Shopping for AI Solutions? Here’s What You Need to Know

If I were to look ahead to future trends for 2025—not unlike our own Dr. Heidi Jannenga—I’d say that AI will continue to be a major talking point within rehab therapy’s online conversations and at industry events. (Granted, that’s about as bold a prediction as saying that the sun will rise tomorrow, but I’m starting the year off with a layup.) Everywhere you look, AI is a part of the products you use and content you consume on a daily basis—and for a growing number of clinicians, it’s also a part of their daily workflows in their practice. 

Maybe you’ve been an AI skeptic to this point. I get it; you’ve lived through enough flash-in-the-pan tech trends to rightfully cast some side-eye at the new hot thing. But you probably don’t need me to tell you that AI is here to stay; a quick glance at the news from any industry will tell you that the biggest companies are investing significantly in AI to help them become more efficient. (Read: make more money.) And it’s not too late for you to do the same. If you’re ready to dip your toes in the water and make a splash with an AI solution for your practice, here’s what you should remember while shopping.      

It’s gotta be rehab therapy-specific. 

Maybe you’ve heard good things about the AI products your friends in other specialties are using and are considering giving one of those a try. Perhaps the referring GP you work with regularly has an AI tool for dictation that’s really been a timesaver. Those could work OK for your needs—but not nearly as well as something designed specifically for rehab therapists. As we all know, rehab therapy is its own thing, with specific terminology, as well as rules and requirements when it comes to what needs to be in a standard progress note. A rehab therapy-specific solution has been trained on countless rehab therapy notes and rehab-specific compliance so that it can accurately compile a compliant note—and provide insights on functional outcome measures and progress tracking. If you’re using a more generalized solution, you’re going to end up having to do more work yourself to make the necessary changes to stay compliant.  

You need integration with your EMR. 

If using AI is all about increasing your efficiency, it doesn’t make sense to not choose a solution that’s integrated with your EMR. And you want to make sure that it’s an actual integration, not something with extra steps that takes additional work. You’re adding AI in order to cut down on the number of headaches in your day and to streamline your workflows, not to add new complications. When you’re looking at AI solutions, don’t be afraid to ask about integration—or better yet, have them show you how seamlessly their AI and your EMR work together. 

You want a coding companion. 

We can add coding to the list of things that most rehab therapists don’t love. And it makes sense; if you’ve ever seen the complete list of rehab-specific CPT codes, you can understand why a lot of providers have their tried-and-true codes for just about everything, like 97110. The problem with that is two-fold: one, you’re probably not fully capturing what you’re doing with the patient and could be missing out on more accurate, better-paying codes, and two, if you’re overusing the same code across all your patients and all your treatment, it could raise red flags that trigger an audit. 

That’s where the right AI tool can come in handy. It should be able to take what you’ve put in your notes, compare it to similar treatment descriptions, and offer up a better option if your current coding doesn't quite fit the bill. It should also be able to determine if the documentation you’ve offered in your note supports your coding choice. If you’ve ever been unsure about your coding, the right AI can be the guide sitting on your shoulder to help you feel confident.

Compliance help is a must.     

To expand on that last point, you want your AI tools to be able to improve your practice’s compliance. A basic AI scribe may save you some time spent typing, but it’s still on your shoulders to do all of the work involved to make sure your notes are compliant. And then there’s the dreaded chart review; if you thought trying to create your notes and code your treatment was tedious, the feeling is only magnified by having to pour over other providers’ charts to try and catch problems before payers find them. 

Fortunately, where clinicians may falter after a long day’s work is where AI is set up to shine. The best AI solutions are able to not only check your note to make sure it’s compliant—they can check every word of every note throughout your practice to spot potential risks far faster than any peer review and with less chance for missed mistakes. 

At the end of the day, any technology you’re using in your clinic, AI or otherwise, should make your work easier and reduce the number of tasks on your plate. So, when you’re looking for AI solutions to integrate into your workflow, choose one that not only handles the things taking up too much of your time but is also built with and for rehab therapists to do them right.