Expanding Development Capacity

We had our annual meeting at GiftRAP a few weeks ago, and we introduced our first employees that have been hired to work in our new Atlanta office! GiftRAP began investigating additional locations in early 2010, so that we could expand our capacity to develop great new features for our customers. The finalists were Charlotte, NC and Alpharetta, GA. After completing additional research, we concluded that Alapharetta had the most amount of development talent to draw from. Additionally, our data center is located in Atlanta, and it is easily accessible (1.5 hour flight) from West Palm Beach (our home airport in Florida) and just about anywhere else in North America.

We continue to be committed to keeping our development onshore, and we also believe strongly in keeping development teams located together, as it enhances team collaboration which leads to the highest quality development. In order to stay true to this commitment and to also continue building on the capacity to develop new features, we are committed to building two complete development teams (10 - 12 employees) in the Alpharetta office in 2011. These new teams will focus on extending our mobile platform and delivering on the great ideas that come in through our ROX Ideas website.

We look forward to our new team members adding to the innovative features in ROX!

Rehab Optima goes Mobile!

Rehab Optima is in alignment with the APTA"s initiative to be mobile for the 2011 Combined Sections Meeting! Rehab Optima Mobile is currently in test phase, and through its many features, promises to increase time efficiency, improve data accuracy and enhance the overall patient-therapist experience. The APTA's combined sections meeting is February 9 – 13th in New Orleans, and promises to offer exceptional programming, accessible through their mobile application, and an exhibit hall filled with innovative products, much like that of Rehab Optima Mobile. We are excited to be participating in this year’s conference and hope you stop by for a sneak peak!

Development Update

Regulatory changes from CMS specific to the LTC industry have slowed down markedly, which has freed up our Rehab Optima development teams to re-focus on functionality enhancements and additional products that will provide the most value to our customers! Key initiatives that are just around the corner from testing and delivery include Phase 1 of Advanced Scheduling, Direct Bill and Electronic signatures for Advanced Clinical.

NASL...Hope to see you there!

Barring any winter storm cancellations this year, several team members will be representing GiftRAP at the 2011 NASL Winter Conference next week in Arlington, Virginia. Successful health information exchange is a core theme for the conference agenda, which as you know, is right up our alley. NASL will be hosting guest speakers from key members of CMS committees, Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, AHCA, National Center for Assisted Living and MedPAC. We are exciting to be participating and hope to see you there!

Gifts from GiftRAP!

While CMS was busy this summer and fall providing guidance and instruction for MDS 3.0 implementation, the GiftRAP Implementations Team, under the guidance of Kathleen Amidon, our Training Manager, was busy creating Rehab Optima instruction materials. We want all of you to be as independent as possible with Rehab Optima functionality and product module enhancements!

Several webinars have been created, with time efficiency in mind, intended to easily guide users to complete Payer Changes, Move Tracks/Services, Prevent Duplication of Patients, Use Reports and Utilize Help Files and Videos. Additionally, reading materials with the focus of “A Day in the Life” of a Rehab Manager and Therapist were created and distributed. We’ve also created and updated Rehab Optima videos! Check them out – they’ve been added to the help link in your button bar in Rehab Optima.

If you have not already taken advantage of these webinars, training cheatsheets or videos, please contact support@giftrapcorp.com for further information.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

The Rehab Optima teams are busy completing CMS-driven end of year updates, e.g., Physician Fee Schedules, CCI Edits, additions to Part B Cap Management and updating the therapy cap amount to $1870...Rehab Optima has you prepared for 2011!

The Season of Giving, Preparation and Patience!

The waiting is over, or, should we say, almost over…President Obama has signed the Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act of 2010! While you know this law extended the therapy cap exceptions process and the physician fee schedule ‘doc fix’ through December of next year, restored the October 1st RUG-IV implementation date (Yay! No hybrid system!) and addressed several other key Medicare payment issues, you may not have known that the industry continues to await final, key decisions regarding the MPPR. No need for concern, as Rehab Optima developers are patiently standing by, anxious to implement functionality that will address processing the payment reductions when different therapy disciplines file the same code on the same day, once clarification from CMS is provided.

In the meantime, GiftRAP will continue to monitor CMS and FI/MAC websites for announcements related to LCD changes. With the change in status of the 95992 code, we anticipate more change, and patiently wait! Of course, Rehab Optima will deliver these "gifts" just as soon after announcements are made!