What Is Practice Management Software?

Implementing a powerful tool such as practice management software (PM or EPM) alongside your electronic health record system (EHR) can increase your practice's efficiency and boost productivity. Practice management systems handle many administrative tasks including appointment scheduling and medical billing. With this software, you can ease administrative burdens, save time and money, and focus more on your patients.

Manage Appointments with Practice Management Software

Practice management software organizes and streamlines your practice’s administrative tasks including appointment scheduling. With a practice management system, your front desk can book appointments quickly and easily. In addition, maintaining an electronic schedule can help your practice fill all open appointments and automate follow-up appointments to reduce scheduling burdens. Built-in tools also let patients book appointments directly through an online patient portal. These patient-led tools reduce calls to your office, letting your front desk focus on other appointment and billing tasks.

Reporting functions can also improve your appointment workflows. For example, PM reports can show you trends in wait times and missed appointments. Tools like TempDev’s NextGen Appointment Analysis EPM Report can display appointment statistics by patient type, appointment type, and day of the week. These tools can help your practice identify patterns and adjust schedules as needed to smooth workflows.

Streamline Your Check-In Processes

Patient check-in can be time-consuming. If your practice uses paper forms to capture insurance information, addresses, current chief complaints, health history, and other information, your staff will have to enter that data into your practice management and EHR system by hand. Copying data from paper forms increases the risk of data entry errors. These errors can result in confusion and time spent to correct them. Worse, they can result in delayed or denied insurance claims which reduce your practice’s revenue.

Practice management software, however, can help you automate the check-in process. Using mobile phones, tablets, or kiosks, patients can sign in upon arrival and update their information directly in your system which reduces errors. Electronic check-in also saves your front-desk staff time and allows them to answer questions or help patients with complex needs. PMS can also collect cost-sharing directly from patients, ensuring a consistent payment record and reducing future collection efforts.

Give Patients Access to Their Health Information Anytime, Anywhere

Practice management software often includes a patient interface, also called a patient portal. Patient portals give patients secure, internet-based access to their health records and your practice. They can access their medical records, review treatment plans, and request medication refills, all without calling your office. Patients can even ask questions with secure provider messaging. This between-visit access to data and information can help engage patients in their care, improving health outcomes.

Some patient portal tools, like the NextGen Patient Portal (formerly Medfusion), also have advanced features to help patients pay for care. For example, the NextGen Patient Portal includes cost estimator tools to help patients see their likely cost-sharing or co-pay requirements before their visit. NextGen also supports online bill payment so patients don't need to pay during their visit or mail a check afterward.

Save Time on Medical Billing

Practice Management software supports medical billing by gathering coding and documentation from your EHR system and packaging it into electronic claims for payer submission. Using a claim edits library, you can check and clean claims before submitting them for payment. Using Practice Management and Billing software can save time on medical billing while increasing revenue.

Practice Management systems can also keep track of your practice’s revenue cycle. Reports show trends in claims denials and open accounts receivable. These reports help you identify problems with your billing processes and fix them to increase revenue. For example, tools like TempDev’s Revenue Cycle Dashboard NextGen EPM Report provide an overview of claims denials, accounts receivable, and payments by payer all in one place. Armed with this data, your practice can identify key revenue sources, problem payers, and common reasons for claims denials.

Integrate Practice Management Software with Your EHR

If your practice is considering practice management software, you'll get the most value with a solution that integrates with your EHR system. With an integrated EHR and PM system, you can access all of your practice’s data in one place. For example, NextGen Practice Management is fully integrated with NextGen Enterprise EHR to allow your practice to seamlessly complete clinical and administrative tasks. From appointments and prior authorization to office visits to billing, an integrated EHR and Practice Management system can do it all.

How TempDev Can Help with Practice Management Software

TempDev’s team of NextGen experts can help your practice get more out of your NextGen System. If you're considering practice management software, TempDev can help integrate and customize your system so it meets your needs.

Schedule a consultation with TempDev by calling 888.TEMP.DEV or contact us for answers to your questions and additional information.