Home Forums Discussions Problems Practice management software

I know this has been discussed some in the past but I thought it might be worth getting a fresh perspective now that v4 is out and there is no imminent plan for a PM module in AC. Is anyone out there using any of the PM software that is directly linked to AC? That does not need x-link. I sure would like to find one that has a similar personality to AC. I am about to implement AC and want to begin the PM system at the same time. Thanks.

I am in the exact same boat as you. In the admin screen under interfaces, there are several PMs that AC interacts with.

I'm just curious if you've tried anything yet (good or bad)? I plan to spend a good part of my weekend researching that.

To others who are reading this thread, I would also be curious to hear what people are doing who are NOT running any additional PM software?

I spoke at length with Nykki at Totalmd. She was very knowledgeable and assured me that the interface with AC would be seemless and smooth. I got interested because they advertised the software for $99! (Now THAT'S change I can believe in). Well after discussing it further, the $99 version really doesn't work if you want to bill insurances. Oh, you want to network some computers? Well it looks like you will need the 5 user license for your three computers.... Final estimate $2000 plus $600/yr for support. Unfortunately, support does not include the major upgrades which occur every 18 months. Those are priced at about 30% of the retail price. So, it may be a good software but it ain't cheap, so I too am going to look at some others.

I would really like to start my PM program at the same time as AC but I am nearly ready to fire up AC and I have no idea what to do about the PM program. I wish we could get a better sense from Jon when the AC PM program might be out. I can hold on with what I've got and just use paper superbills until then. Of course, that means double entry for the staff for any new patients. It also means a potentially precarious data migration down the road.

Greg,
Let's look at this together and see what can work out for us both and perhaps others who may be in our situation now or in the future. Should we divide and conquer? Only totalmd gives you the price on the website. The others that directly (allegedly) interface with AC make you call.

Well, at least you were able to dodge the "okey doke" move they are trying to put on folks.

You know, Bill, I'm about to "can" the whole concept of having a practice management package at all, at least until AC adds something. I've yet to hear a PM recommendation from any AC users, so this might be suggestive that there isn't an ideal solution. I am trying to build a "micro practice", so I like the idea of removing the added cost of PM software and an interface so that the PM software can communicate with my EMR.

Basically, I think I'm just going to use AC to create superbills and have the local billing service pick them up from my office once a week. It seems that a lot of people here are doing this very thing.

I am one of those against the PM module. I sort of liken it to Microsoft who want to be all things to all people:

XP Pro or Vista
Internet Explorer
WMP
Office

Just stick with Office and the OS and let Firefox and Real Player do the rest.

I would much rather tweak AC into an even better EMR Lite.

You may be right. I think I will just stick with what I have until something pushes me in a different direction.

My 2 cents worth is that you should get PM program right now or you would be sorry later. I would even prefer PM over EMR in priority.

I made the same mistake and now I regret it. 2.5 years into practice..of which now one year of AC...daily patients between 25-30. I am managing accounts in Quickbooks. Billing most of commercial ins. on paper, Medicaid on internet, Medicare with Trailblazers free EDI software. ALL is now getting out of control from the business data tracking point of view.

We started AC last year in the hope that AC PM will be available soon, but we all know what happened to that. I also looked at TotalMD and looking at Medisoft, etc. Not sure on what to get but I am getting somewhat desperate.

I am not really concerened whether AC is integrated with PM software or not.. as the interface is too expensive (500 for TotalMD) when AC is just $995.00. Then you also need Import Utility to load existing demographic data ($199.00). In addition atleast $500 more for EDI claim processing module. Without that is no good. In other words TotalMD is no cost effective than few other's like Medisoft or Lytec, etc. Atleast these are bigger and proven products. Medisoft, on the other hand will require X-link that will cost around $1200.00. I wish, these interfaces were cheaper.

I use VisionaryMed. It used to be a great little PM program until it tried to be everything to everybody and added the EHR module. Now the support sucks, the things that are needed to enhance the PM portion are few and far between and the cost is becoming prohibitive. I guess I agree with Bert. Stick with what you do best and leave the rest to someone else. In my heart though, I really would love to see one product that could do it all. I am not giving up on AC being the one do to this but I am also not holding my breath.

Leslie

Just a little update for those of you following this thread about PM systems. I got quotes from MicroMD and Winmedstat both of which have interfaces with AC (Allegedly). I hope you are sitting down: MicroMD- $10,000 plus $4000 for the interface. Winmedstat- a mere $11,000. I am a solo FP. Why in God's name is Jon even associating with these highway robbers?!! Healthwinds doesn't do business in New Mexico (probably smart) so I don't have a quote from them. Stay posted.

I am new to these forums and really a "country doctor." I am located in a very rural area and it is very hard to even brake even let alone get much of a salary out here. I would like to know honestly if the "office ally" route has worked for "none, few, some, more, or most" here as I cannot afford to put any money into pm. I have stuggled but now have installed amazingcharts into our office to assist with efficency. This decision is mostly due to affordability of the product and positive user response about the product. We will go into the hole in a few months to pay for the interfaces, program etc. Overall though we pray it will assist us if we get the efficeincy we seek. I just need some honest answers in an effort to return a good percentage of our revenue that is being lost to the "outsourcing sharks". Any help would be greatly appreciated.

We use a custom MSaccess report to generates pdf billing sheets from the AC DB. I then FTP these billing sheets over to our biller on a weekly basis. Works fine for us and they charge us 5.5% of their collections (no charge for money we collect on our end). If they bring in $300000, then their services cost us $16500 (probably would reach $20000 at that revenue level with mailing of statements to patients included), cheaper than hiring my own biller and easier than dealing with the many insurance companies. The biller did all our credentialing, etc for the 5.5%. We also are in a rural area with 25000 people in our entire county. We have used this billing company for three years.

Welcome to AC and the forums, Countrydoc. Hopefully you will post often.

If you are comfortable with putting your name in your signature, it helps to be on a first name basis.

We use office alli, and we like it. Its free and we use our staff to submit claims. No special training, and we have recovered lost claims from a bad biller.

We've been using AC and Office Ally since December. Happy with it and struggling to find PM software that is as reasonably priced and easy to use as AC. Has anyone tried PracticeMate, the PM software that's offered with Office Ally?

I've been using Ezclaims for 1 year and I am very happy with this software. Requires work for initial set up but after that works well for my solo practice. Interface with AC is free.

Another Practice management update: Noteworthy medical systems.

Cost for little ol' me and my 2 office staff. $14,500 + $475/month. Wow! That IS noteworthy!

Countrydoc,

I'm not sure which interfaces you are thinking about, but I do know in my urban area Sonora Quest will pay for the lab interface. (Labcorp probably does also yet I haven't approached them on it yet).

Good Luck.

Labcorp will pay. We are sorta training a test patient right now. Thanks for all the advise. I am gonna try a couple of the free routes to see if they work. It is so good to see doctors working together rather than competing. Thanks for the help.

Usually the lab pays for the interface from what i understand.

Incredible. Just incredible.

This just proves my belief that the EMR/PM development community is truly out-of-touch with the reality of primary care revenue.

Thanks for sharing, Bill.

Don't worry, the market will tighten up considerably in the next 36 months.

Hello everyone. I'm new to AC and am a "pilot" for our FP community, the other practice is using E-Clincal Works EMR. We will compare easy of use, costs and other parameters. The obvious advantage is the cost of AC and that it was created by a FP, the disadvantage is that needed add-ons (PM software, fax importation, old record scanning software, the outragous fees of the billing company suggested by AC, yes, they DO request 5% of all revenue, even the monthly capitation check that comes automatically to the practice every month) all cost more and may parallel the "full service" cost of E-Clinical. Although the hospital IT guy is leaning away from AC, I have decided to move forward. I already have Medisoft but the cost of X-link is excessive now that they charge $1200 plus a monthly fee. From what I'm reading the best working combination is AC plus EZclaims or AC plus a local billing company charging 6% of all revenue collected. Any suggestions or other options? Thanks,
Al

The old record scanning software is not needed - in general any scanner you get will come with some software - I use a Fujitsu scanner and the scansnap software that comes with it. Fax importation software can be obtained, often with the fax you buy, but if you are using E-clinical I am sure you will want other fax software due to the fact that not every fax is for the charts. I use medisoft in my office, but we double enter the information and do not pay for the x-link. My wife does my AR, AP, billing and all of it - she feels like it does not really take any effort to double enter and it is double check system anyway. I don't know what size office you are running - I am a busy rural practitioner and use AC for a "paperless" office (amazing how much paper I actually use/shred in my office).

Give us an idea of what you are going to do and any questions - probably can get lots of opinions.

I would think it would be far cheaper to do double entry of demographics and insurance info in AC and a separate PMS than it is to have an interface. Currently using eMedware with good results. Cost is about $200 a month including lease to own software and clearinghouse fees.

E-clinical costs $400/mo with a PM systm $250 without, or flat cost of 10K/7.5K vs 1K (maintainence for the first year included or $42.50/mo(500/yr))

For $300/ mo, you can provide a lot of additional services.
Fax management, get a brother fax, see many other posts on the site, costs under $500 and that would be amortized.

Scanning software you would need for both, E-clinical doesn't provide hardware, do they? You will still need a scanner and fujitsu is our standard and comes with good software. No difference in cost.

Billing: most outside billers ask for 5-10%. Yes, MTBC asks for cap money, others don't. Yes there are other options. AC to EZClaims (cost about $450) or AC to Office Ally (free but not integrated and double entry and the like).
But you are paying additional $150 per month for the PM section of EClinicalworks. Are there any clearinghouse fees?

Should be an interesting comparison. Pleaes keep us apprised of your progress.

Disclosure: I am a very biased AC user for the last 7 years and think that it cannot be easily beat. (But I do keep an open mind, sort of...)

Thanks to Kevin, Steven and Wendell for your responses. I'll look into your suggestions.
This is what I'm planning...
Kiosk check in:
I wanted a kiosk check-in for patients with a card scanner to read insurance info. I had phreesia installed 3 weeks ago for patient check-in. Free program and hardware, colorful and easy to navigate. Older folks hate it, younger guys think it's cool. After hours of implementation, our conclusion is that for it to be useful the question list needs to be short, but then the info presented is also a short list or incomplete. The major problem though is that although the interview is complete, the information does not print out for hours after the patient has left the practice. The card reader will only capture the patient name from any card you swipe into it.
Automatic insurance verification:
Software available but we haven't figured out how it would work in AC. Scanner: for at least the last 3 years worth of patient info.
Finger scanner: so each provider and nurse can easily log into any work-station
Allscripts for E-prescribing: using this program for 5 weeks. Patient name and addresses were easy to import. Program is intuitive and easy to use. Free, but 90 day Rx plans may not be enrolled (Medco, Caremark}. Best part is the ability to refill rx's at home on weekends or while away with an internet connection. I refilled 13 prescriptions in less than 5 minutes last sunday night while surfing the web. But can I interface this program with AC or do I double enter Rx's? I don't want to purchase the Rx program offered by AC and pay any fees.
Quest and Labcore interface: (free)into AC.
Hospital to design and implement portal for retrieval of lab, x-ray, and medical record results to import into AC
AC for EMR
PM software yet to be determined.
And after I figure out all the above, I'm going to get drunk and learn to type!!
Al

The phreesia pads should print right away after the patient finishes - I use it and it will print as soon as they are done. I actually don't print it as you can configure it to import into a file or on the desktop and then it can be imported as a PDF file into AC. My only problem is getting my staff to do it right away. If this is a problem you can configure it to print and make importable file - use the paper at time of service and have your staff import it later (defeats the purpose of being paperless, but you are right pt. think it is great). Talk to phreesia customer service if you want to configure it this way - AC sells an interface, but I am not sure I want pt. to be able to change demographics, insurance info by themselves as I find pt. are inaccurate.

My small hospital actually draws,runs and basically operates as a PAML draw center for sendouts so they use their interface. My labs get autodownloaded so I can use without paper or scanning. Check to see if your hospital is already with one of the major labs and that would make that interface easier.

HELP: I need to import fax documents or scanned documents into the latest version of AC (V4?). AC upgraded it's new version based on SQL. AC recommends using UPDOX. Updox is not shipping the latest version which should communicate with V4 AC. Is anyone using anything else??
Anyone using a current scanner able to continue it's use after upgrading to AC's latest version? Thanks, Al

I still use a fujitsu scanner with scansnap - you can also still use Twain Scanners. If your fax machine is interfaced to your computer and stores images you can scan them in directly - Updox just had a good viewer/interface.

u can use any scanner to scan something to a file and then import the file. You can also us a Twain scanner to scan directly in the chart. Fujitsu, and other mfgs, make Twain scanners.

problem is that I need to scan in batches of medical records, not one sheet at a time routed manually into AC. UPDOX allows a preview of the record so it can be directed to the proper file. It also allegedly has name recognition so the incoming fax can be directed to the proper AC file. Does anyone know an alternative program to UPDOX? I'll look into twain scanners. Thanks, Al

You can do groups of pages with the scansnap. Actually I bought an industrial fujitsu scanner on ebay and it works well for 50 pages at a time.
Usually when you are scanning at the front it is a few pages at a time. In the back they can import the old written records.

Does the fujitsu scanner work with the latest version of AC??

Mine does.

Yes, but usually we just hit the button, it saves to scansnap (as opposed to directly scanning through AC) then we import to AC from the scansnap folder, deleting the original.

With the industrial (fujitsu 3093GX, I think duplex black and white) you save to a folder and then import (or not, I chose not to save archived files that had predated AC, they are in a separate folder on AC)

We have been using the clearing house Zirmed partially thru a biller but have access thru the office to verify insurance and be able to get the OEB's and most other information we need. It also lets us know that a batch payment is coming. It is not linked with AC but we will be bringing billing in-house soon and the two seem to be working adequately so we will function until hopefully AC gets the PM piece done. We have beeb doing this for about a year now.

Another update on PM systems.

Quotes in the PM systems that have HL-7 connection with AC are still trickling in.

Medical Mastermind- $9500.

Uh, no thanks.

Oh, I'm sure we all have an extra $9K dollars or so laying around Nothing more important to do with it.