The following excerpt is from an article found on EHR Intelligence. It was written by Sara Heath. ----------------------------- When it comes to patient engagement, efforts must go beyond checking boxes. Patient engagement is increasing in importance in the healthcare industry, with several initiatives requiring patient access to health information and other patient engagement functionalities such meaningful use and accountable care organizations. However, creating a genuine connection with a patient and then getting him to engage with his care outside of the doctor’s office can often present quite a challenge.

Despite their noble calling, practitioners of the healing arts require compensation in a timely manner just like everyone else. In order to get paid on time, however, medical practices must keep on top of their billing practices. Using solutions such as revenue cycle management software and third party billing firms can help boost your medical practice to the next level. The more your organization grows, the more you can stand to benefit from using specialized software tools and working with medical claims experts.

As any owner or manager of a healthcare organization can tell you, running a successful medical practice is not without its challenges. How you respond to these difficulties (or avoid dealing with them) can dramatically influence the future of your business. No matter how problematic things get, such as a marked decline in patient satisfaction rates, a feeling among staff that they have too much busywork to complete each day or excessive employee turnover, there are steps you can take to right the situation and get back on course. With that in mind, here are some tips on how to overcome these top practice management challenges.

If you’re not moving forward with your medical practice every year, you run the risk of growing stagnant or reverting back to the lower levels of revenue you experienced during the initial years. You have little control over some factors, such as typical illness and injury rates in your community, or the financial well being of your patients as the economy fluctuates. Still, with all things being equal, there are steps you can take to improve revenue. With that in mind, here are six business tips to help grow your practice in 2016.

Many physicians and clinicians initially embraced patient portals primarily as a means to establish asynchronous communication in a secure environment and encourage patient registration volume as required by MU Stage 2. This allowed staff members to engage in vital conversations with consumer-patients without lengthy telephone calls, enabling more efficient resource allocation and eliminating many time-consuming telephone calls.

Growing a thriving practice today means recognizing the consumer aspect of patient relationships. It’s true your primary goal as a physician is to enable patients to achieve a healthy body, spirit and mind to the best of your ability; however patients also expect their physicians and other healthcare providers to respect their time, financial constraints and personal health goals. Keeping your consumer-patients happy is an important aspect of building long-term relationships.

Electronic Health Record (EHR) information is used for various purposes. Whether data is used to compile a comprehensive medical history, to support clinical research or to facilitate diagnosing and treating patients, accuracy is critical. Handwritten chart notes are becoming less acceptable, although some physicians still prefer this method because it is familiar.

The following excerpt is from an article found on Revcycleintelligence.com. It was written by Jacqueline DiChiara. ---------------------- “The front-end of the revenue cycle must be diligent with determining Medicaid eligibility and assist uninsured patients understand their coverage options with the insurance exchanges." RevCycleIntelligence.com recently polled over 60 readers to assess revenue cycle management challenges and opportunities, from the front-end, to the back-end, and everything in between.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services describes (CMS) electronic prescribing as the “ability to electronically send an accurate, error-free and understandable prescription directly to a pharmacy from the point-of-care,” which is an integral component of improving quality of care.

Wouldn’t you like to know as much as possible about what is happening in your medical practice? While you can’t have eyes and ears on everything at all times, you can find out details about the practice simply by asking. Each patient who comes for service is a potential critic who can provide invaluable feedback.