News Feature | July 14, 2014

2 Of 3 Practices Management Software Buyers Replacing Existing Software

Christine Kern

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Practices Management Software

A Software Advice report reveals nearly two-thirds of buyers are replacing current practice management or billing systems.

In a recent report, Software Advice analyzed a random selection of 385 medical offices looking for the right practice management software solutions for their practices in 2014 to uncover physicians’ most common pain points and their reasons for purchasing new software.

The report, “Medical Practice Management Software BuyerView | 2014”, found 63 percent of buyers were replacing their current practice management or billing systems, with 25 percent citing a lack of confidence that their existing software would achieve ICD-10 compliance in time for the October 2015 switch. Thus, regulatory changes are currently the primary driving force behind software replacements. Also, practice management software buyers prefer Web-based solutions to on-premise systems.

Other findings in the report included:

  • Most buyers (55 percent) were already using a commercial practice management software product in their practice, while another 8 percent were using one in combination with paper or other manual methods. Only 21 percent of buyers were exclusively using paper or other manual methods.
  • The most common reason for replacing an existing system was a lack of confidence that their current systems could meet ICD-10 and other Regulatory Compliance requirements. Nearly one-quarter of buyers replacing software cited compliance concerns.
  • The majority of first-time buyers (70 percent) also cited the desire to improve organization and/or efficiency as their single goal.
  • Although most buyers – 69 percent – did not express a deployment preference, among those who did, the vast majority (88 percent) wanted to evaluate Web-based systems.
  • The majority of buyers (nearly 70 percent) also want integrated billing and scheduling in their new practice management software.
  • And a full 40 percent of buyers said that EHR integration and mobile support were crucial to their new software systems, with mobile support also featuring as an important feature for many buyers.

The buyers in this sample came primarily from small, private practices, with 54 percent representing solo practices and another 32 percent coming from practices with between two and five doctors. The buyers represented a wide variety of medical specialties; however, mental health and chiropractic practices comprised a notably large share of the sample (25 percent and 16 percent, respectively).

Included in the important takeaways from this report is the emphasis on compliance as a major driver not only of practice management purchases in general, but specifically of replacements. Despite the implementation deadline having been extended to October 2015, we’re seeing practices give a lot of thought to preparation, and they’re realizing the software they use will play a major role in their own readiness.

Also, medical practice management software buyers clearly prefer cloud-based systems. Additionally, buyers appreciate the remote access options afforded by cloud solutions. Some buyers even seem to conflate “cloud” with “remote access” and “mobile access” (even though those features aren’t unique to cloud-based products), suggesting these are the features of cloud-based software they are most concerned with.

And finally, as EHR MU requirements grow more involved, standalone billing or scheduling systems are growing less viable. There is a rise in the number of software buyers who want their billing and scheduling to integrate with their charting.