October 19, 2006

NDSI Healthcare and Sandata Technologies Announce Integration of Home Health Software and Telephony Technology
Partnership heralds a new generation in home care automation

Newport News, VA – October 19, 2006 – NDSI Healthcare, Inc., a market leader in home care agency software, today announced integration of its flagship product, nHome Complete with Sandata Technologies’ Santrax telephony system.  The integration creates a seamless system that automates home health care visit data from the point of scheduling, all the way through billing, payroll and beyond.  Scheduled events can now be managed, verified and documented directly from the point of care, eliminating the need for paper visit forms and time slips. Creating a new business paradigm, this partnership will afford home care agencies the luxury of operating a near paperless business model; a goal for which the industry has worked for years to achieve. 

NDSI produces software to manage operations for home care agencies offering varied services, including Medicare, Medicaid, private duty, insurance, staffing and hospice.  NDSI’s nHome Complete is a full-function, state-of-the-art system that handles all aspects of agency operation, from scheduling to billing and payroll.  Sandata’s Santrax system provides a way for field personnel to use the telephone to record data that once required a number of cumbersome paper forms to complete.  Now, agencies can use the Santrax system to “call” their visit data directly into the nHome Complete software system, eliminating the need for any papers to be submitted.  NDSI has always maintained as its goal, the ideal model of home care that operating at peak efficiency, a philosophy that comes from the company’s origins as a certified home care provider itself.  In fact, nHome Complete was born as a solution for NDSI’s own problems in managing the complex data requirements of a Medicare certified agency.

“With homecare Pay for Performance on the horizon, improvement in outcomes is paramount for financial growth in home care agencies. We at NDSI are excited about this joint venture with Sandata to pioneer a total integration of telephony and home care software. This combination will save agencies a tremendous amount of work that was previously all done by hand and allow agencies to focus more of their resources on care, rather than paperwork”, said Hank Hernly, President of NDSI.

Not only does the system eliminate a massive amount of paperwork and associated paper management processes, it also provides verification that services were delivered as ordered, thanks in no small part to Sandata’s patented call monitoring process using “telephony” (pronounced "te-LEH-fun-e", not "tele-FONY"), a process of interfacing voice with computer systems to achieve new functionality.  Sandata’s Santrax system uses caller ID to verify that field staff is calling from the patient’s home, reducing the possibility of fraud.  Since every call received is time stamped and matched against the nHome Complete schedule, the agency knows whenever a worker is late, leaves early or doesn't show up as scheduled.  According to Hernly, “It can be disastrous for a patient when their caregiver doesn't show up as planned.  The Santrax system will allow our client agencies to know that  virtually immediately and they can usually schedule a replacement worker quickly enough to meet the patient’s needs.”  In many cases, the only way an agency ever knew their worker didn't show up was either days later when the paper time sheets came in or when the patient called to complain.  “This technology represents a genuine milestone for many agencies that have had to cope with serious personnel issues and disgruntled patients”, said Hernly.

Sandata Technologies integrates its Santrax system with many different software manufacturer’s systems, but according to Sandata’s president, Stephen Silverstein, “This is the tightest level of integration (Sandata) has ever done with a software vendor.  This marriage of technologies is truly next generation as the client will only have to work within a single, unified system, instead of having to move back and forth between two different systems.” 

The Santrax system not only captures the arrival and departure times along with verifying the caller’s location, it also captures the services provided to the patient, mileage traveled to the patient’s home (often reimbursed by the agency) and a host of other data points.  Silverstein says “The level of information captured is truly amazing.  We have worked long and hard to create the most robust automated system for data capture available anywhere.”  And he should know. Sandata has the lion’s share of the market and holds the patents to this technology.  “We've built our business on reliability, consistency and cost effectiveness with a strong emphasis on high quality customer service.  Many of our customers rely on Santrax exclusively to manage their delivery of services.  We are often a mission-critical component of their business and we have to deliver for them”, says Silverstein. The improved verification that agencies can achieve with this new combination of technologies can offer peace of mind to clients and payer sources alike.

For additional information please contact:

Hank Hernly, President
NDSI Healthcare, Inc.
804 Omni Blvd., Suite 101
Newport News, VA 23606
(757) 896-9389
www.ndsihealthcare.com