Part B Insider (Multispecialty) Coding Alert

Look for electronic health records tailored toward OTs, thanks to a new licensing agreement.

Occupational therapists are finally getting some special electronic health record (EHR) attention, thanks to a new partnership. For a while now, speech pathologists and physical therapists have had the option to use tailored electronic medical record and documentation programs from their national associations -- and now it's occupational therapy's turn.

The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) announced in early November a licensing agreement with Cedaron Medical Inc. to develop an electronic patient record and documentation system for the occupational therapy profession.

"AOTA will work with Cedaron to develop documentation templates for evaluations, assessments, interventions, and outcomes specific to occupational therapy practice," said AOTA President Penelope Moyers Cleveland, EdD, OTR/L, BCMH, FAOTA.

OTs will be able to customize the software, document all components of patient care, and track outcomes, the release said. In addition, the system has tools for scheduling patients and communicating directly with billing systems.

Perk: Users participating in AOTA's National Outcomes Database for Occupational Therapy will be able to access national and facility-based outcomes measures for benchmarking.

The system will capture outcomes data using the Boston University Activity Measure for Post Acute Care (AM-PAC™) and other measures. The AM-PAC, an outcome instrument provided by CREcare, LLC, assesses a client's functional status across three domains: basic mobility, daily activities, and applied cognitive.

The AOTA documentation system will be compatible with ASHT Connect (specifically for hand therapists), SLP Connect by ASHA and APTA Connect, allowing for a common electronic platform across the occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech language pathology professions, AOTA clarified.