Set up Guide for Group Practices Transitioning to TherapyAppointment

This article is intended to be a guide to transitioning your group practice to TherapyAppointment as your practice management software. Most groups begin their account set up process 3-6 weeks prior to the date they’ve decided will be their ‘go live date’. If you are a small group practice or a practice that does not submit insurance claims, your set up can be accomplished relatively quickly.   A 'Go Live' date is the date you will begin using TherapyAppointment for scheduling, billing, and therapist documentation.

• Add your provider and staff accounts along with the necessary roles
• You do not need to allow your clinical staff to log into those accounts yet
• However, you will want to provide your admin staff manager privileges so that they can assist in the set up and transition process
  • You can always revoke manager privileges at a later date. 

Multiple team members may work on the next three items at the same time in any order:

Multiple team members may work on this list at the same time in any order:

• Create your patient intake forms but do not publish yet
• Articles:
  • Online Forms: Overview
  • Standard Client Documents (PDFs)
• Don't set up auto-assign of forms yet unless you want all clients (even active ones) to re-complete and re-sign intake forms

•  Some of your insurance companies MAY require you to set up an EDI connection in order to submit claims electronically. Most do not. Read How

• Import clients on a per provider basis
• If you have any patients who see more than one therapist in the group, we recommend uploading that particular patient only once, then manually assign them to any additional providers.
• You can also consider a free Triage Account
  • Upload or add clients here instead, including clients not yet assigned to a therapist
  • You can also use the client portal website linking article and include that on your website
• From this point forward, add any new clients to both TherapyAppointment and the system you’re transitioning away from until your go-live date
• Articles:
  • Data Import Feature
  • Watch How
  • Schedule phone call with general support for assistance

• Article: Read How

• Be sure to have any custom chart notes you want available to yourself and your providers
• Articles:
  • Custom Chart Note Templates
  • Start Charting

• Article: Supervision
• Disregard if your practice does not employ supervision

• If you see clients at multiple locations, you can set those up under your practice settings

• Add a link to your email signature, website, the possibilities are endless!
• Article: Client Portal Website Linking

• Set a weekly recurring availability schedule, or create exceptions
• Article: Availability Set up

• Copay, co-insurance, sliding scale fees
• Private Pay
• And more

• Set default reminder interval for new clients
• Edit client specific reminder settings

• Show them these provided videos, then allow them to play around in the practice accounts to become familiar with the system
  • Video for Clinical Staff
  • Video for Admin Staff 
• You may also wish for your admin staff to watch the clinical video in order to have an idea how TherapyAppointment works for your providers

Begin scheduling Patients into TherapyAppointment from the go-live date and later

Be sure to turn off any self-scheduling abilities in your ‘old’ system in order to avoid double-booking appointments by accident. Role: Owner, Manager, Biller, Scheduler

Announce to your clients that you’re making a change to a new system

Let them know you will be inviting clients to the new portal. Helpful Information for clients (PDF).

Connect with Integrated Credit Card Processing

Connect your TherapyAppointment account for credit card processing with Global Payments. The turn-around time on this is typically 2-3 business days, but we suggest some padding here and shipping time for any equipment to be delivered if you need hardware terminals.

Owner: Connect your account to Global Payments.

Schedule Training

Schedule Live Training with TherapyAppointment for your Clinical Staff Members. We also recommend to include managers/owners as well.

This training will be recorded for you to show any who could not attend. Prior to this training, your clinicians should have watched the Video for Clinical Staff.

• This is so your electronic Explanation of benefits come directly to TherapyAppointment
• The amount of time it takes your insurance company to make this change for you varies
• Ideally you would like your ERA's to begin coming to TherapyAppointment about a week after your go-live date
• Once your ERA's transfer they will no longer auto-post to your old system
• Article: Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA's)

• Invites should be sent out to each staff member and therapist
• Invites are valid for 1 hour for security & privacy reasons
• Article: Adding and Managing Staff & Roles

• Ensure clients only have access to what you want them to
• Articles:
  • My Profile → Client Portal Settings
  • Client Registration Process

• Turn off any automated appointment reminders in your old system

• Keep your ‘old’ system open and finish up your billing process there for accounts that still have open claims and balances.
• Send out statements, collect patient balances and enter those balances in the old system
• Continue to work your claims process in your old system for all claims billed out prior to the go-live date
• Post insurance payments for dates of service prior to ‘go live’ in your old system
• In order to calculate payroll, you will need to run reports from both systems and add them together until you close out your old system
• After about 30-60 days, you will most likely have your old system accounting ‘cleaned up’ and you can now move any patient balances into TherapyAppointment as a ‘balance forward’, then close out that patient’s account in the old system
• If you wish to ‘close down’ the old account but still have outstanding claims that need to be re-billed, you do have the option of re-submitting those claims from TherapyAppointment.
• Send active clients invitations to the portal: As active clients are seen in the coming day/weeks, have your providers briefly explain the patient portal to their clients and send invitations for the patients to register. Role: Owner, manager, biller, scheduler, therapist
• Keep a close eye on your ERA's - you may need to manually post EOB's to your old system or into TherapyAppointment depending on the dates the insurance company makes the transfer. Learn how to post an ERA manually

• Set up Auto Assignment of our Online forms IF you elected to NOT have active clients re-complete intake paperwork, 

• Close your old system when you’re ready – typically 4-8 weeks after your go live date. Run reports, export data, and store the files in a manner compliant with HIPAA.