Medical Billing Software > Medical Billing Software Reviews
Practice Mate by Office Ally?
RichardP:
surfergirl said: Most importantly it [Practice Mate] only holds two months worth of revenue data. So say your doc wants to know everything He or She brought for this year.
In Practice Mate, I just clicked on the "Accounting Tab", clicked on the "Reports" heading on the right side of the screen, and clicked on "Payments/Deposit" report. Then, on the left side of the screen, I clicked the drop-down arrow at "Payment Received:" and selected "By Month". I type in "01 - 2012" and clicked on "Go" Practice Mate gave me the a report that showed the total amount posted for every day in that month, plus a total for the entire month at the bottom.
I re-did the exercise in the previous paragraph, but selected "By Date Range", and then typed in "01-01-2012" to "12-31-2012". I received an error message asking me to limit my range to within 31 days. So I did "01-01-2012" to "01-31-12" and received the same results as stated in the previous paragraph.
The data is there (if it has been posted). You just get it one month at a time. The data can be exported to Excel, one month at a time, if you want to create a report for a number of months on one page.
It makes sense that a free program might have limited storage space - so I expect that there will be a cutoff at some point in the past beyond which Practice Mate will delete the data. But I have seen nothing in print that states what this cutoff date might be. Anyone who intends to use Practice Mate as their primary billing program for a while would be wise to export financial data to Excel on some regular schedule.
PMRNC:
--- Quote ---It makes sense that a free program might have limited storage space - so I expect that there will be a cutoff at some point in the past beyond which Practice Mate will delete the data. But I have seen nothing in print that states what this cutoff date might be. Anyone who intends to use Practice Mate as their primary billing program for a while would be wise to export financial data to Excel on some regular schedule.
--- End quote ---
To me it doesn't make sense unless they have a cap with data to which, when you exceed you pay a fee.. that would make sense to me. But because of record retention, audit's and audit trails it doesn't make any sense to me to use a PM system that cuts off data, free or not, to use that would be a disservice to your company and the physicians you service. Not trying to lecture, but I do think a lot of billing companies cut corners with cost forgoing responsibility to their very resource of referrals (current clients).
gurumedbill:
If I were a provider and knew my billing service didn't have access to all my data and couldn't get me the reports I needed I would drop my billing service in a heartbeat. PracticeMate is not worth free and hopefully billing services that have been trusted with a practices' data will realize that. It is one thing if the doctor makes the decision themselves but the billing service is just playing with fire. There are very good inexpensive options out there. Look around.
RichardP:
PracticeMate is not worth free ...
PracticeMate / Office Ally is pushed at the moment by several national-level insurance carriers - so some folks don't agree with your statement. I would say that it is certainly suitable for those doctors who practice uncomplicated medicine.
I mentioned data retention just to be realistic. Office Ally is paid mostly by the insurance carriers, so maybe they are rolling in dough and can afford a large-enough server farm. But if they keep growing at the current rate, I'm thinking that at some point the data-storage requirement might exceed their ability and/or desire to pay for it. And my caution to make backups of the financial data applies to any practice mangement / billing sotware that you might use that is not physically located on your own servers. You never know when misundertandings between you and the offsite company, or EMPs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse might separate you from your data.
From personal experience, I can say that many doctors don't care about what reports the practice management software can generate. A number of my clients pay no attention to the reports that I give them. They know how much money they are putting in the bank (they do their own deposits, not us), they know how many patients they want to see in a week, and so they just put down their heads and work.
PMRNC:
--- Quote ---From personal experience, I can say that many doctors don't care about what reports the practice management software can generate. A number of my clients pay no attention to the reports that I give them. They know how much money they are putting in the bank (they do their own deposits, not us), they know how many patients they want to see in a week, and so they just put down their heads and work.
--- End quote ---
Well, I want your clients. LOL. I go beyond billing, offering my clients my expertise including, but not limited to FULL credentialing with contract/fee schedule negotiation so reports for them and me are IMPERATIVE. If I am working with a client who's PM System I am accessing remote, before I sign with them I analyze the reporting area VERY carefully so that I can not only give them fair and accurate pricing, but I need to know WHAT services I can provide in addition to billing that will help their practice. If I go into the reporting area and I can't pull data to analyze a carrier's payment trend for at least 5 years, I can't offer them the extension of those services. My clients love that because I'm not just working on TODAY, I'm working for tomorrow and helping them keep up with the industry to make sure they are current and in or out of networks that benefit their practice not weigh them down. Many providers need to see the last 5 years in trending carrier payments for example, Medicaid. By pulling the right report I can analyze that along with the practice's payable and show them how they actually LOSE money by taking Medicaid (based on example of one of my clients)
Aside from those PERKS.. there is the simplest reason we need to RETAIN data.. Audit and Audit Trail. I have indeed walked away from clients who's PM system is substandard and cannot give me what I need to do my job, and they are unwilling to make a change. Doesn't happen often, for most part my clients are all pretty good about maintaining good quality PM systems.
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