HEADWAY: Why I Use Electronic Health Records

This blog post was written by our sponsor, Headway, as part of a paid partnership with CEU Creations and CE4Less. While CEU Creations and CE4Less do not receive any commissions or fees from the sale of Headway’s services, we are sharing this content to provide helpful insights for mental health professionals.

Like most of us, I didn’t join the mental health field with dreams of becoming an administrative taskmaster. We didn’t long to file paperwork, do hours of session notes, or bill insurance. Even if you enjoy this necessary aspect of your practice, most of us have always wanted our work to focus on being present with clients and providing therapy to help them move towards change. If we are to stay focused on the primary priority of clinical work, we need tools that can keep us from being overburdened by administration. One of the most important tools for that is an electronic health record (EHR) system. It acts as a secure digital filing cabinet, but it also helps to ensure compliance, reduce the time spent on administrative work, and build a more sustainable practice.

An EHR can help therapists stay centered on our work with clients, increase income through billable client hours, rest easier knowing our administration is well-managed, and leave more free time for life outside of work.

Risks of Traditional Record-Keeping

My first therapy internship during grad school involved a lot of paper record keeping. It was a gut punch to my idealist, new-therapist self who just wanted to heal traumas. I was bogged down by excessive, time-consuming tasks that I felt could have been handled much more quickly and securely if it was done electronically.

Using physical records to run a practice can create some unnecessary risks. Loss, theft, damage, and increased errors are some of the main challenges. Physical storage space becomes an additional challenge, as most states require client records to remain accessible for years after therapy ends.

There is also a high amount of inefficiency when it comes to retrieving information, filing insurance claims, or following up on an insurance audit. When specific information is needed from a chart, the process of retrieving the files, combing through them by hand, updating, and then re-filing can be extensive.

Insurance billing requires accurate information and quick response times. Documentation and coding errors can be higher with physical records than with electronic ones, which may lead to delays or denials. The act of copying and mailing records and claims can also slow down these processes.

In cases where insurance audits arise, searching for the right records becomes time-consuming. Without an easy searchability feature, it can be difficult to find the information you need. If there’s less consistency with formatting or error-checking, this can also lead to failed audits and potential clawbacks.

What Makes a Great EHR

Past research, such as this study from the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, shows that electronic record keeping can reduce a healthcare provider’s documentation time by close to 25%. What would you do with 25% of your documentation time back? See more clients? Spend more time with family? Maybe take a nap?

You may be considering switching to an EHR or have already decided that it’s time to make the switch. When shopping for an EHR, there are some features that define great systems and will make the biggest difference in your daily practice.

Ease of Learning and Onboarding

A quality EHR won’t make your head spin. Learning the system and features should feel intuitive. It shouldn’t take extensive amounts of time to onboard and become comfortable with the new system. Most companies will offer a demo before you purchase the product so that you can get a feel for it.

Scheduling

Managing your therapy schedule from one place online can be incredibly useful. In many EHRs, calendar appointments can send invitations and automated reminders to ‌clients. The sessions on the schedule will then link directly to the related progress notes.

Progress Notes and Templates

This is the core aspect of an EHR. Every EHR will allow you to keep progress notes for each session and securely store them online in compliance with HIPAA. The best systems will have note templates, such as SOAP notes, so that you simply have to fill in the content, sign, and move on with the rest of your day.

AI-powered Note Assistance

Elite EHR systems take progress notes to the next level. They should offer a safe, ethical AI feature to synthesize your note summaries and organize them within your progress note structure. This saves you the time of conceptualizing and typing out each session. Your job is just to review with your clinical judgment, make any necessary tweaks, and sign customizable and shareable forms.

Managing paperwork is one of the most important administrative tasks for a practice. A good EHR system offers templates of key onboarding documents and other types of forms for clients. You can take the forms, modify them for your practice, and send them directly to your clients. Then, clients can complete and sign the forms electronically.

Assessments

Managing progress over time is key for good therapy outcomes. The GAD-7, PHQ-9, or PCL-5 are examples of validated assessment tools that give a clearer picture of a client’s current state and their progress in therapy. Great EHR systems will allow you to conduct assessments with your client in session, send the assessment to them electronically to complete on their own, and keep all of their assessment scores in their chart. This way, you can easily administer assessments, monitor progress, and share results.

Billing and Payment Systems

The best EHR systems will simplify the steps it takes for you to get paid. They offer the ability to easily code and submit insurance claims with just a few clicks. They can handle private paysessions by automatically charging your client’s credit card on the day of the session. These same systems will make sure that you get paid with consistent direct deposits to your bank account.

Secure Messaging

Electronic messaging with clients in a HIPAA-compliant manner is a staple of a good EHR. You and your clients can send private, highly secured messages to one another.

Insurance Credentialing

A select few platforms that offer EHRs will go above and beyond to also manage your insurance credentialing. After you provide some basic information, these systems handle the rest of the process with insurance companies. No more headaches of negotiating contracts or going back and forth with the companies.

Continuing Education

Another “above and beyond” feature is continuing education courses. Certain systems that offer EHR tools also include a variety of online courses. Live or on-demand, these courses can help you reach your CEU targets for licensure and professional development.

How Headway Checks Those Boxes

Headway is an EHR that contains all of these features, including the features that surpass the expectations of a standard EHR. It comes with the scheduling, insurance credentialing, billing, and documentation tools that make managing a practice much simpler. All of this is offered to therapists for no recurring monthly cost.

I use Headway as part of my private practice. I’ve found the credentialing process with insurance companies of my choice, the ease of billing, and consistent payouts very helpful. It’s quick and painless to handle these tasks because Headway does the heavy lifting. I also appreciate not paying monthly fees and not adding to my business’ overhead costs.

You might feel like it’s time to reduce the risks of traditional record keeping and experience the benefits of an EHR. Headway offers you the chance to reduce your administrative burden and get back to the reason you became a therapist. Discover how Headway can streamline your administration, simplify your practice, and help you prioritize client care‌.

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