Contacts are a necessary part of business in every industry. The healthcare industry is no exception. Healthcare contract management software will ensure that medical offices remain compliant with laws that regulate organizational standards.
Hospitals and healthcare organizations often struggle with managing the agreements necessary for the daily operations of their offices. With 60 to 80% of all transactions within a healthcare organization requiring contracts, finding an automated solution to managing these essential contracts is critical.
Regulatory compliance is not the only reason to implement contract management software within medical facilities. There are many benefits to this software. Take a moment to learn what healthcare management software is doing to advance healthcare organizations’ workflow processes.
What is Healthcare Contract Management Software?
Healthcare contract management software automates the lifecycle of medical contracts and agreements. It assists medical providers in complying with data security standards required by law. Manual contract management costs healthcare organizations approximately $157 billion dollars a year. Therefore, it not only mitigates the risk of non-compliance but also decreases the cost of operations for medical providers.
Here are the types of agreements healthcare management software manages:
- Physician employment agreements
- Non-physician staff employment agreements
- Vendor contracts
- Equipment purchase, lease, and/or sale contracts
- Pharmacy agreements
- Real estate contracts
- Grants and research agreements
Top 5 Benefits of Healthcare Contract Management
While compliance is essential, there are many more benefits to selecting contract management software. There are five principal advantages for medical offices to switch from manual processes to an automated contract management software for healthcare facilities.
1. Agreement Visibility
Keeping track of the contracts within a healthcare organization is impossible without a centralized location for all of the documents. Digitizing these documents ensures they remain accessible to those who need to view the documents.
Regardless of whether a medical practice has multiple locations, they can gain access through the portal of the contract management software. Therefore, medical office contracts remain secure. Legal teams and essential stakeholders are also able to access necessary documents.
Also, office administrators can ensure access is granted only to those who should view the document. This feature enables the facility to remain in compliance with the following regulations:
- HIPAA
- HITECH
- False claims
- JACHO
- Federal Anti-Kickback Statute
- Stark I, II, III
2. Customized Notifications
When a deadline passes and a healthcare company misses the opportunity to renegotiate any terms, fines can be imposed on them as prescribed by law. What’s more is that if some element needs to change, but the contract automatically renews because of this missed deadline, then it could lead to unnecessary risks and potential penalties for these healthcare companies.
Missing contract deadlines and not renegotiating company contracts could lead to throwing away money on expensive equipment or services that are no longer needed. In terms of healthcare compliance, if a medical office has a physician agreement with an expiration date for renewing the agreed-upon price, which falls within Stark Law’s window, the company is likely exposing itself to additional risk as well by missing this renegotiation deadline.
Setting up alerts and notifications for contract deadlines means you have enough time to renegotiate terms. Knowing exactly when your agreements expire removes the worry of forgetting when agreement terms are due, which leaves less room for mistakes or missed opportunities.
3. Contract Responsibility
There will inevitably be questions about the content of a contract. Who better to answer these questions than the owner or manager of that particular contract? Contracts Management Software should allow providers to assign one person as an owner and another person manager. This way, they can handle any issues with this specific document through each stage – from creation until it’s time for renewal.
Sometimes it can be challenging to shift through or distinguish if a particular contract is relevant for the department. Healthcare contracts management software should allow medical providers to assign agreements within designated departments and areas so searching will become more defined, especially when there are multiple contracts in various departments.
4. Financial Metrics Tracking
Keeping track of financial metrics is just as vital to the success of a healthcare facility’s contracts, and it improves departmental efficiency. Understanding the financial metrics of a facility will help ensure that everyone has their needs met. Healthcare Contracts Management Software provides data-driven snapshots about the organizations’ financial standings.
Keeping track helps each department run smoothly. Also, it provides valuable insight into which vendors may need attention concerning contract compliance.
Metrics show progressive or regressive performance. Therefore, without these two factors in place, it would be hard for management to know if who is doing well at their job.
5. Detailed Reporting
Not taking a proactive approach with reporting can lead to several different issues. Industry regulators will want to know that a company is compliant and may put up red flags if they see no systems or processes in place for compliance.
Data-driven organizations know that the most efficient way to operate is by tracking data. Healthcare contract management software offers customizable reporting options. Therefore, medical providers can schedule reports that track any number of measurements on contracts, including compliance with industry regulations and internal use-only items.
Contract management software gives healthcare companies detailed reporting across all aspects of contract measurement and workflow, from creating new ones at specific times or complying with regulatory requirements constantly changing based upon location.
The Importance of Healthcare Contract Management
Contract management software is a vital step to take in the healthcare industry. The most heavily regulated industry faces harsh penalties for non-compliance, and it’s crucial to avoid any violations. Implementing contract management software will help keep healthcare companies compliant.
Once medical providers organized all of their contracts in a contract management repository and set up alerts to stay updated on deadlines, the next step is reporting key metrics. Working with risk and compliance departments will help improve transparency into healthcare company’s contracts and demonstrate that they have systems for meeting industry regulations.
For more information about the right healthcare contract management software for you, contact us here Shared Moving Media.