A Complete Guide To Healthcare Practice Management In 2022

What is the first thing you do when you think of changing your healthcare practice management strategies for 2022? What about when you decide it’s time to switch to the new practice management software?

In this guide, you’ll discover how to choose better practice management features and what you must do to manage your healthcare practice in a better way to drive more revenue.

Keep on reading to understand fully about healthcare practice management, or jump ahead to your most interesting section.

What Is Healthcare Practice Management?

In a healthcare organization, every physician shares a primary responsibility of providing the best care to their patients. But here, the private healthcare practice physicians will have some additional challenges in running a successful practice.

So, if you’re running a practice and looking for ways to make it more productive manage billing workflow and engage your patients? Healthcare practice management can help you to achieve it.

Healthcare practice management helps organizations to manage scheduling, registration, patient accounting, tracking, and reporting under a single platform.

What Is Practice Management Software?

Practice management software is a tool that helps healthcare practices to manage both financial and administrative functions smartly. Practices may also integrate PM software with electronic medical records. The software is capable of entering and tracking patients, scheduling patient appointments, performing billing procedures, managing charge capture, and generating reports.

Practice Management Software Vs Electronic Medical Records

An EMR is a digital version of a patient’s medical history at an individual practice. The technology gained attention in 2009 when the U.S. government created financial incentives for companies to increase the use of information technology in the healthcare industry, including the adoption of electronic health records.

As a result of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act), medical practices have increased their implementation of EMR systems. In addition to helping physicians improve patient care, some data collected by the systems are shared with public health officials.

While some patient information in an EMR also may be contained in a practice management system, practice management software is used for a different purpose—for administrative and financial functions.

Practice management software can work together with electronic medical records (EMR) systems. However, integrating the two can be a challenge if a medical practice chooses different vendors for the systems. Improving this integration is a priority for some companies developing medical practice management software.

Practice Management Software For Small Practice

Top 10 Features To Look For In Healthcare Practice Management

1. Insurance Verification 

This is one of the most sought-after features in practice management solutions that clinical practitioners look for. This goes beyond mere storing and managing insurance information. Such functionality would verify the details of every patient’s insurance coverage. This is especially important because plans tend to be complicated and a rapid verification procedure lets you know if a patient has the necessary coverage for certain services. 

In addition to this, insurance verification within a healthcare practice management software can also streamline the re-submission of claims. Every provider knows how long it can take to re-submit claims. A medical practice billing software that can automate insurance verification and claims re-submissions would improve revenue flows and patient experience.

2. Appointment Scheduling    

An appointment scheduling feature in a health practice management platform significantly improves clinical efficiency. The ability to look for available slots, finalize timings, and even re-schedule appointments with a few clicks make things easier for physicians and non-medical staff. 

The ability to re-schedule appointments without hassles has reduced missed consultations. No shows have been directly linked to worsening health for patients with chronic conditions. So, custom healthcare software solutions that include a scheduling feature within a medical practice software are a must-have for doctors. 

3. Patient Registration 

Pre-registering patients involves collecting and managing their personal and medical information during their first visit. The traditional way involved pen and paper and manual filing. On the other hand, a patient registration feature included within automated healthcare solutions to digitize patient registration helps aggregate the data better, making it easier to store and check for coverage details. 

4. Automatic Appointment Reminders  

Healthcare spending in the United States has topped $3 trillion. That’s more than the economy of all but four countries. Studies conclude that a major reason for that is poor management of chronic conditions, which happens because of missed appointments.

Medical billing practice management solutions that include automatic appointment reminders reduce no-shows and encourage people to show up for consultations on time, in addition to medical practice management systems, numerous patient engagement systems to feature automated appointment reminders. 

There could be many reasons for missed consultations – busy schedule, change of plans, or just plain forgetfulness. A physician might change a patient’s dosage, prescriptions, or even recommend tests in a follow-up appointment.

Automated reminders in healthcare practice management software push people to take their health more seriously by preventing them from missing any consultations. 

5. Patient Portals 

Integrated healthcare solutions that include patient portals within medical billing practice management software have improved doctor-patient interaction. People can look at their medical information, insurance coverage details, pay bills, change prescriptions, and so forth on patient portals. 

Moreover, recent adoptions of healthcare cloud computing technologies have allowed patient portals to be accessed from personal devices while on the move. This empowers patients to be better involved in their care and even make informed decisions. 

6. Secure Communication System 

Healthcare practice management software with a secure communication system allows seamless doctor-patient engagement. The communication could be through calls or messages. This will enable patients to speak with their clinician to resolve their medication, diet, or lifestyle queries.

Advanced telehealth solutions within healthcare practice management solutions allow patients to have virtual consultations from remote locations. Interactive patient-doctor communication is increasingly vital to the overall patient experience.  

7. Analytics and Reporting  

Analyzing operational data often reveals insights about running a business more efficiently. Analytics has helped every industry derive more revenue and cut down costs in day-to-day operations. Similarly, analytics and reporting within practice management for healthcare highlights where clinicians can improve the business side of their practice. Healthcare software product development that offers this feature helps providers aggregate administrative back-office work into a single dashboard.

Moreover, they can have a bird’ eye view of their business information, which would show them where most of their money is being spent. As a result, clinicians can be better informed when deploying their resources and cut back wherever needed. 

8. Medical Billing 

The process of billing is what keeps the revenue flowing for providers. Healthcare practice management software that includes billing can help consolidate all billing activities into one interface. Verifying if a patient’s payer is supported by your practice, attesting claims, and handling payments are some of the benefits that a practice management software for healthcare can offer.

A vendor offering PMS in medical billing also includes assessing claims and minimizing denials. So, a billing feature is an indispensable component of any healthcare practice management software. It generates greater revenue by cutting costs, improving workflows, optimizing care delivery, and improving overall health care management. 

9. Integration with EHR 

If a health practice management software can integrate with an EMR/EMR, it will facilitate faster electronic data interchange. Additionally, physicians can easily pull up patient data during consultations or tests to expedite the process of care delivery. 

An EHR within a PMS software for medical billing provides a central repository for storing healthcare data. Such integration will also facilitate remote health monitoring systems to keep track of patient health so that the EHR can be updated periodically.

In the long run, such an arrangement can help doctors manage at-risk patients better. In other words, having electronic health records incorporated into a medical practice management service can have a transformative impact on the overall quality of care and clinical outcomes.  

10. Patient Data Management and Reporting  

An integrated patient data management and reporting module are one of the most coveted features within a healthcare practice management system. By helping physicians aggregate patient data, this feature facilitates medical informatics solutions to highlight clues about patient health. 

Moreover, a patient data management system enables medical staff to view patients’ insurance coverage, payments, and outstanding bills on a single interface. In doing so, software for practice management in healthcare bolsters the efficiency of non-clinical work.

Practice Management With Vozo

Vozo makes tasks like scheduling, billing, and filing insurance claims much easier to manage. Whether on its own or paired with the EMR platform, Vozo’s PM functionality helps reduce costs and boost productivity.

Healthcare practices of all sizes face regulatory changes and reimbursement challenges. An integrated EMR and practice management system like Vozo can help practices to adapt to these industry changes.

With Vozo’s Practice Management solution, practice staff can:

• Reduce manual billing and paperwork
• Speed up the payment process for better cash flow
• Receive faster reimbursement decisions from insurance companies
• Process claims more efficiently and effectively
• Schedule patient visits
• Share information with other staff in the practice
• Easily add new patients to the database
• Integrate legacy IT systems
• Spend less time on paperwork and more time with patients

Discover how Vozo practice management solutions can help your practice increase productivity and enhance cash flow.