DrChrono Medical Billing review

From Sunnyvale, California, DrChrono offers multiple services, including their EHR, and also medical billing. The company can trace its roots back to 2009, with founders Michael Nusimow and Daniel Kivatinos determined to simplify the administrative burden for practicing clinicians after having a firsthand experience through sick family members. DrChrono claims to serve tens of thousands of physicians, and also notably had the first EHR with a native iOS app.

• You can learn more about DrChrono Medical Billing here

Features

Medical billing is critical for any practice. Just like any other business, cash flow is needed for it to remain viable, and therefore an efficient billing process is a key component for any practice to implement.

DrChrono is designed to integrate with their EHR, with the goal of “Clean claims” that can go through on the first submission, and avoid costly, and time wasting resubmissions. Human errors are also checked for, and reduced to avoid rejected claims. With this integration, this creates an economy of scale, so for example, the patient information and demographics get entered once as the clinical documentation is created, and there is no need to re-enter it for the billing process. Also, the billing can then be managed in the EHR directly, creating one interface to cover multiple needs.

Another tool to streamline the billing process is the ability to create a billing profile. This allows for saving the most common diagnoses that are billed for, and the frequent billing codes. They can then be easily, and efficiently retrieved to be utilized when billing, thereby reducing data entry, and subsequently saving time throughout the billing process.

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The payments are also fully integrated into the medical billing of the DrChrono EHR. There is no need for the front office to have to deal with physical checks, a financial instrument of yesteryear. Rather, payments with DrChrono are made via Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA). This means that trips to the bank are not needed, and rather the money arrives near instantaneously via direct deposit (ACH).

While in the DrChrono EHR platform, data analytics can be accomplished. This is done via the integrated billing dashboard, which can be reviewed for real time analysis to maximize productivity, easily viewed and digested via informative reports and graphs.

Drawbacks

From user reviews of DrChrono, we are able to determine some of the downsides of this software. One miss is that there is a lack of an Android app, although there is one for the iOS platform. Another issue is the lack of a direct phone number to contact DrChronos directly with a query. The platform also lacks customization options, and others complain about unscheduled downtime for the application that can hamper the productivity.

The other major issue is that DrChrono’s medical billing is designed to work with their EHR, and only their EHR. As many offices are already using another EHR that they have previously transitioned to, this would require ditching their existing EHR for DrChrono. We find this a significant limitation, and would prefer DrChrono to be available as a stand alone application that could be used with our choice of EHR for a best in class approach.

Support

The support for DrChrono is somewhat interesting. It starts with an online portal, which is designed for self help in multiple categories, including Medical Billing as a separate category. This provides some ready to go help across a wide variety of topics, for example “How to post a HRA payment?,” and “How to select the state of accident for auto accident claims?” among many others. Newbies will appreciate the sub-category of “Billing Basics,” as they get up to full speed.

Beyond that, there is a way to submit a request, with a link for this at the end of each of the self help articles, in case there is still a need for a query. This request gets submitted online, after filling in your username, the priority, and the specifics of the issue, along with a telephone number and email address. A file can also be attached (such as a screenshot) if that is needed to explain the issue. Unfortunately, it cannot be specified the method for the company to contact you back, nor to schedule a phone call if that is a preferred method of contact to your office, for example. This can be frustrating for a more complicated concern, and perhaps is contributing to the drawbacks listed in terms of delays in hearing back with a resolution as problems arise.

Pricing

Pricing for DrChrono medical billing, and also the rest of their services is not listed on their website. It requires contact with the company, which is initiated with filling out an online form that includes background info including the doctor’s specialty, location, and the size of the practice.

There is no free trial, but there is a free demo offered.

Final verdict

DrChrono is a medical billing platform aimed at supporting their EHR platform with the same name. The pluses include real time data analysis, a free demo, and an iOS app. The minuses include the lack of Android app, the lack of a direct phone number for support, and the inability to support other EHR platforms. At the end of the day, if the DrChronos EHR suits your practices needs, then their medical billing makes perfect sense, but those that already are on another platform will need to consider carefully if a complete transition to a different platform is going to suit their practice.

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