According to the HIMSS Analytics 2017 Essentials Brief: Outpatient PM & EHR Study, 44.1% of respondents noted patient portals as the top technology for addressing the MIPS Clinical Practice Improvement Activities (CPIA) measure. The study notes that the expanded portal technology surpases health information exchange, which was indicated by survey respondents in 2016 as the technology needed to implement to address CPIAs.

Cloud adoption numbers are up in health care, and dermatology practices are no exception.

It has always been important for Plastic Surgery practices to recognize the direct effect that patient experience has on retention and practice growth. Now more than ever, Plastic Surgery practices must increase operational efficiency to be more competitive. Many practices are looking to new technology options to help fill the gaps in operational efficiency.

In specialty practices such as ophthalmology, dermatology and plastic surgery, physicians spend the majority of their time using information from images and textual data from the electronic medical record (EMR) to make decisions. Integrating images into the EMR is therefore a great benefit to improving functionality for physicians. Read the full article from Becker’s Health IT and CIO Review to learn more about improving EMR efficiency by integrating imaging and other features such as a patient portal.

As the popularity of high deductible health plans with low monthly premiums increases, the out-of-pocket maximum for each patient and the cost for each visit also increases. This creates a growing challenge for specialty practices to collect, as there is a 62 percent lower likelihood of payment once the patient leaves the office. The changing payer model creates a need for a patient-centric specialty practice experience to help collect more at the time of each patient visit.

Payment policies for aesthetic services are more akin to booking a luxury cruise than buying a car. You can’t repossess a facelift, so it only makes sense to require payment in advance and to charge a substantial booking fee. The business of medical aesthetics may seem straightforward—you provide a service, the patient pays a fee—but the reality of patient billing is more complicated.

Ophthalmologists are trained to provide the full spectrum of eyecare, from prescribing glasses to precision eye surgery. Yet while they may be experts at treating patients, very few have business degrees or specialized practice management skills. Poor real estate decisions and bad hires, for example, are common mistakes that constitute part of the typical learning curve. However, many doctors make serious financial mistakes that can devastate their businesses, such as choosing the wrong electronic health record (EHR) and then sticking with it because of sunk costs.

Some early adopters of electronic health records (EHRs)—specialty practices in particular—are experiencing buyer’s remorse to the point that they are considering changing vendors. Think about the movements of a patient during an appointment in a retina practice. He or she may be tested or screened in one or more areas of the facility, transitioned to another area to consult with the retina specialist, and then moved to the payment counter. Most all-purpose EHRs cannot accommodate such complicated workflows.