Addiction Medicine Software Review
Manage Your Entire Substance Abuse Clinic On A Single Platform with an affordable all in one solution for in-clinic and tele-care. In this 2022 review of Addiction Treatment EHR, Practice Management and Billing Software we explore the most popular stand alone systems, integrated systems, and all-in-one practice management systems that are designed especially for the clinical and business needs of busy opioid treatment centers.
2022 Review of Substance Treatment Software
The Right Solution Means Tighter Financial Control, More Streamlined Processes, and Happier Clients.
Burnout levels in healthcare have reached record levels. The National Academy of Medicine found that between 35% and 54% of US nurses and physicians have substantial symptoms of burnout. Not surprisingly, those in addiction medicine are highly susceptible to burnout.
One reason is at least 50% of substance abuse counselors are themselves in recovery. Other reasons include increased work hours, increased focus on productivity, and lack of leadership support. But nestled among these factors is are two eminently more solvable ones: administrative work and EHRs.
Those practicing addiction medicine have very specific needs when it comes to scheduling, clinical notetaking, coding, sharing patient data, prescribing, workflow management, and reimbursement. These needs cannot be met by a standard, non-customizable EHR designed for a hospital department or general practice.
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We know from an AMA survey that 46% of physicians say their time on their EHR system outside of normal scheduled work hours is excessive. Given their highly specialized needs, it’s extremely likely that percentage is even higher for addiction medicine specialists.
Review 6 Addiction Treatment Software Features
Look for these 6 features in advanced EHRs/EMRs to help addiction specialists spend less time on administrative work and coding, more time with patients, and zero time charting from home.
- Advanced scheduling. Patients should be able to schedule an appointment with your practice in a variety of ways, including phone, text, email, and a patient portal. Your front-office staff should be able to batch check eligibility, double book appointments, schedule resources like lab tests by “first available,” scan and attach documents to patient records, and easily schedule automated appointment reminders.
- Notes management. Counselors must be able to quickly access to their previous notes and access multiple patient records simultaneously. Make sure your counselors can quickly and securely share patient notes with other providers from within the EMR.
- E-prescribing. Robust e-prescribing is essential to addiction medicine software. EMRs with a strong focus on drug interactions lower the need for manual mediation reconciliation and help patients avoid harmful drug interactions.
- Workflow management. Addiction counseling is complex and can be long term. It’s essential that the EMR you select lets counselors follow patients from admission through treatments, prescriptions and medication adjustments, discharge, and follow-up.
- Customizable templates. Substance-abuse conditions differ substantially from those typically found in a primary-care setting. Addiction medicine specialists should be able to easily create templates for things like alcoholism, opioid addiction, cocaine addiction, and more.
- Reimbursement management and revenue cycle management. Most addiction treatment centers bill government agencies like Medicaid, public charities, and private charities, in addition to the patients themselves. A sophisticated coding and billing module is essential to keeping your practice’s finances in the black. Today’s technology can identify and fix lost revenue from patient balances and unpaid claims and benchmark your reimbursement rates.
Review The Top 5 Addiction Medicine Systems
Here are five applications that are popular with addiction medicine specialists:
- This package includes EHR, practice management and medical billing. It features workflows configured for addiction medicine, e-prescribing, reporting on drugs administered to patients, addition treatment plans, and group therapy notes.
- With EHR and RCM, this software is addiction-treatment specific. It includes electronic check-in, scheduling, appointment reminders, treatment plans, progress notes, outcome measurement, and withdrawal management.
- Foothold Technology. This software helps providers efficiently manage treatment planning, coordinate behavioral and medication therapies, and stay on track to meet regulatory requirements.
- Smart Management. This EHR software for opioid treatment programs offers specialized treatment workflows, streamlined dosing, easy access to patient records, advanced scheduling, and telehealth options.
- A cloud-based EHR that provides incident management, inventory management, infusion pump dispensing, group-meeting scheduling, note tracking, drug-screen panels and detailed reporting.
Tomorrow’s Addiction Medicine Clinic, Today
What is Addiction Medicine Software?
At a basic level, addiction medicine software electronically stores patient medical information. Ideally, the software not only takes into account the unique needs of addiction professionals, it also helps them spend more time with patients. But no matter how modern or feature-filled an electronic medical record (EMR) is, unless it easily integrates with all other software used in the addiction treatment clinic, it’s not a good choice.
Tomorrow’s Addiction Medicine Practice, Today
Today’s patients expect simple, fast, multi-channel communication with all their providers, along with virtual visits when appropriate. To keep up, addiction treatment clinics must provide secure text and chat for appointment making, automated appointment reminders, electronic registration, mobile check-in, telehealth connected to EMR, and automated e-billing and statements.
How Can Modern EMRs Benefit Addiction Professionals?
- Simplify coding. The nature of substance-abuse work puts addition professionals at great risk for EMRs that are difficult to learn, counterintuitive to use, and require multiple steps for simple tasks can contribute to burnout. Addiction professionals need software that improves efficiency by quickly leading them through the process to enter, for example, the cause of a behavioral disorder and the abuse or dependence specifier (e.g., with delirium).
- Streamline scheduling. Patients who can choose from a variety of scheduling and rescheduling methods (text, email, phone) and who receive appointment reminders are more likely to make it to their appointments.
- Improve documentation. Patient interactions must be carefully documented, including in group settings. Look for an EMR that can handle multiple patient records simultaneously and that facilitate safe sharing of that information with other providers.
- Streamline e-prescribing. Robust e-prescribing is essential to addition medicine software. EMRs with a strong focus on drug interactions lower the need for manual mediation reconciliation and help patients avoid harmful drug interactions.
- Improve revenue cycle management (RCM). You may think you need more staff or expertise to solve your A/R issues—the truth is today’s technology can identify and fix lost revenue from patient balances and unpaid claims; benchmark your reimbursement rates; and help you understand how to increase patient satisfaction, increase revenue on routine appointments, and reduce no-shows.
What’s the Biggest Mistake Addiction Professionals Make When Choosing a Clinic Solution?
No matter how modern or feature-filled a system is, unless it is integrated with all other software used in the addiction treatment clinic, it will not be able to give you the granular data you need for RCM. Put simply, the addiction medicine software you select should help providers:
- Provide in-office and remote patient care
- Quickly create superbills
- Easily track revenue to avoid leaks
- Create customized notetaking templates
- Create dashboards to track patient progress
Lastly, the addiction medicine system should be able to quickly integrate with patient-facing systems such as patient portals and personal electronic medical records.
Sources:
- “Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems Approach to Professional Well-Being.” National Academy of Medicine, October 2019. https://nam.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CR-report-highlights-brief-final.pdf
- Moffitt, Trevor. “Burnout in Addition Treatment: Implications for Leadership and Public Health. PressBooks, accessed October 2022. https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/pubhhmp6615/chapter/burnout-in-addiction-treatment-implications-for-leadership-and-public-health/
- “Burnout Within the Addition Recovery Industry.” Turning Point of Tampa, 16 December 2019. https://www.tpoftampa.com/burnout-within-the-addiction-recovery-industry/
- Singh, Rahulkumar, Keith Volner, and Dan Marlowe. “Provider Burnout.” StatPearls, 21 June 2022. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538330/
- Berg, Sara. “Burnout Benchmark: 28% Unhappy With Current Healthcare Job.” AMA, 17 May 2022. https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/physician-health/burnout-benchmark-28-unhappy-current-health-care-job
- “Buyers Guide.” Software Advice, 26 October 2022. https://www.softwareadvice.com/medical/substance-abuse-software-comparison/#buyers-guide
- Jenkins, Nicole. “Substance Abuse EMR Software Buyers Guide 2021.” EMR Finder, 12 October 2021. https://www.emrfinder.com/substance-abuse-emr/
ICD-10 Addiction Medicine Superbill Example
| Appointment Date & Time: | Last Seen Date: | ||||
| Patient: | Gender: | DOB: | MR# | Pat Due: | INS Due: |
| Address: | Reason: | ||||
| Home Phone: | Cell Phone: | E-Mail: | |||
| Case Name: | Case No: | Case Type: | Case Date: | ||
| Pr Insurance: | Member ID: | Co-Pay Amount: | Deductible: | ||
| Rendering Provider: | PCP: | Referring Provider: | |||
