MediPro Blog

A fact in life is that everyone has a budget and is looking to save where they can. Saving money and finding deals are both prudent and often smart, but is going with the lowest-priced good or service always the best idea? We would argue that it isn’t.

Take, for example, a car repair. If you go to the lowest-priced shop or ask a buddy who knows a few things about cars to do it, you might not be happy with the end result. And because the job wasn’t done right, it might end up costing you more in the end.

Choosing the Best Medical Software Should Involve More than Price

We wanted to take a second and talk about the cost of medical software because we know and understand that every practice will have a budget and want to avoid spending additional monies when it doesn’t have to. However, medical software provides opportunity costs within every facet of a medical office. From ensuring government compliance and incentive programs of electronic health records to improving patient care outcomes to optimizing revenue collection and employee workflows, medical software can go a long way to strengthen physicians practices.

Unfortunately, just as we discussed above, the bottom line in the medical software industry is that you get what you pay for. When you receive a fantastic, low-cost deal you may feel a temporary moment of satisfaction. But, generally, that temporary moment is in fact very short-lived. What practices discover instead is they have purchased insufficient medical software to address their needs, making that fantastic, low-cost deal a whole lot less fantastic. Here are just a few of the issues practices may face going with the lowest-priced software:

Customer service is likely to be lacking

Your practice could just be a number in a sea with thousands of others, and many are waiting in line ahead of you. It could take time to connect for support and resolution turnaround may end up to be lacking, causing money to go flying out the window as you wait for the issue to be resolved. Although it could happen with any software product, we would be remiss if we also didn’t mention that sometimes promises are made during the sales cycle that may be a little too good to be true. If you were promised a variety of features that appear to be much more expensive than what you are asked to pay, this is a cause for concern. And if you wait to raise a concern until after you have purchased the software, you might find it very difficult to get someone on the phone to talk to you.

Training resources could be limited

End user acceptance of medical software is one of the biggest factors in determining the success of a medical software implementation. While it shouldn’t be expected for everyone to pick up everything overnight by watching a video, the learning curve shouldn’t be extremely lengthy either. This leads to dissatisfaction, more inefficiencies, and greater errors. Staff may not know how to use the tools to streamline their workflow through automation – if they have them at all. An untrained staff puts patients and data at risk, potentially causing a compliance nightmare.

The software impedes your practices growth

As your practice grows and requires more features and functionality, you may find that you will need another expensive software conversion to a different product because the lower end system no longer fits your needs. Also, some lower-end medical software products are not ONC-certified, meaning they could actually hurt a practices growth by limiting its participation in government incentive programs.

In addition to that, low cost software products may not have a solid programming/enhancement schedule for software updates and upgrades. Since the healthcare industry changes rapidly, i.e.: new Medicare cards for patients requiring 11 digits in the data field or the good old NPI numbers that were issued to healthcare providers back in May 2007, the software may not have the ability, capability, or resources to accommodate said change.

How to Choose the Best Value Medical Software

At MediPro, we aim to develop customized solutions that fit the needs of each and every practice that chooses to invest in our many medical management software solutions. The truth is that we don’t have the cheapest products (we also don’t have the most expensive either). We offer mid-line priced solutions that we feel are the best for a wide variety of practices.

We would encourage you to choose software that has a nice sized list of standard features and will position your practice for success and longevity. You should consider software that provides ease of navigation, quick content editing, etc. Finally, you should pick a full-service vendor, like MediPro, as a partner in this transition that sincerely cares about providing superior customer service, enhancing patient care, and increased revenue.

Deadlines are fast approaching if you plan to submit data for the 2017 Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)performance period.

The two key dates are:

• March 16 at 8 pm ET for group reporting via the CMS web interface
• March 31 for all other MIPS reporting, including via the Quality Payment Program website

Source:  MLN Connects | 2/15/18 |

Medical records are at the center of every doctor’s practice, which makes an EHR implementation both critical and stressful at the same time.

Everything doctors do revolves around these records, so changing systems introduces an understandable level of stress. As long as you follow a few basic guidelines, you can trust that your EHR system will be up and running in an efficient manner shortly quickly and with minimal issues.

While Your Office is Going Through an EHR Implementation:

Plan Ahead – Any time you are working with software, the unpredictable is always possible. One thing you can do to stay prepared is to create a backup of your data before anything is changed on your current computer infrastructure. knowing you have access to the old records can help give you peace of mind.

A good medical software company will make sure that your practice’s computer hardware meets the qualifications for optimal performance of the new software now into the foreseeable future. This can save you considerable headaches own the road. By planning ahead and scheduling your installation by appointment, you can make the EHR implementation process much more manageable.

Communicate – Your expertise may lie well outside the realm of computers, software and information technology. You may have questions pop up about various aspects of your new software through the EHR implementation process. That’s to be expected.

Make sure you are asking those questions and getting the answers you need. It’s also critical for all parties to communicate, and understand the perspective goal, plan, and outcome of the installation process. The
better your office staff and physicians understand the software, the more they will be able to get from it.

Consult With a Local IT Professional – It’s always good to have a local IT professional on location during the installation process. This can help when there are additional permissions needed within the computer’s operating system. A local IT professional can also help you answer any related questions that may arise during the EHR implementation and ensure the right questions are asked by the provider.

Conclusion
If you can follow these strategies and rely on the resources around you, there’s a stronger likelihood of a smooth transition and further success with your new EHR software system.

If you’re still feeling stressed through the implementation process, it can help to remind yourself why you made the change to begin with. The new software will make your office and your patient appointments more efficient. There is a tremendous upside to streamlining your computer system.

If you have questions about the EHR implementation process, or how new software will benefit your practice, contact us today!