For over 40 years, Ability360 has been a trusted provider of home and community-based services (HCBS), ensuring that individuals with disabilities in Arizona receive the support they need. As a leader in the industry, they’ve always sought innovative solutions to enhance their operations, and in 2023, they partnered with HHAeXchange to streamline their processes. When we spoke with Ability360 last year they shared that they saved half a million dollars with HHAeXchange. We sat down with them for a second time to discuss what’s changed since that conversation. Chelsea Garcia, Director of Business Operations for Home Care Services at Ability360, shared how the platform has helped ease the administrative burden on their employees, improved operational efficiency, and ensured compliance.
Before implementing HHAeXchange, managing clinical documentation and caregiver compliance was a time-consuming challenge. Keeping track of required forms was a tedious process, often requiring employees to hunt down paper documents or locate files across multiple systems. “There was a huge administrative burden when we were using PDF fillable forms and paper to complete our Consumer evaluations and documentation,” Garcia said. “Storing and tracking the forms and documents required so much space and time. I remember several times when we would have to reach out to field staff and ask them to go through the files on their tablets to track down missing documents.”
Chelsea Garcia, Director of Business Operations for Home Care Services
However, with Clinical Documentation, HHAeXchange’s centralized document management tools, Ability360 has been able to simplify these processes—saving time for employees and ensuring compliance for the agency.
According to Garcia, “Having the ability to instantly upload completed documents into HHAeXchange has saved us an incredible amount of time. It’s also helped a lot with the audits in the last couple years—having instant availability to go in and pull those forms.”
Additionally, the platform’s Form Builder has eliminated document misplacement issues and compliance hurdles. “Nobody can misplace them, and we can restrict who can delete them. It’s made a huge difference in ensuring we’re tracking everything correctly,” Garcia said.
One of the most significant benefits of HHAeXchange has been the ability to lighten the workload for employees, allowing them to focus more on delivering quality care rather than getting bogged down by administrative tasks.
Before tracking caregiver compliance with HHAeXchange, Ability360 had to pull multiple reports from different systems to get data. “It was a lot harder,” Garcia said. “We actually used to have our five branch managers in our field offices doing their own tracking because it took so much time, we couldn’t have just one person do it.”
“With HHAeXchange, we’ve been able to lift that burden off them. Now, we have one staff member, our compliance manager, who can do it all in much less time,” Garcia said.
With all compliance data on one screen, they’re able to quickly pull pre-built reports or customize reports based on their specific compliance needs. “It puts all information in one place for us and makes tracking it much quicker,” said Garcia.
Garcia explained how the improved workflow and reduced manual burden have led to a better work experience for employees. “They can be more careful, detail-oriented, and less overwhelmed” she said. “They can do their jobs better because they’re not trying to get so much done.”
When asked about her overall experience, Garcia shared how much easier life is with HHAeXchange. “With our previous EVV software, there were constant issues getting our data sent to the aggregator. Of course, that created billing denials and other billing issues for us. It was very overwhelming, very stressful, and we often felt like we were alone in it and guiding them through how to fix the problems instead of the other way around.”
Once Ability360 transitioned to HHAeXchange, they knew they were in good hands. “HHAeXchange has made a great deal of difference in our agency. The team members are subject matter experts and even though they were newer to the Arizona market, they knew how to figure it out and set our minds at ease. Since using this software, it’s become quite obvious to me that HHAeXchange really understands what it takes for us as a homecare agency to meet the homecare management requirements of our industry while still providing the best possible care to our consumers and service to our caregivers. I just wish we would have started using HHAeXchange sooner!”