How EHR's Save Real Money
EHR enabled medical practices report that they are experiencing improved medical practice management through integrated scheduling systems that link appointments directly to progress notes, automate coding and managed claims.
They are saving time (which equals money) because of easier centralized chart management, condition-specific queries and many other shortcuts.
They have better communication with other clinicians, labs and health plans because there is
- easy access to patient information from anywhere
- tracking electronic messages to staff, other clinicians, hospitals, labs and more
- automated formulary checks by health plans
- order and retrieve lab results easily as well as diagnostic images
- links to public health systems such as registries and communicable disease database
Because there is an increase of accuracy in coding, this leads to an average of $26 per patient visit of billable gains! There increased patient flow and staff productivity which results in increased revenue.
Electronic health records reduce paperwork overall. Administrative tasks, such as filling out forms and processing billing requests, represent a significant percentage of health care costs. EHR's increase practice efficiencies by streamlining these tasks which significantly decrease costs.
In addition, EHR's can deliver more information in additional directions. They can be programmed for easy or even automatic delivery of information that needs to be shared with public health agencies or for the purpose of quality measurement.
Because EHR's contain all of the patient's health information in one place, it is less likely that providers will have to spend time ordering, and reviewing the results of unnecessary or duplicate tests and medical procedures. Bottom line, less utilization means fewer costs.
