Medical Practice Software - One Step On The Path To The Paperless Office
Medical practice software is taking the dream of the paperless medical office one step closer to fruition. For years medical practices have ranked right up there with lawyers' offices when it comes to paper consumption. From the moment a patient walked through the door they created a paper trail. First the receptionist would enter the details of their appointment into the appointment book and get the customer to complete a number of forms. Then once the doctor had seen them he would write details into their records and file them away until the next visit. The doctor would then complete some forms with a few notes on them for the nurse or receptionist. Finally a series of forms would be completed and sent off to the medical insurance company for payment.
The medical office software now available can completely do away with all paperwork. The patient will come into the practice and the appointment will be entered into the software. In some cases the patient can actually book the appointment online. If any details need to be added they can then be entered by the receptionist. The entry in the appointment book will then trigger the formation of a bill for this visit and also call up the patient’s records for the doctor. If the records don’t exist the doctor can create them during the examination. All the details can be viewed and updated via a PC, laptop or even a PDA. On completion of the notes the bill is once again updated. It can then be checked and completed by a medical coder and dispatched to the insurance company for payment all within a few hours.
Not only does the medical software help keep the practice efficient, it also helps to increase the cash flow as electronic bills usually get paid twice as fast as paper based bills. Although the cost of the software can be expensive at first, the savings in staff costs and increased productivity can more than pay for the program within a short period of time. All software should also help you comply with the HIPAA regulations, especially the latest security and data retrieval regulations.
As health professionals have seen over the past few years, new regulations and rules can cause chaos and confusion. For example starting on June 1, 2007 the current CMS 1500 Insurance claim form is to be discontinued and no longer in use. It is being superseded by a new CMS1500 (08/05) form. If you were a paper based office you would have to throw away any copies of the old forms and immediately beging using the new forms, assuming you had been able to get them. However, a simple patch applied to your medical practice software will immediately update your electronic forms so that they are acceptable to the insurance companies.
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