Don’t forget importance of your practice management system

Your practice management system is your healthcare practice’s pathway to the revenue stream.  Your biggest dollar investment is probably your practice management system (although now, your EHR and IT costs may exceed PM)

• Your primary contact with payers is your practice management system.  

• Your ability to contract with those carriers productively depends on your      analysis of codes and payments within the practice management system

• Your daily, weekly, monthly, yearly revenue reports originate in the practice system data. Your analysis of that data helps you to plan strategically for the future.

• Data analysis will help you identify lags of payments, under-payments, denial trends and how efficiently your follow-up teams are working the accounts receivables.

• Your ability to comply with ICD 10 without loss of cash flow will begin with      your practice management system.

• Your assurance that every charge has been captured is in the practice      management system.

• All of your charge and payment history resides in your practice management system

• All of your patient data (apart from clinical data) resides in your practice      management system

• Your ability to talk to patients about their charges and their insurance      questions depends on the practice management system

• When the CEO calls about a specific patient who has called them, you go to the practice management system

• When a physician wants to know how much is paid for a specific procedure, your answer comes from the practice management system

• All of your business operations is dependent upon the practice management system, from appointment scheduling to issuing the final bill.

Has the point been made yet?  Your investment in the practice management system and people who operate that system is what keeps the practice going.  It provides the revenue to pay the bills and the people.  While it is indeed a cost center; it is the vehicle revenue centers are dependent upon for proper handling of charges, denials and payments.  

How efficiently your practice manages the system and the people primarily responsible for the system determine the financial success of your practice.