KLAS: Epic, MEDITECH Lead Patient Accounting Vendors

December 31, 2020 - In terms of overall performance, healthcare providers ranked Epic and MEDITECH as the top patient accounting system vendors, according to a recent KLAS report.

Patient accounting systems are critical to revenue generation at provider organizations. Therefore, solutions must be “stable, well supported, and highly functional,” the market research firm stated in the report Patient Accounting 2020: Driving Tangible Outcomes in Revenue Cycle.

But not all vendors are living up to provider needs, resulting in potentially significant cash flow issues, the report found.

Among four leading patient accounting system vendors – Allscripts, Epic, Cerner, and MEDITECH – healthcare professionals rated EHR giant Epic the highest with 90.5 points (out of 100.0 points), closely followed by MEDITECH with 83.9 points.

Allscripts earned a total of 66.1 points, although data was limited, and Cerner finished fourth with 62.1 points.

Professionals surveyed by KLAS reported strong overall performance using the patient accounting system from Epic, which has led the market over the past couple of years. Users also rated Epic’s customer support and product quality highly.

Second leader in the market, MEDITECH’s patient accounting system is seen as “sturdy and reliable, if not the most innovative,” KLAS reported.

MEDITECH patient accounting system users were satisfied with the product’s functionality and the level of engagement the vendor has with its customers.

Both MEDITECH and Epic also generated satisfaction with financial trending metrics, KLAS found.

Overall, the two vendors led the pack in terms of satisfaction with cash trending, days in accounts receivable (A/R) trending, and discharge, not final billed (DNFB) trending. Users of both products rated satisfaction with all three trending metrics above 7.0 out of 9.0 points.

But even the market leaders have some room for improvement, according to healthcare professionals.

The least-satisfied Epic patient accounting users told KLAS that the product could use “more automation” and they encountered difficulties overcoming the initial learning curve. In general, users reported that the go-live with the system requires “a large internal lift up front,” although users credit the vendor for being honest about system capabilities and shortcomings.

MEDITECH patient accounting system users also reported challenges with initial implementation, citing the need to dedicate unexpected time and energy to the go-live.

Additionally, users of the patient accounting system reported the highest total number of gaps that need to be filled by an outside vendor. The system primarily lacked back-office processes, such as contract management, clearinghouse, and statements, as well as some patient access activities, KLAS stated.

KLAS also stated that Cerner patient accounting system users were “still waiting for significant improvement” so the solution can demonstrate clear ROI, while Allscripts’ product was “not ready for prime time.”

Cerner has notably faced issues with its revenue cycle management technology suite, as documented in previous KLAS reports, the market research firm said.

For patient accounting, overall performance satisfaction has remained relatively flat since 2019 and has dipped since 2018 when it earned 68.6 points.

Users generally told KLAS that Cerner’s knowledge of its system is lacking and many said initial implementations end up requiring additional patient account-related full time equivalents (FTEs).

However, some users did report improvements in financial trending satisfaction, particularly for cash trending. But KLAS noted that nearly the same amount of users felt the solution increased A/R days and were unsure “the situation will improve in the near future.”