clinicians and practices can store, access, manage and analyze client and practice data at a time when data management is becoming a larger part of the work in the occupational therapy industry.
Clinicians can use the data stored and accessed in occupational therapy EHRs to make data-driven decisions and to demonstrate client improvement in the areas of activities for daily living, cognitive function, quality of life and safety.
Additionally, occupational therapy EHRs help OTs save time on administrative tasks, helping both private practice therapists and group practice administrators potentially generate more revenue.
In order to gather data, occupational therapy EHRs allow for multiple inputs into a centralized location where info can be entered and accessed by different parties:
- Clinicians, for example, use occupational therapy EHRs to help organize assessments, document care, create treatment plans, document session notes and communicate with clients.
- Group practice managers use occupational therapy EHRs to manage administrative tasks such as scheduling, billing and insurance claims and to review revenue reports.
- Clients use occupational therapy EHRs to fill out forms, get familiar with policies, self-serve in terms of scheduling and payment and to access homework.
If you’re an occupational therapist in private practice or a group practice administrator researching the best occupational therapy EHRs for you or your team, keep on eye for these three things.
- Features: Make a list of features that are important to you and consider how these features will work for you to achieve your goals. For example, do you spend a lot of time calling clients to schedule and confirm appointments? If so, look for software where clients can book their own appointments and receive automated reminders. Also, think of features you’ve had access to in the past, but didn’t use. You don’t want to pay for features you don’t need.
- Costs: In addition to identifying and maximizing features, you’ll also want to get a full vision of the costs associated with the occupational therapy EMRs. For example, are there additional fees for additional users on top of the monthly subscription fee? Will you use add-on features after you pay for them? Are there costs for canceling your contract?
- Free trials or free versions: Finally, we recommend testing software before committing. The last thing you want to do is to sign up for a software subscription only to find it doesn’t have the functionality you need or too much of what you don’t need. You’ll also want to keep on eye on whether the EHR is secure, crashes frequently, is buggy, is HIPAA compliant and regularly updates features.
If you’re struggling with any or all of these, we’re here to help! We examine some of the best occupational therapy EMRs with a focus on features, pricing and the ability to test various software.
Best occupational therapy EHRs
We’ll be looking at four of the best occupational therapy EMRs including TheraPlatform, Fusion, MyClient’s Plus and Tebra.
TheraPlatform
What is it? TheraPlatform is a comprehenisve EHR, practice management and teletherapy solution built specifically for therapists in private practice. TheraPlatform, is a Los Angeles-based software company founded by a therapist and launched in 2017. Prior to this, the company had been developing other software suites since 2011 for both therapists and schools with over 40 apps. Product features are informed by customer feedback as well as emerging technology (such as AI).
Who’s it for? TheraPlatform offers features for pediatric and adult occupational therapists working as sole practitioners as well as for larger group practices in need of advanced features such as reporting and multi-location scheduling and filtering.
Highlights
- Customization: Note templates and intake forms library that can be both customized and built from scratch with form builders to meet unique needs with ability to share notes with clients and request their signatures.
- Teaching tools: A TheraPlatform exclusive, occupational therapists can use features such as a built-in whiteboard, interactive screen sharing with live annotations and document upload and storage (including audio and video files such as YouTube videos) that can be shared and used during live sessions (Advanced plans.)
- Speech-to-text technology: Upload video, audio or record telehealth sessions and transcribe them with a few clicks of a button.
- AI empowered intake process: Technology like optical character recognition (OCR) and Natural Language Processing (NLP), is used to help occupational therapists automatically extract information from client documents like insurance cards and driver’s licenses. Clients upload a picture of their document and the data is automatically extracted from the cards and saved in the client’s chart.
- Efax options: HIPAA-compliant efax is a low-cost, secure, convenient, solution to traditional faxing. Incoming and outgoing documents are sent via efax and stored digitally.
- Automated billing and claim validation: Automated billing features save time and speed up payments. Creating and submitting claims in batches and using real-time validation minimizes rejected claims.
- Integrated clearing house: Real-time claims validations that help reduce rejected and denied claims.
- Client portal: Clients can schedule, complete and sign forms, and view invoices all on the secure client portal. Educational resources are also available for clients.
- Customer feedback response: Ability to request features and excellent customer service response.
Start 30-day Free Trial and explore TheraPlatform. HIPAA Compliant Video and Practice Management Software for Therapists.
Fusion software
What is it? Fusion software was founded in 2010 and is based in Greenville, SC. The company has been designing software since 2006 for Special Education and Outpatient Therapy.
Who’s it for? Built for physical, speech and occupational therapists in private practice focused on pediatric populations although people working geriatric populations can use it as well.
Highlights
- Home Education Platform: Includes a library of pediatric exercises, a file manager to upload your own exercises and a patient portal for clients to easily access materials. (Additional fee)
- Assisted Billing: End-to-end claims management that eliminates the need to call payers and train billers. (Additional fee) Plus a fee-based billing course.
- Pediatric focus: Made exclusively for pediatric therapy
My Clients Plus (Therapybrands)
What is it? MyClientsPlus was founded in 2006 and is based in Birmingham, AL.
Who’s it for? Created for behavioral health and rehabilitation therapists in small to mid-sized businesses.
Highlights:
- Intuitive interface: Many customers comment on its clean, easy-to-use interface.
- Library of note templates: Robust notes templates with the ability to print batch notes by date or individually.
- Patient acquisition program: In partnership with WebMD Care directories, therapists can create a profile to list basic information about their practices.
Tebra (formerly Kareo)
What is it? Tebra is based in Corona Del Mar, CA., with an office in Costa Rica, and is a joint venture of PatientPop and its parent company, formerly known as Kareo, which was founded in 2004.
Who’s it for? Small to medium sized health care practices that include occupational therapists.
Highlights:
- Interoperability: Easily integrates with other systems
- Marketing hub: Offers the ability to reach and retain clients through automated reputation management and social media management
- Reporting capabilities: Easy-to-use dashboard provides data at a glance
Now, let’s go!
TheraPlatform | Fusion | Myclients plus | Tebra | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Appointment management | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Automated reminders | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Automated Scheduling | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Chat/Messaging | ✔️ | X | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Cloud-based | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Google Calendar Sync | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ |
Claims automation and batching | ✔️ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔️ |
Progress reports | ✔️ | ❌ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Efax | ✔️ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔️ |
Scheduling thru web widget | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Forms management | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Customizable templates | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ | ✔️ |
Task management and assignment | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Document storage | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Waitlist | ✔️ | ✔️ | Through Jituzu | ✔️ |
ERAs | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
Credit card processing and storage | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
Auto generated superbills | ✔️ | ❌ | ✔️ | Encounter forms |
Free trial | ✔️ | Free demo | ✔️ | ❌ |
Telehealth | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
PRICE | $39/mo | $89/month | $29/month | $125/month |
With the information presented above, you should be able to approach your search for the best occupational therapy EHR informed.
Picking the best occupational therapy EMR for your practice
When it comes to finding the best occupational therapy EHR for your practice, it’s clear that there’s plenty of options. So, how do you decide on the best occupational therapy EMR for your practice?
To recap:
- Features: Most therapists are looking to increase efficiency around repetitive, administrative tasks like notes, scheduling and billing. It’s important to consider what’s important to you and your practice. Do you want to offer parents and pediatric clients the option of telehealth? If so, are there any tools you’d like integrated into that experience?
- Pricing. Take a holistic approach to examining prices (vs. focusing on a monthly subscription rate) to minimize surprises in the future and help you manage revenue and expenditures better. A few things to consider:
- A high monthly subscription price may mean you’re getting too many features. Determine the most important features for you.
- A low monthly subscription may mean you’re getting the absolute basics in terms of functionality and you’ll need to purchase a ton of add-ons to reach the level of efficiency you want.
- Think about which add-ons are worth paying for. If a feature can save you time, it may be worth the additional fees.
- Consider whether you’ll need to add staff in the future and whether fees are associated with growth.
- Figure some transactional costs into your budget and keep an eye out for potential cancellation fees.
- Free trials: Using free trials is a clear way to understand whether an occupational therapy EHR is right for you. Several occupational therapy EHRs will encourage you to test their features for periods between 14 to 30 days. Trying out a product before committing will help you save time and money in the long run.
Now that you know how some best occupational therapy EHRs can help you manage everything from scheduling to claims, you may want to consider choosing the best occupational therapy EMR that can help streamline your business.
Resources
TheraPlatform, an all-in-one EHR, practice management and teletherapy tool was built for therapists to help them save time on admin tasks. You can sign up for a 30-day free trial of TheraPlatform now.
More resources
- Therapy resources and worksheets
- Therapy private practice courses
- Ultimate teletherapy ebook
- The Ultimate Insurance Billing Guide for Therapists
- The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Private Therapy Practice
