Have you ever been a bit overwhelmed when shopping around for all your medical practice needs? Of course! There are so many pieces required to meet all the HIPAA and reporting requirements, but it’s also about efficiency and ease of sharing information between clinicians to administrators. This can make the all-in-one Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Practice Management (PM) systems very tempting. Keep in mind, you will pay a hefty price for an all-in-one, which makes this a very simple decision for some practices. The good news: You have alternatives that still provide the same ease of sharing data through integration. I recently interviewed Dan Loch, President of EZClaim Software, LLC. EZClaim offers a stand-alone billing platform that offers several options for integration with clearinghouses and EHR’s. I asked Dan what he felt the biggest advantages were to using stand-along programs.
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- Your practice will get the best of both worlds! Often practices will find a great EHR, but the billing side is not the best, or vice-versa. Using stand-alone programs that can talk to each other allows a practice to choose an EHR solution that is best for their clinicians AND a PM solution that is best for the billers and administrators.
- Typically, stand-alone systems are more ‘nimble’ in responding to industry and regulatory changes.
- Integrating multiple ‘best-in-class’ software packages creates an offering with much more in-depth capability.
If you are currently using separate EHR and PM solutions but the programs are not integrated – consider looking into this feature. This will relieve the burden of entering data twice. Start by verifying if the programs have an existing integration.
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- If so, the hard part is done! Just ask what the process is to get set up and if there are any fees associated.
- If not, consider contacting your PM software vendor to inquire what formats they accept for EHR integrations. Once they provide the specs, work with your EHR to determine if you can export in the required format.
There is no single solution that works for every practice. If you’d like to learn more, check out this article from EZClaim ‘All-in-One’ or ‘Specialized’ Medical Billing Software? Which is Best? I hope that this information will help you weigh your options and find the right fit for your specific situation. If you have questions or would like some help determining what would be best, RCM Insight is here to help! Visit us at www.rcminsight.com and submit a request to chat on the Contact Us page.
