Today, medical practices need modern reporting, sophisticated analytics and business intelligence tools. It's critical for making the appropriate decisions for the continued viability of your medical practice.
There's gold to be found in mining data for billing and collection trends that can pinpoint where you need to improve. To do this effectively, the information should only be accessed in one place. The system also needs to have a comprehensive set of built-in analytic and reporting capabilities.
Reports
For example, the most complete systems allow you to schedule reports that can be created at predetermined intervals for detailed analysis. There also needs to be the capability to produce ad hoc custom reports when the information is required to solve an urgent issue.
Another desirable feature is to have a system that promotes ease of use in allowing reports to be shared with the appropriate staff when necessary.
The premier reporting engines can develop reports in several different formats (PDF, CSV, HTML, etc). They can automatically send them to preset distribution lists. This should allow multiple users to look at the reports online, comment on them, share their thoughts and ask questions-all within the reporting engine.
Benefits to a Good Reporting System
A top of the line report generating system means at least three benefits for your practice:
Higher productivity: Automatic generation of reports means the process will not have to be done by the staff. That frees up time that might have been otherwise spent gathering data, printing and sorting reports and distributing them by hand.
Catching and Correcting Errors: Good reporting capabilities make it easier to compare payments received to payer contracts. That way, you can ensure you are receiving the proper payments according to your contracts. It also means any errors can be promptly addressed and rectified.
Overall Better Decision Making: Poor decisions often cannot be retrieved. They also can cost your practice a lot of work and time. It's very difficult to have 100% of what you need to make an informed decision. However, timely reports, which contain precise information that can be easily generated and understood, goes a long way to having the most important data available when making a decision.
When implementing a system for your practice, make sure that you perform due diligence in determining precisely what reporting capabilities will most help it and are available. Flexibility and the ability to mine the data are two keys to doing this successfully.
Sunni is President/CEO of RMK Holdings, Inc., a revenue cycle management firm inclusive of medical billing and pre to post collection services, serving physicians and other healthcare organizations in Illinois and throughout the USA. Patterson's also President/CEO of Revenue Management of Illinois Corporation, which specializes in third party healthcare debt collection agency services. Sunni and her team can be contacted at info@rmk123.com.
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