Set up a facility

warning

RehabAlpha is still under active development. It is not yet HIPAA compliant and should only be used with dummy data.

A facility is a place where your organization delivers therapy services. Use it for the building, campus, or operating site you want to manage in RehabAlpha.

Before you start

You need:

• An organization.
• Owner or Admin access, or Custom access with Create permission for Facilities and All facilities scope.
• Facility creation enabled for your organization. Test organizations have it by default. For a real organization, contact RehabAlpha support to have a Platform admin enable it. Until then, New facility does not appear and the Facilities page explains that facility creation isn't enabled.

Understand facilities and service locations

A facility represents the building, campus, or operating site you manage. Each facility has its own patients, admissions, schedules, contracts, and invoices.

A service location is a specific care setting within that facility. Each service location can have its own name, place of service, address, county, time zone, tags, and notes. One facility can contain several service locations with different places of service.

For example, Maple Grove Therapy Clinic may need only one service location. Riverbend Therapy Center may use separate service locations for its main gym, treatment room, and community building. Your organization can manage both as separate facilities.

A PBJ reporting facility is the nursing home whose staffing hours are reported to CMS. RehabAlpha groups resident-care service locations with the same state and PBJ facility ID into one reporting facility. If your team prepares nursing-home staffing exports, configure PBJ reporting for the relevant service locations.

Senior living campus example

Cedar Ridge Senior Living Campus may have separate service locations for assisted living, skilled nursing, and outpatient therapy, all within one facility.

Choose a facility setup workflow

There are two ways to set up a new facility in RehabAlpha:

• Manual setup: Add the facility directly in RehabAlpha. Use this workflow when you are entering one facility or want full control over its service location details as you create the record.
• Import: Upload one or more files with facility information using the import tool.

The steps below explain the manual setup workflow.

Create a facility manually

1. Open Facilities.
2. Click New facility.
3. Enter the facility Name, such as Rosewood Nursing.
4. Select the Default place of service.
5. Select the facility State.
6. Select the County when available.
7. Enter the City, Street Address, Zip code, and ZIP+4 when available.
8. Review the Time zone. RehabAlpha suggests a time zone from the selected state and county when possible.
9. Add tags or notes when helpful.
10. Click Save.

This workflow creates two records in your therapy organization:

1. A facility, such as Rosewood Nursing.
2. A service location named Default service location that belongs to the facility.

Your Default place of service selection sets the place of service for the automatically created service location.

To rename the generated service location, open the facility, click Locations, open Default service location, and edit its name.

If the facility only has one care setting, the generated service location may be enough. If services happen in more than one setting, add each remaining setting from the facility's Locations tab.

Set up a PointClickCare integration

PointClickCare features must be enabled for your organization. When they aren't, Integration settings, PointClickCare billing exports, integration details, and the PointClickCare report don't appear. Contact RehabAlpha support to have a Platform admin enable them.

Editing integration settings requires permission to edit facility settings. Owners, Admins, and managers of the selected facility can refresh and cancel in Details → Integration, including managers without permission to edit facility settings or physicians. Settings → Integration settings is for configuring the provider and PCC identifiers.

You can select MatrixCare and save that choice, but integration with MatrixCare is not supported yet. Selecting it stops any active PCC refresh and keeps saved PCC identifiers. Select PointClickCare and save again to use PCC refreshes. Resident IDs and billing exports are managed independently of the integration provider.

1. Open the facility's Settings → Integration settings.
2. Under Provider, select PointClickCare.
3. To enable sandbox refreshes, enter both PCC organization ID and PCC facility ID. Choose how to Combine returning inpatient stays, then select Save. You can save both IDs blank to finish API setup later. Resident IDs and billing exports do not require this setup.
4. If both PCC IDs are configured, open Details → Integration and select Refresh as an Owner, Admin, or manager of this facility.
5. Follow the live status while the refresh runs. After patient roster preparation, the progress bar shows patients processed against the fixed patient total. PointClickCare physician records and PointClickCare payor records show processed and distinct discovered counts that grow as patients are handled. PointClickCare patient coverages also shows created, updated, unchanged, skipped, and failed outcomes. Select View issues to review collection or assignment problems and patients, physicians, payors, and coverages that need attention, then More issues to continue through the list.

After setup, the facility's Details → Integration shows the provider, PCC organization and facility IDs, environment, enabled status, Last attempt, and Last successful refresh. This section remains visible when the integration is disabled, but is absent before setup and while editing the facility. Anyone who can view the facility can read the summary; starting a refresh still requires Owner, Admin, or manager access for that facility.

Select Refresh in Details → Integration to run a facility-wide refresh. Progress, issues, and cancellation controls appear in the same section. If Refresh is unavailable, the section explains why, such as disabled integration, missing PCC IDs, insufficient permission, or another refresh using the facility. A successful refresh updates Last successful refresh even when no information changes; an unsuccessful attempt preserves the previous success time.

The practitioner appearances considered count includes repeated records attached to different patients and records that later need attention or are excluded. The payor appearances considered count includes repeated appearances and records needing attention, but excludes unsupported payor types. These are source-record counts, so they can exceed the number of RehabAlpha physicians or payors. Coverage outcomes count patient coverages separately; coverage issues do not increase the patient failure count when the patient's information imports successfully.

Refresh includes PCC patients with New, Current, and Discharged statuses. It imports unmatched patients and updates supplied names, suffixes, birth dates, gender, and Medicare Beneficiary IDs. Existing email addresses, phone numbers, and mailing addresses remain unchanged. Newly imported patients start with empty contact fields that you can fill manually. Refresh also imports inpatient and outpatient admission history and supported patient coverages. Conflicts with existing admissions or clinical and billing requirements leave that patient's information unchanged and appear in View issues. Refresh does not create therapy cases or billing episodes or select an admission's primary payor. Processing continues after you close the page; reopening it shows saved progress.

The refresh first collects the PCC patient roster and removes repeated PCC patient IDs. It starts at a randomly selected patient and wraps around the list; this order stays fixed for that refresh. For each patient, it imports eligible attached practitioners, reads the patient's coverages to import supported payors, and then imports the patient, admission history, and supported coverages. Each physician or payor identity is processed once per refresh. Results are saved as patients are processed.

Refresh imports eligible PCC practitioners with a nonblank valid NPI into RehabAlpha's existing physician records. This can include physicians, nurse practitioners, APRNs, physician assistants, dentists, and practitioners whose PCC type is missing or unrecognized. Nurse and therapist types are excluded, including recognized abbreviations such as RN, LPN, PT, OT, and SLP. Nurse practitioners and APRNs remain eligible. A practitioner whose NPI already belongs to a RehabAlpha therapist is skipped and listed in View issues; existing therapists are never matched as physicians or overwritten. Therapist information remains managed in RehabAlpha.

Refresh updates supplied first, middle, and last names and NPIs from the physician's active PointClickCare source. Contact details and other physician settings remain locally managed. You can edit synchronized fields when you have the usual editing permission, but a later refresh of the active source can reapply its values. Existing source links and exact NPIs identify matching physicians; names are never used to match them. PCC practitioners without an NPI or with a blank NPI are excluded, even when they already have a source link. A malformed supplied NPI appears in View issues.

Multiple PCC physician records, including records from different facilities, can identify one physician in your organization. Only its active source supplies synchronized values. The first successfully linked source becomes active, and an existing active source stays active. Later sources can identify the physician for admission assignment, but do not replace its profile, even when they contain newer information. If the active source is absent, the profile stays unchanged. There is no source-selection control or automatic replacement of the active source.

Within one refresh, each PCC identity is processed only once: later appearances do not repeat the physician import, even if they contain newer information or the first attempt reported a data issue. Their patient associations are still retained. A new refresh can process that identity again. Ambiguous matches appear in View issues instead of merging physicians.

Payor and patient coverage imports support Medicare Part A, Medicare Part B, Medicaid, and Private Pay. Patient coverage imports exclude Medicare Part D and entries ranked Informational. Managed care, outpatient, other, and unrecognized types are skipped with a coverage issue for review; RehabAlpha does not infer a type from the payor's name. See Import payors from PointClickCare for the payment-model mappings and editing limits.

Coverage imports use the patient's current PCC coverage tree, including its effective dates and read-only PCC rank. Later refreshes update those source fields and the payor and time zone, while preserving authorizations, financial details, tags, and notes. Earlier imported coverages remain when the source tree changes; missing active coverages and overlaps need review instead of being closed or deleted automatically. See Review coverages imported from PointClickCare.

Payors match only through their saved PointClickCare identifiers. An unknown identifier creates a separate payor, even if another payor has the same name or type. Refresh does not merge payors by name or attach an unknown identifier to an existing payor. When several identifiers are already mapped to one payor, only its active source can refresh its name. Its type is locked, and rules, AI compliance guidance, tags, notes, and payment settings remain locally managed.

Payor and coverage collection identifies a patient's coverage lookup or response problem, counted separately from import outcomes. An invalid coverage response skips collection for that patient without saving a partial payor list; the patient's own import and later patients can continue. A payor with invalid details or an active-source type conflict appears as PointClickCare payor in View issues. Coverage issues identify invalid or unsupported coverage details, unresolved payors, or conflicts with saved coverages. Valid coverages and patient details can still import. Shared access, service, or request-limit problems still use the refresh's failure or retry handling.

When a resident goes to the hospital and returns, PCC staff sometimes record a discharge and a new admission instead of a leave of absence. Combine returning inpatient stays decides when the returning stay joins the earlier RehabAlpha admission:

• Don't combine: each PCC stay becomes its own admission.
• Same day: the stays combine when the resident returns on the calendar day they left.
• Within 3 days: the stays combine when the resident returns by the end of the third calendar day, counting the day they left. This is the default.

The Within 3 days option uses the same calendar definition as the Medicare Part A interrupted-stay window, but it is a RehabAlpha workflow setting. It does not decide coverage or whether a therapy case continues. Outpatient stays never combine automatically, and a change to this setting applies only to stays that haven't been imported yet. To combine or separate admissions yourself, see Combined PointClickCare stays and time away.

Refresh also fills an empty physician list on a new or existing admission linked to PCC when its admission time has arrived and it has no discharge. It includes all eligible assigned practitioners, with each RehabAlpha physician listed once. If PCC identifies exactly one primary physician among them, that physician is first. Otherwise, the physician with the lowest numeric PCC practitioner ID is first and becomes the admission's primary physician. Remaining physicians follow PCC practitioner ID order. When several PCC records identify the same physician, the lowest ID determines the order and any primary designation is retained. Assignment notes start empty.

Populated physician lists, historical admissions, future admissions, and manually created admissions remain unchanged. Clearing a current PCC-linked admission's physician list allows the next refresh to fill it again. Active cases whose physician lists exactly match the admission's previous list receive the same update. A case is active when its start date is today or earlier and its end date is blank, today, or later in the case's time zone. Future and ended cases and independently edited case lists stay unchanged. Fully signed evaluations and re-evaluations keep their signer details, even when the case's physician list changes. Other signer updates preserve physicians who have already signed, signature history, and document versions. These limits apply to refreshes; manual admission editing keeps its existing behavior.

If the patient's practitioner list could not be fully collected or an eligible physician could not be resolved, the admission's physician list stays empty. Physician assignment appears in View issues, and the summary counts each affected patient once, separately from patient import failures. Patient details and admission history can still import. A problem with the assignment's case or signer information, a deletion in progress, or duplicate evaluations also skips the assignment and its related updates while allowing patient details and admission history to import. Correct the reported problem and select Refresh to try again. A complete practitioner list with no eligible physicians leaves the admission list empty without an assignment issue. Admission history conflicts, lost access, and service failures retain their usual failure behavior.

Conflicting PCC identifiers found anywhere in the collected roster are listed as issues for the affected patients. Changing a patient’s external identifier or deleting a linked patient cancels an active refresh so remaining imports cannot recreate or rematch that patient unexpectedly. A fresh refresh collects a new roster; PCC changes during collection can still affect which patients are included.

A patient, physician, or payor record that cannot be imported is listed as an issue, and processing continues when possible. Invalid physician details or ambiguous matches do not stop the other imports. If PCC rejects a patient's practitioner lookup as invalid or unavailable, Physician discovery appears in the issues list. Earlier results for that patient remain saved, and the refresh continues with the patient's own import. Discovery issues are counted separately from physician import outcomes. An unreadable practitioner response, inconsistent pagination, or invalid practitioner ID stops the refresh; changes already saved remain.

Repeated patient import failures, repeated unexpected physician or payor processing failures, or a problem with a shared service can cancel the refresh automatically. If the refresh fails or is cancelled, changes already saved remain. Review View issues and the refresh status before selecting Refresh to try again.

To see newly imported patients, open or reload the facility's Patients page. Turn off Active only to include patients without an active admission. The patient list does not update automatically while you keep it open.

You can begin working with patients, physicians, and payors as they are saved. Completion time depends on the roster size, PCC availability, and background processing. Each patient's practitioner and coverage lookups and imports use part of the fixed processing time limit before that patient is imported. A large roster can still reach the limit, but work already saved remains. The section distinguishes active processing, queued work, retry waits, and failures. If PCC briefly limits requests, the refresh waits and retries automatically; the section shows the next attempt. If the wait is too long or the refresh reaches its time limit, select Refresh to start again.

Only one refresh can run for a facility at a time, including refreshes started from a patient, physician, or payor. While one of those refreshes is running, the facility's Details → Integration identifies the active patient, physician, or payor when your access permits. The facility's refresh history continues to describe facility-wide runs; an individual refresh does not replace it.

If active processing stops reporting progress for about 90 seconds, the refresh is marked as stalled. Select Refresh to start again. RehabAlpha checks the saved status before replacing the stalled refresh, and changes already saved remain. Queued work also fails as stalled if it does not start within one minute. For retries, including PCC request limits, that minute begins at the later of the last progress update and the scheduled retry time. The section checks overdue jobs automatically. If it cannot reach the server, it shows that status is unavailable and keeps trying to confirm the failure. Selecting Refresh in the facility's Details → Integration after an individual refresh stalls starts a facility-wide refresh.

Refresh status is unavailable means the page cannot confirm the latest status, including when it is showing cached progress. It does not mean the refresh has failed. Reload the page to reconnect. A healthy refresh continues without starting a second job.

Select Cancel facility refresh, Cancel patient refresh, Cancel physician refresh, or Cancel payor refresh in the facility's Details → Integration to stop the indicated work without changing the integration settings. The button can show Cancel resource refresh while the target is loading or unavailable. Changes already saved remain, and you can start a new refresh afterward. Cancelling requires Owner, Admin, or Facility manager access for the selected facility.

Save PointClickCare in Integration settings to configure the facility's PCC integration. Billing settings and imports do not create it. You can enter or import PCC resident IDs and prepare billing exports without this setup.

Each facility has at most one integration. RehabAlpha blocks replacing a previously configured PCC source, including clearing both source IDs, while any patient is linked to PCC or has a saved PCC resident ID. Linked patients cannot be unlinked, so a source with linked patients generally cannot be replaced. This protects resident IDs from being used against a different PCC source.

When no patient has a link or resident ID, edit PCC organization ID and PCC facility ID, then select Save. Replacing the source requires permission to edit facility settings and patients. It resets the refresh summary while preserving RehabAlpha patients, clinical information, physicians, payors, organization-owned physician and payor links, and prior refresh history.

Before refreshing or exporting for the replacement source, enter its resident IDs for existing patients in Patient details. A refresh can create additional patients when no identifier matches. Saving unchanged PCC IDs preserves identifiers; configuring the API for the first time also preserves identifiers entered manually or through import.

Select None and save to stop refreshes. Your integration, saved PCC organization and facility IDs, and patient identifiers remain available. You can still manage identifiers and prepare billing exports. To save different PCC IDs, select PointClickCare first. Changing the source or saving None cancels unfinished refresh work; changes already saved remain.

Close a billing period

Owners and Admins can set a facility's Billing close out date to protect billing inputs after a period has been reviewed.

1. Open the facility and click Settings.
2. In Billing close out, enter the Billing close out date.
3. Click Save.

The selected date is included: Custom users cannot create, delete, or change billing inputs on or before it, even when their profile normally permits those actions. Existing clinical notes, service-item notes, and signatures remain available under their usual permissions. Owners and Admins can correct protected billing inputs directly.

The billing close out date also protects related admission and billing-episode details, cases, billable events, modifiers, and facility billing settings. Shared billing settings are protected through the latest billing close out date across the organization, even when working in another facility. This includes payor and billing-provider details, fee schedules, payor arrangements, and therapist credentials. Future terms and rates can still be added, and an ongoing term can be ended after the billing close out date without changing its closed portion.

To reopen dates, an Owner or Admin can move the date earlier or clear it and click Save. Clearing the date removes that facility's billing close out protection. Creating invoices, adding draft adjustments, recording delivery and payments, and reviewing corrections remain available under their usual permissions; invoice locks still apply. Only Owners and Admins can delete a facility while its billing close out date is set.

Billing close out is separate from the organization's timesheet close out, which protects recorded work and leave hours.

You should know

Owners and Admins can create, update, or delete facilities. With Custom access, creating a facility requires Create permission for Facilities and All facilities scope. Updating or deleting a facility requires the matching organization permission and access to that facility.

You cannot delete a facility while it has patients, even when those patients have no admissions. Service locations also block deletion, as do other linked records or references, including contracts, invoices, events, planned hours, therapist availability, and external signature requests or signing sessions. RehabAlpha identifies the blocking record or reference when you try to delete the facility.

When a billing episode has only one available service location, RehabAlpha selects it as the episode's default after you add the episode or change its primary payor. You can clear the selection when the episode should not have a default.

Frequently asked questions

Should I create one facility or multiple facilities?

Create one facility when the site is managed as one operational location or account. Add multiple service locations under that facility when the same site has different care settings or Places of Service.

Create separate facilities when the sites should be managed separately for admissions, schedules, access, contracts, invoices, or reporting.

What if the generated service location name is too generic?

Open the facility, click Locations, open Default service location, and edit the service location name. Choose a name users will recognize, such as SNF wing, Outpatient clinic, or the name of the building.

Can a service location use a different address than the facility?

Yes. A service location starts with the facility's location details when it is created, but you can edit the service location if the setting has a different address, county, ZIP code, or time zone.

How do I know which facility I’m working in?

Your organization and permissions determine which facilities you can access. You do not need a separate login for each facility.

Use Patients in the sidebar to browse patients across the facilities you can access. To create a patient or manage a facility's patient list, open Facilities, select the facility, and click Patients. Patient records, admissions, coverages, and clinical records remain scoped to their facilities.

What to do next

If the facility has more than one care setting, add the remaining service locations.

After the facility and service locations are ready, continue setting up members, payors, billing providers, and patients.

Related articles

• Set up a payor
• Set up a billing provider
• Set up a patient