Practice Management System: Features and Selection Process

Whether it’s a doctor’s office or a massive multi-specialty hospital, administrative routine is crucial to running a successful medical business. While doctors save lives, someone has to organize day-to-day business activities, such as scheduling patients and collecting payment for services. Although this activity occurs in the background, the entire healthcare facility won’t run as smoothly if it goes wrong. Medi emr that supports nonclinical tasks should therefore receive special consideration.In this article, we’ll go over the key characteristics of the medical practice management system, factors to consider when selecting one for your business, some well-known vendors, and how to make the switch to a new platform as easy as possible.

What’s Medical Practice Management System?

The administrative processes in medical offices, clinics, hospitals, and other healthcare organizations are streamlined, coordinated, and automated by best practice medical practice management software. A complete system incorporates operations in the front office, such as scheduling patients and checking insurance, and operations in the back office, such as financial analysis, reporting, and medical billing.

When properly applied, technology helps minimize human error, monitor financial status, and guarantee high standards of patient care. But to produce the best results, the PM solution must function as a crucial component of the entire health IT infrastructure, closely collaborating with two other crucial pieces of software: an electronic health record (EHR) system and a patient portal.

Patient Portal and Practice Management System

Patients can view their medical records and communicate with healthcare facilities using a patient portal, a website, or a mobile app. It enables patients to schedule an appointment and complete necessary forms online, among other things. The patient portal uses the practice management system to retrieve available time slots and, after booking, sends appointment reminders. The practice management tool and portal’s seamless data exchange reduce no-shows while boosting patient engagement.

EHR and Practice Management System

A practice management tool may be sold separately from the EHR system, in conjunction with the EHR system, or by the same EHR vendor.

In any case, it doesn’t in any way take the place of the EHR functionality but rather enhances it. The latter focuses on the clinical aspect of the job: in addition to gathering and storing patient histories, it also makes it possible to order lab tests, e-prescribe, and record every appointment. Following the visit, the practice management system receives data from the EHR for billing and reporting.

Leading features of Medical Practice Management System 

What exactly can a practice management system accomplish? There are a few essential factors to investigate, even though it depends on a specific provider.

Scheduling- Practice Management System 

An appointment scheduling and management calendar are one of fundamental components of any practice management system. Typically, it enables you to search for available time slots by provider, location, and day. Modern software also enables automated email or SMS reminders with appointment information.

Verifying Insurance Eligibility

The staff must check a patient’s insurance benefits before a doctor’s appointment to see if they cover the necessary services. This process entails contacting insurance providers or logging into numerous websites if carried out manually. This module automates a large portion of the routine, quickly locating all necessary information. Patients are no longer subject to financial shocks following visits, and the quantity of claim denials is decreased. One frequent use case is eligibility verification.

Management of Patient Information and Paperwork

The system makes it simple for medical professionals to enter, locate, and access patient data like demographics, medical history, or the causes of prior visits. Employees can also create and customize templates for registration forms, treatment plans, and other documents. Another desired feature is making and editing notes that administrators or doctors can leave for themselves or their colleagues.

Billing

This module is crucial for practices that manage medical billing internally rather than contracting out outside services. It assists staff in timely and accurately submitting claims to payers, reducing the number of denials and accelerating reimbursement. This component frequently includes simple automated assisted coding capabilities. The most typical illustration is a code scrubbing tool that scans claims for common mistakes and raises problems. But remember that to align diagnoses, medication recommendations, and procedures with sector-specific data standards, you must hire a certified coder if you intend to bill using your practice management system.

Analytics and Reporting

This module offers details on financial metrics that can be used to generate financial reports and monitor profitability. Accounts Receivable (A/R), which represents the sum that clients and insurance providers owe your facility for the services rendered; Days in A/R, which represents the typical time it takes a hospital or clinic to get paid. By keeping an eye on these metrics, the practice can keep track of its financial situation and act quickly to improve it.

Before selecting a specific practice management system, consider several crucial factors in addition to features.

Things to take into account when selecting a practice management system are mentioned below .

Integrations

If you have one, an EHR and patient portal should be simple to integrate with a practice management system. Your employees will have to do double work if these IT infrastructure components are not connected and exchange data efficiently. Purchasing both solutions from the same provider as a full suite will make it easy to ensure that your EHR and PM tools work well together. If, for some reason, this option is not suitable for you, find out which EHRs are already pre-integrated with the PM system of your choice.

Easy to Use and Learn

Even the most cutting-edge technology will only improve your workflow if your staff has trouble utilizing it. Plan a demo and confirm that all crucial users will be there. Find out if and how the vendor offers much training. The ideal software requires little training from your staff to become familiar with it.

Key Uses

A diagnostic center or a multi-specialty hospital will have different needs than a primary care office. Verify that the solution addresses the procedures unique to your medical facility. To find out which software is used by companies similar to yours, look through the list of those that do or contact them.

Scalability and Configurations

Even though they work in the same field of medicine, no two practices are exactly alike. In addition, as your practice develops or changes, your requirements might also change. Therefore, it’s crucial that you can configure and scale your system with the least amount of effort. The extent of the modifications may range from altering templates to modifying reports and implementing business intelligence to run more complex analytics than a simple reporting module is capable of. With a provider, discuss scalability and configurability to learn what it will take to modify the software should the need arise.

Tech Assistance

No technology is impervious to errors and problems. How quickly you can fix them is the key. Pay attention to the value of the system’s provider’s technical support. Find out in advance the average response time, the level of expertise of the tech experts, their hours of operation, and the available communication channels.

Pricing

The size of your practice, the number of features you require, and the deployment style you select all significantly impact the price. Most vendors can only provide a precise price estimate for the system once they fully comprehend your requirements. Once you have determined what you need, ask each prospective provider for a formal proposal detailing what you will pay and how much. A system’s value to your business should be weighed against its total cost of ownership, return on investment (ROI), and other factors.

HIPAA Compliance- Practice Management System 

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act applies to all systems, handling information that can be used to identify a patient, also known as protected health information (HIPAA). PM systems have security features like role-based access control, data encryption, auto logoff, and others to help prevent violations and the ensuing fines. It should go without saying that the practice management system currently offered is HIPAA compliant. However, it’s essential to find out what security measures a specific provider used in their product.

Conclusion- Practice Management System 

Using practice management software is almost always an excellent way to grow your business, but you’ll get the most out of it if you ensure it’s properly integrated. The productivity and effectiveness of your office can significantly improve with an integrated practice management platform. Remember that doctors are superheroes, and you should have a best practice management system just like you need for your business.