Successful medical practices must take advantage of the latest developments in software and computers if they want to position themselves as a leader in their service area. This means, for example, that they will reject old ways of doing things when presented with a more modern and efficient method for finishing tasks.
A good example of this is practice management software. Organizations that managed to get by without this kind of software in the past, relying on paper based systems or a cobbled together collection of applications from unrelated developers will quickly see that practice management software will shorten the revenue cycle and keep the office humming along, running as efficiently as possible.
If you do not currently use practice management software and are either on the fence about making a purchase or still need more information to present to your team, here are three insights that your staff needs to know.
1. Financial
How long does it currently take you to deal with denied claims? Does your staff tend to have a good idea about what the problems are when claims are denied, or are the errors so varied that it is difficult to detect a pattern?
Practice management software will detect any bad claims and then show the staff member what the reason is, making it quick and easy to fix them on the spot for resubmission and payment.
2. Reporting
It may seem like you are never finished generating reports in your medical practice. Accounting may need some new numbers or projections for the next weekly staff meeting, or you want to determine the ratio of slow payers to prompt payers, and so on.
Since practice management software will give your managers all the information they need at their fingertips, they can set up customized reports and use them to generate documents much more quickly and efficiently. Then, they can spend more time analyzing the numbers that they previously used to generate their reports in the first place.
3. ICD-10 Support
The best practice management software in the world won’t do you much good if it is not capable of providing support for ICD-10 codes. As you surely know by now, the government is requiring medical organizations to make the switch from ICD-9 to version 10 of the International Classification of Disease code set by October 1, 2015.
Your practice management software should include the ability to convert ICD-9 to ICD-10. Some of the third party entities you deal with on a regular basis may not be completely ready for ICD-10 by the deadline, so it will be good if you can continue to work with older ICD-9 codes until they finalize their transition.
Not every medical practice will feel compelled to take advantage of new applications like practice management software. They can continue to get by with their less efficient system, while those with their eyes on the prize will adopt practice management software as soon as they learn the many ways where it can improve their daily tasks. In the long run, you can expect that the more efficiently run medical practices will outlive their counterparts who see no reason to improve the situation with dedicated practice management software.
Key Takeaway
- Modern medical practices must contend with a wide variety of tasks that can be a drag on productivity without the use of practice management software.
- Your team will use practice management software to speed up billing and reduce the number of denied claims.
- Being able to generate complex reports on the fly is one of the most important features of any good practice management application. Managers will appreciate the time savings.
- When evaluating practice management software options, you’ll want to verify with the software provider about its ability to convert ICD-9 codes to ICD-10, which we must transition to by October 1, 2015.
