Brewer Physical Therapy Grows Revenue by $48,000/year Per Provider with Prompt

Brewer Physical Therapy is based out of Shreveport, Louisiana and currently has 4 clinics and roughly 20 providers. Amanda Brewer, the owner and CEO, decided to switch to Prompt in October of 2020 after suffering from frustrations with her prior EMR and billing companies. During the switch to Prompt, she also brought her billing in-house for the first time. We caught up with Amanda to discuss several key areas: 

1. Why she chose Prompt over other solutions
2. Her journey bringing billing in-house for the first time
3. How Prompt’s all-in-one platform has helped improve her business
4. How Prompt’s patient-facing tools have led to increased patient satisfaction

Since switching to Prompt, Brewer Physical Therapy has experienced a dramatic improvement in metrics across the board. Most notably: 

• Grew revenue by $48,000/year per provider
• Grew revenue per visit by 12.4% despite consistent cuts to fee schedules from payers
• Visits per Discharge has increased by 55%
• Overall Visit Volume has grown by 43%
• Provider Capacity Utilization has grown from 73% to 90% 
• Decreased Average Days in AR from the mid-60s to 17
• % of AR over 90 days has reduced by 56%

How Brewer Physical Therapy Decided on Prompt

“Generally speaking, we had a lot of frustrations with our prior two EMRs. We had initially had an EMR that we used for 11 years and then in 2019 we changed to a new EMR that was also overseeing our RCM operations,” Amanda said. “After less than a year on the new system, we realized that the efficiency was not where it needed to be and that their RCM performance was very weak.”

After deciding to go to market and look for a new EMR, Brewer Physical Therapy set a few priorities. 

“We wanted an all-in-one solution that would improve our efficiency across the board and make things easier from an administrative standpoint and a clinical standpoint,” Amanda said. “Additionally, we wanted to be able to improve our patient experience.”

After a comprehensive search of the market, Brewer ultimately chose Prompt.

“Prompt offered the best combination of tools and support in the market. The interface is extremely user-friendly and intuitive and it did not take our staff a long time to get acclimated to the new system. Prompt also really helped us out with the transition, providing a very robust data transfer and helps us manage our entire patient life cycle, from the moment they are a lead until they’ve paid their final bill and received their final treatment.” 

Bringing RCM in-house 

Originally, Brewer was not considering taking their RCM operations in-house as they had never previously done that, but after evaluating Prompt EMRs solution they decided that they would take the jump and bring RCM in-house. 

“Originally, we were pretty nervous about bringing RCM in-house because we had no experience doing so,” Amanda said. “However, Prompt’s team was awesome and was able to help us learn the ins and outs of the system quickly to be able to manage our billing effectively. Additionally, they have training articles that teach you about specific rejections and how to resolve them and their team is filled with medical billers who are super knowledgeable and able to share information.” 

In addition to the awesome support team and resources in the knowledgebase, Prompt’s software helped facilitate a transition to in-house billing for Brewer Physical Therapy. 

“Prompt’s all-in-one solution and awesome Dashboards and Reporting made it extremely simple for us to bring the RCM in-house. There are awesome tools for working rejections, auto-posting payments, electronically sending out statements and even submitting work comp and auto claims electronically,” Brewer said. 

In addition to the Reporting and tools above, Prompt’s configurable rules engine helped make taking billing in-house easy for Brewer Physical Therapy. 

“Prompt allows us to create customizable rules per payer to ensure we are documenting and coding our claims correctly and getting clean claims out. This was one of the main reasons we have been able to bring RCM in-house and manage it at a very high level with a very small RCM team. This ultimately resulted in huge savings for our business to not have to pay a third-party billing company.” 

Bringing RCM in-house with Prompt has ultimately resulted in enormous improvements for the business. 

“Since we switched to Prompt and brought our billing in-house, we have seen our Days in AR drop from 64 to 17 and have increased our revenue per visit by 12.4%,” Brewer said. “This is despite having constant cuts to our reimbursement schedules by payers. Prompt’s system helps us optimize our coding based on our clinical documentation and ensures that we are collecting every dollar that we are able to for each claim that we billed out.”

Prompt’s reporting also helps Brewer evaluate when issues are arising and what the causes are.

“With Prompt’s reports, we can easily see when we are having an uptick in denials with certain payers and get on top of working them,” Brewer said. “The reports also tell us why the claims are denying so if we are having front-desk or clinical issues that are causing denials, we can be proactive about managing them.” 

Prompt’s automation tools help Brewer Physical Therapy grow their business

In addition to bringing RCM in-house, Prompt’s automated scheduling tools, digital patient intake, POC Compliance Tracking, Lost Patient Tracking, and more have helped Brewer Physical Therapy dramatically improve their business. 

“As the owner and CEO, my favorite tools are the Dashboard and Reports that give me an incredible birds eye view of the business,” Amanda said. “With access to all of my company’s data in real-time, I am able to focus my efforts on the areas that need the most attention day-to-day or week-to-week.” 

In addition, Prompt has helped manage provider staffing and deal with PTO for their therapists. 

“Prompt’s Capacity Utilization reporting helps us manage unexpected PTO and sick time on the fly without any issue,” she said. “Within a minute, we can move around patients to other therapists based on who has extra capacity and quickly make decisions to keep the provider schedules full and the patients receiving care.”

The Detailed Day Sheet

“The detailed day sheet is a simple feature we have always wanted but no EMR had ever been able to create. When we got to Prompt, we submitted a feature request for it and within a few months they had it built,” Brewer said. “The Day Sheet allows our Care Coordinators to quickly review the schedule for the day, see who has co-pays due, who may have auth issues, and who needs more visits scheduled. This tool has made a huge impact on our day-to-day operations and efficiency.”

Prompt’s automated scheduling tools have been a game-changer for Brewer

“In 2022, Prompt launched a series of automated scheduling tools related to Online Scheduling, Plan of Care Compliance, and an Automated Waitlist,” Amanda said. “These tools have really been a game changer for our practice because patients love being able to schedule on their own and it saves our admin team time to do other work.”

Since the launch of these tools and combined with the Day Sheet, Brewer Physical Therapy has seen a 55% increase in their Average Visits per Discharge, a 43% increase in overall Visit Volume and their Provider Capacity Utilization has risen from 73% to 90%.

“Prior to Prompt, we had a hard time keeping our schedules full and did a ton of manual work to track Plan of Care Compliance and Lost Patients,” Brewer said. “Since these tools came out, our Provider’s schedules are consistently full and we’re now working on opening a 5th clinic to keep up with demand.”

With patients now attending the right amount of visits, they are also getting better outcomes and are more satisfied overall with Brewer Physical Therapy. 

“Our Patient NPS has risen by 4 points as a result of the new tools and our employee satisfaction has also grown by about 4 points,” Brewer said. 

Prompt’s Support and Product Team

Another “feature” that Amanda and her team love about Prompt is the Customer Success team at Prompt. 

“The Prompt Support has been nothing short of exceptional. Every time we need their help, they are always very quick to respond and provide us with all the details we need to solve our issue.” 

In addition, Prompt is unique in Amanda’s eyes in listening to customer feature requests and working to implement them. 

“In the past few years, whenever we come up with an idea that we think can improve process and efficiency, we are able to submit a feature request form to Prompt, and unlike in our past experiences, many times Prompt is able to build and deliver these features to add value not just to our team, but all of their clients,” Brewer said. “In the past, it was frustrating with other EMRs to know that there was a way to do something better but not have any ability to help drive positive change with the software.”

Why other clinics should use Prompt

“There are many reasons why I would highly recommend Prompt to other clinic owners. First of all, if you want to save your company and your employees time and money, then you’ll switch to Prompt. The software is incredibly efficient and accurate. It makes the billing processes efficient and accurate. It results in a significant increase in revenue. It puts less strain on your staff, on the front lines, and makes scheduling and collections so much easier. Additionally, the Prompt support team is awesome and they listen to your feature requests. And lastly, it allows you to deliver exceptional care and keep your patients and your employees happy. It is really great to have a partner that understands what a PT clinic needs.”

Wrapping up, Amanda left with these thoughts. 

“Changing EMRs is a big undertaking, but the Prompt team works extremely hard to make the transition as easy and smooth as possible and I can confidently say that making the change to Prompt was worth it. Since making the change, our overall efficiency has improved, our profit margin has improved, and our patient and employee satisfaction has improved. If you’re in the market for a new EMR, Prompt is the team that is going to make the transition the easiest and help you grow your business over time.”