The Key Features Your Medical Billing Software Needs and Why
Medical billing software can do a lot to help you run your physical therapy practice more efficiently while attracting new patients and growing your practice. The trick, of course, is choosing software that has the features you need. It’s important to take a look at your current billing process and identify your pain points. Then, you’ll be able to assess whether a particular software is right for your practice. With that in mind, here are the key features your medical billing software needs – and why you need them.
Appointment Scheduling
The software you choose for your physical therapy practice should include efficient patient scheduling that’s linked to billing. Your staff should be able to schedule patients easily, and it should be simple for you to track past and future appointments, cancellations and no-shows.
Patient Pre-Registration
It can be a huge time-saver to have all new physical therapy patients complete intake forms and provide insurance information before their first appointment with you. They won’t need to do it in the office before their first appointment with you and you’ll be able to verify their insurance before they arrive.
The ideal medical billing software will have an easy way to upload patient information and it should be linked to insurance verification and billing.
Medical Claim Management
Managing insurance claims and status can overwhelm your staff and cause delay in payments. You can streamline their work and make it easier to stay on top of claims by choosing medical billing software that enables them to track medical claims from the same place that they handle other aspects of your practice.
For the best results, you should choose medical billing software that offers:
- Electronic claims processing
- Claim tracking and scrubbing
- Claim history
- Claim reconciliation
- Insurance payers listing
Not only will you be able to submit claims without a hassle, you’ll be able to track them and maximize your cash flow.
Automated Coding and Claim Resubmission
Even the best employees can make errors sometimes, particularly when they’re coding long lists of treatments. Manual data entry leaves plenty of room for mistakes.
For that reason, we strongly suggest choosing medical billing software that includes automated coding of treatments. You want ICD codes to populate your insurance bills automatically to minimize the chance that the claim will be denied and need to be rebilled and resubmitted.
And, if you do need to resubmit a claim, your software should make resubmission simple by automating it.
Encryption and Security
As a healthcare provider, you have a legal and ethical duty to protect your patients’ electronic medical records in compliance with HIPAA regulations. That means that any medical billing software you consider must have top-of-the-line security features.
All EMR you collect and store on behalf of your patients must be encrypted and protected by strong passwords. Since many medical billing software solutions are in the cloud, it’s essential to be confident that your patients can trust you to keep their information safe when you’re storing and transmitting it on the web.
Reporting
Strong reporting capabilities are a must for any medical billing software solution. You’ll need to be able to:
- Track open bills and claims
- Run patient statements and send collection notices when necessary
- Log payments and refunds
- Track your practice revenue
- Run essential financial reports
You’ll want to make sure that you choose software that provides you with the tools you need to manage your practice with a minimum of stress.
User-Friendly Interface
How easy will it be for you and your staff to use the medical billing software you choose? That’s an important consideration.
You’ll want to be sure to choose software with a user-friendly dashboard and interface that’s easy and intuitive to use. You don’t want to be guessing which menu to access. Everything should be clear and accessible with a minimum amount of training.
Credit Card Payments
Many patients these days prefer to pay with a credit card. For that reason, it makes sense to choose billing software that makes it easy for you to accept credit cards both online and in person.
Fortunately, many billing software providers include credit card payments as a core functionality. It’s a bonus if it saves you money with processing fees, while also making it easier on your front office staff to process.
Support
Sometimes, physical therapists overlook support because it’s not a built-in feature of medical billing software. That’s a mistake. If you invest in a solution that lacks robust support, you may end up paying more in lost time and wages than you would have if you’d spent more up front.
You should look for a provider that offers stellar support. Ideally, they’ll provide telephone, web conferencing and email support. They should also provide training documentation in the form of manuals and other materials.
To get the best results for your practice, the medical billing software you choose should include the features we’ve outlined here. We understand the frustration and inefficiency that can come with lackluster billing processes because we’ve been there ourselves. That’s why we designed HENO to be a comprehensive practice management software for physical therapists. Click here to schedule a free demo with one of our team members.
