Best Medical Practice Management Software (PMS)

With help of technology, most of the day-to-day hospital activities such as documenting patients' data, billings, appointments, etc. can be automated. All these features demand a platform that can facilitate health caregivers’ potential to perform better. Getting assistance from technology in the form of a software platform provides healthcare professionals an organized way to take care of patients.

Before exploring the key aspect of medical practice management software, let’s refresh the fundamentals of what a medical practice management system is.

What is a Medical Practice Management Software (PMS)?

The medical practice management software is a collection of automated services used by healthcare experts and administration to modernize daily tasks within a hospital practice and increase the productivity of operations and standard of patient care. Practice management software helps to improve the communication gap between caregivers and patients in hospital facilities.

Some common capabilities found in ideal medical PMS include but are not limited to,

• Simplified interface
• Patient records
• Patient portal
• Scheduling patient appointments
• Actionable dashboards with detailed reports
• Sending insurance claims
• Digitally documenting patient demographics
• Online payments
• Executing electronic billing procedures
• Adhere to privacy and security requirements
• Mobile application

Best Medical Practice Management Software (PMS)

We researched and analyzed the best of all Medical Practice Management Software. Let's take it to pieces and review them.

SimplePractice

Founded in 2012, SimplePractice is a cloud-based practice management software platform that provides the ultimate solution for health and wellness professionals. The solution helps to organize health care operations with efficient care.

Designed to fully manage the organization and business side of clinical practice, SimplePractice's advanced features make it unique from a usual medical practice management software. The paperless practice offers secure effective client communication, billing automation, patient waitlist management, and streamlined invoicing.

With the privacy of the data, SimplePractice's client portal is easy to set up. Patients are allowed to review documents, including prior paperwork to the first session.

SimplePractice has professionally curated themes and tools in the site builder for solo practitioners where they can successfully market their practice in the form of a website.

Key Features

• HIPAA Compliance: Policy documents include the use of an encryption protocol for data transmission.
• Client Portal: Clients can schedule appointments in advance, view billing information, view payment, medical history, lab results, and more using the designated portal.
• Telehealth: Clients can begin secure online appointments from anywhere, on any device with a link provided.
• Advanced Scheduling: Automate reminders, synchronize client appointments, to iCal, Outlook, or Google calendar with online booking.
• Billing & Invoicing: Produce bulk invoices, individual invoices, and auto-generated bills from attended sessions.

Pricing & Plans

SimplePractice's plans are categorized into two sections:

Solo Practice

1. Essential plan from $39

• Diagnosis and treatment plans
• Free appointment reminders
• Paperless intakes
• Unlimited clients
• Client portal
• Online payments

1. Professional plan from $59

• Essential package tools plus,
• Secure messaging
• Custom templates & appointment reminders
• Free billers and schedulers
• Appointment request widget
• Claim filing and payment reports
• Online appointment requests
• Administrative notes
• Add-on: telehealth, professional website

Professional plan with 2 clinicians from $98

• Client portal
• Unlimited clients
• Diagnosis and treatment plans
• Paperless intakes
• Free appointment reminders
• Online payments
• Add-on: Wiley Planners & Monarch directory listing

Pros	Cons
Easy to navigate user interface	Basic billing features only
Appointment reminders via text, voice, or email	Limited progress notes integration
Online pre-payments are possible via Portal	No financial reporting
User-based pricing	At a times, it's challenging to find certain features for non-tech savvy clients
Client import-export supported from other electronic health records
Helps native, HIPAA-compliant e-counseling and online therapy sessions

 

Mobile Application Availability

Google Play | App Store

NextGen Healthcare

A versatile, multi-module system that's robust yet easy to use, NextGen Healthcare is one of the industry's finest practice management software since 1976. The software offers a dynamic range of solutions with comprehensive, integrated technology and services platforms to support healthcare providers.

Essential medical data analytics, billing tools, and revenue cycle management, streamlined front-and-back-office administration are a few of the highlights of the software. NextGen Healthcare takes advantage of cloud-based technology to empower client's daily workflow and increase better outcomes. Based on a particular patient’s health conditions, it’s easy to access and continue the virtual practice with the practice management software.

Key Features

• Practice Management: Easy to navigate billing difficulties. Improves revenue opportunities with solutions that are simple to use by professionals.
• Clinical Notes: Healthcare professionals can modify previous charts and utilize the data in current charts to quickly gather some fields in the present note. Rapid clickable tabs make the process better to update additional data to a patient's chart with a single click.
• Specialty Focus: Prescription varies for each patient. Depending on unique needs, the software offers special tools and features to organize operations.
• MIPS/MACRA Dashboard: Easy to operate dashboard helps healthcare professionals with insights into how well their practice is fulfilling each of its aims associated with specific standards. Additionally, offers recommendations about particular actions for professionals' practice that improves its score.
• Health Analytics: With this feature, professionals get health analytics capabilities, such as risk stratification, care coordination, population health, and more of such assistance with recommending treatments and diagnosis.

Pricing & Plans

NextGen Healthcare does not make its pricing information available. This is a usual practice by software companies of practice management software.

Pros	Cons
Easy to complete notes at the time of examination of the patients	More intuitive templates for providers required
Seamless integration	Challenging credit card setup
Customizable interface for viewing information	Unavailable pricing or free trial
Automated registry reporting helps to save time with quality reporting

 

Mobile Application Availability

Google Play | App Store

AthenaOne

Trusted by professionals, AthenaOne is one of the most promising practice management software available in the industry. Revolutionizing healthcare technology since 1997, AthenaOne is an ideal choice for the practice of pediatrics, cardiology, gastroenterology, gynecology, and hospital systems.

From managing customizable reports, professionals can yield information analytics that can be used to rebuild further operations. AthenaOne's rapid billing system allows error-free claims of the insurance company before submission.

The patient portal aka athenaCommunicator enables healthcare experts to stay connected with patients at every phase of their visit. It checks the patient in, reviews the records, and alerts the concerned healthcare worker of their status. From the patients’ side, they can also log in, view their medical results.

Key Features

• Easy to Use: The user interface offers easy navigation through various features that make healthcare providers and patients stay connected.
• Care Coordination: Sharing data made secure with athenaOne. Collaboration with external and internal care teams is further easier.
• Revenue Cycle Management: Helps hospital systems with heavy work of the revenue data to collect bills rapidly while maintaining financial performance transparent.
• Mobility to Practice On the Go: The athenaOne mobile application offers the following services:
  • Lab reports, medical e-prescriptions for patients
  • Round the call patient data and providers access
  • Detailed drug dosing information
• Authorization Management: This allows to outsource research and development for medical authorizations where statuses are made available from in-app clinical workflows.

Pricing & Plans

AthenaOne does not make its pricing information available. This is a usual practice by software companies of practice management software.

Pros	Cons
Customizable reporting options	Lengthy setup process
The mobile application eliminates the communication gap between professionals, staff, and the patient.	Inaccurate bugs in Patient Portal messaging
An efficient and optimized workflow	Lack of free tail and pricing information
Better service and support
Accurate medical coding support from HIPAA-compliant coding experts

 

Mobile Application Availability

App Store

Google Play - Different Developer company, with 50000 installs, last updated on August 2021

Google Play - Developed by Athenahealth, with 10000 installs, last updated on July 2021

Caspio

Established in 2000, Caspio applies to all business sizes. It is considered a pro platform for the healthcare industry, education, government, media, consulting, and any other organization in search of making personalized applications that can be expanded rapidly with less cost.

The Caspio system makes it simple for providers to accept patients with insurance policies. With its advanced electronic protection claims management features, professionals can file claims and settle them with no difficulties.

Caspio, being a cloud-based server, doesn't require technical expertise for setup, maintenance, and operation. With its no-code platform, all healthcare providers need to do is use drag and drop features in order to customize applications.

Key Features

• Visualized Data: Easy to analyze real-time data decisions utilizing dynamic charts and dashboards. It provides accurate information with its user-driven examining capabilities.
• Geolocation: Strong location-oriented apps with distance search, map integration, predictive statistics, and geolocation services.
• Custom Integration Options: Scalable with built-in integration such as Amazon Web Services, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc. with industry recommend cloud capabilities.
• Personalized Web Forms: Data collection of smart fields with all data capture requirements such as auto-complete, encrypted passwords, cascading, conditional, real-time calculations, and much more.
• Language Localization: Caspio comes with preloaded 11 common languages, providing choices for more. Supports all global numbers, date, time zone formats, and currencies.

Pricing & Plans

Caspio's plans are categorized into five sections:

• 5 DataPages
• 50000 Data records
• 500 MB File storage
• 100 per month email notifications
• Point-and-click app builder
• Unlimited users and app usage
• Integrated cloud database
• Security & Compliance
• App styling and localization
• Responsive and adaptive apps
• Seamless deployment
• Free online training

Explore plan from $100

• Free plan features plus,
• 20 DataPages
• 500000 Data records
• 5 GB File storage
• 1000 per month email notifications
• White label deployment
• Private training
• Live chat support

Build plan from $200

• Explore plan features plus,
• 50 DataPages
• 1 Million Data records
• 10 GB File storage
• 5000 per month email notifications
• Distance search
• Pivot tables with drill-down
• Revision history
• Triggered actions
• Application tasks
• Data import/export tasks
• Live chat/phone support
• Onboarding

Grow plan from $400

• Build plan features plus,
• 100 DataPages
• 2 Million Data records
• 20 GB File storage
• 10000 per month email notifications
• App user activity logs
• REST API
• Zapier integration
• FileStor CDN
• PDF report generation
• Payment integration
• Audit trail and 2nd layer encryption

Corporate plan from custom price

• Grow plan features plus,
• 300+ DataPages
• 5+ Million Data records
• 50+ GB File storage
• 20000 per month email notifications
• 14+ days daily backup retention
• HIPAA and FERPA compliance
• GovCloud – FIPS 140-2 compliance
• Enterprise capabilities
• 24/7 support hotline
• Account manager

Pros	Cons
Simplifies all application development complexities	Significantly less flexible for tech-savvy professionals
Low-code platform	Costly for managing large datasets and small business
Appeals to its user base by providing an adaptable pricing range
Comes with scalable cloud infrastructure with high-end security

 

10to8

In the healthcare industry since 2011, 10to8 is the most affordable practice management software on the list. The solution plays a vital role for the healthcare providers with busy timelines eliminating schedules from overlapping with each other.

With 10to8, healthcare providers can decrease the frequency of unattended meetings and grow communication with patients. The booking page shows time block, appointment type, patient's name, place, and private notes along with the calendar to mark the dates. Whether you're a public or private healthcare professional, 10to8 is one of the best HIPAA-compliant booking systems available.

Key Features

• Calendar Sync: Once the patient schedules an appointment, the software automatically synchronizes it with the calendar providers use including Google, Office 365, iCal, Outlook, etc.
• Communicate with Patients: Healthcare providers can stay connected with patients and follow up using the 2-way chat, phone, email, video solution.
• Easy Multi-party Appointment: A medical appointment may require the approval of the lab instructor, physician, and other experts on top of the patient's schedule. Their contrasting dates can be coordinated on the 10to8 calendar to an appropriate date that is suitable to all.
• Payment Options: Integrated with multiple payment gateways via SagePay, PayPal, and Stripe avoiding all the deposit difficulties.
• Customizable Queries: Generate questions to get correct and most accurate data at the point of booking from patients. This saves time for patients as well as healthcare professionals.

Pricing & Plans

10to8's plans are categorized into five sections:

• 100 appointments per month
• 2 staff logins
• Appointment scheduling
• Online booking & support
• Messaging
• Services & staff
• Customer management
• Integrations
• Security & reporting

Basic plan from $9.6

• Free plan features plus,
• Customizable branding
• Edit the styling of your email templates
• Branded booking page
• Secure online payments via Stripe and PayPal

Grow plan from $20

• Basic plan features plus,
• 300 appointments per month
• 3 staff logins
• Take bookings in multiple locations (at business premises and online)
• Edit the text of your SMS and email messages
• 2-way client chat via SMS and email
• Assign services to locations

Bigger business plan from $40

• Grow plan features plus,
• 600 appointments/month
• 6 staff logins
• Take appointments at the client's address
• Take appointments based on location radius
• Build multiple online booking pages for various services
• Custom questions in online booking

Enterprise plan from custom price

• Bigger business plan features plus,
• Manage staff members working in multiple timezones
• Enterprise connect enhanced calendar sync
• Custom API integrations
• Workflow customization
• Tools for HIPPA compliance
• Signed BAA
• Option of selecting data storage country
• Custom reports
• Book phone and video support sessions

Pros	Cons
Elegant intuitive user-friendly design	Subscription required for additional features
Seamless booking options	The difficult learning curve for non-tech-savvy patients
Free trial is welcoming and adaptable
Automates SMS text reminders to clients
Easy to use a visual calendar

 

Software	Mobile Application	Phone Support	Flexible Billing	Client/ Patient  Portal	Telehealth	Pricing Available	Online Payments
SimplePractice	✔	-	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
NextGen Healthcare	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	✔
AthenaOne	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	-	✔
Caspio	-	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
10to8	-	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔

 

The Takeaway

In a nutshell, medical practice management software makes the healthcare administrative process and tasks more well-organized. The automation of some processes consists of noticeable improvements for patient care and overall the organization.

Approximately, all of the medical practice management is supported by cloud-based technologies. Its functionality and features can be improved by other technologies including telemedicine, mobile health, Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, the Internet of Medical Things, and robotic enrichment. The practice management system market is anticipated to reach USD 11.11 billion by 2025.

COVID-19 changing dynamics of the healthcare industry is predicted to involve digitalization of the processes, therefore insisting on the implementation of the practice management system, which in turn is a vital growth factor of the market.