What is an Electronic Health Record?

Electronic Medical Record Software

According to the National Alliance for Health Information Technology, the definition of an Electronic Medical Record Software is, "an electronic record of health-related information on an individual that can be created, gathered, managed, and consulted by allowed clinicians and staff within one healthcare organization."

It is important to note that while an EMR software keeps all patient PHI in one place, there are penalties to sharing these records with unauthorized organizations.

Within an Electronic Medical Record Software, practices can:

  • Identify and manage patient charts
  • Receive alerts and reminders
  • Amend encounter
  • Appointment management
  • Billing
  • Claims management
  • ePrescribing
  • Medication and recall tracking
  • Physician order entry

With a more advanced EMR software, practices can:

  • Mobile and wireless access
  • P4P (Pay for Performance) management
  • Scheduling interface
  • Tablet/Touch screen
  • Voice recognition and voice records
  • Clinical pathways integration
  • Document scanning and management
  • Patient portal and education

 

Practice Management Software

Spending time and energy in Practice Management solutions could save practices in the United States close to $125 billion annually because of poor medical billing operations. Practice Management Software is often integrated into EMR solutions since it manages functions including appointment scheduling, billing, claims processing, and administrative tasks for healthcare practices. 

Practice Management challenges expand beyond revenue cycle management, but careful attention to Practice Management solutions can help overcome challenges.

  • Deal with increasing operations costs by getting a clear perspective on billing costs, an annual review of expenditures, going green to minimize paper and office supply use, purchase vaccine supply when the demand is high, and hire in-house IT support.
  • Hire the right medical coding, billing, reimbursement, and front office staff.
  • Inform patients of any updates to collection policies and procedures to receive timely payments.
  • Transition to value-based care from fee-for-service and avoid revenue loss by improving your operating costs.
  • Take part in the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) to measure quality, resource use, clinical practice improvement activities, and advancing care information.

 

Electronic Health Record Software

While EMR solutions allow for patient information to be shared within one healthcare organization, Electronic Health Record Software differs in that it allows for health-related records to be shared across multiple organizations. EHR software also allows for patients to both access and edit information to their personal medical records. 

To fully grasp how EHRs became popular, it is important to understand the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, otherwise known as HITECH, passed by Congress in 2009. 

According to an article by Howard Burde:

  • "HITECH changed the nature of the relationships among healthcare professionals, organizations, patients, and payors by focusing on the implementation and use of health information technology."
  • It strongly emphasizes privacy and security notions as per HIPAA.
  • It provides incentives for the meaningful use of certified, qualified EHRs.
  • "When a healthcare practice or organization implements an EHR system, the (HITECH) act gives patients in those practices...the right to obtain their PHI in an electronic format." 
  • Ensures privacy and safety of secure PHI with mandatory civil penalties with any breach of security or willful neglect.

 

 

A Unified EHR vs. Non Unified EHR

Unified EHR

A unified EHR is a cloud-based system that puts a complete patient history at your fingertips. Available anytime, anywhere, and on any device. eClinicalWorks has you covered, from scheduling and intake, through clinical documentation by speech, touch or templates, to billing and follow-up. A unified EHR offers:

  • Schedule for operating rooms and procedures
  • Kiosk check-in for easier intake
  • Preference cards and Inventory Management
  • Nursing documentation
  • Anesthesia note
  • Procedure note (endoscopy, colonoscopy, and more)
  • Integration to devices (vital sign machines, scopes, and more)
  • Integration to GIQuIC registry
  • Free hospital interoperability
  • Messenger campaigns for pre- and post-procedures
  • Electronic consultations, procedure notes to referring providers
  • Population Health analytics

 

Non Unified EHR

In today's day, it is unacceptable to have poor communication between EHR vendors and platforms and users. Sadly, nonunified EHR systems will provide just that. When you are dealing with multiple vendors, there is going to be poor communication, easily avoidable problems, and wasted time, guaranteed. 

Yoo Jung Kim has an article that goes into great detail describing how frustrating it is when there is a lack of communication. Kim notes, "without an efficient transfer of data, physicians have to re-gather patient history, reorder lab tests, and make medical decisions based on incomplete information leading to unnecessary delays, wasted healthcare dollars, and suboptimal patient care."

Kim stresses the importance of interoperability and a fully unified EHR system. Making sure of these two things will improve communication between healthcare providers and vendors, better help protect patient information, and increase overall efficiency and effectiveness.

 

How to Choose an EHR for Your Practice

How to Choose an EHR for Your Practice

Choosing the right electronic health records software for your practice is crucially important, since the "perfect fit" EHR will help to increase patient outcomes and practice efficiencies. Some ways the right EHR can help your practice is by trimming down time on documentation, saving your hard-earned dollars, and staying up-to-date on the most current and efficient industry trends and processes.

Choosing the wrong EHR may have detrimental effects on your practice, including difficulties relating to productivity, adoption, and claims management.

 

Selecting an EHR

1. Know Your Demands

The first step to selecting the right EHR is to know your practice's specific demands. It is important to know what you need to shop for, since you don't want to decide solely on what looks the most impressive. 

The top ten EHR features to look for include:

      • Voice to Text Capability/Dictation for Notes and Templates
      • Patient Portal
      • Interoperability
      • Customized Templates
      • Specialty Specific Templates
      • Users Portal with Free Training
      • Telemedicine
      • Appointment Reminders
      • Incentive Measure Tracking/Reporting
      • Population Health Reporting

 

How to pick the right EHR software 

1. Benefits of using a Cloud-Based EHR
      • Eliminate the need for physical hardware
      • Cheap IT services
      • Up front savings
      • Simplified scalability
      • Great accessibility and collaboration

 

2. The Cost to implement an EHR

Since cost will play a huge role in selecting the right EHR for your practice, you need to identify the mandatory features you require and set a budget based on how simple or complex those features are. This will eliminate the way for you to exceed your budget after browsing what is available for purchase in the market.

Look for vendors that offer multiple pricing options. Vendors typically base pricing models on initial licensing or activation costs. Components including patient engagement and telemedicine are add-on costs. 

An additional pricing option to be on the lookout for is a subscription-based EHR. This option typically requires a long-term contract but includes all set-up costs and EHR licensing fees. While subscription-based models are extremely popular, they tend to be more expensive in the long run depending on the number of providers. 

 

3. Decide which EHRs to Demo

Because initial demos typically run 60 minutes, it is not feasible to demo every EHR software. Instead, focus your research on finding EHR systems that offer your "must have" features and needs, and from there, schedule demonstrations for your top 5-6 EHR systems. More often than not, 1-2 of these system demonstrations stand out among the rest, pushing your EHR search forward. 

Once you find the 5-6 EHR systems that seem most appropriate for your practice, requesting an EHR demonstration is one of the best ways to gain firsthand insight into how those EHR systems flow, and what features they offer. Practice management features, interface navigation, and documentation options are typically covered in a 60 minute presentation with a forum for questions afterwards. 

Follow-up demonstrations are common, and almost always shorter than the initial demo. These 1-on-1 demos provide a more in-depth presentation to show how the software is customizable for your unique practice.

 

4. Physician Feedback on EHR Usability

While it is important to meet with the vendors and their sales teams of the EHRs you are considering, it is almost as important to seek feedback from physicians currently using the said EHR.

You want to make sure that your physicians feel comfortable with the EHR you select from day one to reduce the chances of low adoption and satisfaction, and increased physician burnout.

Asking around, talking to colleagues, browsing LinkedIn or Facebook, or turning to professional groups will also give you insight into why practices selected a specific EHR. But checking out online press reviews and ratings can be more effective in receiving honest feedback, since you probably won't get any "bad" references from your peers. 

The best online press reviews and ratings for EHR systems include:

 

5. Don't be Legally Caught Off Guard

Finally, you want to make sure they do not catch you off guard on the legal side of choosing an EHR. With any vendor, it is better to assume you must sign a contract. Understanding the length of the contract, having an action plan for when the contract expires, and reviewing the contract are all things you will need to prepare for ahead of signing time. 

Before signing any contract, address:

        • Upgrades and Updates
        • Training and Implementation
        • Support
        • Add-On Costs
        • Contract Length
        • Data Access
        • Data Migration

 


 

eClinicalWorks vs. Revele. What is the Difference?

eClinicalWorks vs Revele. What is the Difference?

 

What is eClinicalWorks?

eClinicalWorks is a Massachusetts-based company that sells EHR, practice management, and personal health record software and services to healthcare providers. With over 115,000 physicians spanning across 70,000 facilities in the United States, eClinicalWorks has proven to offer a trusted solution. 

Providers can integrate eClinicalWorks modules to review patient health records, labs and diagnostic tests, and manage patient accounts. Patients can request prescription refills, send messages to physicians, and view lab results and appointment reminders. The EHR system is interoperable with any hospital system that uses the integrating healthcare enterprise standards. 

 

Who is Revele?

Revele is a leading provider of eClinicalWorks revenue cycle management solutions and eClinicalWorks training, implementation, and consulting for physician practices, hospital-owned physician groups, health centers, and enterprise networks across the nation. Inc. 5000 has recognized the privately held company for three years and ranked "Best in Class" in the Medical Group Management Association's (MGMA) list of top medical business and service organizations.

Since 1999, Revele has led the industry in implementing technology to enhance the revenue cycle process for medical practices utilizing the eClinicalWorks EHR platform, offering a plethora of training and optimization services. 

 

eClinicalWorks EHR Features

eClinicalWorks EHR Features

The eClinicalWorks Electronic Health Records system has a lot to offer. One reason it sticks out from the rest is because of how many features it offers.

 

1. eClinicalWorks Patient Portal

The eClinicalWorks' blog How to Improve the Patient Experience through Establishing a Strong Online Presence explains how patient engagement can become stronger in the patient journey. Focusing on the "digital experience" has a direct effect on patient experience, since patients are looking for more online and do-it-yourself opportunities. 

One of the best ways to maximize patient experience and patient satisfaction is through the patient portal. With so many features available right at the fingertips of patients, it is guaranteed that your practice will help create the best patient journey possible.

 

2. eClinicalWorks Messenger 

eClinicalWork's Messenger feature allows users to communicate with patients in a number of ways. 

      • Patients Prefer Texts: 75% of patients reported they prefer appointment reminders, payment reminders, and surveys through text. Besides being the #1 preference for patient contact, texting results in a 209% higher response rate over phone calls; two reasons for this higher response rate are the convenience and discretion of a text. 
      • Texts are 5x more likely to be read: While 98% of text messages are read, only 22% of email messages are even opened. And, nearly 1 in 5 people don't even check their voicemails. 
      • Rescheduling appointments is easier: While some no-shows are inevitable, you can lower your no-show rate by sending appointment reminders to patients to help lower your rate. Using the automated appointment reminder can also save your staff the time they'd typically spend making reminder calls.
      • Easy to promote preventative health: Within the Messenger feature, it is easy to promote preventative health services and announcements. Campaigns, screening reminders, seasonal notifications, and prevention series are also easy to promote to remind your patients of the importance of appointments.
         
      • Campaigns can be creative and customizable: Wish patients happy holidays, happy birthday, welcome them as a new patient, invite them to an event, educate them on health concerns in the community, or ask them to review your practice on Facebook or Google. 
      • Messenger assists with MIPS: Messenger can assist to help you avoid a negative payment adjustment in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System. 
      • Increase Reimbursement while Improving Care: With Messenger, you can remind eligible Medicare patients that it is time for their annual check-up using the Medicare Chronic Care Management Awareness campaign inside of Messenger. The campaign also recruits eligible Medicare patients for participation in the Medicare CCM program.
      • Measure the Effectiveness of Messenger Campaigns: Messenger provides an in-depth insight into your patient population with Messenger Analytics. You can monitor and modify your campaigns based on the response rate. Or, configure your campaigns to be more effective for your patients and more efficient for your practice by analyzing Delivery Success Rate, Failed Delivery Rate, SMS, email, and eMesseges sent, and monthly unique patients reached.

 

3. eClinicalWorks Kiosk 

Having a Kiosk in place can remove the possibility of human error when collecting critical information from patients at check-in and streamline the entire process, creating a good patient experience.

Below are a few factors that play a role in the importance of having a Kiosk.

      • eClinicalWorks Kiosk Broken Down: The Kiosk app allows for streamlining the check-in process in your practice. Patients can use an iPad to check-in or schedule new appointments. Patients can also update their demographic information quickly and privately into the iPad.
      • Higher Costs and Patient Experience: Patients are taking on more costs for their healthcare than ever before. And patients are demanding better technology, processes, service, and experience overall. Consumer-directed healthcare is becoming more important as 42% of consumers say personal experience is their #1 influencer for making healthcare decisions. So, patient experience is the way to stand out from your competition.
      • Self-Service Demands:  37% of patients report they are extremely interested in self-service options for registration, such as eCW's Kiosk. And patients as a whole are demanding self-service options that eCW's Kiosk can provide. 

      • How Patients Benefit from eCW's Kiosk: eCW's Kiosk allows patients to register themselves, process payments, update demographic information, sign consent forms, verify current insurance, and answer questions customized by the practice for their visit — all at the point of registration. Kiosks can also reduce the liability and costs associated with the steep penalties for noncompliance under HIPAA by protecting patients' personal health information.
       
      • Shorter Wait Times: eCW's Kiosk reduces the amount of paperwork patients need to fill out, leading to much shorter wait times. Sometimes, patient wait times have been reduced by 20 minutes, increasing overall patient satisfaction scores.
       
      • How Your Practice Benefits from eCW's Kiosk: One way your practices benefits from eCW's Kiosk is no more scanning to update patient demographics and consent forms due to going green. And providing patients with high-end technology reinforces patients' perception of high quality care at your practice.
    •  
      • How your RCM Benefits from eCW's Kiosk: When using eCW's Kiosk, more accurate information is collected at the point of registration including demographics, current insurance information, phone number, and email address. This can increase your collections and reduce the number of denials your revenue cycle sees caused by illegible, missing, or inaccurate information collected on paper. Patients can also settle outstanding balances and co-pays by swiping a payment card. 
    •  

4. eClinicalWorks CCMR

eClinicalWorks "reinforced its prominence in the ambulatory healthcare IT solutions marketing (in) developing the Care Coordination Medical Record (CCMR), a web-based, dynamic and highly cross-functional platform for population health management and coordinated care." 

CCMR is a "one-of-a-kind population health management tool that offers intelligent closed-loop analytics for multi-dimensional insights into patient behavior and community health dynamics." CCMR is a remarkably flexibly system with the ability to be customized to clients' needs. Bhargav Rajan of Frost & Sullivan Research says that the most distinguishing features of the CCMR platform is "it is EHR system agnostic," meaning it is attractive in fragmented markets like the U.S. HIS market. Using the CCMR platform can help your practice minimize hospital visits, reduce patient and provider costs, and increase resource management output.

To describe the Care Coordination Medical Record platform:

      • A combination of technology platforms extensively mining clinical information
      • Generate intelligent and actionable insights for care coordination and planning
      • Securely bridges patient information through ambulatory electronic health records (EHRs), hospital information systems (HIS), and payer systems to generate patient engagement across the continuum of care
      • Bundles information systems integration
      • Manages physician referral networks
      • Evaluates diverse data streams to build precise care models
      • Easy-to-use interface providing actionable analysis

 

5. eClinicalWorks Billing Services

Revele changes the way you outsource your revenue cycle management. Allow our skilled team to completely transform your billing. With Revele's personalized approach, every billing plan is specifically customized exactly to your unique needs. 

One way to improve your billing is by improving your practice's front desk collections. Six easy tips to do this include:

      • Collect payments upfront
      • Implement a credit card on file program
      • Keep the collections procedures well documented
      • Keep updated insurance records
      • Verify insurance before visits
      • Understand and document patient needs

This will both increase the efficiency of your practice operations and help to improve your billing.

 

6. eClinicalWorks Patient Engagement Features 

eClinicalWorks offers many features specifically targeting patient engagement. Taking advantage of these features will help your patients take charge of their health with these modern day tools. 

      • 24/7 access to online appointment booking — made easy
      • healow apps for health management in all stages of life
      • Automate health and wellness reminders with Messenger
      • Messenger Analytics
      • Telemedicine and TeleVisits

 

7. eClinicalWorks Pricing 

When you make the switch to eClinicalWorks, there are a few pricing plans available to choose from, and there is free data conversion from your existing EHR. 

Each of the pricing packages includes scanning and faxing software, document management, unlimited free webinars and videos, E&M coder, current CPT & ICD codes, role-based securities, clinical decision support, clinical templates, and referral management.

      • PURCHASE: 
        • Buy the license you need today
        • $10k/provider
        • Electronic Medical Record
        • Practice Management
        • eClinicalMobile
        • eClinicalWorks P2P
        • Patient portal
        • eClinicalMessenger
        • Registry reporting
        • ePrescribing and formulary checking
        • eBO View (reporting)
        • Cloud or local server options (cloud or local server options are an additional cost for purchase and OneRate)
      • ONERATE: Along with being the most popular package choice, OneRate offers many features:
        • Full RCM services
        • 3% of collections
        • Everything in the Purchase plan
        • U.S. based support
        • Clearinghouse & EDI
        • Denial and rejection management
        • Billing rules
        • Patient service call center
        • Customized reports & dashboards
        • Medical coding consulting & review
        • Appeals at all levels
        • Comparative analytics
        • EHR training & optimization
        • Performance guidance
        • Performance ScoreCard
        • Cloud or local server options (cloud or local server options are an additional cost for purchase and OneRate)
      • SUBSCRIPTION:
        • Pay as you go, no upfront costs
        • $599/month
        • Electronic Medical Record
        • Practice Management
        • eClinicalMobile
        • eClinicalWorks P2P
        • Patient portal
        • eClinicalMessenger
        • Registry reporting
        • ePrescribing and formulary checking
        • eBO View (reporting)
        • Support
        • Cloud Hosting
        • Data Migration
        • Training & implementation (Training & implementation costs included for 1-9 providers for subscription. Airfare not included. Fees will be applicable per eClinicalMessenger transaction)
      • Subscription PLUS 
        • Everything you need to create a truly connected office using eClinicalWorks products
        • +$100 a month per provider
        • Scribe
        • Patient education
        • eClinicalTouch
        • IMO
        • MIPS Registry
        • Kiosk
        • Add Population Health for +$100 a month per provider

 

Regarding implementation, the time it takes to train your practice on how to effectively use eClinicalWorks products depends on the number of locations, employees, and if patients will continue to visit your practice while our Implementation Specialists are onsite. For smaller practices, we recommend spending 5-8 days on onsite training and 2 days on online training.

    •  

 

Post-Implementation Success of eCW Software

While it takes intentional focus and effort to improve your post implementation success, there are five key points to spend your time on to help narrow your focus and increase your success.

 

1. eClinicalWorks EHR Optimization 

      • Review workflows
      • Identify your practice's unique challenges
      • Run a gap analysis report
      • Utilize templates and order sets
      • Customize the Progress Notes to fit your needs
      • Monitor and manage Jellybeans
      • Utilize the Scribe, Speech, eClinicalTouch, and eClinicalMobile features
      • Utilize the Kiosk
      • Site visits to maximize your EHR through optimization training
      • Taking advantage of the eClinicalWorks University courses
      • Taking part in eClinicalWorks' eCW Days
      • Attending the eClinicalWorks National Conference
  •  

2. eClinicalWorks EHR Training and Consulting

EHR upgrades happen faster than most practices can keep up with. Spending time on administrative tasks, increasing patient wait times, and an all time physician burnout high, there is little time or energy left to spend on EHR upgrades. Here at Revele, we have created a results-oriented eClinicalWorks training and optimization solution to keep your practice up to speed and running as efficiently as possible. 

Partnering with Revele's optimization and consulting team will increase productivity, improve adoption, and optimize your practice for the future. Our trainers can help with process automation, new feature implementation and optimization, workflow consulting, version upgrade assistance, and database reviews to help you identify new opportunities. And, you have the flexibility of receiving training onsite or online. 

Reduce Physician Burnout: Our eCW EHR Optimization Specialists can help your practice reduce physician burnout by reducing administrative tasks and helping you spend less time in EHR and more time with your patients. We guarantee our Optimization Specialists will find easier and efficient ways to save time.

Optimize Patient Engagement: Our trainers will work with your practice to identify patient engagement needs and develop a custom patient engagement strategy. Helping your practice focus on patient outreach, care coordination, and follow-up will create an integrated patient engagement strategy that both enhances the front office check-in process and increases patient engagement.

 

3. eClinicalWorks Reporting Services

Revele implements technology to enhance the revenue cycle management process to increase value for all the practices that partner with us. And we can help you gain back the hours your practice is spending trying to make sense of multiple reports. The process for you to request and receive a variety of custom eClinicalWorks reports starts at a low $225

Every single practice is going to require a unique reporting process, and Revele's teams are prepared to customize a process specifically for you. If you have reporting needs in any of the following reports, partnering with Revele might be the right choice for you.

        • Denial Analysis Report: Get a detailed view of denials to analyze the root cause and areas for improvement
        • CPT Financial Analysis: This report includes modifiers and place of service data 
        • Patient List Report: Get detailed patient demographic information for collections, patients satisfaction surveys, and more

        • Payments at the Claim Level Report: This report provides detailed information on payments posted
        • Financial Analysis at the Claim Level: See charges, payments, adjustments, and more at the claim level 
        • Writeoff Adjustment Report: This report provides detailed information to assist with reviewing write-offs and adjustments

 

4. Revele's RCM and Medical Billing Services for  eClinicalWorks Users

Revele's Guide to End-to-End Revenue Cycle Management provides an extremely detailed definition and overview of the revenue cycle management process and its purpose.

This guide provides information regarding: 

        • The elements of a highly efficient and effective claims process
        • How to prevent claim errors
        • The basics of denial management
        • How to measure and analyze the revenue cycle
        • How to develop a revenue cycle management strategy
        • How to choose the right revenue cycle management service

All in all, whether you are working on perfecting an in-house revenue cycle management strategy or considering outsourcing, it is important to know that a successful revenue cycle strategy is one that is continuously evolving to meet the needs of a rapidly changing healthcare environment.

Policy reform, operational effectiveness, and value-based payments continue to be top challenges for healthcare executives. Through implementing a strategic denials management and revenue cycle management process, healthcare organizations can be better prepared for the future of the industry.

 

5. eClinicalWorks Billing Services 

Get in touch with our sales team. Our teams here at Revele are ready and waiting to help your practice maximize your billing services.

 

Conclusion

Isn't it time to join forces with Revele? By now, you've seen the immense value our eClinicalWorks services and software can bring to your practice. Let Revele propel your efficiency and collections to new heights as your trusted EHR partner. Our dedicated team constantly exceeds client expectations, ensuring we meet all your needs in the ever-evolving healthcare landscape. Choose Revele for unparalleled success and growth!

 

Are you ready to upgrade your RCM process?

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