Behavioral Health Provider Solutions

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Della Arnold
8 years ago
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1 BEHAVIORAL HEALTH EHR MUST ASK QUESTIONS We have seen all too often many behavioral health providers and organizations leap into an EHR purchase without really looking at the EHRs that are being presented. Please feel free to use the guideline below and contact us before you make your Behavioral Health EHR purchase. Ask for your EHR demos to be recorded and sent to you. Watch them after the live demo and use the list below as a guide. If the demo is not how the EHR really is once you start using it: SWITCH! FEES: How much is your startup fee and what exactly does it include? What are all of the possible extra fees we have to pay for in order to use the software other than the license cost? What other products is your EHR partnered with and how much do I have to pay extra to use those products? How long are your contracts? Is there a discount if I pay annually or longer upfront? Do you have payment plans or offer financing? Can I have a 30, 60, or 90 day out in my contract? How do you handle part-time or non-clinical users? Do I have to pay for those users? SUPPORT AND TRAINING: What are your support hours? Which time-zone? How many full-time employees does your company have dedicated to support? (If less than 10, be concerned) Is your support staff also your training department?

Watch them after the live demo and use the list below as a guide. If the demo is not how the EHR really is once you start using it: SWITCH!

2 How many full-time employees does your company have dedicated to training? (If less than 10, be concerned) How much training do you provide? How long does setup take? Do you offer free, live training clinics for users at notable conferences across the United States? Please explain your training process. Are we given a schedule to follow with regular updates on our progress? Are there any limitations on training and support? Do they cost extra? Do you have a private training environment for my staff to test drive and train on the product before using our live system? Do you offer onsite training? What does this cost? How is your support handled? With many EHRs everything is wonderful during the sales process. Once I make my investment can you guarantee that we will continue to receive the same fast and gracious service? SETUP: Does any software need to be installed in order to use your EHR? If so, will it work on a MAC, ipad, iphone, Windows Tablet without added expense? How much set up is my office responsible for? Show me. (This is very important. Often what you see in the demo is an already setup system. Ask them to show you a blank system and have them take you through every area your staff has to setup themselves: drop down/pick lists, custom fields, insurance companies, codes, templates, etc.) Many EHRs do most of the setup for you. If you are paying for SETUP or STARTUP but you are doing most of the work, why?

Are we given a schedule to follow with regular updates on our progress? Are there any limitations on training and support? Do they cost extra?

3 Do you provide any custom services included with the setup like some custom reports, custom form creation (your intake forms, treatment plans, adding custom fields to the application, etc.)? How long does the setup process take? How long does it take before I can start billing electronically? FEATURES: Can I schedule an appointment using my smartphone? Does your program have Clinical Outcome Measurements? Show me. Do these outcome measures score, calculate, graph automatically? Can I add my own outcome measures? Do you have a patient portal? Can our practice and patients use it on their smartphone? Can patients schedule appointments using the portal? Have you passed Meaningful Use Stage 2 yet? If not, when? Show us in the software how you are set up for ICD-10 and DSM-5. Can I customize the program? Show me. (Keep in mind that the person showing you the system knows it very well and can make it look easy. Ask them to slow down and allow you to take over mouse control and do some of this customization yourself) Can I create my own reports? Show me. Can I create my own letters and forms and have them pull data from the patient record? Does this cost extra? Show me.

Does your program have Clinical Outcome Measurements? Show me. Do these outcome measures score, calculate, graph automatically? Can I add my own outcome measures? Do you have a patient portal?

4 How many clicks does it take to do a note? Show me. Can your software print HCFA's? Show me. Can I dictate my notes? Does this cost extra? Has your behavioral health EHR software won any notable awards? If so, which awards and what year? Send me the links. How many parts of the program are using outside programs? Example, eprescribing, Treatment Plans, Calendar, Billing. Many times this is additional software being used with your EHR. You need to make sure they play well together. Often these addin programs are very slow to launch and take you completely out of the EHR to use them. This is a pain. How slow is the EHR when launching these other products? During a demo these programs are often preloaded so they look as though they open up very quickly. Sadly, this is NOT the case when you are using the program. Do I have to save everything or does the program auto-save? Do you have a global search and global save on every screen? Show me. How complicated is it to lookup information? Can I lookup anything I want from anywhere in the system? Do you have a code library (can I type in the word anxiety and get a complete list of all codes to choose from)? Show me. Can I do treatment plans? Can the goals be part of my clinical notes? Show me. Do you have secure and/or fax in the application? Show me. Does this cost extra? Can alerts be set up in the system (reminders for important action items)? Show me. Can I chat live with other users in the system?

Example, eprescribing, Treatment Plans, Calendar, Billing. Many times this is additional software being used with your EHR. You need to make sure they play well together.

5 Show us your dashboard for general, clinical, and billing. Can I upload documents into the program so they are associated with the chart? Can I easily do a search for those documents from anywhere in the system? Is that added expense? Does your system have patient appointment reminders? Does this cost extra? How much are clearinghouse fees? Is that per provider/per month? Is the clearinghouse integrated with your software or do I have to login to their site separately to do things related to billing? Does the clearinghouse data automatically update the software or is there manual work involved? Does the eligibility checking update the EHR? Can the software handle payment sources other than insurance, such as grant funding? Show me. Does the software allow me to do Group Notes and/or Team Notes? Show me. What new features are coming this year in your software? What are the dates these features will be coming out? Does your software have credit card processing? Is this additional cost? Does your software process secondary and tertiary insurance claims? If yes, is this process manual or automatic? Does your software allow me to create custom fields in the application? Can those fields score my answers automatically? GENERAL QUESTIONS/COMMENTS Are you behavioral health specific?

How much are clearinghouse fees? Is that per provider/per month? Is the clearinghouse integrated with your software or do I have to login to their site separately to do things related to billing?

6 How large is your organization? How many full-time employees handle the development of your product? What are your user s biggest complaints? How are you addressing those issues? How often is my data backed up? If the system goes down, how quickly will I be back up and running? Will there be any data loss? If a system is only being backed up once or twice per day, you will have data loss. This is also very important. Software companies handling your patient data need to be on multiple servers located in different states. If one server goes down, the other server takes over with a duplicate of your system. How many servers do you have? Where are those servers? Do you have any mental health professionals on staff? Who created your software and why? Is the CEO and/or company founder a clinician? Have they ever run a mental health practice? How often is the software updated? Is that additional cost? What is the update process like? This is especially important if you have to install this software on your own computers. Please send us 5 references with a similar practice. Do they have a problem doing 3 demos? Clinical, Billing, General Use Does your company attend notable trade-shows and conferences every year? (A company that invests in live, user clinics at trade-shows and conferences is a serious software company with longevity and client care at the forefront of what they do) Do they have a board of directors? How often does this board meet to discuss the product and general direction of the organization? How many people on this board are actual users of the product?

If a system is only being backed up once or twice per day, you will have data loss. This is also very important.

7 Note: If a company is missing key features in their application that all of their competitors include with the program, question why. Many small EHR companies are playing catch up with technology that has been adopted and is included in even less expensive competition. Find an EHR that is ahead of the competition not lagging behind it. How much is your time worth? Choosing a seemingly less expensive EHR actually costs you time and money. Follow this guideline. Ask questions. Contact us if you would like an advocate during this process. We will put you in front of the best behavioral health EHRs in the industry. Our references speak for themselves and we are happy to share them with you. Advice to behavioral health providers is typically FREE of charge. Why? We love what we do and want your practice running smoothly. REFERENCES Radio Interview Behavioral Health EHR Sales Demo Trickery

Find an EHR that is ahead of the competition not lagging behind it. How much is your time worth? Choosing a seemingly less expensive EHR actually costs you time and money. Follow this guideline.

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