Why do doctors need a practice management software?

What Is Practice Management?

he American Medical Association defines the goal of healthcare practice management as enhancing practice efficiency, professional satisfaction and the delivery of patient care. Organizations deploy practice management to manage registration, scheduling, patient tracking, patient accounting and reporting through a single workflow across all operations. This enables a single platform to collect payments on all patient accounts.

What Is Practice Management Software?

Practice management software (PM software) is designed to help medical offices of any size run more efficiently. Typically, small and medium-size practices use practice management software to manage daily operations like financial and administrative functions; some offices use it to connect with electronic medical records.

The most common capabilities of practice management software include:

• Entering and tracking patients

• Recording patient demographics

• Scheduling patient appointments

• Managing charge capture

• Performing billing procedures

• Submitting insurance claims

• Processing payments from patients, insurance providers and third parties

• Generating reports for staff members

Desktop-only software: Used on a single computer by no more than a few people who share access.

Client-server software: Allows multiple users to share data and access to an on-site server that the practice must purchase or lease.

Internet-based software: Users access the system over the Internet, which eliminates the need to purchase a server but moves patient data outside the practice office.

Benefits of Practice Management Software

Practice management software can help practices and patients in many different ways. Here are some examples of the most common instances that happen every day at a practice:

Benefits of Practice Management Software For Practices

The front desk staff will not have to make copies of a patient’s insurance card. Instead, they simply scan the card and PM software captures the relevant information.

The billing department and other staff who are responsible for resubmitting insurance claims will appreciate that PM software automates this tedious task. Not only does this save time, but it also can boost cash flow.

Physicians can use the software to validate a procedure for a patient diagnosis with an insurance company before ordering it. In addition, by streamlining the administrative functions required to run a practice, PM software gives physicians more time to treat patients.

Important components of PM software:

Patient scheduling

Practice management systems include a scheduling function to create and track patient visits. Schedules for different providers within a practice can be color-coded to show appointment times, duration and sets of patients.

Claims process

Practice management systems also track electronic claims once they are submitted, either directly to an insurance payer or through an electronic claim clearinghouse. For claims in which a patient owes a balance due, a practice can use PM software to print and mail its own statements to patients.

Reporting capabilities

PM software allows for a wide range of practice reporting capabilities based on several customizable parameters. Some of the more common uses for reporting are financial performance (including billing and patient financial histories), scheduling and ICD codes. Software users can design their own reports or work with preset reports within the system.

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