Kinnser

Kinnser® Software, Inc. was established in 2003 to serve small to medium-sized Home Health Agencies with software that simplifies agency management and reduces paperwork. The company has since grown to serve over 1,000 agencies in the Home Health, Hospice, and Home Care fields. Kinnser provides a variety of products for these markets.

These products are delivered using the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, instead of as programs installed on your agency’s computers. This approach reduces the technology burden on the organizations that use Kinnser products since the web-based services run on virtually any computer hardware your staff uses.

Because the software is delivered across the Internet as needed, your clinicians and back office staff always work with the latest versions of products. This ensures that product updates get into the field immediately freeing you from the headache of managing that process. At the same time, your organization is freed from the overhead of staffing an IT department, maintaining servers, and other such expenses.

While most Kinnser software is delivered by the SaaS model, some Kinnser products, such as Kinnser Link and Kinnser ADL, are also available as free apps for iOS and Android mobile devices. Users of these apps will need to update them periodically, so this is one area where additional management oversight may be required.

Kinnser Software, Inc. offers a range of products that address aspects of the Home Health, Hospice, and Home Care categories. As of this review, the following Kinnser products are available in the Home Health category:

• Kinnser Agency Manager – Manage and grow your Home Health Agency
• Kinnser Physician Access – Gives physicians access to patient information
• Kinnser Link – Allows clinicians to complete documentation in the field
• Kinnser Therapy Manager – Runs your therapy company
• Kinnser Direct Secure Messaging – Two-way communication with referral sources; also works with Kinnser Hospice

In the Hospice category, Kinnser offers:

• Kinnser Hospice – Manage and grow your hospice
• Kinnser Direct Secure Messaging – Two-way communication with referral sources; also works with Kinnser Agency Manager

In the Home Care category, Kinnser offers:

• Kinnser ADL – Manage and grow your Private Duty Agency

Kinnser Agency Manager

Kinnser Software Inc. claims that their KinnserAgency Manager is the most widely-used software for home health agencies. Helping to back that claim, in 2015 Kinnser reported well over 40,000 users, and also that Kinnser Agency Manager processed over 18 million billable home visits in 2014.

Kinnser Agency Manager is meant to be a complete home health software solution addressing Point of care needs, billing, and administration. Small and medium-sized home health care agencies can use it as an all-in-one solution for collaboration, improved productivity, and better decision making.

As Kinnser Agency Manager user and Director of Nursing Mary Wunderlich, RN put it in a video on the Kinnser website this program, “Allows you to run an agency with fewer staff and be fully confident that you are not missing anything…”

One popular feature of Kinnser Agency Manager is its ability to automatically check Medicare eligibility. The software does this immediately at patient intake to head off problems at the start. It also does weekly checks thereafter. This helps prevent the problem of an agency providing services only to discover later that the patient’s Medicare eligibility has changed and those services are no longer covered.

To enhance communications, the program includes its own variant on email, called K-mail. K-mail is a system for sending and receiving HIPAA-compliant messages. The system connects internal home health agency staff for better collaboration. It also connects external parties, including payers, labs, therapy companies, and physicians.

A unique feature of the K-mail system is that messages can be attached directly to a patient’s online chart. This facilitates communication between the various clinicians and doctors providing care for a patient. With all the relevant messages available in this way, everyone can stay in the loop, and the chance of an important message being missed is greatly reduced.

Kinnser Agency Manager is designed to cover every aspect of running a home health care agency. But that doesn’t mean that the software is difficult to use. According to company President and Founder Chris Hester, they focused on usability from the beginning. The Kinnser website states that agencies using the company’s software report that it usually takes just a few hours to train the staff to use the system.

According to Director of Nursing Mary Wunderlich, RN, the ease of use of the software right out in the field gave major benefits. She says it allowed her organization to move from weekly billing to in many cases same-day billing for services provided.

To get your staff up to speed quickly, the company provides onsite training for Kinnser Agency Manager, as well as regional training sessions and web-based training systems.

In addition, users of KinnserAgency Manager are entitled to unlimited Customer Support by telephone, Monday through Friday, 7AM to 7PM Central Time, as well as email support.

Kinnser Physician Access

Kinnser Physician Access is a HIPAA-compliant, secure online service that allows physicians to interact with Kinnser Agency Manager. It is included as part of your Kinnser Agency Manager subscription.

With Kinnser Physician Access, physicians need only a web browser with Internet access to have 24/7 access to patient-specific information in Kinnser Agency Manager. Using this service, physicians have visibility into home health care incidents affecting their patients. This allows them to easily oversee the care being provided.

At the same time, Kinnser Physician Access allows physicians to use e-signatures instead of paper to issue physician orders and generate online referrals (e-referrals). The service can also generate Certification and Care Plan Oversight (CPO) claims with automatic HCFA 1500 generation. These capabilities eliminates paperwork and increases revenue for your agency and the physicians you work with.

Kinnser Link

Kinnser Link is a mobile app that runs in iOS and Android devices. It allows users of Kinnser Agency Manager to complete their clinical documentation while still in the field or otherwise away from the office. Even better, they can do so when they are in areas without Internet access or even a cellular signal.

The app gives users access to a patient’s:

• Clinical notes at the point of care
• Daily schedules
• Patient information

When Kinnser Link cannot establish a connection to the World Wide Web (the web), it stores all changes and updates. It does so in an encrypted form to ensure security and comply with HIPAA requirements. Once a connection to the web is available, the user can push the saved information directly to Kinnser Agency Manager in seconds.

Using Kinnser Link can provide your agency with several advantages. These include:

• Accurate note taking at the point of care
• Elimination of redundant data entry
• Secure document transfer to Kinnser Agency Manager that eliminates the problem of lost documents
• Encryption to ensure security and HIPAA compliance

The Kinnser Link app is available through iTunes (for iOS) and the Google Play store (for Android). At the time of this writing there were not enough user reviews on either service to give a reliable rating of how well the app functions in the field.

Kinnser Therapy Manager

Just as Kinnser Agency Manager is software for running a home health care agency, Kinnser Therapy Manager is software for running a therapy company. This web-based service helps your therapy company to provide quality care while reducing your workload and improving your bottom line.

It allows you to receive patient referrals electronically, in real-time. You can use it to schedule, track and monitor therapy visits and notes. And because all data is entered into the system, the problem of illegible therapy notes is eliminated.

Kinnser Therapy Manager also facilitates communication. Using its secure, HIPAA-compliant mail system, you can communicate easily with your therapists, office staff, and home health agencies. In particular, it integrates and communicate smoothly with Kinnser Agency Manager, making it easy for agencies using that popular product to refer patients to you.

Because Kinnser Therapy Manager is an online service, you don’t have any software to install or maintain, and you will always be using the current version of the product. Other benefits to using Kinnser Therapy Manager include:

• One price for your entire agency. No need to track the number of users
• Unlimited e-mail and telephone technical support is included
• The one-time setup fee includes onsite training for your staff
• Full HIPAA-compliance
• Meets or exceeds CHAP, JCAHO, and state survey requirements

Kinnser Hospice

Hospices have unique regulatory, reporting, and collaboration requirements. Kinnser Hospice® was designed with the aid of successful hospices and knowledgeable consultants. The goal was to create a product that improves patient management and care while improving hospice efficiency and profitability.

Kinnser Hospice was designed around the actual processes that hospices use. Because it is designed around those processes, it is easy for your staff to understand and use. This also makes the product easy to learn. According to Kinnser, it usually just takes a few hours to train staff to use the product.

To get your clinicians and staff up to speed on Kinnser Hospice, the company comes to you. They provide in person training onsite at your facility.

Kinnser Hospice is designed to greatly increase the efficiency of IDG/IDT processes. Kinnser claims processes that previously took hours or days can now be completed in minutes. Because all the relevant information is available within the software it streamlines communication and collaboration.

Like other Kinnser products, Kinnser Hospice uses K-mail. This is the company’s HIPAA-compliant internal messaging system. It works like email, but automatically attaches patient-related messages to the patient’s chart, instantly documenting your coordination of care.

This software will help you with:

• IDG/IDT scheduling & tracking
• IDG meeting management
• Bereavement processes
• Clinical documentation
• QA
• Billing

While it provide powerful benefits, Kinnser Hospice doesn’t force you to have your own IT support staff. Because it is web-based software you don’t have to worry about installing servers or managing software updates. Your people will always be using the latest version of the software.

Further simplifying your job, Kinnser Hospice works on all Internet-enabled devices. That means your team can continue to use their laptops, iPads, or Android tablets to do their job 24/7. Kinnser provides unlimited telephone and email technical support (12 hours a day, Monday through Friday), at no additional charge.

You license Kinnser Hospice on a per hospice basis. That means you are freed from the headaches of managing user licenses and changing payments every time your staffing level changes.

Kinnser ADL (Private Duty Software)

When a patient needs Activities of Daily Living (ADL) type care, Private Duty Agencies often fill that need. Kinnser ADL is designed to make managing and growing a Private Duty Agency easier. It is Internet-based software that runs in web browsers and is available as an app for iOS and Android devices.

With Kinnser ADL you can create and track reports, schedules, and contracts to stay on top of your business 24/7. In addition, the software provides real-time alerts to resolve any issues quickly and efficiently.

Kinnser ADL integrate with a wide variety of third-party software that people use in Private Duty Agencies. These systems include:

• HR
• CRM
• Telephony
• Billing
• Payroll

If you use QuickBooks or similar accounting software, you can easily monitor mileage, 1099 form vendor payments, and other expenses. And to simplify your billing operations, Kinnser ADL has built-in CMS-1500 and UB-4 forms.

Kinnser ADL provides powerful tools for managing and interacting with caregivers. You can verify that caregivers are actually making their visits using the software’s GPS timecards while confirming the activities performed. Automatic shift reminders help your caregivers be in the right place at the right time, and missed visit alerts quickly notify you if they aren’t.

Nightly text and email reminders let you can send shift details, linkable maps, schedules, caregiver plans, and shift notes to the appropriate team members. If it becomes necessary, you can also send mass text messages to all your caregivers through the software.

A further caregiver-related benefit of Kinnser ADL is an exclusive partnership with myCNAjobs.com. This connection makes it easier to recruit caregivers for your agency.

The Kinnser ADL Family Portal delivers additional value to loved ones while saving your money. It allows family members to view:

• Current shift logs
• Caregiver clock-ins
• Activities performed

It also allows them to download reports they can use for long-term care reimbursement.

At the same time that Family Portal is delivering value to a patient’s loved ones, it is saving you money. Because loved ones can see this information through the portal, they will have less reason to call in to your agency for information.

Billing for ADL services can be a headache in today’s complicated environment. Kinnser ADL can help you deal with this complexity. The software can bill and track diverse payers, including:

• VA
• Long-term care
• Managed Care
• Medicare waiver
• Private pay

Beyond these, the software can handle complex scenarios such as split billing and multiple parties. In short, Kinnser ADL will simplify your Private Duty Agencies inventory management, deposits, credits, reversals, and adjustments.

To provide you with access to all these capabilities, Kinnser ADL includes a variety of dashboards and reports. They allow you to easily see your agency’s performance so you can spot inefficiencies, and spot staffing issues. Insights like these will help you manage and grow your agency. These dashboards and reports also make Kinnser ADL audit-friendly.

Kinnser Direct Secure Messaging

Kinnser Direct Secure Messaging is an encrypted system for secure, two-way communication with your agency’s referral sources. It uses Direct Secure Messaging (DSM), a national encryption standard for exchanging clinical healthcare data across the Internet. DSM is specified as the primary mechanism for sharing clinical information under Electronic Health Records standards set by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Common uses of DSM include:

• Transitions of care
• Physician consult requests
• Lab results
• Admission, discharge, or transition requests
• Clinical orders and reports

Kinnser Direct Secure Messaging integrates DSM directly into Kinnser’s home health (Kinnser Agency Manager) and hospice (Kinnser Hospice) software, with unlimited data volumes for sending and receiving information. This direct connection will result in faster, more efficient communication with referral sources and other industry DSM users.

Support

When products are as deeply integrated into your business as Kinnser’s are, you want assurance they are fully supported. Kinnser Customer Support exists to provide that assurance. Kinnser support reps are available Monday through Friday, from 7 AM to 7 PM Central Time. They can be reached by phone, email, or fax.

Phone calls to Customer Support are answered by a receptionist who routes the call to the correct Customer Support Team. These teams are organized by regions. By focusing on specific regions, the teams gain detailed knowledge of your region’s regulatory situation and the agencies that work there.

Emails or faxes to Support are handled slightly differently. They result in an immediate email to you containing a case number for your reference. Your case is then routed to the appropriate team. During normal business hours you should receive a further response within a few hours.

The Support team at Kinnser does more than just respond to your requests. They document customer support issues and pass this information along to Product Development. This allows the development team to incorporate changes to Kinnser software that simplify the real-world use of the products.

Unlimited Customer Service is included in your monthly Kinnser subscription fee. This support extends to all members of your organization, not just specific contact personnel.

Training

In the health care industry, with its high staff turnover rates, efficient training for your staff is crucial. Kinnser Software, Inc. provides a variety of training options to ensure that your team is trained quickly and efficiently. These include:

• In-person, on-site training
• In-person, regional training events
• Web-based training

In-Person, On-Site Training

This service is for organizations starting up with Kinnser Agency Manager or Kinnser Therapy Manager. Kinnser-certified instructors will work with your clinical and administrative staff for approximately eight hours over a span of two days. Note that your Kinnser-certified instructors understand your business since they have healthcare or home health backgrounds themselves in addition to being thoroughly trained in Kinnser products.

During this time, they will provide your people with an introduction to the product, walking them through the basics of using the software. They will also cover workflow best practices, from scheduling and intake through to report creation and the use of the product’s administrative tools.

The goal of this training is to ensure that your agency gets up and running quickly and smoothly. To aid in this, your team will learn how to incrementally transition to Kinnser Agency Manager or Kinnser Therapy Manager. By adding new patients to Kinnser at intake, while keeping current patients on the old system, your agency can transition gradually, without downtime or other transition issues.

During on-site training, your administrative / back office staff will learn processes such as:

• Creating patient schedules
• Creating and working with a patient’s Electronic Medical Record
• Reviewing the QA / Case Management process
• Coordinating care using K-mail, Kinnser’s HIPAA-compliant messaging system
• Working with your product’s reports and administrative Dashboard

Training topics for your clinical staff will include:

• Creating and working with patient orders and communication notes
• Viewing clinician schedules
• Accessing patient clinical records
• Working with all clinical documents including the OASIS, 485-POC, Nursing, Therapy, & CNA visit notes
• Completing a visit note, including reconciling a medication profile, and applying an electronic signature

In-Person, Regional Training Events

Your organization’s training needs don’t end once Kinnser software is installed and your original team is trained. Whether due to updates to your Kinnser products, or staffing changes, the need for some sort of training is ongoing. Kinnser runs in-person, regional training events at no additional charge.

Examples of regional training include:

• Building Success with Back Office Processes in Home Health – Students learn how to streamline admissions and referrals, along with guidelines for managing and assessing back office operations.
• Kinnser Agency Manager 101 – An overview of the product, including a walkthrough of a clinician’s day using Kinnser Agency Manager. Students learn how to navigate the software, use K-mail and other communication tools, and manage their tasks.
• Kinnser Hospice 101 – An overview of Kinnser Hospice, including a walkthrough of a clinician’s day using the software. Students learn the basics of the software, including how to use K-mail and patient communications, as well as to manage their tasks efficiently.

Web-Based Training

Kinnser also offers web-based training options for getting new staff up to speed or improving the skills of current Kinnser product users at no additional charge. These training options include weekly live webinars, on-demand video tutorials and training guides, and the Kinnser online user group and discussion board.

Weekly live webinars are conducted by Kinnser-certified trainers. These interactive events address the educational needs of billing, clinical, and administrative staff. Attendees can interact with the instructors to clarify points and get their specific questions answered.

Examples of the live webinars include:

• Agency Manager – Improving Frequency Compliance w/ Kinnser’s Orders Supported Scheduling (OSS)
• Therapy Manager: Basics and Clinical Notes
• Kinnser Hospice: Intake and Scheduling

On-demand video tutorials and step-by-step training guides are accessible through the help system of your Kinnser products. These allow members of your staff to get up to speed on specific reports and processes at any time. Your people can stay productive by training themselves on specific issues as they go.

The Kinnser online user group and discussion board are said to connect more than 60,000 users at more than 1,000 agencies and therapy companies.

Pricing

Because they offer so many different products, there isn’t one set price for Kinnser software. Even so, we can say a few things about pricing.

Pricing is “per agency,” not “per user.” You don’t have to worry about tracking, managing, and paying for individual user licenses.

Kinnser Agency Manager and Kinnser Therapy Manager include on-site training for new agencies as part of your monthly fee.

Unlimited Customer Support is included in the monthly fee for your Kinnser services.

The Android and iOS apps for Kinnser ADL and Kinnser Link are available for free through iTunes and the Google Play stores.

Beyond that, the price you pay for Kinnser software depends on several characteristics of your business. These include your agency’s:

• Patient census
• Specific needs
• Survey status
• Length of time in business

To get an exact price for your agency, you will need to schedule a free consultation. A Kinnser rep will ask you questions, give you a free demonstration of the Kinnser product you are interested in, and quote you a price.

Conclusion

Kinnser Software, Inc. is one of the largest sources of Home Health, Hospice, and Home Care software products in the country. Their products are built around the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, which frees your organization to concentrate on delivering quality care and turning a profit. Kinnser software is designed to be easy to learn and easy to use, with a pricing model that eliminates hassles like customer support limitations and per-user licensing.

Since the needs of every agency are unique, the best way to find out if Kinnser products are appropriate for your agency is to schedule a free demo/consultation.

Read more about Kinnser Software, Inc. on DiscoverCloud or our knowledge base.