The Intervention Center for Early Childhood (ICEC) and NPAWorks Story

When you combine first-rate software with dedicated customer support, your testimonials take on a life of their own. Thank you Sharon for your story.

Sharon Scott, CFO for Intervention Center for Early Childhood 
is all smiles as she works with Jimmy Ma, Manager, Client Relations 

By Sharon Scott, Chief Financial Officer

ICEC – the Intervention Center for Early Childhood – was established in 1979 as a parent participation early intervention program. We are located in Irvine, California and serve 250+ children per week from the greater Orange County area. 

Our mission is to assist each developmentally delayed child in achieving their optimum developmental potential. This is accomplished by providing therapy and intervention designed for each child’s abilities, while offering emotional support, education and training to the entire family. 

ICEC is a unique family focused organization. No other agency in Orange County serving the birth to 5 population with special needs children in so many areas of support – parent participation group and individual early intervention therapy in center and in home, a reverse mainstream preschool, individual PT, OT & Speech Therapy, Marriage & Family Counseling, Kids Klub programs for the Siblings, and family respite care all in one location. We provide such a variety and multitude of services for the families we knew it would take an extremely well written, flexible and comprehensive Cloud Based SAAS solution to handle our needs.

In the fall of 2013 we began a project called ‘Face Time’ to identify, acquire, implement and sustain a cloud based integrated EHR, Payroll and Billing Technology system which would streamline administration time, and increase and maximize ‘face to face’ therapy time with our clients. After several months of evaluating potential providers, including participation in a collaborative of several non-profits who were all struggling with the same issue; we selected NPAWorks as our provider and partner in this project.

CodeMetro's NPAWorks allows us to add unlimited insurance providers to our network. We have the ability to quadruple the amount of Regional Center clients who will now be able to utilize their insurance for PT, OT and Speech Therapy. Gaps are created when families are forced to change insurance providers, or are discharged/denied services from the state. Gaps are created at intake, the struggle to get approval for services. Gaps are created when funding sources change between the state and the insurance providers, which happens regularity and continually now that the state has adopted the payer of last resort strategy. The CodeMetro integrated technology system improves continuity of care and speeds up the approval process.

The CodeMetro system helps us to provide all their services in one setting from one team; and when funding providers change we can minimize the ‘gap’ in services. Less stressful for the parents, less drive time to and from therapy, a team of pediatric professionals working in tandem for their child rather than PT, OT, Speech in multiple clinics and minimal downtime without access to therapy. It has also streamlined the administrative responsibilities of our therapy teams, minimizing the amount of administration and paperwork of our support staff and program directors so they can spend more time working with and advocating for the children.     

The NPAWorks solution is the only provider that offers us scheduling, charting, payroll and billing solutions for our multiple funding sources, Insurance, School District and Regional Center children and we have seen costs savings in both time and money now that it has been implemented. NPAWorks is by far the most cost effective system we evaluated, and they provided a completely comprehensive training program tailored to our needs, our timing and our not so technically ‘savvy’ 45 member staff.

We estimate that one half hour is saved per day per staff member, in charting and write ups, evaluations, payroll processing, billing insurance and local regional centers. This could add up to more than 5,000 additional hours per year that can be redirected towards providing program services for the children. We have experienced a reduction work hours for the administrative staff and better end product, more accurate payroll and invoicing.

The staff at NPAWorks has been exceptional to work with, very responsive to our needs. We expected this during our setup and training period, but what has been the most pleasant surprise is how great the customer service has been post implementation. For example, when we have asked on a few occasions if they could tailor a report for us or add a field/item for our individual/specific needs, the response has been ‘what a great idea’, lets add that feature for ‘everyone"! A week or two later, it’s done! They continue to update their products, with no additional fees, which is definitely not the case with most providers. 

The first thing we all do every day after booting up our computers is log into NPAWorks. It has become an essential part of our day. We couldn’t do what we do without you – thank you NPAWorks.