9 Sure Signs It’s Time to Change Your Medical Billing Software
It may be long overdue when the time comes to change your medical billing software.
A practice or billing service company that wants to change its medical billing software certainly faces some serious barriers; from retraining staff on the new system, retiring open accounts on the old, and doing it all while trying to maintain a daily workload. It can mean disruption to an entire office, to billing activities, and possibly to cash flow. In short, risks to time, productivity, and finances make the pain of changing medical billing software systems real, to the point of almost being a threat to business itself.
At a certain point however, the cost of not changing exceeds the pain of change, and a billing company owner starts checking out what’s available. Following are the top reasons, listed in a weighted order, why Medical Billing and RCM companies tell us they changed their billing software.
Unresponsive to the Need for Critical Updates
Every RCM business owner will tell you that when claims start failing, not a lot of time goes by before your physician clients begin thinking about a new billing service. Before losing a precious client, consider losing your unresponsive software vendor instead. It’s the number one reason RCM companies start shopping for a new software.
Continually Buggy or Malfunctioning Software
You can’t do your job without software that works. So about the same time you begin swearing at your billing system or having dreams of launching rockets or throwing hand-grenades the direction of your software vendor, perhaps it’s best to begin looking for a new system.
Software is Falling Behind in Compliance
When you cannot supply your physicians with the reports they need to qualify for PQRS, eRx, or Meaningful Use, or to comply with 5010, PCI, OMNIBUS, or make a smooth transition to ICD-10, you had better start considering a new software vendor.
Expensive, or Unreachable Support
No matter how good a software is, if you can’t reach support, or if it costs $100 per hour even speak to someone, it’s the #4 sign to begin looking for alternatives. One RCM company told us that when they called their software vendor to explain that claims were failing Medicaid, they were told nothing could be done unless they upgraded, so they had to either pay for several version upgrades to bring them up to date, or live with software that did not work. The software maker also charged their credit card $120 to tell them this. What time is it? Time to look for new software.
Renewal Costs and Upgrades
Resentment over annual renewal costs, multiple upgrades, or unexpected costs for critical updates is the next most popular reason that sends RCM company owners shopping for a new vendor.
We’ve Outgrown Our Current Software
As a company grows, so does it’s need to handle complex billing scenarios. Large practices can have multiple locations, multiple legal entities, and multiple NPIs, all within the same group of doctors. The ability to supply practices with complex practice reporting often drives growing RCM Companies to seek new software.
We Need Anytime, Anywhere Access
Providing physicians with HIPAA secure access to their patient data is becoming increasingly standard throughout the RCM world. To stay competitive, you must have medical billing software that is HIPAA secure and available –anytime, anywhere, and accessible from any browser and any device. It’s good for your docs and it’s good for keeping wages in line, as highly talented employees are almost always willing to work for less if they can work remotely.
ICD-10 Coding Tools
A fast growing reason to know firsthand what’s out there is the need to properly code ICD-10. Medicare is instructing physicians to request documentation from software vendors, clearinghouses, and other technology suppliers to certify they are current and up to date with ICD-10. Is your medical billing software offering you promises or are they providing you with ICD-10 software updates? Promises are nice, but you can’t get claims filed on promises.
We Just Hate Our Software
Lastly, the final most popular reason that sends RCM companies shopping for a new vendor are reasons personal in nature –intangibles one might say. It could be past issues from unresponsive support, unfulfilled deliverables, drama, or actually just hating the user interface of the software –personality conflicts with vendor personnel will send RCM companies looking for a new software, but one minus the drama.
So while there may be terrifying barriers to changing a billing system, there are also some overwhelming reasons (some good, some bad) why you need to know what’s available in the medical billing software department should there arise an unexpected need to switch.
