HIT Adoption Concerns Facing Doctors

What questions do you have have about health IT?

By now, most doctors have come to the conclusion that adopting a healthcare IT solution is a necessity. That doesn’t mean they aren’t still concerned about how practice management software could impact their practices. Let’s take a closer look at the four biggest concerns facing doctors related to HIT adoption and, hopefully, ease some of these fears with facts about how these solutions can help you get back to the business of healing.

Here are some of the most common healthcare IT questions:

Does HIT really work?

Yes, it does work, but you likely want to know how. Automation processes available through healthcare IT streamline processes improving efficiency, patient satisfaction, and paid claims. For example, if you’re writing a paper prescription you need to stop and take a look at a patient’s chart. This manual ‘checking’ step helps you to ensure that you prescribe a medication that won’t hinder your patient’s health further. This important step takes time. Give yourself some peace of mind, and cut down on manual tasks with an EMR. ePrescribing provides you with a warning if the patient is allergic, giving you the ability to prevent an issue before it even occurs.

Another example is the patient portal. Patient communication doesn’t end with face to face encounters. Appointments need scheduled, lab results retrieved, refills requested. All of that adds up to a lot of time on the phone for both patients and your staff. This leads to an increase in patient frustration and a decrease in staff productivity. With a patient portal, all of this communication takes place online, at the patient’s convenience with the staff able to easily address these requests in a timely and efficient manner. This one piece of technology increases staff efficiency and patient satisfaction significantly.

Can healthcare technology help me get paid faster?

The short answer is, yes. First, because of the ability to code more accurately due to more complete documentation, your claims, ideally, start off in better shape. Then, if you have a practice management solution that offers claim scrubbing, like MicroMD PM, you can check over those claims to find errors before you even send them. This allows for accurate payments and less delays caused by denials. Finally, the automation of a number of billing tasks allows for greater staff efficiency, reducing overhead and thus creating a more profitable practice. In addition to these benefits, a quality EMR allows for successful participation in government regulatory programs such as the Quality Payment Program (QPP). Participation in these types of programs leads to larger reimbursements.

Are there any legal or ethical concerns with using healthcare technology / EMR?

As long as you carefully choose a quality EMR, no, you shouldn’t have to worry about being sued. While there has been an incident in which a healthcare IT vendor got sued because of unreliable records and falsifying claims of certification, this is certainly the exception and not the rule.

So, how do you make sure you don’t end up in a situation like that? It’s very simple. Perform detailed due diligence when choosing a software vendor. Independently research their claims and ensure they all have the certifications they claim to. Make sure you feel 100% comfortable and confident in this company before you sign along the dotted line.

Can HIT systems be customized for my medical practice?

If something works in general, that’s great, but if it won’t work specifically for you it’s useless. Ask yourself this simple question, “What do I need out of this software?” Use this question as a guide to determine your must haves, nice to haves, don’t needs and don’t wants. Closely examine your practice’s existing workflow so you can pick out the technology that closely matches how your practice works already.

Adopting healthcare IT seems scary, particularly if this is your first run at it, but there’s nothing to be concerned about. Carefully choose a quality certified system that works well with your practice’s existing workflow and reap the benefits.

In fact, why not begin your search right now by looking at MicroMD? Our EMR is 2015 Edition Certified and our practice management solution is used and loved by providers in a wide variety of specialties.