An Electronic Health Record (EHR) is quite arguably the single most expensive investment a physician is ever going to make. An increasing number of medical practices are taking the electronic route. Implementing an EHR is just one small step towards a more streamlined medical practice. It is not a magic vehicle that can help you reach your goals faster. But focus and constant effort can help you reach there.

Geared up for Change  !

An EHR can revolutionize your workflow. It leads to greater operational efficiency and helps different departments, specialists and healthcare facilities to access and share data effortlessly. But the huge change that it can bring to your practice may not always be for the better. The shift can unsettle your existing revenue management system.

It is imperative for physicians to upgrade their revenue cycle and better optimize its functions to support the new entrant into the office. The most critical components of the revenue management system such as claims submissions, insurance verification and front-end processes need to be reworked to work in a new environment.

Are all your Claims Clean ?

Yes, an EHR greatly automates your workflow process and helps in maintaining accurate medical information. But quite disturbingly there have been several hospitals that have been warned for misusing an ehr to create falsely inflated claims. The lack of clarity in CMS guidelines is cited as one reason for physicians to make billing errors.

But the major reason could be that physicians are still learning the ropes of working with a new system.

Better Patient Communication and Care…

This is a debate that has been raging in Linkedin, Facebook and near the water cooler for the past few months. Can an EMR or EHR system truly help the doctor to spend more time with patients? It does help save on time and effort but whether an ehr can help in better communication, is still being debated about.

EHR’s certainly a Quantum Leap into a Better Future !

EHR’s are a huge, collective step forward for the healthcare industry. It is certainly going to light the way ahead and be a catalyst of change. But EHR’s cannot in themselves create a more profitable or efficient medical practice. The other important parts of the puzzle such as revenue cycle management services , patient communication and everything in-between needs to be fitted together to create a pretty picture !