What to Look for in EHR and Practice Management Software

Purchasing behavioral health practice management software is the first step toward tying together various pieces of your practice or agency and connecting the data. The key to finding the right software solution for your organization is to look for a fully integrated platform that ties together practice management and EHR functionality. You want one centralized location to use all the data at your fingertips to make sound business decisions.

Look specifically for an EHR and practice management platform that includes scheduling, clinical, medication management, billing, revenue cycle management, and reporting. Here’s how an integrated behavioral health EHR and practice management software platform ties everything together.

Client engagement

An integrated EHR and practice management platform should make it easy to engage with your clients. From intake of new clients to sending automatic appointment reminders to current clients, client engagement is a key element.

You should also be able to offer clients access to their records with total confidentiality.

Use your practice management software to check and monitor appointment history. Your new practice management software allows you to check on your authorizations available to make sure you do not book another appointment if the payer does not allow it.

Clinical

A fully integrated EHR and practice management software solution makes it easy to record, track, and manage client progress from a centralized dashboard.

Recording client notes should be easy with access to templates and recording features that automate the routine progress note tasks.

Look for a complete platform that seamlessly integrates your clinical functions with intake, scheduling appointments, and other practice management tasks.

Practice

Behavioral health practice management software helps you streamline how your agency operates. For example, look for a system that covers such areas as authorization management, calendar and scheduling, medication accountability, bed management, and document tracking.

Your new practice management software should let you check appointment history and run reports like the number of no-shows to help you manage your practice.

Revenue cycle management

Revenue cycle management and billing functionality is sometimes a separate system. When you integrate all your disparate systems into one provider success platform, you achieve efficiencies that can pay for themselves over time.

For example, you can automate billing functions so your staff spends less time on the billing aspect of your business. Look for an integrated system that lets you bill daily on completion of progress notes, automatically posts claims, and tracks claim status.

Also look for revenue cycle management functionality that cuts errors and increases claim accuracy to help you reduce days in accounts receivable.

Data analytics

The key to managing your behavioral health agency more efficiently is leveraging the data you have at your fingertips.

A fully integrated EHR and practice management software solution should let you:

• Accurately measure client and practices outcomes.
• Identify what’s working and understand the financial impact of each program.
• Instantly create reports for audits and regulatory requirements.
• Generate revenue cycle management reports to help you track accounts receivable, payments, missing signatures, and more.

Interoperability

An EHR and practice management software that’s fully integrated into one provider success platform that accommodates third party connections such as HIE’s, clearing houses, and other local entities.

Interoperability grants you visibility into clients’ care and treatment outcomes. You can also reduce the time it takes your administrative staff to verify insurance eligibility by automating that function.

Finally, you’ll save on scanning documentation or calling for lab results when you’re able to connect to outside systems.

Conclusion

One of the strengths of an integrated EHR and practice management software system is how it streamlines your client and company data. When you use an integrated system, you link information that is typically housed in separate places. This helps you eliminate the extra workload it takes to bridge the gap between systems.