Revenue Cycle Management, EHR Vendor Loyalty Gaining Momentum
By - Revenue cycle management and integrated Electronic Health Records (EHR) vendor loyalty for smaller physician practices continue to flourish and thrive within the healthcare industry, confirms an annual 2015 Black Book survey released in today’s company press release.
In a survey of almost 33,000 healthcare records professionals, physician practice administrators, and ambulatory group leaders, new vendor-based focal points and a variety of key performance indicators were identified.
"Revenue cycle management and integrated EHR vendor loyalty among small practice EHR physician practices is still on a significant upward trajectory,” states Doug Brown, Black Book's Managing Partner, in the release.
For the third consecutive year, Kareo was announced by Black Book as the leading EHR vendor for integrated health records, practice management, and physician billing solutions.
“The EHR/practice billing vendor's abilities to meet the evolving demands of interoperability, networking, mobile devices, accountable care, patient accessibility, customization for specialty workflow, and reimbursement are the main factors that the replacement mentality and late adoption remain volatile especially among solo and small practices,” states Brown.
Managed care reimbursement and accountable care organization (ACO) billing help users advantageously examine their vendor’s capabilities to best meet or exceed the needs of an individual healthcare practice, says Brown.
“The majority (70%) of smaller and solo practice physicians have still not settled on a technology suite or set of products that delivers to their expectations on meaningful use, clinician usability, and coordinated billing and claims, hence, the relentlessly moving EHR marketplace,” Brown maintains.
Shrinking reimbursements, old billing systems hurt revenue
Eighty-eight percent of networked, independent, or group/hospital affiliated physician practices predict declining or negative profitability through 2017, confirms Black Book's press release. Thinning reimbursements and underutilized, ineffective billing and records technology are cited as primary causes.
Eighty-four percent of physician practices, large and small, confirm their billing and collections systems and processes are in dire need of upgrades. Thirteen percent of physician practices confirmed upgrading their software in 2014.
Outsourcing, EHR, software highlights
Outsourcing is a hot topic among healthcare professionals that may become more prominent within the next several years, confirms the press release. Among those solo and small physician practices not implementing outsourced medical billing, 85 percent state they are evaluating outsourcing that complements their EHR as a “likely option” by 2017.
The complicated intricacy of high deductible health plans is noted by the press release as a primary cause for the expressed need to outsource. Almost half of small practices with an employed billing staff surveyed – those with between 1 and 5 practitioners – anticipate shifting from billing out-of-house to an outsourcer within the next 6 to 18 months, Black Book says.
Within an outsourcing engagement, 98 percent of small physician practices confirm a preference for a US-based vendor account manager or billing liaison. Eighty-three percent confirm a deal breaker for their outsourcing needs is “a foreign-accented or culturally mismatched offshore billing associate.”
Ninety-five percent of small practices confirm the most economically sound solutions are located offshore. These practices state they do not need back office practices to be specifically performed on US soil.
By 2017, 86 percent of small practices will attempt to merge together billing services, EHR, and physician practice management into a singular vendor solution.
Regarding software capabilities, 93 percent of small practices claim they will “never” be able to fully utilize their software functionalities by solely relying on in-house resources.
It is hopeful the release of the aforementioned information will amplify benchmarks across the healthcare industry and promote advanced EHR integration.
