Method for automating collection of psychotherapy patient information and generating reports and treatment plans

Abstract

The method and apparatus automatedly generates various reports for a psychotherapy provider. These reports include Treatment Plans, progress reports, scheduling reports and billing reports. The progress reports include a Progress Note which incorporates various selected data into a report for the insurance company. As much of the data is selected from menus, the resulting report can maintain much patient privacy while being satisfactory to the insurance company. More private information can be stored separately in Expanded Text. A Treatment Plan is generated using the various selected data with respect to subsets of emotional factors, intellectual factors, physical factors, social factors, and spiritual factors. These subsets may be chosen randomly or with some periodic selection.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001] This invention relates to the practice of psychotherapy in an environment whereby insurance companies and HMOs govern, by their payment rules, how patients are cared for. More particularly, this invention deals with a method for automating the gathering of patient information as well as automating documentation, Treatment Plans, and reports required by insurance companies.[0002] In the United States, especially in the last eight years with the explosive growth of managed care and increasingly where Medicare or Medicaid pays for treatment, the administration of psychotherapy is driven by insurance companies. These companies seek to minimize the cost of treatment and demand rigorous documentation by the care provider. As a result, care providers are forced to spend less time with patients and to spend more time generating documentation. As might be expected, patient care has deteriorated with caregivers increasingly spending more time, money and energ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006] It is therefore an object of the invention to provide psychotherapy caregivers with an apparatus that will enable them to produce the detailed documentation demanded of them by insurance companies quickly and with little effort.

[0012] It is further an object of the invention to format reports in such a way that patient privacy is protected while report recipients, i.e. insurance companies, receive adequate patient condition documentation.

Problems solved by technology

As a result, care providers are forced to spend less time with patients and to spend more time generating documentation.

As might be expected, patient care has deteriorated with caregivers increasingly spending more time, money and energy interacting with managed care companies seeking approval and providing justification for initial, concurrent and ongoing treatment.

Under these trying circumstances, the pressure on caregivers is enormous.

Given the circumstances, patients tend to blur together making it difficult for the caregiver to remember enough detail about each patient to adequately report progress and to devise effective Treatment Plans.

All three parties, the patient, the caregiver, and the insurance company are badly served by the above situation.

The caregiver is under pressure to produce results and documentation in an inadequate period of time.

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