Ascend Physical Therapy is a 2-location practice serving an active population in the Boise, Idaho area. As the practice continued to expand, the team needed an EMR that could support both high quality patient care and the operational demands of a modern physical therapy business.
Before switching to Prompt, Ascend struggled with billing inefficiencies, limited reporting visibility, and a patient experience that made scheduling more difficult than it needed to be.
After moving to Prompt, the practice was able to:
Prior to Prompt, Ascend’s biggest challenges centered on billing accuracy, accounts receivable, and reporting. The lack of reliable integrations between systems made it difficult to understand what was happening inside the business at any given moment.
As owner Sam Maleki explains, “Our biggest pain points with our previous EMR typically revolved around the lack of efficient and accurate reporting, as well as good, solid billing integrations.”
Billing issues surfaced quickly. Claims were not always reimbursed correctly, modifiers were frequently missed, and accounts receivable continued to grow without a clear way to identify where revenue was getting stuck.
Reporting compounded the problem, since data often could not be accessed until workflows were fully closed out, limiting the team’s ability to act in real time.
“Before using Prompt, actionable data that we could pull through reporting was messy at best,” Sam said.
The patient experience also suffered. While online scheduling technically existed, it was not intuitive enough for patients to consistently use on their own, which added friction for both patients and front office staff.
Ascend began exploring Prompt with a clear priority in mind: fixing billing and revenue cycle management.
“The biggest [reason we wanted to switch] by far and away stemmed from our issues we had with our revenue cycle management and our billing,” Sam said.
After switching, Sam’s “absolute favorite feature of Prompt is the billing and the EMR being built onto the same platform.”
Having everything in one place gave the team better transparency into financial performance and made it easier to manage billing without relying on disconnected systems.
Beyond billing, Prompt’s automation and AI-driven features helped address operational gaps across the practice. Tools that support schedule filling and patient outreach reduced the risk of patients falling through the cracks and eased the workload on staff.
One of the most immediate changes Ascend saw after switching to Prompt was improved control over accounts receivable. With clearer visibility and more accurate billing workflows, outstanding balances became easier to manage and resolve.
“Prior to using Prompt, we had a massive portion of our accounts receivable over 90 days,” Sam said. “Since moving on to Prompt our accounts receivable, the large majority of it is between 30 and 60 days at this point.”
Prompt also simplified patient collections. By making it easier to send statements digitally through text or email, patients could access and act on their balances faster, reducing manual follow up for staff.
With Prompt fully implemented, Ascend unified billing, scheduling, reporting, and documentation into a single system that staff could actually use day to day.
Billing became more accurate and easier to manage. Automatic modifier application and clearer reporting allowed the team to identify issues quickly and take action without digging through multiple systems.
“Prompt has made it very easy to access those things and act on them efficiently,” Sam said.
Reporting also shifted from delayed and unreliable to immediate and actionable. Instead of waiting for data to close out, the team could see what was happening in real time and adjust accordingly.
Prompt makes it very easy to get good, reliable data at your fingertips quickly so that you can act on things and change how your practice functions very quickly.
Patients benefited as well. Online scheduling became simple and accessible, even for those who were not tech savvy, making it easier to book initial visits and follow ups without staff intervention.
As financial operations stabilized, improvements extended across the entire practice. Clinicians spent less time documenting and more time focused on patient care, which had a direct impact on satisfaction and retention.
People are happy because they're not spending their entire lunch hour doing documentation. They're not taking their notes home.
“People are happy because they’re not spending their entire lunch hour doing documentation,” Sam said. “They’re not taking their notes home.”
Prompt’s documentation experience has also become a meaningful recruiting and retention tool. Setting expectations around reduced documentation burden and efficient workflows has helped attract clinicians who value work life balance.
For the front office, automation reduced the time spent calling patients, filling schedules, and tracking down missed appointments.
“It cuts down on so much time that our employees have to use calling patients up that may have fallen through the cracks,” Sam said.
For clinics considering a switch, Sam encourages leaders to look beyond upfront cost and focus on long term value.
“You might pay a little bit more upfront, but the features you’re going to get out of it, the transparency and the efficiencies related to its billing and everything make it completely worth the extra pennies,” he said.
Today, Prompt supports Ascend Physical Therapy across every part of the business, from front desk workflows to clinical documentation to financial visibility. For a practice focused on growth, having a system that improves quality of life for staff, clinicians, and owners alike has become a competitive advantage.
“When you look at all that Prompt offers collectively, from how much it improves the quality of life for your front end, how much it improves the quality of life for your clinicians, and how much it really improves the business owner’s quality of life, I think it’s what everybody that’s serious about growing should consider implementing in their practice,” Sam said.
If you want to see how Prompt can simplify and unify your practice, schedule time with one of our experts today.
