How Could EHR Systems Improve Practices’ Cash Flow

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How Could EHR Systems Improve Practices Cash
Flow We all know that electronic health record
(EHR) systems are valuable tools for storing and
accessing information, but did you know that
medical practices could use them for other
functions? They can. In fact, because of their
versatility and compatibility, health care
offices could use EHR software for many
purposes. EHR systems could help medical offices
improve their cash flow and manage their revenue.
People might think of medical practices in terms
of the health conditions they treat, but theyre
also businesses. Medical professionals could use
EHR systems to help with bothand much
more. Offer additional RCM assistance One of
the benefits of electronic health record (EHR)
systems is that theyre not isolated
tools. Medical practices use EHRs for many
functions, and they use them with other types of
software. Many people have access to EHRs and
what they can do. In fact, they might ask for
assistance to fully capitalize on their
functions. Many EHR systems have prolonged
customer support features. Many EHR and practice
management (PM) systems have people they could
call for assistance with technical issues or
other matters. One of these matters is revenue
cycle management, or RCM. a process that manages
and collects a medical practices bills. PM and
EHR systems may be affiliated with services that
provide RCM, such as answering questions and
advice about managing revenue. They may also hire
and manage people who could help with
billing-related processes. Allow copayments
(copays)
Other EHR-related tasks could help generate and
track revenue.
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RCM professionals could use information from EHRs
and other data to simplify the billing process.
They might use such information to verify whether
patients have specific insurance plans and
determine what the plans cover (and dont
cover). During the verification processes,
professionals could determine whether patients
are responsible for any copayments (copays) for
the goods or services your office has provided.
If they are, offices could bill them for those
copays and even collect those payments at that
time. Immediate payment means immediate revenue
for your office. It prevents a lengthy claims
process involving insurance companies and
shortens or eliminates billing cycles that
patients might miss, ignore, or
forget. Coordinate with billing software But
not all billing and payment processes happen on
the spot, of course. An effective EHR system
allows medical practices to coordinate with
systems that handle billing and other financial
matters. It provides detailed information about
appointments, conditions, medications, and the
chronologies surrounding them. By adding this
information to bills and other financial
documents, medical offices could create detailed,
accurate bills. Such bills could explain which
specific services and goods the medical practice
provided, when it provided them, and the
conditions these treatment efforts
addressed. Seeing such detail, patients may be
less likely to question their bills or delay
paying them. The detail will also provide a
record of the care they received that they could
consult for future reference. Use portals for
billing purposes Patients might access these
bills on their online patient portals. Using
these portals for billing purposes is a natural
fit. These portals include information from their
electronic health records, so again, the
information is accurate and up to date. Medical
offices might want to send these billsand
reminders about these
bills through the portals. They also might want
to send billing reminders
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through other forms of communication, such as
email or text messages, to draw attention to the
bills posted on the portal. Once patients access
their bills, they can also use the portals
messaging features to ask their medical providers
about them. They can also use portals and credit
cards to pay what they owe. Digital portals,
then, might use EHR-based information to provide
a one- stop shop for billing, or at least
eliminate some of the steps of such
procedures. Affiliate with in-person and digital
sales Using EHR-based information to coordinate
with other systems and procedures is especially
useful if you sell goods related to your medical
specialty. If youre an eye care provider, for
instance, you might sell eyeglasses and contact
lenses online through your website or in person
at an onsite optical. Why not use your records to
make these purchasing processes easy? Your
offices electronic records will include the
results of your patients appointments,
descriptions of their eye conditions, and
prescriptions. You could coordinate this
information with your other software systems to
help patients select their eyewear products, pay
for them, and track their orders. Employees,
too, could use these systems to find and
track information related to patients orders and
health. If patients are purchasing new products,
the systems could help ensure they use the
correct prescriptions, or they might want to
compare old prescriptions to new ones to monitor
their eye health. Coordinated software systems
thus take the guesswork out of recordkeeping and
purchasing processes. Incorporate analytics to
understand your patient base Thats not to say
all technology-based guessing is a bad thing,
however. Data found in EHRs could help medical
practices make estimated guesses and projections
that could improve their performance. Your EHR
contains a wealth of information about who your
patients are,
what they do, and whats happening with their
health and other aspects of
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your life. Analytic tools could organize this
information to look for potentially helpful
patterns. Do patients who bought eyewear from
you tend to have certain things in common (aside
from vision that needs correcting)? If other
patients share such traits, consider telling them
about your optical services. Or, maybe analysis
will remind you that your practice serves many
patients who are children or teenagers. Armed
with this knowledge, you could carry eyewear and
literature that targets people of those ages or
patients that belong to other demographic
groups. Knowing your customers could help you
address their needs. We understand patient and
practice needs as well. Contact Eye Care Leaders
to find ways to learn about, incorporating, and
maximizing digital tools that could help you
raise revenue without sacrificing patient care.