5 Small Tasks Your Team Should Do Every Day

I like to keep lists. You too? Twinsies!

I have a list that I go through every morning to make sure that regardless how busy the day becomes; I never miss the most important things. Just about everyone in a Therapy Business has tasks that they must do each day to ensure that the business is running and compliant.

This “every day” checklist applies for your therapists, therapist assistants, and therapy supervisors or directors.

1 – Check Pre-Authorizations for scheduled patients: If you’ll be seeing a patient, make sure to double-check whether a pre-authorization is active or necessary. Not all insurance companies require prior authorization for OT/PT/ST but those that do require it won’t pay without it. Also, make sure you put the responsibility on the treating Therapist to verify pre-auth status; how? *See the note at the end of this article for helpful advice on that topic.*

2 – Check Plan of Care dates for my patients: If you’re treating a patient outside the active Plan of Care date range, you’re NOT legally compliant! Exactly like pre-auth checks, you should be checking to ensure that each patient has an active Plan of Care. If there is no active POC, it’s time to do a new evaluation.

3 – Check documentation from previous day's visits for signatures: By law therapists are given 8 minutes at the end of their session to complete their progress notes. That being the case, therapists should never have incomplete notes on the day following a treatment. A quick look at the previous day’s notes to check for note completion, therapist signature, and caregiver signature will do the trick. Also, Supervisors should be reviewing their assistant’s notes daily and signing them.

4 – Call/Text to confirm no-show risks and new patients: Every therapist holds their breath when they have a no-show risk or new patient on their schedule. I’ve observed many therapists staring longingly out the window hoping against hope that their patient shows up, even if it’s a few minutes late. One way to avoid a no-show (although nothing is fool-proof), is to send the parent/caregiver a quick text or call them the day prior to confirm the appointment time. Again, nothing is fool-proof but it’s better than sitting during the time they should be treating.

5 – Check and print Eligibility for Benefits: This one is something I rarely see done well. Medicaid requires that all patients be checked for eligibility before each treatment. However, unless you have a receptionist, there’s a good chance this isn’t being done in your office. The risk of not checking is that Medicaid could claw back claims payments from time that the patient was not eligible. If you’re only checking eligibility on the 1st of the month, then the patients loses coverage on the 2nd day of the month, you could be liable to pay back all that was claimed erroneously.

One last note…

Ensure you insert this or similar language into your contractor agreements to put the responsibility on Therapists to check for pre-authorization status. “Contractor is responsible for obtaining physician’s approval signature on any patient treatment plan and for obtaining prior authorizations (if needed) for any services rendered. If service claims are denied due to lack of prior authorization or any other compliance reason, Client reserves the right to NOT PAY for the service performed.“