Respiratory Monitoring for Skilled Nursing PCM — ALIS + CCN Health

Respiratory Monitoring for Skilled Nursing PCM with ALIS and athenahealth

Skilled Nursing facilities using ALIS as their facility EHR often work with physicians who use athenahealth for their practice management. When implementing PCM with respiratory monitoring, this dual-EHR reality creates data flow challenges that CCN Health solves through bi-directional integration with both systems.

The Dual-EHR Challenge in Skilled Nursing

In skilled nursing settings with respiratory monitoring, it's common for:

• The facility to use ALIS for resident records, charting, and daily care documentation
• The physician to use athenahealth for orders, billing, and clinical decision-making
• Respiratory Monitoring data to be needed in both systems for complete clinical documentation and billing

Without an integration bridge, respiratory monitoring readings exist in isolation — staff must manually transcribe data between systems, leading to documentation gaps and billing delays.

How Respiratory Monitoring Works

Combination of pulse oximetry (SpO2), respiratory rate tracking via sensorless radar, and spirometry data capture enables comprehensive respiratory monitoring. Peak flow meters and connected spirometers transmit readings automatically to the CCN Health platform.

Data Captured

• SpO2 (blood oxygen saturation)
• Respiratory rate
• Peak expiratory flow
• FEV1 trending
• Breathing pattern analysis

How CCN Health Bridges ALIS and athenahealth

CCN Health's platform serves as the central hub for all respiratory monitoring data in dual-EHR environments:

1. Respiratory Monitoring data flows to CCN Health — SpO2 (blood oxygen saturation) and other metrics are captured continuously by the monitoring system
2. ALIS receives resident records — Vital signs, alerts, and care documentation sync to ALIS resident charts automatically
3. athenahealth receives clinical summaries — The ordering physician gets PCM reports with respiratory monitoring data in their athenahealth workflow
4. Billing documentation routes correctly — Claims data with respiratory monitoring support goes to the billing entity via athenahealth

Data Flow: ALIS ↔ CCN Health ↔ athenahealth

Data Type	ALIS	CCN Health	athenahealth
Resident Demographics	Source	Syncs	Receives
SpO2 (blood oxygen saturation)	Receives	Hub	Receives
Respiratory Monitoring Alerts	Receives	Generates	Receives
Care Plans	Shared	Coordinates	Shared
Billing Documentation	Reference	Generates	Primary
PCM Time Tracking	Reference	Tracks	Primary

Benefits for Skilled Nursing Facilities

Combining respiratory monitoring with dual-EHR integration provides unique advantages for skilled nursing facilities:

Readmission Prevention

Continuous monitoring during the critical post-acute window reduces hospital readmissions and improves quality scores.

Quality Measures

Objective vital sign data supports CMS quality reporting and star rating improvement efforts.

Respiratory Monitoring Advantages

• Multi-sensor approach captures complete respiratory picture
• Combines SpO2, respiratory rate, and airflow measurements

Billing Considerations for Dual-EHR Respiratory Monitoring PCM

In dual-EHR environments with respiratory monitoring, billing typically flows through the physician practice (athenahealth):

CPT Code	Reimbursement	Billing Entity	Documentation Source
99424	~$70/mo	Physician (athenahealth)	CCN Health → athenahealth
99425	~$56/mo	Physician (athenahealth)	CCN Health → athenahealth
99426	~$80/mo	Physician (athenahealth)	CCN Health → athenahealth
99427	~$64/mo	Physician (athenahealth)	CCN Health → athenahealth

Respiratory Monitoring data provides the clinical documentation needed to support PCM billing with objective, time-stamped readings that demonstrate monitoring compliance.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does respiratory monitoring data reach both EHR systems?

Data flows from the monitoring device to CCN Health's platform, then syncs bi-directionally with both ALIS (for resident care documentation) and athenahealth (for physician clinical records and billing).

Do both systems get the same respiratory monitoring data?

Both systems receive respiratory monitoring data, but formatted for each system's role. ALIS gets detailed resident charting, while athenahealth receives clinical summaries optimized for physician workflows and billing.

What is the implementation timeline for respiratory monitoring with dual-EHR?

Most skilled nursing facilities are fully operational within 4-6 weeks, including system deployment, dual-EHR integration setup, and nursing staff training. Both EHR connections are configured simultaneously.