IT Upgrades Practices Should Make in 2019

According to a recent MGMA poll, 70% of the practices surveyed stated that they planned to implement IT upgrades in the coming year. It’s no secret that technology is changing the healthcare industry, and to stay relevant and provide the best experience for both patients and staff, practices will need to remain current in the application of technology.

Members of the SE Healthcare team recently came together to talk about how upgrades in IT will impact healthcare in 2019. Here are a few of those upgrades that could help your practice achieve even greater success in the New Year:

1. A tool to enhance reimbursement. Most practices do a solid job of keeping up with reimbursement from payers, but even with the best effort possible, there are typically unknown factors that prevent many practices from accessing what’s really available to them. A software platform that can analyze your data, create effective contract management processes, and provide you with the foundation to negotiate higher reimbursement can add significant ROI for your practice.
2. Options for electronic payments. A recent survey showed that 63.6% of practices surveyed offer payment via a web portal, and 27.3% have started accepting payment via text. Practices that ignore this trend and continue to offer only in-person or mail-in payment options could struggle to receive payments from patients in a timely manner – sometimes not at all. It’s become common practice for people to pay their bills, bank, shop, and partake in a variety of other activities online that traditionally had been done mostly in person. Using the postal service to pay bills is becoming a thing of the past. To make it easy for your patients to settle the debt they owe your practice, look to set up a digital payment solution to make paying bills more patient friendly.
3. A user/mobile-friendly website. A website is one of your best recruiting and retention tools all wrapped up in one. It’s the place where future patients learn about your practice and the providers that may administer their care. If properly setup, your website can also be the place where patients go to schedule appointments, view their medical history, and stay in touch with their doctors. To complete the user experience, your website should not only have up-to-date info about your services and providers, as well as a portal for your patients, it should be fully-optimized to be viewed easily on any device.
4. An eye into the patient experience. Patients continue to seek better patient experience and prefer providers who effectively involve them in their care. Patient experience, patient engagement, and practice reputation will continue to be a focus for practices in 2019, for those reasons and more. Performance- and value-based compensation systems are also helping to advance this trend. It’s critical that practices have a solution in place to accurately measure the patient experience, along with a plan to execute necessary changes to improve.
5. Embrace and enhance your EHR system. A love-hate relationship between practices and EHR systems exists for sure. That said, practices that embrace the value EHR systems create for both patients and providers will be positioned to manage patients’ care more effectively and provide more engaged, higher quality care.

If you’re included in the 70% of practices planning upgrades to your practice’s IT for 2019, then you’re on the right track. If you fall within the other 30%, hopefully this article helped provide insight into the importance of technology and the role it will play in the success of healthcare practices in 2019.

If you have any questions about how technology can positively impact your practice or the solutions available to you, the SE Healthcare team is standing by to help. Call us at (843) 414-5090 or email us at info@sehqc.com.