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.

The following excerpt is from an article found on Healthcare IT News. It was written by Jack McCarthy. The transition to electronic health records is essential in modernizing healthcare – yet, in practice, meaningful use has made it painful and progress thus far has been intermittent. Indeed, the proposed rules for the third stage of meaningful use, particularly the requirements for greater participation of doctors and hospitals, is now coming under even more fire than the program has seen in the past.

The following excerpt is from an article found on Healthcare Finance News. It was written by Susan Morse. With implementation of ICD-10 less than three months away, revenue cycle teams are breathing a little more easily since the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ announcement of a year’s grace period in which claims will not be denied because they’re not specific enough.

Like all other people of science, physicians are accustomed to dealing with cold, hard facts. They cannot provide the best care possible to patients if they don’t understand the numbers behind the treatments, such as success rates of one procedure over another or how long it typically takes for a patient to progress from one stage of illness to becoming completely healed. Statistics also shed light on local demographics of patients as well as the business conditions under which physicians do their work. With that in mind, here are 10 statistics that every physician needs to know.

The more streamlined the financial processes are at your medical practice, the more time and attention your team can spend on diagnosing and healing patients. A financially strong medical organization does a better job at retaining talented employees, as they won’t have the same level of anxiety as they would if they worked at a facility that is not doing so well. Patients can tell the difference too, between thriving practices and those that could use some help in managing their revenue cycle. This is where revenue cycle management software comes in. It helps you gain better control over claims and billing and will let you generate customized reports so you can stay on top of crucial data.