EMR advice

[Painologist]

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I’m in the process of choosing an EMR for my new solo pain practice. I’ll be doing procedures and ketamine infusions in office as well as implants at an ASC.

I’m currently deciding between Dr Chrono (may use their billing services), Kareo (discount with local billing company I may use), and eClinicalWorks (expensive).

Any insight is appreciated.

 

[Ligament]

I have ECW for about a year now; I am not happy with it. Tech support is horrible; they insist on submitting an online ticket, then waiting on a callback from their support center in India who will require remote control of your computer for even the simplest of questions. Their support team have accents so thick almost none of my staff can understand them, and I am not being hyperbolic.

So lets say you are a busy physician. You need help. You spend 5-10 mins filling out an online support ticket. You wait 1-3 days for a time to coordinate a remote control session with a tech. Remember you need to coordinate your time and your computer to be free for remote control with the schedule of their IT team. Do you have time for this? Now multiply by multiple questions or issues you may have.

I believe this insane process is designed to discourage customers from requesting and utilizing support and their method works great to accomplish that.

 

[drrosenrosen]

We use and are happy with Athena. I don't know how cost compares to the other options you're considering. They do our billing as well.

 

[Ligament]

We use and are happy with Athena. I don't know how cost compares to the other options you're considering. They do our billing as well.

Athena looked good MINUS the requirement that they do your billing and get a cut of your business. You should certainly look into them and see if the billing issue is a non starter or not.

 

[Painologist]

I have ECW for about a year now; I am not happy with it. Tech support is horrible; they insist on submitting an online ticket, then waiting on a callback from their support center in India who will require remote control of your computer for even the simplest of questions. Their support team have accents so thick almost none of my staff can understand them, and I am not being hyperbolic.

So lets say you are a busy physician. You need help. You spend 5-10 mins filling out an online support ticket. You wait 1-3 days for a time to coordinate a remote control session with a tech. Remember you need to coordinate your time and your computer to be free for remote control with the schedule of their IT team. Do you have time for this? Now multiply by multiple questions or issues you may have.

I believe this insane process is designed to discourage customers from requesting and utilizing support and their method works great to accomplish that.

This was very helpful. I have heard complaints about their IT from multiple people now. That will be a deal breaker for me.

We use and are happy with Athena. I don't know how cost compares to the other options you're considering. They do our billing as well.

I’ve heard Athena is good, but I don’t want to use their billing services. I want a billing service that would field all calls from patients as well as track down denials and solve them. I don’t think I will have time to do that myself.

 

[drrosenrosen]

This was very helpful. I have heard complaints about their IT from multiple people now. That will be a deal breaker for me.


I’ve heard Athena is good, but I don’t want to use their billing services. I want a billing service that would field all calls from patients as well as track down denials and solve them. I don’t think I will have time to do that myself.

The guy who started my practice struck out into solo practice right out of fellowship. He ran all the billing himself at first, so that now he knows all the ins and outs, and knows when the people who are doing it are screwing up.

 

[hyperalgesia]

Insurance companies' entire business model revolves around shifting blame, ie "it's the billing company's fault", "it's the EMR's fault", "it's the doc's fault".

As an EMR developer at one point, I saw the entire picture. I was on the phone with insurance asking why a claim was in limbo and it was often due to some subtle change in the requirements to how a claim was submitted. For example, box 14f should have a zero instead of a blank space, unlike another insurance company, where the box needs to be a blank space.

On the other side, there's the government and Medicare regulations.

EMRs and billing companies tie themselves in knots trying to accommodate insurance companies and regulations and there's a small fraction of resources left for patients/docs.

 

[thecentral09]

Has aNgone used MedENT. I’ve heard it’s great for a number of docs but no pain docs. Any Experience?

 

[pmrmd]

I have eCW also, for close to 10 years now. Its decent enough after its dialed in. I haven't had issues in a while. My biller coordinates the online meetings for any issues she has. They have helped us reach the upper echelons of MIPS and all the other garbage out there and we are getting a small bump up in payment, so hard to hate them. It isn't cheap but what is? No way am I signing up for some company to get a percentage of the earnings.

 

[Painologist]

I have eCW also, for close to 10 years now. Its decent enough after its dialed in. I haven't had issues in a while. My biller coordinates the online meetings for any issues she has. They have helped us reach the upper echelons of MIPS and all the other garbage out there and we are getting a small bump up in payment, so hard to hate them. It isn't cheap but what is? No way am I signing up for some company to get a percentage of the earnings.

Thanks. Do you find yourself using the PRISMA feature often? It allows you to see patient information from other providers with eCW and hospitals using epic and cerner. No other private practice EMRs have such a feature.

 

[PinchandBurn]

Thanks. Do you find yourself using the PRISMA feature often? It allows you to see patient information from other providers with eCW and hospitals using epic and cerner. No other private practice EMRs have such a feature.

I use prognocis.

It does the job.

You can request medical records or have patients access their epic portal.

All the pharmacy meds picked up at a pharmacy are all accessible.

 

[Painologist]

I use prognocis.

It does the job.

You can request medical records or have patients access their epic portal.

All the pharmacy meds picked up at a pharmacy are all accessible.

Do you have them access their epic portal from their device? I’ll have privileges with a local hospital system that uses epic. I was wondering if I’m able to look up my patients in Epic even if I’m not seeing them through the hospital.

 

[PinchandBurn]

Do you have them access their epic portal from their device? I’ll have privileges with a local hospital system that uses epic. I was wondering if I’m able to look up my patients in Epic even if I’m not seeing them through the hospital.































































I have them log on their device or have them log onto an office puter. This way you canview or