Does your practice software generate useful reports?

I was catching up on some reading the other day and noticed the following survey question in the MGMA Digest: Does your practice management software generate useful financial reports? 56.3% of the respondents said yes and 43.7% said no.

I was thinking about this survey and have a few observations and comments:

1. Any medical system can bill and collect – the good systems are the ones that produce data to manage by; remember, you can’t manage what you don’t measure.

2. Are medical practices really investing in medical practice management software today? Are they spending money to make money? In my opinion, they are. The ability to improve technology is one of the drivers of current medical practice mergers.

3. I wonder if all respondents really know what are “useful” reports. Any system can produce the “basic” reports such as a summary of charges, collections, adjustments, an A/R aging, a CPT frequency report, etc. But what are the reports that go beyond the basics? Work RVUs by provider? Avg. reimbursement by payer or service? How about the total ability to “data mine” in to the system and retrieve whatever information you want and need?

So what are your thoughts and comments on this survey? I would like to hear from you.