About the Author

Sheldon Needle is President of CTSGUIDES.COM, a free web site offering reviews, ratings, tools, and expert advice to help companies select software. Sheldon is a former CFO, consultant and software designer who has published more than 20 guides on software selection.

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Medical software to help physicians manage their medical practices have become a necessity, rather than an option.  In order to respond to health insurance queries, to Medicare and Medicaid queries, to submit bills electronically, and to bill patients, physicians’ offices, HMOs, and other medical organizations, doctors offices must be able to connect their patients’ medical information, medical and health insurance information, and to query this information to create an electronic medical history.

Now in 2009, medical practice management software is likely to become a legal necessity.  With the great push towards healthcare reform and medical information consolidation, electronic medical records will be the link between the individual medical practice and government reporting requirements.  It seems clear that submission of paper  medical claims to insurers and to government agencies will  be a practice of times gone by.

Healthcare providers will need to make informed decisions about which EMR software will dovetail best with the needs of their individual practices, and which medical software will be easiest to customize for their practice needs.  There can be huge financial costs to installing an inadequate medical software package that employees do not understand, and which takes an inordinate amount of time to learn and to customize.

Security and privacy are other major sources of concern when buying medical software:

most practice management software packages will help a medical practice comply with the security standards of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)  and with ANSI billing formats. Some medical software may provide only partial HIPAA compliance.

Healthcare providers must also make sure that the medical software they buy will accommodate the particular needs of their medical practice.  The purchase, installation and implementation of medical software has a serious impact on the way your practice will work – or will not work – for years to come. Be sure to include the potential users of your system in analyzing your requirements: physicians, receptionists and medical billing specialists.  Take their specific needs into account when researching new software and its capabilities. It would also be wise to talk to people running a practice similar to your own.  A dermatology practice may have different system specs that an ob/gyn practice

In summary, make a small investment of time up front in your choice of medical software:  talk to your staff of users about bottom line requirements; read the reviews and ratings of packages online and talk to people in similar practices and see what has been working well for them. Buying medical software is a decision to make with your head, not your gut.  Think your options through!