‘All-in-One’ or ‘Specialized’ Medical Billing Software? Which is Best?

‘All-in-One’ or ‘Specialized’ Medical Billing Software? Which is Best?

Which is the BEST kind of Medical Billing Software? “All-in-One” or “Specialized”?

When considering WHICH medical billing solution they should use, practices wonder which is best, an “all-in-one” solution or specialized software. Well, the following are a few important pros and cons to consider when making a choice between these solutions.

ALL-IN-ONE:
An “all-in-one” system tries to provide a single, comprehensive solution that offers functionality for the major areas of the practice—Practice Management (PM), Electronic Medical/Health Records (EMR/EHR), and Revenue Cycle Management (RCM)—accessed from one central point. It has features like clinical notes, patient information, and history, diagnosis and treatments, scheduling, appointment reminders, reports, patient educational resources, as well as a medical billing section.

PROS:
• Most of what a practice need is included in the system
• There is no need to be concerned with multiple integrations or vendors

CONS:
• Tends to have a higher ‘entry’ cost
• Usually designed for the “middle-of-the-road,” therefore sometimes doesn’t properly address specific needs of a practice
• Sometimes, the practice is left paying for additional customizations to fit their particular needs

SPECIALIZED SOFTWARE:
Specialized medical billing software, on the other hand, is particularly programmed to maintain billing details of tests, procedures, examinations, diagnoses, and treatments conducted on patients.   However, many specialized software providers extend their scope to include features like practice management, scheduling, and other administrative and clinical functions (that are generally a part of EHR software systems) by partnering with other specialty software companies—creating a “best-in-class” solution.

PROS:
• Integrating multiple “best-in-class” software packages—each taking a much more focused approach—creates an offering with much more in-depth capabilities
• Usually are more ‘nimble’ in responding to industry and regulatory changes
• More ’scalable’ in supporting the growth of a practice

CONS:
• Most of the time the practice has to deal with multiple vendors

 

CONCLUSION:
Where “all-in-one” solutions offer a wide breadth of capabilities across the business, they usually also lack focus, depth, and sophistication. “All-in-one” solutions are usually only efficient in one area, with the other areas tend to be ‘compromised’ and not fully developed. Then, when it comes to flexibility, they tend to be slow to adapt to changing practice needs.

Specialized software, however, typically offer a more efficient experience, with each ‘component’ streamlined and designed with a specific purpose in mind. Their focus on limiting the software scope makes them flexible and easy to use.

EZClaim—a leading software package in medical billing and practice management—has made it easier for the medical practice to have the benefit of a “all-inclusive” solution. They have created the best of both worlds by taking on the responsibility of integrating the “best-of-breed” into a harmonized “best-of-class” offering that allows the practice to pick and choose for their specific needs. The seamless integration of partner products and services ensures the practice does not have to give up robustness and flexibility for a simplified “all-in-one” solution, and it further enhances the practice’s workflow.

As a specific example, one of EZClaim’s partners is TriZetto Provider Solutions (TPS), a provider that seamlessly blends claims processing with revenue management and analytics software, so the practice can get paid faster, and more accurately.

Today, the practice can get the benefit of all the power and ease of use of EZClaim’s medical billing software and all the access and security that is needed when dealing with personal records by using  TPS—which includes patient access, claims and denials management, patient financials, and advisory services.

The powerful integration between EZClaim and TPS efficiently adds functionality to the practice. Now the practice can gain deeper insight into the claim lifecycle, and take the proper steps to improve the overall health of the practice. The right ‘integrated’ solution makes all the difference!

So, if your practice needs more confident billing, after payments, and more informed decisions, but the power of EZClaim and TPS to work for your practice with the integrated suite of revenue cycle solutions.

In addition to TPS, EZClaim has tightly integrated a variety of of ‘components’ to be able to offer an “all-inclusive” best-in-class solution for a medical practice’s needs: Electronic Health Records (EHR), Clearinghouse, statement and payment services, HIPPA compliance, claims scrubbing, appointment reminders, and inventory management. It has partnered with a variety of providers like QuickEMR, BestNotes, and PracticeFusion  [ Click here for an entire list of EZClaim’s partners ].

It is important to note that an “all-in-one” solution does not usually include the Clearinghouse portion that TPS offers. The powerful integration between EZClaim, TPS, and EZClaim’s EMR partners, efficiently adds functionality to ANY practice!

If you are considering the best course of action to meet your practice’s needs, consider using EZClaim by downloading a FREE TRIAL or contact one of their product specialists today to explore all the options for how to best solve your practice’s operational challenges, and grow your business.

For details and features about EZClaim’s medical billing software, visit their website.

3 Keys to Starting Your Medical Billing Practice

3 Keys to Starting Your Medical Billing Practice

Whether you are a person new to medical billing or someone who’s been in the business for years, launching a new medical billing practice can be hard. Understanding the market, connecting with new clients, and knowing how to master your processes are challenges that you often learn as you go. Despite these challenges, it is rewarding to be out on your own growing a new company. Before you jump, let us help you understand some essential keys that you can research upfront and prepare yourself to get one step closer to being successful.

1. ONE BILLING PLATFORM VERSUS MULTIPLE PLATFORMS: First and foremost you must make a conscious decision to either focus on being an expert on an individual medical billing platform, like EZClaim or tackling multiple platforms.  There are pros and cons of both: being an expert can make you extremely efficient in your use of the software’s billing and, scheduling features, however, it can also limit your client base to only one set of software users. Whereas having a basic understanding of multiple platforms can allow you a larger base of medical offices while limiting your ability to truly understand how best to serve each individual client’s needs.  

Pro tip: Start and master one trusted billing program, and grow your options as your billing business grows.

2. GET CLEAR ON THE CLEARINGHOUSE: A new billing company owner does not want to be held to just one clearinghouse as options are key here. Having the ability to work with any or many would be an essential piece to your billing services, however, you still want to know the best clearinghouses in the business. Understanding which clearinghouses provide the best products and services and being able to recommend those services to your client upfront will make your life easier and their business run smoother. For this very reason, EZClaim has built its software around partnerships and integrations with the best clearinghouses to make working with the one you need easy.

3. COMPLY OR DIE (HIPAA Compliance): The third key to any start-up is first understanding the importance of HIPAA Compliance. Medical billing firms literally can come crashing down with any missteps, mistakes, or misunderstandings of this essential piece of the puzzle. It goes without saying that if you are going to choose a billing software be sure that they have partnerships built around making sure you are protected. You are also responsible to make sure the data is protected so your customer and their patient’s data is safe.

HIPAA Hint: Check out Live Compliance for further details on the topic. 

There are many options available out there for your new medical billing practice, and we recommend doing your research. Within that research, you will find that EZClaim ranks very high in performance and comes in at a great price.

To learn about EZClaim go to our about page, sign up for a demo, and/or download a trial for free today!

 

Customer Service, Is It Important To You?

Customer Service, Is It Important To You?


Medical Billing Customer Service

If you have ever been the victim of poor customer service you know how frustrating it can be. Long wait times, scripted answers, limited product knowledge, poor communication skills, and ultimately unresolved problems. No matter how good the product is, poor medical billing customer service leaves you feeling alone and stuck teaching yourself. At the end of the day, it’s an experience that we at EZClaim are committed to solving and have been since the company was founded.

What is it that EZClaim is doing that sets us apart and makes your experience better than the status quo?

There are 5 Keys to Customer Service we have built into the fabric of EZClaim.

1. CREATE A CUSTOMER SERVICE CULTURE: We take pride in saying, ‘we’re a customer support company that happens to sell software’. This means we put our support team first, we listen to what they’re reporting back, we celebrate their successes and focus on fixing the problems they highlight, and in the end that makes both a great product and a great experience.

2. HIRE INDUSTRY EXPERTS: We aim to hire experts with industry experience that understand your challenges in medical billing, coding, and working with healthcare practices. This ensures that you are speaking to someone who knows your needs and can provide solutions customized to you.

3. CREATE A STRONG FOUNDATION: We have learned that the best way to solve problems is to create a solid foundation of understanding upfront. To do so we developed an onboarding-discovery process where we learn about your practice, the way you do business, your pain points, and your overall needs. Based on that we work with you through training to set up the system that best works for you.

4. RESPOND QUICKLY AND FOLLOW-UP CONSISTENTLY: We have made it a priority to respond to your needs immediately. With a 100% U.S.-based support team our average response time is within 1-2 hours of your request. We know your business and the services you provide are important to you, and responding quickly to your needs is important to us.

5. MAINTAIN RELATIONSHIPS FOR THE LONG-TERM:  Finally, our customer service is designed to maintain our relationship for the long-term. We want the experience to be smooth, the follow-up to be consistent, and most importantly we want you to know we care. To prove it our contracts are month to month, so we know that each month we have work to provide the best service available to you.

Finally, we know some people work best when they work things out on their own. We have a full library of YouTube tutorials and comprehensive online manuals to help you problem-solve. We do this and more because we celebrate our customers, we work hard to be here for you when you need us most, and we hope you’ll consider EZClaim for your medical billing software needs.

 

 

Want to put us to the test? Try EZClaim free for 30 days.

For tips and tricks and other helpful information about the EZClaim reports, visit our online help manual or contact EZClaim sales. You may also follow us on Facebook or LinkedIn to stay up to date with our most recent happenings!