FootNotes - Q2 2023

April 17, 2025 15:20

What's New in AWARDS

To view the archives of recently added AWARDS features, visit the What’s New page here in the AWARDS Resource Center.

New AWARDS "Known Issues Status" Page!

We are excited to announce the new “Known Issues Status” page for AWARDS tickets that are affecting more than one database. You can access this page by clicking the link at the top of the Resource Center home page:

This new page displays the nature of the issue, the current status, the programmer’s ticket, and the last date it was updated. This provides an easy way for you to check if the issue you are experiencing has already been reported. When possible, the page will also indicate a workaround that can help you until the issue is resolved.

FormBuilder - New Option for Default List = Current Staff

We have added a new default list option for the FormBuilder Configuration field types of the Selection List and Radio button. Now, you will have the option of configuring Default List = All Current Staff. This means you could create a question on a form that is labeled “Crisis Contact” or “Assigned Staff Member” and the user will have the option to select any employee that is active at the time of the form’s completion.

Family History and Implantable Devices - Available by Default!

AWARDS has two features within the Medical Module which have previously been made available upon request: 1) Family Health History, and 2) Implantable Devices. We have changed the setting and now these modules are available by default, at no additional cost to our customers. These changes are part of our ongoing work to remain as a Certified EHR. If you would like to turn these modules off, please contact Support and we'd be happy to turn them off for you.

A Look at What's Ahead...

Billing Configuration for the End of the COVID Emergency Period

CMS announced that the waivers allowing greater flexibility in billing for services during the Covid emergency period will expire on May 11th, 2023. For agencies using BillingBuilder, this means you may need to adjust your billing rules to no longer allow billing under the more relaxed requirements.

This document walks through the process of disabling emergency billing rules in BillingBuilder.

Connect With Us!

To see which training sessions and webinars are coming soon, check out the Upcoming Events in FootholdConnect (accessible from your AWARDS navigation bar). You can also see a current Upcoming Events Calendar in the Resource Center. See something you're interested in? Register today!

News You Can Use!

Letter from the CEO

Happy spring to our entire Foothold community!

2023 is already zooming by and I hope that it has been a productive first quarter for you all. Here at Foothold, we have been hard at work charting our journey toward our 2023 and longer-term goals. I’m excited to update you on some of this progress and what’s to come.

Over the course of the last few months, the Foothold team has been focused on several priorities centered around our product roadmaps for AWARDS and FCM, completing mission-critical certifications, and adding new members to our team to help further provide great service and partnership to our customer community.

We are prioritizing customer care across every part of our organization, whether that is prioritizing product and service solutions to make our systems easier to use or building out new data and reporting resources to power analytics and decision-making. Many of you have been pilot partners in this work, and others have reached out to share your thoughts on our bright spots and where we can improve. This engagement has been super helpful to us to inform our plans and strategies for 2023 and beyond, so please keep it coming!

As you may have seen, we’ve already been achieving some exciting milestones in our AWARDS Redesign journey, including in our critical Billing functionality, to better serve our customers. More than 30 focus group sessions have been held to gather valuable feedback and inform our prioritization of our roadmap. In addition to several recent releases, there is much more on the way, informed by great feedback from our focus group members, so thank you! Please stay tuned for more details on what is being released and what to expect next.

Finally, we know that this is a time of change for our market, with a lot of regulatory and administrative uncertainty creating challenges for our customers. The Foothold team has been closely following these changes and assessing all the potential outcomes so that we can continue to develop our product, services, and holistic solution in a way that provides value to our customers as the landscape continues to evolve. I invite you to reach out to me and others on our team to share your perspectives, and to learn about how we are thinking about the future state of the market and what it means for supporting the important missions you all serve.

On a personal note, I wanted to share another piece of news that is both bittersweet and exciting, for those of you that have not yet seen this. Tyler Hoffman, the former CEO of Foothold who worked closely with so many of you, will be stepping down in May from his current role as Group CEO of Radicle Health (the group in which Foothold sits and is the largest part) to pursue an exciting new professional investing opportunity with Alpine Investors. Tyler’s commitment and passion for Foothold and our space have been invaluable to growing our business and building our relationships with all of you. I know many of you have had the pleasure of working with him over the years, and I’m sure you share my view that he will be bringing that same energy, thoughtfulness, and tireless effort to his new endeavor as well. He won’t be going too far though! Tyler will be remaining on the Radicle Health board and continuing to be an important thought partner to me and the other leaders at Radicle Health. As part of this change, I will be taking on the Co-President role of Radicle Health alongside Katie Cortes, who is the CEO of our sister company, kCare, focused on software solutions for child welfare. From a day-to-day perspective, my role as the leader of Foothold will remain unchanged, but I’m excited to partner with Katie and her team to find opportunities to accelerate our common solutions and serve our customers together. You can find some more details from Tyler in our recent blog post on the Radicle Health website, but please feel free to reach out to me personally with any questions or thoughts you might have.

Alyza Tarmohamed, CEO
alyza@footholdtechnology.com

Tip of the Quater - The Power of FormBuilder!

Everything You Need to Know About Harnessing ReportBuilders in FormBuilder

A while back we added a field type of “Dynamic Section Report Format,” to FormBuilder, which provides a world of exciting possibilities. Because we want to make sure you are taking advantage of these possibilities, we’ve created a new “How To” video to help you see the feature in action!

Dynamic Report Field Type in FormBuilder(8 mins)

You can learn more by reviewing the Dynamic Section Report Format Field Type description here in the Resource Center. So the real question is - how can this feature be used in meaningful ways in your database? The options are really endless, and we’ve provided a few ideas here to get you thinking.

Example 1- Perhaps you have an assessment form where it would be beneficial to have a history of the individual's psychiatric hospitalization episodes only, rather than all episodes - or a form that should only show the individual’s controlled substances vs. all medications. Using this report format field, you can build a filtered report that will display only the desired data/output on the individual FormBuilder form when you complete it for the client.
Example 2 - Maybe you run an employment program and have an assessment form that should display all job placements and/or job interviews within a specified time frame. By combining this feature, along with the plain text filtering options in the ReportBuilders, you can configure the form to display exactly the information you are looking for.
Example 3- If your programs track immunization records for individuals, you might want to include information in forms showing if they have refused any of your required immunizations. Using this field type, you can configure the form to display a report out of all immunizations documented as refused, along with the reason for refusal, embedded directly in the form so that it is easily accessible for staff when completing the form.
Example 4- In some cases, forms you use might need to include just Medicaid entitlement information, rather than all entitlements, or maybe they need to show the primary entitlement only. Using this field option, you would be able to include report output on the form to display only this content. Similarly, perhaps instead of seeing all diagnoses on a form, you want to limit it to primary diagnoses only. This is achievable with this field type in FormBuilder.
Example 5 *Upcoming* - Later this year, the available ReportBuilders in this Dynamic Section Report Format field will be expanded to include key options like Progress Notes, Reception Desk, Nightly Absences, Demographics, etc. The options here are truly endless. For instance, if your programs write a monthly note for individuals and you want to see a list, or summary tables, of all progress notes, group notes, and/or attendance records for the past month in the note itself, this will now be possible by including a FormBuilder form in the Progress Note. Or maybe you have a form that would benefit from displaying all upcoming charting events for the next year - perhaps even limited to particular event types. This will be doable with this field type when the additional report options become available.

So what are you waiting for?! Dig in and see how you can harness this amazing field to build out your forms so they more fully meet the needs of your programs. If you have questions or want to brainstorm specific program needs, reach out to your Customer Experience representative.

Help Spread the Word About AWARDS!

If you know anyone at a similar agency that would benefit from using AWARDS, we would appreciate your referral to a colleague at that agency. As a thank you for any referrals you pass along, we are happy to offer some additional benefits to your agency. Upon making a referral, you’ll receive a free half-day of training for the agency. And, if we ultimately sign a contract with the organization you refer to us, we have even more benefits you can choose from. These include but are not limited to, multiple days of free training, free access to the AWARDS certification program, a deep dive conversation with members from our executive and product teams, and a free month of AWARDS for your agency. Contact your Foothold representative for more details about our referral program. Or, click here to submit your referral.

New York Alliance Conference - April 18-21

Are you attending the New York Alliance Annual Conference in Bolt’s Landing, April 18-21? Stop By the Foothold Booth and Say Hello!

Customers in the News - Shout Outs to our Customers Doing Great Work!

Any chance we get, we love to celebrate our customer community. Your hard work is making a difference, and we’re honored to support you.