Chesterfield Township — Nurse practitioner Sharon Blattert checked her patient’s blood pressure, temperature and vital signs during a recent home visit — and then asked Margarite Heiniger, 84, to sign for the services on Blattert’s tablet computer.
Blattert’s employer, Bingham Farms-based Optimal Care, is among the first nationwide to sign up for a new software program that allows home health agencies to track the whereabouts of their employees with GPS and obtain on-screen signatures to verify that visits have occurred.
Called VisitVerify, the product was developed by Austin, Texas-based Kinnser Software to improve efficiency for home health agencies, which previously collected signatures on paper forms that could be hard to track.
With an increasing number of elderly and disabled patients cared for at home, the product can make it easier for agencies to juggle growing staffs and caseloads. Optimal has about 100 clinicians caring for more than 370 patients throughout Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.
The GPS record also protects against charges of Medicare fraud, which has been a growing concern in Southeast Michigan. A nationwide sweep in early May involved $223 million in false billings, and resulted in charges against 89 doctors, nurses and other clinicians from eight cities, including Detroit.
“There’s just so much health care fraud out there right now, and one of the most common kinds is where patients are billed for services they never receive,” said Blattert, who provides services to several residents of the Villages of East Harbor, in Chesterfield Township, where Heiniger lives independently with assistance from home health care providers.
Though similar to signing for a bank transaction or a package delivery, the service does not require any special devices. It can be used with any tablet computer with touch-screen capability, said Chip Schneider, Kinnser creative director.
VisitVerify can be purchased as an add-on to Kinnser’s electronic medical records system, which is in use by 1,400 home health agencies, or about 10 to 12 percent of the home health care market, Schneider said. Hospitals and doctors are in the midst of converting to electronic medical records systems, because they are required to do so under a federal law passed in 2008. Home health agencies don’t fall under the mandate, but Schneider estimates about 87 percent of the home health industry has gone electronic, based on federal data.
Optimal, which uses Kinnser’s electronic medical records system, previewed VisitVerify prior to its rollout in April. Since then it’s been purchased by 99 agencies nationwide, including home health care providers in Ann Arbor, Madison Heights and Royal Oak.
“The thing that’s different (about VisitVerify) is that the signature screen is built into the software that clinician takes to the patient’s home,” Schneider said. “They’re filling out the information using a computer device, and they’re able to click on an icon that opens a signature screen. The patient can use either their finger or a stylus (electronic pen) to sign.”
Kathryn Bartz, director of strategic planning for Optimal Care, said the system improves patient care by improving communication between family members, clinicians and agency administrators. Information about whether the visit occurred and exactly what was done, such as whether medications were given, is instantly available online.
“We did research on different software and this one really fit us well,” Bartz said. “If you want to know what was done, the information is right there. And now we have e-signature, so the consent is done right on our I-pad and it goes directly to Medicare.”
