Medical practices need software that reduces time wasted on administrative tasks, allowing them to focus more on serving their patients. Medical software accomplishes this by providing tools for billing, telemedicine, patient experiences, analytics, digitized paperwork, and more, all in one platform. It helps to know which software best fits your practice, so I’ve created a list of my top six medical software products.
The Top 6 Best Medical Software
Kareo – Best for Independent PracticesDrChrono – Best for Revenue Cycle Managementathenahealth – Best for Care CoordinationRXNT – Best for Practice ManagementNextGen Healthcare – Best for Large PracticesWebPT – Best for Physical Therapy Practices
There is an abundance of different medical software solutions in today’s market, so it’s important to understand which platform solves your practice’s specific issues.
#1 – Kareo — Best for Independent Practices
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Kareo is comprehensive medical software best for independent practices. The platform includes onboarding, training, and support for free and users can enter their specialty to find a solution that best suits them. The system is not meant for hospitals or larger organizations.
Kareo has several different product offerings available.
Kareo Clinical is a cloud-based electronic health record (EHR) platform that helps clinicians manage patients, code encounters, write prescriptions, and more. This product is designed by healthcare providers, and users can set it up in minutes. It comes with charting, eLabs, electronic superbills, secure messaging, and patient portal.
For insurance billing assistance, Kareo Billing provides a desktop and mobile app solution. It also has Kareo Managed Billing that matches users with an independent billing company. By outsourcing the billing process, users receive expert billing insights and can focus more energy on serving patients. It includes claim tracking, analytics, and charge capture.
Kareo Engage is a product that enhances the patient experience and helps grow practices. It helps practices build their brand, connect with patients, and capture insurance. Patient communication includes scheduling options, surveys, reminders, and patient intake. It lets patients review providers, and it generates ROI and appointment reports.
Kareo also has specific solutions for telehealth, patient statements and payments, analytics, third-party integrations, and mobile communication. Since the products can be combined and customized depending on each business’s needs, pricing information must be requested after submitting provider details. Clinicians can request a demo through Kareo’s website.
#2 – DrChrono — Best For Revenue Cycle Management
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DrChrono has the best system for revenue cycle management (RCM). It helps with the entire lifecycle of medical claims through its certified medical coders, dedicated coding compliance officers, and in-house billing professionals. The product helps increase cash flow, speed up denial turnaround time, and increase clean claim rates.
DrChrono RCM has processed over $3 billion in claims, has a 96% clean claim submission rate, has 96% of claims paid in under 60 days, and averages 48-hour denial turnaround. Its experts work with insurance and clearinghouse companies for rejection resolution, and all denials can be viewed through its reporting system.
The RCM software comes with a dedicated account manager that users can contact directly. Account managers generate monthly performance reports and set up regular check-in calls. It also comes with a task manager real-time claim updates, payment collection, claim coding, accepting patient copayments, and determining patient qualification.
DrChrono’s Medical Billing product integrates with DrChrono’s clearinghouses, practice management system, and EHR. The software helps increase clean claims rates, decrease denial rates, and improve payment collection. DrChrono also has solutions for EHR and mobile EHR, practice management, and patient portal.
For more information on pricing, reach out to DrChrono for product quotes. Clinicians can sign up for a 30-day free trial that includes features like scheduling, charting, workflow builders, message center, task manager, and form creators. However, free trial users must upgrade to access to labs, reminders, third-party integrations, and claims management.
#3 – athenahealth — Best For Care Coordination
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The athenahealth platform is great for simplifying care coordination. The software increases communication between internal and external care specialists. It has a network of more than 160,000 providers, and it uses only one national network for connecting care sites and providers. It also has solutions for RCM, patient engagement, telehealth, and more.
athenahealth integrates back-office support with network intelligence and software for enhancing financial results and improving patient care. Patients receive appointment reminder emails, then log into the patient portal. From there, they can update medical information, pay outstanding bills, and contact their care team.
Insurance is automatically verified and providers can ensure payments are received and claims are created. Clinicians can access phone messages, clinical documents, lab results, patient cases, and appointment requests. The software automatically scans and records faxes and reminds clinicians of patients who need follow up.
The scheduler notifies providers of upcoming appointments and shows them patients who’ve checked in and their exam room numbers. The face sheet reveals patient details like medications, problems, allergies, vitals, and more. Providers can view appointment history, reason for current appointment, and create orders and diagnoses through the platform.
Before choosing which product fits, clinicians must schedule a one-on-one meeting with an athenahealth representative. During the call, clinicians will discuss organization size, provider needs, and additional details to help determine which product is the right fit. Pricing information is not listed up front, and clinicians will receive a quote after the introduction call.
#4 – RXNT — Best For Practice Management
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RXNT’s Practice Management software is a perfect solution for clinics looking to maximize profitability and improve business operations. It aims to help clinics increase productivity, receive payments quickly, and create virtual appointments.
RXNT created its Practice Management product to help back-office staff members with administrative tasks. It reduces time wasted on tasks like generating reports, billing insurance companies, and contacting patients. It helps improve practice efficiency, reduce delays, and automate payments. It also tracks claims for faster reimbursement.
Staff members can use RXNT to customize medical reports and resolve denied claims. It includes built-in scrubbing to remove error codes and reduce rejected claims. The software also comes with electronic remittance advice (ERA), claim and scheduling alerts, real-time eligibility checks, and centralized account receivable.
In addition to practice management, RXNT has products for EHR, electronic prescribing, scheduling, patient engagement, and more.
RXNT’s products are categorized into four pricing plans. The PM Solution costs $65 per provider per month, and it includes online patient bill pay, appointment reminders, and claims management.
For added features like online patient portal, e-prescribing, and secure document management, users can upgrade to EHR Solution. This plan costs $85 per provider per month.
Full Suite is RXNT’s all-in-one solution, and it costs $150 per provider per month. It bundles its Scheduler, Practice Management, E-Prescribing, Medical Billing, and EHR products into one.
Users can also choose eRX Solution, which costs $650 per provider per month. It includes add-ons like comprehensive reporting and real-time interactions.
The PM Solution and Full Suite plans come with 50 claims, and users receive a 10% discount on all plans with annual billing. RXNT also lets clinicians demo their products upon request.
#5 – NextGen Healthcare — Best For Large Practices
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If you’re with a larger practice that needs medical software, consider NextGen Healthcare’s platform. This leading healthcare provider’s software helps ambulatory care providers increase profitability, communicate with patients, and improve the patient experience.
NextGen has products for smaller practices as well, but its enterprise solutions are its strong suit. Its EHR solution provides users with online payments, virtual visits, patient self-scheduling, and a patient portal. It comes with charting and reporting features, patient data-sharing, point-of-care insights, and a mobile app.
NextGen provides professional service teams to help users improve their revenue cycle, enhance interoperability, and reduce technology costs and IT issues. Users can easily exchange data with health registries, providers, and patients. To speed up payments, clinicians can show and explain exactly the reason behind every charge.
There are two plans on offer, depending on a practice’s size. NextGen Small Practice is for independent practices with one to 10 clinicians. It comes with practice management, medical and RCM billing, patient portal, and cloud based EHR software.
NextGen Large Practice is a customizable software for practices with more than 10 clinicians. It comes with advanced analytics, electronic data exchange (EDI), clearinghouse, RCM, practice management, EHR, and specialized clinical content. NextGen must be contacted for pricing information and a demo can be requested.
#6 – WebPT — Best For Physical Therapy Practices
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Physical therapy practices may want to consider a medical software that specializes in their niche, and WebPT is a top candidate.
The software was designed by therapists, and it helps with billing, scheduling, marketing, electronic medical records (EMR), digital patient intake, running reports, improving SEO, and more. Its software also helps practices retain patients after attracting them.
Physical therapists can view important case information and alerts, see patient evaluations, add appointment notes, and record documents. This scalable software lets therapists customize workflows, outsource billing, and track patient, therapist, and clinic data. WebPT also helps users stay compliant with HIPAA regulations.
WebPT offers three pricing plans. Lite costs $3 per provider per day, and it comes with unlimited faxing, live chat and email support, basic reporting, and customizable flowsheets. The Standard plan includes scheduling, unlimited phone support, appointment reminders, and analytics, and it costs $6 per provider per day.
Larger practices should consider the Enterprise plan. This plan has customized pricing, and it comes with a dedicated success manager, priority support, enhanced onboarding, and custom setup. All plans come with a free demo upon request.
How to Find The Best Medical Software For You
Choosing the best medical software can seem overwhelming at first, but it’s easier if you determine exactly which tools are most important. Features like EHR capabilities, billing assistance, RCM features, enhanced patient experience, and analysis reports are great examples of what to start with.
EHR Capabilities
Electronic health record (EHR) software helps users track patient records, streamline workflows, and communicate with professionals and patients. Most medical software has at least one product that includes EHR.
It’s something you should consider adding because it not only tracks patient data, but it lets clinicians share important patient data with all professionals involved with each patient’s care.
Billing Assistance
Billing assistance is a huge benefit of choosing a solid medical software. Practices should be focused on taking care of their patients, not on billing them. Look for software with helpful features like billing profiles, eligibility checks, denial resolutions, claim submissions, medical codes, and patient statements.
Some tools even allow you to outsource billing to independent billing companies. While this is not a must-have, it can save heaps of time. Transaction reports are also helpful because they allow staff members to view outstanding balances, sort patient billing by dates, view insurance balances, and see total billing amounts.
RCM Features
Revenue cycle management (RCM) features are important because they help practices speed up claim payments, increase clean claim submission rates, decrease denial turnaround, improve collection rates, and process more claims.
It also helps to choose an RCM tool that includes an account manager to inform you of industry trends and develop a strategy to improve financial performance.
Patient Experience
Before picking a medical software, consider how each enhances the experience for your patients. For example, software with patient self-scheduling makes it easier for patients to set up, cancel, or reschedule appointments. Another helpful feature is online billing, which allows patients to simply enter their payment information online from their desktop or mobile device.
Most medical software comes with a patient portal which lets patients access and update important information. It’s beneficial to choose a tool that is simple for patients to use and that gives them multiple ways to access it. This can include access via website links, desktop apps, or mobile apps.
Solid patient portals are easy to set up, allow patients to message clinicians, and let clinicians send educational material. Bonus features include mobile check-in, syncing children accounts with parent accounts, and pre-appointment paperwork completion.
Analysis Reports
Finally, it helps to pick medical software that has analysis reporting tools. These allow practices to reveal opportunities, minimize inefficiencies, and track business trends.
Analytics reveal things like KPI performance, yearly revenue, collection rates, number of appointments scheduled, patient demographics, and more. Reports should be customizable and include visuals, charts, tables, and labels.
Summary
Consider our recommendations and criteria suggestions if you need help finding a medical software that’s right for you. Our top picks include DrChrono for RCM, athenahealth for care coordination, and RXNT for practice management.
Independent practices looking for the best all-in-one software should consider Kareo. NextGen Healthcare is the best option for large practices, and WebPT is perfect for physical therapy practices.
