You’ve experienced problems in the past with how you billed your patients, leading to missed payments as well as a much longer revenue cycle for those that do pay. Now you are growing more serious about finally using dedicated software that was built with your organization’s needs in mind. As you and your staff prepare to bring a new medical billing system into your practice, you will likely have some pressing questions that need answering before you can make your selection. Here are the answers to your top five medical billing system questions.

Technology has dramatically changed the way physicians practice medicine today. Connected devices do everything from helping patients manage diabetes and exercise schedules to enabling video conferencing with specialists around the globe to treat complicated cases. In many ways, it has improved both quality and continuity of care while empowering patients to take control of their personal health and wellness. However, simply plugging into the cloud isn’t enough. Optimizing cloud performance is only achievable with stellar software and compatible devices in the mix.

Managing highly-specialized implementation, such as the shift to ICD-10, requires highly-skilled team members. Over the past few years, hospitals and health systems have invested hundreds of millions of dollars collectively to prepare for the complex implementation. And, while physicians have not faced the arduous challenges that vendors, payers and hospitals have experienced, they can benefit from the lessons learned. For example, outsourcing medical coding and billing services may be the key to managing a healthy revenue stream and improving your practice as a whole.

No matter how skilled you are, your success will depend to some degree on the quality of the tools and equipment you use in your profession. Many physicians who entered into their careers before the era of modern, networked computing have become accustomed to using antiquated paper-based systems for patient record keeping. They may be aware of colleagues who use electronic health record software but for one reason or another haven’t acquainted themselves with the benefits of using EHR solutions.

Now that your behavioral health practice is starting to really take off and you are seeing more patients than ever before, you and your staff need to manage your organization’s growing pains. One of the first things medical organizations tend to do when their patient volume substantially increases is to check on software solutions. This is where behavioral health electronic health record software comes in.

A National Institutes of Health (NIH) study conducted several years ago revealed convenience was the most common reason patients change primary doctors. More than half of the 1423 patients responding to the survey (53%) were willing to find a new general practitioner that was closer to their residence or easier to visit. The same study revealed that recommendations from trusted peers and family members (36%) and positive expectations of service (37%) also ranked high among the stated reasons that a patient was willing to leave one doctor for another.

Revenue cycle management (RCM) must evolve for health care organizations to not only remain solvent, but to thrive in the current environment. The best path to managing the evolution, or more precisely, where to start the journey, depends on which industry expert you believe. However, there is a common thread whether you are listening to a marketing expert, a customer service coach or a financial advisor – process optimization is business-critical.

The following excerpt is from an article found on Healthcare Finance News. It was written by James Larson and Nancy Henry. Just like focusing on providing quality care to patients is critical to a health care practice, bottom line management can make the difference between successful claims handling and a battle of denials and errors. Time and again we hear clients express frustration that collections are down, and more often than not it’s due to time spent dealing with inefficiencies and mistakes in the back office.

The following excerpt is from our recent whitepaper, "Practice Management for Your Anesthesiology Practice." Today’s medical practices have a wealth of software solutions at their disposal to help them better manage their workflow and billing. Specialty organizations such as anesthesiology practices are no exception to this in that a “wealth” of software solutions are available, including many “one-size-fits-all” practice management applications that may be in use by anesthesiology practices, but which are not ideally geared toward anesthesiology and all of its billing nuances. For that reason, anesthesiology practice managers or owners will want to implement the most appropriate application for that particular specialty.

Twitter just celebrated a birthday. Nine years after its launch in 2006, it is hard to ignore the influence this social media pioneer has on most industries, including healthcare. Twitter boasts over 300 million active users and millions of tweets a day. A small handful of these tweeters is what marketing gurus call influencers. In other words, people follow them to see the latest trends and get the news that matters. Consider 10 powerful Twitter influencers in the healthcare market.