2025
PAR Rehab Services Achieves Financial Stability and Growth with ProsperityEHR
Overview
Challenge
Managing complex behavioral health billing and revenue cycle processes while maintaining a focus on patient care.
Solution
ProsperityEHR's integrated EHR and revenue cycle management platform.
Result
- 10 Day improvement in accounts receivable
- 2% improvement in net collections
- 25% increase in net revenue
- 95%+ collection rate on claims
For behavioral health practices, the path from providing patient care to receiving payment is complex and full of challenges.
As Dr. Robert Fabiano, executive director of PAR Rehab Services and a licensed psychologist, explains, "The process between seeing a patient and actually getting paid fully for that service is quite a maze. There's an awful lot of alleyways that you can go down that will not yield payment."
PAR Rehab Services, a nationally accredited outpatient behavioral health clinic located in Lansing, Michigan, has been serving the mid-Michigan area for over 30 years. The practice specializes in psychological and neuropsychological diagnostic evaluations across the full age spectrum – from children with learning difficulties to elderly patients with memory concerns, and everything in between.
With nearly 40 employees delivering a comprehensive range of services across multiple locations, maintaining financial stability while delivering high-quality care presented significant challenges. After trying to both manage billing in-house and work with an outsourced billing vendor, PAR Rehab Services continued to struggle with getting fully reimbursed for the services it provided. That's when the practice turned to ProsperityEHR – for a solution that would transform its practice operations.
Challenge
Managing Complex Revenue Cycles in Behavioral Health
As a practicing psychologist and business owner, Dr. Fabiano faces the constant challenge of balancing clinical care with practice management. Managing a staff of 35-40 employees, the financial pressures are significant. And unpaid claims have a direct impact on his ability to operate PAR Rehab Services.
When you manage a behavioral health practice, all of the risk for reimbursement is on the employer.
—Robert J. Fabiano, Ph.D, ABPP, ABN
"When you manage a behavioral health practice, all of the risk for reimbursement is on the employer," Dr. Fabiano explained. "Our employees get paid when they come to work, not when we get paid. The financial resources have already gone out in paying employees and covering health benefits, paid vacation, administrative staff, equipment, the myriad of insurances covering operations, rent, and more... So getting reimbursed fully is not only a big challenge, but it's a vital necessity."
For the practice’s first 10 years of operation, billing was managed in-house by employees of PAR Rehab Services. In an attempt to improve revenue cycle management, they switched to a third-party billing company. However, these solutions weren't delivering the financial stability the practice needed to thrive.
Solution
Integrated EHR and Revenue Cycle Management
After decades of frustration with billing and reimbursement issues, Dr. Fabiano was sharing his financial concerns with Todd Westfall – a clinical therapist at PAR Rehab and the team’s internal IT lead. During the conversation, Todd mentioned that the practice’s electronic health record platform, ProsperityEHR (formerly TheraManager), also offered billing services.
After meeting with the team at ProsperityEHR, the practice then expanded its partnership to include revenue cycle management. The integrated platform provided several key advantages, including:
Unified access to patient records and claims data
Streamline administrative processes
Enhanced ability to track and analyze financial metrics
Improved efficiency in collecting patient balances
Specialized expertise in behavioral health billing
“They inherited a nightmare because our billing archives were incredibly archaic,” said Dr. Fabiano. “It was a process to go through our claims data, clean it up and make sense of it, then take our billing forward. But over time they’ve provided a much more effective billing service for us.”
The ProsperityEHR platform's integration with patient records and claims data helped PAR Rehab Services streamline its revenue cycle management.
“Our previous billing company had access to our EHR and claims data, but they were two separate systems. So one hand was not connected to the other,” he explained. "The efficiency in being able to go into our EHR, look at a patient's record, look at the claims data, and organize the claims in ways that we can respond more efficiently is a significant improvement.”
The practice gained better visibility into its revenue cycle through detailed metrics and analytics, allowing them to make more informed business decisions. And using the integrated ProsperityEHR platform, PAR Rehab Services also made process changes to train its administrative staff on collecting patient balances. Historically, the third-party billing company sent statements for copays and deductibles, which were not only time- and labor-intensive, but often went unpaid. Now, administrative staff can collect balances at the time of service.
The efficiency in being able to go into our EHR, look at a patient's record, look at the claims data, and organize the claims in ways that we can respond more efficiently is a significant improvement.
—Robert J. Fabiano, Ph.D, ABPP, ABN
Result
Financial Stability and Growth
Using the ProsperityEHR platform for revenue cycle management has led to significant improvements in PAR Rehab's financial performance. Over the past 12 months, this has included:
It took my practice from a practice that was financially struggling and was barely making ends meet to a practice that was comfortably not only making ends meet – but achieving a pro fit.
—Robert J. Fabiano, Ph.D, ABPP, ABN
Beyond the numbers, the platform transformed the practice's financial stability. "It took my practice from a practice that was financially struggling and was barely making ends meet to a practice that was comfortably not only making ends meet – but achieving a profit," Dr. Fabiano shared. "The more financial resources you have, that helps us grow by offering competitive pay and benefits, upgrading equipment and supplies, and expanding business operations.
The solution also provided valuable insights through analytics, allowing the practice to make data-driven decisions about insurance partnerships and service lines.
"They can provide us the patterns of reimbursement by procedure code or service, by payer or insurer," explained Dr. Fabiano. "That's helpful because we can then look at that and make some decisions about whether we want to continue to participate with certain groups.
The solution also provided valuable insights through analytics, allowing the practice to make data-driven decisions about insurance partnerships and service lines.
"They can provide us the patterns of reimbursement by procedure code or service, by payer or insurer," explained Dr. Fabiano. "That's helpful because we can then look at that and make some decisions about whether we want to continue to participate with certain groups.
The Value of Partnership
For Dr. Fabiano, one of the most significant benefits has been the reduction in administrative burden, allowing him to focus more on patient care. "It's one thing to enjoy the practice of clinical psychology. It's another thing to dread the management of the business of a private clinical psychological practice if you're struggling financially," he shared. “As a working business owner, ProsperityEHR has alleviated an awful lot of stress in my enjoyment of my practice.”
The responsive support from the ProsperityEHR team has been crucial to the partnership's success. "Jesse Vogel (ProsperityEHR’s Chief Revenue Officer) and I don't talk very often, but when we do, he responds immediately, whether it's either by phone or email," noted Dr. Fabiano. "I find him to be a very hands-on, responsive owner and someone I can communicate our needs with very directly."
Looking ahead, PAR Rehab Services continues to work with ProsperityEHR to enhance their operations, including plans to implement a secure portal system for referrals to further streamline their processes and enhance security. For behavioral health practices considering a similar solution to revenue cycle management, Dr. Fabiano emphasizes three key benefits to working with ProsperityEHR:
Transform Your Practice with ProsperityEHR
Ready to enhance your behavioral health practice's financial performance while reducing administrative burden? Connect with us to learn how ProsperityEHR can help you achieve similar results through our integrated EHR and revenue cycle management platform, backed by 30 years of behavioral health expertise.