Does Medical Billing Software Improve Productivity?

Posted by Lauren Lau on December 5th, 2019

 

Medical Billing Software and Productivity Questioned

Does technology really benefit us? The right technology can make our lives easier; however, if they don’t have the right features, they can end up hurting us more than benefiting us. 

Medical billing software has revolutionized the medical industry. With easier retrieval of medical histories and reduced paperwork, using the software can go a long way in improving your productivity. Therefore, a user needs to get an overview of some of the software features that can boost revenue and increase the productivity of an organization. Some of these features include:

1. Patient portal

This is an electronic system or profile that can run on laptops and desktop computers. The patients, through smartphones and tablets, can be able to access a patient portal. These portals are very convenient. They can save valuable time in many instances. For example, it can be an avenue for patients to book appointments at the comfort of their bed or couch without having to be present in the hospital physically. The patients and the health service provider can also communicate through these portals, be it follow-ups on how they are feeling or reminding them of their medication or appointments.

Another exciting thing about this feature is that test results can be uploaded and viewed on the portal. Therefore, the patient does not have to go under the pressure of waiting for a phone call with the information about their last test result. They can view them whenever they are ready. 

The health service provider’s back-end feature should be effective by allowing the patients to key in their information online. This saves them the hustle of entering information in massive stacks of paperwork. They can also take the details from the patients first hand without having to pass through their assistants. 

2. E-prescribing

It is without a doubt that you have heard a joke or two about poor penmanship by physicians, as they are not known to have the best handwriting in the world. This modern way of health service delivery makes it much easier for them to generate a prescription. They do not have to give written instructions to the pharmacies. They can do so through the software electronically.

This feature also saves time. When the patient is coming from the physician moving towards the pharmacy, the prescription will already have been sent to them. They can, therefore, be able to process the information that already is ready by the time the patient gets there.

The most important thing that makes this feature a benefit to both the patients and physicians is the fact that it allows for accurate prescriptions. No one has to worry about the misinterpretation of the handwritten details.

For a physician, there is a high probability that they will stay with you and trust you if the service delivery is more convenient.

3. Claim denial manager

This is the billing, organization, filling, and updating medical claims that are related to treatments and diagnosis of patients. Your organizations heavily depend on the regular and timely flow of monetary values. Therefore, the claim denial manager comes to the rescue by speeding up payments. It has a way to discover instantly if there is a problem with an individual claim, such as codes that are incorrectly put.

Besides, this software can show you alerts accompanied by suggestions on how to fix them. If this does not save you the time and energy to go through your records looking for warnings and errors, what does? Now, it is a simple process of correcting the mistakes on the spot.

Your organization will be able to look at all the claims and get the reasons that led to the denials. You can also be able to discover pasterns of these claims and make adjustments in the processes to correct them.

4. Voice recognition

There is a high probability that you have interacted with this voice recognition feature, especially those who have called a company sorting out bills or making some inquiries.

It incorporates a system that can record audios when people speak and interpret it. It then translates this sound into text, displaying it on a computer screen. This completely replaces the traditional method, where the physician would draft some notes and have them typed into the records of the patients with a more convenient and effective way to input the data.

This feature reduces errors such as keying in wrong data. In addition, it also saves on time, as one does not have to wait for services to return to you.

5. Healthcare analytics

One of the most successful features in this software is the healthcare analytics. It modernizes the whole system. It utilizes big data as well as the strong capability of computers to tabulate, analyze, and compare information about patients. This can be a meaningful aid for you and your team while managing your business, especially in the financial aspects. It also processes data more efficiently, giving a clear picture of how your organization is running.

This feature incorporates several dashboards such as the executive dashboard that gives the leaders in an organization access to an organization’s information. It also has Key Performance Indicator (KPI) benchmarking services. You can use this feature by setting standards that you expect at the end of a certain period, and it will help you to keep track of the performances and to see the fields you need to improve on.

No modern practice should lack this critical feature.

Conclusion

Medical billing software can help your organization improve efficiency and save money. It's essential to understand software features, which can help you in determining the most applicable for your field of work and stay competitive in the healthcare industry.