Leveraging One Platform for Strategic Growth

As Arisa Health begins this groundbreaking partnership with Netsmart, they know they’re setting themselves up for success now and in the future.

In the last 50 or so years, there have been a series of Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs) in Arkansas. In March 2020, the CEOs of four Arkansas non-profit mental health centers collectively decided that they would be stronger by affiliating as a single entity, rather than facing their numerous challenges separately. Thus, Arisa Health was born.

One of the key aspects to driving organizational efficiency is with technology, particularly the electronic health record (EHR) and surrounding solutions to support all areas of the business.

"We’re really excited to make things simpler for our organizations trying to operate seamlessly as one entity."

- Brian Davis, Chief Clinical Officer, Arisa Health

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Before Netsmart, Arisa’s system was set up with separate domains for each unique tax ID. As you might expect, it can be very cumbersome to have different logins or domains for each region. Separate domains lead to separate reports that have to be pulled and aggregated to get that holistic view – even if they’re standardized. It also made things complicated as staff began to do cross-coverage of service between regions. As Anne Sheetz, Senior VP of Operations at Arisa Health, explained, “It was just creating more work.”

One Unified Platform: Solutions for the Entire Business

For Arisa Health, some of the most exciting solutions in the CareFabric platform include advanced reporting capabilities, integrated revenue cycle management, AI-powered clinical documentation and a client portal. Standardizing and automating the reporting needs to meet state requirements is key to Arisa’s sustainability and success.

Data and Reporting

“We currently have a total of seven reports we have to submit per legacy organization – which ends up being 28 reports each month. That has not been easy with our current EHR, with our highly skilled programmer,” explained Anne. “It’s a lot of reports that need to be very accurate, and it’s built right into myAvatar.”

Revenue Cycle Management

As for revenue cycle management, Arisa will be utilizing RevConnect to stay ahead of claims and support timely reimbursement. This addition of RCM solutions will further enhance Arisa’s goals of maximizing efficiency, revenue, and staff morale.

Clinical Documentation

Arisa is thrilled to add Bells, the AI-powered clinical coach, to their repertoire of solutions. Bells enables clinical documentation to be done collaboratively and concurrently, with data capture and clinical support from augmented intelligence. “Bells will enable our providers and clinical staff to meet the goal of completing progress notes in a timely manner,” said Anne.

Consumer Engagement

The client portal, myHealthPointe will also be a game-changer to support virtual payments such as client copays. Currently, for telehealth services, they have to call a client to receive payment for an appointment. “We’re not collecting as much as we could be,” said Anne. With myHealthPointe, they’ll be able to send a bill in the portal where the client can pay directly. The portal will support better consumer engagement and maximized revenue.

 

"All of the features that the platform offers will support Arisa in streamlining workflows and reduce the amount of manual work for our teams. We are very excited."

- Anne Sheetz, Senior VP of Operations at Arisa Health

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Choosing an EHR Partner

The Arisa Health executives knew how important it was to involve leaders from each team when making the decision for their new technology partner. Specifically, they got involvement from their chief medical officer, vice president of accounting, lead programmer and each region’s clinical vice president.

Anne's advice to organizations beginning the process of an EHR overhaul would be to not only consider the desires of leadership, but the people who are working in the system every day. As the technology platform impacts the everyday workflows of clinicians, billing, QA – really all staff – it’s important to really have everyone part of the selection process.

As they went through demos and their list of non-negotiables, Netsmart came out on top. “The Netsmart CareFabric platform checks all the boxes.” – Anne Sheetz.

Planning for the Long Haul

As Arisa begins this groundbreaking partnership with Netsmart, they know they’re setting themselves up for success now and in the future. By enabling their expansion into new communities and geographic locations on one platform, growth and scalability became just a little easier.

When you combine the largest non-profit behavioral health provider in the state of Arkansas with the strongest EHR platform - that’s something to be excited about.