Behavioral health EHR software continues to gain popularity in today’s healthcare industry since it provides various benefits to both healthcare professionals and patients.
According to recent research, behavioral health professionals are among the most recent groups to adopt extensive usage of EHR software. Yes, healthcare providers understand that managing behavioral and mental health practices differs significantly from general medical practices. What makes it different? Behavioral health clinics may have complicated processes and specialized requirements that aren’t as significant in primary care settings, requiring the use of specialty-specific EHR software that can satisfy those needs.
Are you ready to learn everything there is to know about behavioral health? We’ll go over what behavioral health EHR software is, why behavioral health practitioners need it, and what features and advantages come with utilizing it in this article.
What is Behavioral Health Software?
Behavioral Health EHR is a specialty-specific EHR software that helps behavioral healthcare practitioners enhance patient outcomes in a short amount of time by promoting greater continuity of treatment using sophisticated healthcare technology.
Collaboration is the most important feature of top Behavioral Health EHR software for treating patients successfully. Aside from the benefits for patients, behavioral health EHR software may help improve a practice’s processes by reducing administrative duties like recording, scheduling appointments, and invoicing. This will have a positive effect on the practice and will improve care delivery.
Benefits of Behavioral Health Software
Here is a list of benefits that behavioral health EHR software provides to your practice:
Improves Productivity
The administrative staff may simply automate calls to patients by connecting EHR with practice management software, which helps to minimize the number of no-shows. Furthermore, the EHR software makes it easier to determine which patients require follow-up visits, allowing you to fill open slots sooner rather than later when fewer slots are available.
Improved Care Coordination
EHR software is particularly useful for behavioral health clinics since it promotes communication among clinicians and helps to minimize unnecessary repetition of services. After all, a patient may not tell if they are receiving unnecessary treatment and must rely on specialists to ensure that services are properly delivered.
Easy Prescription Tracking
Prescriptions are tracked electronically to guarantee that patients only receive medicine from one physician. Patients can then take advantage of the system by getting several prescriptions for the same restricted drug from different doctors and pharmacies. In addition, doctors might use tracking to ensure that their patients’ medications are being filled regularly.
Reduced Claim Denials
One of the most significant advantages of using electronic health record software in your behavioral health practice is that you can simply track whether or not your paperwork is always complete and accurate. If your company fails to supply the necessary information, you risk having claims delayed, denied, or funds recouped by payers after audits. As a result, behavioral health EHR software assists you in avoiding billing and reimbursement difficulties while also increasing income flow in your clinic.
Behavioral Health EHR Software Features
Once you’ve decided to invest in a behavioral health EHR, it’s critical to understand what features it should offer. So, here are some of the most significant aspects to consider when purchasing a Behavioral Health EHR.
Easy Access to Patient Health Record
The ideal behavioral health EHR should have a feature that allows doctors to view the patient’s health record from various places and devices. This will be especially useful for behavioral health professionals who may be performing treatments in multiple locations. As a result, a cloud-based EHR is extremely useful for quickly and securely access patient data using a regular browser and internet connection. In addition, because the cloud-based EHR can be accessed from a variety of devices, including laptops, tablets, desktops, and cellphones, it enhances practice processes more than before.
ICD-10 Specialty Billing & Coding Support
Behavioral health that works EHR software not only has features to improve patient care, but it also has options to aid the clinical practice’s financial situation, such as making the medical billing process easier and faster by mapping ICD-10 codes to complaints.
Integrating EHR software reduces time-consuming administrative duties like billing and coding, allowing health practices to focus more on their patients’ health.
HL7 Compliance and Multiple Specialties
To serve their patients, behavioral health practitioners frequently need to collaborate with other specialties. As a result, the finest EHR software must support HL7 compliance and allow you to connect with a variety of specialists, such as developing a relationship with a neurologist or an internal medicine expert.
Customizable Reports and Powerful Analytics Tools
By creating reports, the EHR provides easy and rapid access to healthcare information. What are the contents of the reports? These reports sift through the information provided by various healthcare professionals and personnel at different times and locations. These reports can also be tailored to the processes and requirements of the practice. Power analytics tools like prescription analytics and more are included in some of the top EHR software.
Electronic Prescription (EPCS)
Electronic Prescription eliminates a lot of the effort and manual tracking that comes with paper-based paperwork and enables automated functions like checking for the right dose and duplication of drugs. EPCS (Electronic Prescription of Restricted Drugs) allows doctors to “write prescriptions for controlled substances electronically” and pharmacists to “accept, distribute, and archive these electronic prescriptions.”
Final Words
You may now better understand why behavioral health practices require EHR software to improve health outcomes. Although behavioral health EHRs are not as widely used as primary care EHRs, they provide several advantages that are not available with paper-based records. As a result, behavioral health professionals should take advantage of the most recent innovations and EHR to improve the efficiency of their operations.