Top Features to Look for in Chronic Care Management Software: A Buyer’s Guide

Ashlesh Khadse
April 19, 2024
1:21 pm
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When you hit the market in search of ch ronic care management software, the number of software solutions available in the market is quite high, aren’t they?

To add more to this confusion, the features that every CCM software provides are different in some way or another. Furthermore, the demo sessions explaining different features of CCM software and how it can increase the efficiency of your practice can be a long and time-consuming process.

As a buyer, the cost of the chronic care management software and the features it provides make decision-making difficult. Here, it is crucial to understand that a chronic care management software is unique, and that’s why the right CCM software can improve the overall processes of your chronic care management program.

So, keeping the cost aside, what features of CCM software do you need to look for, and how to choose best CCM software for your practice?

In this blog, we will see exactly that and let this blog be your buyer’s guide for CCM.

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Top Features to Look for in Chronic Care Management Software

Patient Management

Chronic care management programs rely heavily on tracking and overseeing patients with chronic conditions. With patient management features in the software, providers are not only able to track the conditions of the patients better but also enable the care team to coordinate and work on the desired goal as a team. Two major components of this feature are:

1. Patient Records: Most of the CCM software comes with integrated EHR. This way, it becomes easy for the providers and administrative staff to manage patient records effectively. Here, important patient information like medical history, allergies, ongoing medications, and demographic details are comprehensively stored to provide a holistic view of the patient’s medical background.

2. Patient Engagement: It is not a secret anymore that the more the patient is involved in their care plan, the more likely they are to respond to the medication and treatment plan to give positive healthcare outcomes. Tools like secure messaging, automated reminders, and appointment scheduling let the patient stay updated with their care plan and foster better communication with the care team members.

Care Planning & Coordination

Providing care and improving patient’s health is not limited to physicians only. It is a team effort that involves various healthcare service providers like pharmacists, nurse practitioners, etc. This feature encourages care planning and coordination between the members to work towards the goal of improving the quality of life for patients with chronic conditions.

1. Custom Care Plan Building: With custom care plan building, the specific needs of the individuals are addressed better to provide holistic care. It is important for the team members to work together and ensure that other treatments don’t overlap with one another.

2. Easy Care Plan management : Patients with multiple chronic diseases require careful monitoring. Any change in the patient’s normal health reading requires a change in the care plan and all the other aspects. The features of CCM software enable providers to easily make changes in the plan while keeping every member of the care team aligned with the decided care plan.

Interoperability & Integration

Chronic care management software should be interoperable and easily integrated with devices as most of the things in providing care in chronic care management programs often depend on data.

1. Interoperability: An interoperable CCM software allows different healthcare systems to seamlessly exchange data with others and make data-driven decisions in providing care.

2. Device Integration: Remote patient monitoring is a crucial aspect to receive real-time patient vitals and monitor patients virtually. With device integration features, the patient data can be easily integrated into the CCM software, allowing providers to manage the health plan easily and monitor patients in real-time.

Billing & Documentation

For the success of the chronic care management program, accurate billing and documentation are vital. With the features of CCM software mentioned below, you should be able to seamlessly submit claims and documentation of patient activity while receiving care.

1. Auto Time Tracking: The CCM software should be compatible enough to automatically track the time of patient-provider encounters. This eliminates the manual entry of patient time tracking and also streamlines a major part of billing.

2. Billing Integration: The CCM software should seamlessly integrate with billing and reimbursement systems to streamline the financial aspects of the CCM services. The documentation and reporting capabilities of the software should meet the reimbursement requirements to ensure timely payments and reduce claim denials.

Security & Compliance

Chronic care management software deals with important patient information, ensuring its security to maintain the integrity and trust of the patients.

1. HIPAA Compliance: The CCM software should abide by the rules and regulations set by HIPAA. Compliance with HIPAA can ensure the safety of the patient data and the way it is used to provide care facilities.

2. Data Encryption: With data encryption, the chronic disease management solution can ensure the security and protection of patient data from unauthorized access. Along with that, data encryption also plays a crucial role in complying with regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, etc.

Analytics & Reporting

With the digitization of healthcare practices, the healthcare industry is slowly moving towards data-driven care approaches. Furthermore, good chronic disease management solutions give providers direct access to comprehensive real-time data with analytics pointers and custom reports for easy assessment.

1. Data Analytics: Prioritizing data analytics features while healthcare software selection allows tracking of the patient’s condition and assessing their progress with the specially curated diagnosis and treatment plan.

2. Custom Reports: Along with data analytics, the provider should also be able to make sense of the data in real-time. With custom report features, providers get detailed and sophisticated access to patient data to make sense of it and make quick data-backed decisions with precision. CCM software, being able to generate custom reports of patient population, care plan reports, and monthly billing reports, can also help the providers address where their practice is falling short and what can be done to improve the efficiency of the practice.

Training & Support

Having feature-rich healthcare software selection is not enough unless the users using it can use it effectively for their benefit. That is the reason training and support features make up an important part of chronic disease management solutions.

1. Training Resources: Training resources like demos and user guides are essential features to help healthcare providers (or any user) navigate through the features and functionalities of the software to make the most from the CCM software and improve the efficiency of the practice. Here navigating CCM software features as a buyer will help you make a clear choice while choosing the right CCM software.

2. Customer Support: CCM software needs support from tech experts in case of any problems, bugs, or improper functioning of the software. This feature is crucial to consider while healthcare software selections to ensure the effectiveness of the program. 24/7 support access to clinicians and experts using the software can help you meet your unique needs and requirements.

Going Beyond Basics

Since there has been rapid growth in the technological space and new innovative technologies are coming up to ease the pressure, the features in the chronic care management software can be enhanced.

Here are some of the possible technological advancements applications in the CCM software features that can enhance its performance:

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML): Integration of AI and ML in CCM software can streamline and fasten the data analysis process. This can be used by the providers to quickly curate personalized care plans and assess the potential risks the patient might be prone to. This directly improves the patient monitoring process and enables quick interventions to improve patient health outcomes.

2. Patient Education and Self-Management Tools: Additional patient-centric features can give patients direct access to educational material that helps them manage their health and contributes to improving treatment adherence.

3. Social Determinants of Health Integrations: Further integration of features in CCM software that address social determinants of health integration will allow healthcare providers to take a holistic approach to providing healthcare services. Complete data can help address social factors like patients’ work, lifestyles, age, etc., which can lead to improving patient health outcomes.

Additional Considerations

While focusing on the feature, you should also consider the following considerations for your robust CCM software:

1. Vendor Reputation and Support: The vendor you will be going ahead with will play a vital role in the maintenance and support of your CCM software. Having a reliable vendor can solve most of the problems with ease. Check for the certification the vendor has and also check for client reviews for further assurance.

2. Implementation and Ongoing Costs: Some of the CCM software have pay-per-feature models. This can impact the software’s implementation and increase ongoing costs. Note down all the factors that can affect the software implementation costs and also the ongoing subscription fees. This will give you an idea of the budget you’ve set for the software. Along with that, your practice might need some customizations in the features; discussing that beforehand with the vendor can also help you get a brief estimation of the software cost.

3. Free Trials and Demos: Most vendors offer free trials and demos of their CCM software. Leverage those and choose the software that ideally fits your practice’s workflow. Along with that, it will also give you a sneak peek into the features and functionality of the software.

Our Software Solution

The search for the ideal chronic care management software can be a tiring and frustrating experience. Either the features of CCM software are unnecessary or the cost of the CCM software just does not provide its worth.

However, our unique chronic care management software, eCareMD, has been developed after detailed market research and identifying the unique needs of the providers. This software aims to improve the efficiency of the practice by keeping the patient-provider relationship at the center. It is not only a feature-rich CCM software that comes at an affordable cost but also has a smooth user interface for easy navigation. Request a demo of the software and how it ideally fits your chronic care management program.

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Conclusion

Chronic care management software is the connecting link between patients and providers in the CCM program. Moreover, the success of the program depends highly on the features of CCM software. Other than addressing the unique needs of the providers using the software, it is important to address the patient’s need to actively involve them in the care plan and increase patient satisfaction rate.

So, the next time you go shopping for the ideal software for your chronic care management program, ensure that you read this buyer’s guide for CCM. Also, read our previous blog on how to determine the cost of CCM software here.

Frequently Asked Question’s

1. What features should I prioritize when selecting chronic care management software?

Features of CCM software that you should look for are:

Patient Portal
Communication Features
EHR and Telehealth Integration
Data Analytics and Reporting
Customized Dashboard
Ongoing Maintenance and Support

2. Are there customizable options available in chronic care management solutions?

Yes, while going for custom chronic care management software development, you can get customization options in the CCM software solution.

3. How do I compare features across different CCM software options?

Carefully assessing the needs and requirements to compare features across different CCM software is how to choose the best CCM software for your practice. Considering the cost, flexibility, and freedom of the software can make a choice clear.

4. Can CCM software be seamlessly integrated with existing electronic health records?

Chronic care management software can be seamlessly integrated with electronic health records.

5. How do I ensure that the selected CCM software meets the specific needs of my healthcare practice?

Careful assessment of your practice and its workflow is the way to ensure the selected chronic disease management solution meets your specific needs. Consider software demos to make it more clear.

6. Is data security a top priority when choosing CCM software?

Data security is the top priority when choosing CCM software, as it deals with sensitive patient health information, which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) requires you to safeguard.

7. Can AI-powered features add value to my CCM program?

AI-powered features like predictive analytics and other workflow automation can add much value to the CCM program while counting for scalability.

8. What should I consider when comparing different CCM software options?

Cost, features of CCM software, and vendor support are some of the major things that you should consider when comparing different CCM software options.