Read how others have succeeded using Helper products in real world situations. We will continue to add new customer success stories so check back regularly.

Tell Us Your Story:

Do you effectively use Helper Software products and services? Would you be interested in sharing your story with us and other Helper customers?  We would like to hear how you have achieved success or solved specific business challenges through the use and implementation of Helper products.  Email your story to us at mystory@helper.com.

Asking for Help: Key to Successful Information Systems Implementation at Chestnut Hill Counseling Associates

Asking for help is the first—and most important—step that someone can take when trying to tackle mental health problems. The axiom, however, holds true in the business realm as well.    

Susan Ferguson, for example, discovered that asking for help was the right thing to do as she was wrestling with a number of problems when she took over as business manager of Chestnut Hill Counseling Associates, a Dover, N.H.-based practice with nine psychologists, three psychiatrists, one mental health counselor and one social worker.

After asking for help from the group’s practice management software vendor, Ferguson finally was able to relax a bit as the practice started to reap the benefits associated with financial well-being. A look at the problems Ferguson was dealing with and how she used a strong relationship with her software vendor to resolve these issues proves just how important it is to open the lines of communication and ask for help when needed.

Rough start

Certainly, Ferguson inherited a plethora of headaches when she started working at Chestnut Hill in January of 2001.   

Most notably, the practice’s therapist-owners were unhappy because, for months, their claims were not being processed efficiently. And, that meant that they were not getting paid for much of the work they were doing with clients. Because of this, the owners decided that they needed to take the practice in a new direction and hired Ferguson to take over the management of the practice.

“Initially, I spent a lot of my time trying to get money for work that the therapists did a long, long time before I came on board,” Ferguson says.

Part of the reason that many of these claims were not processed was because the previous business manager was attempting to manually input each claim–-and the volume of work was simply overwhelming.

As a result, Ferguson realized that she would have to implement a practice management system that would enable Chestnut Hill to electronically process claims--a function that the group’s previous practice management system did not provide.   

To make the situation even more frustrating, the practice had purchased Therapist Helper, a program that did, in fact, enable electronic claims processing. But the office staff members rarely tapped into this practice management system from VantageMed, Woburn, Mass., because the program was not setup for access by more than one person.

“It was implemented by the previous business manager as a standalone system and we needed to have it networked to multiple users.  So, we were running into operational problems,” Ferguson says.

As a result, Ferguson initially began to look for a new computer system.  And, the headaches continued. Even though she examined offerings from several vendors, she simply could not find an affordable computer system that offered features found in the Helper system such as:

• The ability to process bills directly from the scheduling application

• The capacity to view all billing data easily on one screen

• Single, split or multiple billing options

• Availability of pre-formatted reports or customized reports

• Access and audit features that help keep the practice in compliance with HIPAA regulations

• A centralized scheduling option that employs color-coded time blocks for easy reference

• Automated alerts that enable the practice to easily determine when a patient is nearing the last authorized session

At this point, Ferguson was pretty much at the end of her rope. But when she started talking with support management people at Helper, she started to feel just a little better.   

“I was just plugging along and doing what I could do to help bring the practice back up to speed,” Ferguson says. “Then, I started having conversations with the staff members from Helper and discovered that the company was willing to work with us to tackle our issues and needs.”

More specifically, the company’s programmers had already done a significant amount of work to transform Helper from a standalone program to a networked system.  Chestnut Hill needed to implement that networked version.

“Once we implemented Helper as a networked system, we weren’t having the freeze-ups anymore. With the networked program, most of the problems simply went away,” Ferguson says. “The Helper staff did all they could to make it a better system for us. And, they continue to provide us with new enhancements with every new release.  It just keeps getting better”

Financial recovery

With the system up and running properly, Ferguson is able to take advantage of the computer system’s many functions. Most importantly, Ferguson taps into Helper’s SecureConnect Electronic Data Interchange to easily transmit claims, receive electronic remittance, check claim status and send electronic patient statements.

With this functionality in place, Chestnut Hill staff members are able to complete the daily billing for all 14 providers in just 30 minutes. The program makes it easy to process claims as it automatically assigns CPT codes based on appointment information for each visit.   

“Once I finish our billing, I just click on a box and all of the claims are formatted and sent to VantageMed’s internally operated clearinghouse where they are scrubbed and then sent to the payers,” Ferguson says.

With this functionality in place, the average claim is paid within 17 days.  Previously, claims were being paid in 45 to 60 days. And, many claims were not getting processed at all or required a lot of rework, Ferguson says.

Helper also makes it easy for the practice to schedule patient visits. As a matter of fact, with Helper in place, the therapists, themselves, no longer have to keep an appointment book.    Instead, all appointments are electronically scheduled at the front desk. As such, it’s much easier for the practice to maintain optimal patient flow--and for each individual therapist to book an appropriate mix of cases each day.

“For example, the system will show us if we are trying to book too many initial appointments for a therapist for a particular day by viewing the appointment list,” Ferguson says.

With the system in place, therapists can do 30 hours of patient work--and have about a half hour of paperwork to attend to whereas without the system the therapists would have between 10 and 12 hours of paperwork each week.   

“The therapists just love the system. They are able to come to work and concentrate on providing therapy without all of the paperwork and administrative distractions,” Ferguson says.

In addition, Ferguson is enjoying her job much more now that the business office is running smoothly. And, she’s happy that she took that first step and asked for help from her software vendor.

“I’ve learned that it is really important to have a good working relationship with your software vendor,” Ferguson says. “Helper was willing to go the extra mile to provide us with what we needed. And, that turned out to be a really important element to the successful implementation of the system and the key to the financial success of our practice.”