EHR practice management software has become a crucial staple for medical practices. The healthcare industry is in constant flux; regulations and guidelines are always evolving. Navigating these rapidly evolving regulations while finding the most efficient way to manage a practice is a challenge for today’s healthcare providers.
Smart ISVs have honed in on the nagging need and have filled the market with a slew of EHR systems that promise to systematize and automate many of the paper-driven processes of the past. It’s a good start; however, many of the pain points that EHR systems were built to solve have continued to evolve - and new pain points have emerged. As the industry continues to morph to adapt to expanding patient and practice needs, ISVs and developers need to carefully consider whether or not the capabilities they provide are moving towards obsolescence or growth.
Balancing Processes & Patient Care
Evaluating that question begins with the basics and assessing the hurdles that medical practices face in 2020. The steps to complete for each visit are mammothian: view patient files and information, perform daily tasks around patient care, ensure patients have completed necessary forms and paperwork, and efficiently schedule patients. On top of that, practices must manage billing and all of its components: verify patient insurance, submit claims, accept payments, manage revenue cycle, and keep a finger on the pulse of key metrics performance for the practice over time.
Balancing patient care and revenue cycle requires a streamlined system that allows staff to complete tasks in a timely manner without sacrificing the quality of care. Integrated payments functionality can ensure that practices get paid while other EHR capabilities help automate many of these tasks and reduce administrative functions so doctors can spend more time with patients. That said, there are a wide array of EHR practice management systems available, making it critical that ISVs go the extra mile to keep software current and offer the best, most useful capabilities out there.
Integrated Payments are a Must
Revenue cycle management remains a key pain point for medical practices. In fact, a recent study of 108 chief financial officers and revenue cycle executives within the hospital and health system reveals that many are struggling to effectively use EHR capabilities or manage EHR upgrades.
More and more, these providers are collaborating with external vendors to improve revenue cycle performance. Consumer self-payment is a critical component behind the hurdles practices are facing. A large majority (85%) said that consumer self-payment will continue to impact their organizations. The disconnect between revenue cycle operations and clinical operations is a key challenge, and only 3% of respondents feel confident that their organization has been "entirely successful" managing the integration.
This points to a need for more robust IT solutions around revenue cycle management — and an integrated payments component is crucial. The liability to effectively manage revenue cycle trickles down into other areas of the practice, diverting time and energy away from core functions and patient care.
Adept developers have honed in on this dire need for integrated payments to streamline the entire billing process. Partnering with Global Payments Integrated to provide practices with a secure payment processing solution can reduce time-intensive reconciliation processes and cater to evolving customer payment preferences.
Global Payments Integrated enables developers to round out EHR practice management system offerings. In other words, we help you help your practices to honor customers’ sophisticated preferences by accepting a wide array of payment methods: online, in-person (swipe or chip), mobile wallets, check/ACH, gift cards, or over the phone. All-in-all, our integrated payments solution offers 150+ payment methods that you can securely embed within your platform to add significant value to your product.
We also know that a solid integrated payments solution is about more than simply accepting payments, which is why we offer a robust payment processing suite of services. This suite facilitates recurring and card-on-file payments to support your customers who may need to process a fixed amount on a routine basis. We also offer Decline Minimizer, a popular solution that automates the process of updating expired or outdated card information. It provides your customers with the peace of mind that they don’t have to choose between unnecessary card declines and dedicating countless hours and resources to tracking down information manually.
Help Practices Streamline Care, Service, and Growth
Integrated payments are just the beginning. In this digital era where telemedicine is moving to the forefront and practices find they are in a highly competitive landscape, we offer a Customer Engagement Suite that helps you help your customers streamline care, improve service, and grow. These considerations and solutions are the capabilities that will separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to EHR practice management systems of the future.
Removing friction extends beyond offering integrated payments with a wide range of payment methods and looks at how to help practices and staff engage patients with a purpose. This includes:
- CallPop - Make the telephone smart and personalize the patient experience with a smart caller ID that tells the business everything they need to know about patients before calls are answered.
- SMS - Enhance the way your clients communicate with their patients through text by responding to questions, scheduling appointments, and capturing more payments. What about missed calls? Use text to turn missed calls into revenue.
- Social Reputation Management - Help businesses compete by managing their reputation through social media, and how they stack up against their local competition.
These tools can add value to your EHR practice management platform by modernizing the way people pay and get paid and enhancing every touch point of the patient journey. Leveraging integrated payments along with customer engagement tools can ensure that your system remains modern, relevant, and far from obsolete. Contact us today to get started.