Part One: How to Choose the Best DME/HME ERP for Your Business

This is the first in a series of 3 educational articles. In each of the series, we’ll take a deeper dive beginning with the following four key features:

• Patient intake
• Billing
• Revenue cycle management
• Documentation management

Patient Intake

You want the ultimate patient intake workflow with real-time eligibility checking so providers can get patient benefits on-demand and ensure that patient profiles and orders are set up correctly the first time. The intake workflow should lead you and your CSRs through the essential steps needed to manage your document routing processes along with the eligibility responses and payer authorizations. You should then be able to manage incoming patient intakes with a streamlined worklist system that empowers you to make informed decisions on how to proceed with each patient.

The ERP should allow facility users to place their orders via a self-service ordering portal, bypassing your CSR. Features such as the approval process and clinical algorithm help facility users to place their orders correctly, and fully integrated outbound faxing to make it a snap to process orders. Included document management with OCR technology should ensure that you can always find what you need.

There should be a variety of ways to help you enforce your processes, ensuring all requirements are met before you commit your resources to order. Great reporting and working screens to allow you to keep up with all your orders, deliveries, drop shipments, and phone calls. A patient-centric dashboard should allow your team immediate access to everything related to each patient at their fingertips. Orders, status, payments, notes, documents, prescriptions, expirations, and more should be accessible with a single click.

Billing

Without a smart billing system, your business will be chronically under-reimbursed. The billing software should provide an array of easy-to-use web-based tools that scrub, track, validate coding, mitigate denials, and audit payer payments against payer contracts to ensure clean claims and complete payment.

The software should receive remittances electronically into the system and automatically post payments. The posting routine should automatically link the remittance to the patient’s order.

In today’s environment, software should be cloud-based and hosted with a leading comprehensive cloud platform such as Amazon Web Services (AWS). Billers using this system can see significant improvements in screen loading times. As a consideration, while we have observed billers using other systems waiting 2-3 seconds for every single new page load, AWS-based pages load quickly and efficiently.

From your current A/R to your rejection rate, the ERP billing dashboard should provide the information you need right at your fingertips.

Revenue Cycle Management

Your software should track all claim touchpoints with built-in reporting tools and the KPI metrics you need to make smart business decisions to improve your DSO and increase employee productivity.

Robust RCM functions provide value-added and unique services. Key capabilities include streamlining claims processing/submission, tightly coupled and fully integrated with a clearinghouse (Change Healthcare, Waystar), operating from a single platform to manage all your claims inventory (Incomplete, Rejected, Denial), with complete visibility and ease of claim.

Documentation Management

Almost nothing is more important to getting paid than having the correct documentation. Cloud-based storage makes storing, sharing, and accessing digital files safe and easy and centralizes your staff’s job tools. You should be able to set alerts and reminders to help your staff stay on track and make sure they get everything they need to ensure you get paid. The software should integrate with smartphones and fax services.

About Bonafide Medical Group

Founded in 1981, Bonafide Medical Group, a cloud-based healthcare information technology company, combines its powerful DME/HME ERP software with a healthcare facility portal and other products to serve the DME/HME, Acute Care, and Long-Term Care (LTC) healthcare settings. Bonafide’s DME/HME ERP is the best business workflow management available in the industry and the only software fully and seamlessly integrated into all your management decisions. Bonafide’s core technology allows DME/HME providers to maximize efficiency, productivity, and profitability. For more information or to schedule a complimentary demonstration, visit Bonafide.com.