Transitioning to TherapyAppointment for Solo Providers

This article is intended to be a guide to transitioning your solo practice to TherapyAppointment as your practice management software. Most solo providers begin their account set up process 1-2  weeks prior to the date they’ve decided will be their ‘go live date’.  A 'Go Live' date is the date you will begin using TherapyAppointment for scheduling, billing, and therapist documentation. 

Intended Audience

Practice Owners and Practice Managers

Immediately: 

Set up your TherapyAppointment account and add any accounts along with role assignments. If you have administrative staff member(s), you will want to provide them manager privileges so that they can assist in the set up and transition process. You can revoke manager privileges at a later date, if desired. 

You and any admin staff may work on the next three items at the same time in any order:

  1. Set up your  CPT codes and fees  Learn How

If you are billing insurance: 

  1. Insurance Billing:  You will be preconnected to TherapyAppointment claims at 17 cents per claim by default. Skip to the next item unless you are electing to directly connect your TherapyAppointment account with a pre-existing Office Ally Clearinghouse account you may own.  Optional: Office Ally grants TherapyAppointment customers this discounted rate only AFTER you've connected an Office Ally account to your TherapyAppointment account. There is additional paperwork involved once that connection is completed. Email support@therapyappointment.com for instructions on how to complete the discount paperwork. Once your TherapyAppointment account is connected directly to Office Ally, you will pay Office Ally directly for your claim submission costs - and there will be no charge from TherapyAppointment for your claims submission. The process for Office Ally to grant the discounted rate of $0.15 per claim to you can take up to 3 weeks. In the meantime, move on to the next steps!  Required Role: Owner Read How
  2. Set up the insurance companies you bill. Role Required: Owner or Manager. Learn How

___________________________________________________________________________

The Next Steps.

*Starred items below are nice features to use, but are not vital prior to seeing active clients:
  • *Create your patient intake forms but do not publish yet. Do not yet set up ‘auto-assigning’ of forms UNLESS you’re wishing ALL clients, even active ones, to re-complete and re-sign intake forms. Read How / Watch How And Another Article.
  • If billing insurance: Set up EDI agreements if needed. 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  or manually enter your active patients' demographics and insurance information. FROM THIS POINT FORWARD, add any new clients to both TherapyAppointment and the system you’re transitioning away from until your go-live date.  Read How / Watch How Schedule phone call  with general support for assistance: https://go.oncehub.com/TherapyAppointmentSupport
  • *Import your business Logo and Banner files. Read How
  • Add any additional locations to your practice settings if that was not accomplished in the initial account set up. 
  • *Connect the patient portal to your website/any additional places you wish it to link to.  Read How
  • Set up your Usual Availability Schedule  Watch how / Read How
  • If billing insurance: Enter the clients insurance copay or co-insurance amounts in their profile. Also mark any patients who are private pay only as ‘private pay’. Watch How. TherapyAppointment offers an insurance eligibility Verification feature for most commercial insurance companies Read How
  • Set up appointment reminders for each active patient. Role: Owner, Manager, Biller, Scheduler  Read How
  • Introduce yourself and any staff member to TherapyAppointment by showing them/assigning them these provided videos, then allowing 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. 
  • *Build their homework libraries if they wish to utilize this feature. Read or Watch How

 At least 1 Week Prior to your Go Live Date

  • 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, and that you will be inviting clients to the new portal. Helpful Tips
  • Connect with Integrated Credit Card Processing -  connect your TherapyAppointment account for credit card processing with Global Payments: Begin the process with Global Payments to set up an account. Connect the account to TherapyAppointment.  The turn-around time on this is typically  only 2-3 business days, but I’m recommending some padding, here    
  • Schedule Free, Live Training with TherapyAppointment to ask additional questions and/or review your set up. 
  • Insurance Billing: Set up ERA imports so that you can get your electronic Explanation of benefits to 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. Role: Biller Watch How / Read How
  •  Ensure your patient portal settings are correct for your desired Role: Owner or Manager
  • If you wish for all active patients as well as any new patients activating their patient portal to complete new intake paperwork, set up auto-assignments on your Online Forms and Standard Client Documents. If you don't wish to ask active patients to complete new paperwork, wait until you have a majority of your active patients invited and logged into to the portal. Role: Owner or manager 

One day prior to your Go Live Date

  • Turn off any automated appointment reminders in your old system.

Go LIVE!

  • 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 insurance claims that need to be rebilled, you do have the option of re-submitting those claims from TherapyAppointment. Role: Biller
  • 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. 
  • Insurance Billing: 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

2 Weeks Post Live

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

4-6 Weeks Post Live

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