Tekologik

Today’s uncertain economy is presenting healthcare practices across the US with a whole host of challenges. These include inactive patients, increased competition, the pressures from managed care and declining reimbursements, each of which can negatively affect your bottom line. Because of this, you need to find ways to cut costs and improve efficiency, and web-based medical billing software allows you to do both. Web-based medical billing software is cost-effective and offers many benefits over traditional billing methods that require an expensive computer server and software program.

What you can expect to pay

The most basic computer server for a small healthcare practice can cost well into the thousands, and so can medical billing software. Adding a server and medical billing software to your practice is a big commitment, and it involves much more than you might realize. Here is a sample cost breakdown for a dedicated server and billing software for two computer workstations, which is the typical setup for a small practice:

• Computer server — ,500 to ,000

• Ethernet switch/wires — 0

• Backup hard drive — 0 to 0

• Software training — ,000 to ,000

• Software license — ,500 to ,500 per user

• Software upgrade — ,500 to ,500 annually

• Information technology (IT) support — 0/hour

More costs that you will incur  Read more... (959 words, estimated 3:50 mins reading time)

Computer Billing, Cost, Medical, Software, True, What's

Software as a service (SaaS), On Demand software, web-based software—these are all terms for the same thing: software that is provided over the Internet rather than residing on your office computers. The question is whether web-based medical billing software is the right choice for your office.

Once the exception, web-based software has become more common over the last 4-5 years and now is widely used for a variety of applications including webinars and meetings (WebEx, GoToMeeting), accounting (Quickbooks Online, NetSuite) and customer relationship management (SalesForce.com, Zoho.com), to mention a few.

In fact, the popularity of web-based software is growing so fast that International Data Corporation (IDC,) a leading provider of market intelligence for the information technology market, projected in a July 26, 2010 report that by 2012, nearly 85% of net-new software firms coming to market will be built around SaaS service composition and delivery.

Exactly what is web-based, or “On Demand” software? In the On Demand world, your business applications are delivered over the Internet by your software provider for a monthly subscription fee. There are no upfront costs; you simply pay-as-you-go for the features you use. By spreading costs over many customers, web-based software companies can better afford to invest in the infrastructure required to support higher levels of software reliability than a small business could achieve on its own. The software provider automates routine maintenance tasks such as backups, hardware upgrades, and security protection. Change is embraced and even built into the delivery of applications with regular and automatic software updates.  Read more... (1332 words, estimated 5:20 mins reading time)

Computer Billing, Medical, Office, right, Software, WebBased

Modern hospitals depend heavily on medical technology to diagnose, treat and prevent diseases. A typical mid-sized hospital has hundreds of items of medical equipment, from simple stethoscopes and blood pressure monitors to highly sophisticated MRI machines and linear accelerators. Hospitals are complex enterprises with entire departments dedicated to technology planning, assessment, acquisition, maintenance, upgrade and replacement at the end of the product life cycle. They have elaborate systems, programs, policies, procedures and protocols in place for purchasing new medical equipment.

To sell successfully to healthcare providers, marketing and sales professionals have to be well versed in the buying processes that healthcare providers use. Medical device marketing is quite different from any other marketing. Typically, hospitals have a review process to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate their medical technology needs. The review’s scope depends on the cost of the technology, and may involve many departments. For expensive equipment, the review most likely will be elaborate. For less expensive and disposable items, the review may simply assess the department’s current needs, and the proposed purchase’s operational and financial impacts. In either case, a market survey and literature search take place to some extent, and this is supplemented with extensive data collection and analysis when needed. This is why white papers and case studies published by medical device manufacturers are very useful during the review process – the decision-makers look for every bit of information they can find. Hence, white papers and case studies can significantly influence the decision-making process. A typical review process includes the following phases:  Read more... (764 words, estimated 3:03 mins reading time)

Technology Hospitals, Medical, Technology, Understanding