I have been a medical biller and software trainer for 20 years. My clients want value for their money, so I am always on the lookout for better medical billing software with great features and a low price tag. We use several practice management systems in our billing service including Medisoft, AdvancedMD, and TotalMD. These are all great systems, but that hasn’t stopped me from my quest for that perfect software. TotalMD has the same great price and ease of use as Medisoft does, however, it has some other advantages that are not as obvious.
Let’s review the features that everyone wants:
Ease Of Use
Time is a precious commodity in a medical office or billing service and easy to use, intuitive software saves time. I like software features that do not require you to walk around the block to get next door. TotalMD foots the bill in this regard. It has all the features you need and is simple to use and requires very little training.
Great Price
TotalMD is very reasonably priced and does not require upgrades in order to obtain support. And just as important, the training and support fees are very reasonable.
Now, let’s take a look at some other features that not all software users think of:
Great Technical Support
Everyone needs technical support once in a while and no one wants to spend a lot of time on the phone, on hold, waiting to resolve a problem. TotalMD is very responsive and really delivers in this area.
Remote Access
TotalMD is a desktop solution but it also offers an ASP model. Medical billing services will appreciate this flexibility because many of their clients want to share the data from any location.
Connectivity To Other Software
This is an important requirement that doesn’t receive enough consideration and it is where TotalMD excels. The software provides integration on several levels which offers more choices to a practice or billing service.
Electronic Health Records
The connectivity to EHR (electronic health records) systems is really important. Unfortunately, some practices only discover this as a potential problem after they have already made a software purchase. TotalMD has free, built-in HL7 capability that allows it to integrate with or “talk to” popular EHR software like SpringCharts, Praxis, Amazing Charts, and others. What is HL7? It’s a function that passes data elements from the practice management system to the EHR system. This important feature offers providers more choices in electronic health records software.
A medical office may like their practice management software, however, it may not integrate or link with the EHR of their choice, in which case, a third party HL7 (linking) software may be needed. Things can get complicated when two to three vendors are involved in coordinating installations and technical support. This may result in added expense and can be time consuming for the user.
Medical Coding Software & Other Add-Ons
TotalMD also intergrates seamlessly with several other well known products. You can look up CPT and diagnosis codes using Encoder Pro medical coding software. There is also credit card processing available by Intuit or X-Charge at very affordable rates. This service is a time saver because it works seamlessly with the software.
Electronic Processing
With TotalMD, electronic billing can be handled using any clearinghouse. The user is not limited in this respect. My favorite is the electronic remittance posting feature. You can download your 835 ERA files from ANY clearinghouse and post them with ease in TotalMD. Insurance verification is also a very valuable feature that can be integrated into the patient scheduler using either Gateway or Apex clearinghouses.
Document Manager
This is another well integrated product. If your electronic records requirements are minimal, TotalMD also has a very reasonably priced document manager. This easy-to-use software allows your office to organize, capture and store:
(1) patient insurance cards, driver’s licenses and ID cards
(2) patient signatures on your own financial, privacy and patient release forms
(3) all printed documents
(4) mail merge templates for letters and forms.
TotalMD is an all around great product and the vendor is a pleasure to work with. Affordability and ease of use are critical, however, technical support and product integration are also really high on my priority list, and TotalMD delivers.
