Practice Managers are the pulse of any well-run medical practice however, the tools they are empowered with can impact their day (& their achievements) greatly. We sat down with Moonisah Wentzel, Practice Manager at Paediatric multibranch medical practice, to find out how Healthbridge has helped her to thrive as a Practice Manager.

Tell us about how you ran your practice before Healthbridge? 

Before implementing Healthbridge, we had a software system in place, but we were not an entirely paperless practice. And even though we were using billing software, I still had to do a lot of manual work within the system to use it. For example, when medical aid rates change at the beginning of the year, I would have to login to the system, calculate the changes & input the new rates into the system. 

This was a huge drain on time & effort. The doctor & I both do the billing – he generates in-rooms invoices & I do the in-hospital & admissions billing – but using the system wasn’t delivering on the promise of saving us time. We were working weekends to generate claims & invoices & as a result, it took weeks to be paid. 

What has the change been like since using Healthbridge? 

The fact that annual increases & rate changes are done automatically was a huge relief. Healthbridge automates it for me, so I don’t have to do as much manual work to derive the benefits out of the software. 

On a day-to-day basis, Healthbridge has also made submitting claims so much faster & more efficient. Doing the billing in the past, I had to figure out & physically add in the description to get to the right procedure codes. With Healthbridge, I simply check the doctor’s diagnosis & add the procedure code to generate the invoice. I know the procedure codes by memory now, so not needing to write the description is a huge time saver. 

Aside from what you’ve already shared, what are some of the other features of Healthbridge’s system that have made a difference to the practice? 

Because the system is cloud-based, it’s made the workflow between myself, the doctor & our admin staff much clearer & more efficient. As a multi-branch practice, we are not all at the same place to be able to access the same information but with Healthbridge, our location doesn’t matter. We safely access the data we need where & when we need it. 

The system has also improved communication. The doctor or I can add notes to a patient’s file that the admin staff can see & action as required. For instance, if a patient’s medical aid details have changed, the administrator can make the changes & I can see them on my side. It’s made processes much more transparent & trackable. 

Lastly, I really value the fact that Healthbridge is a live system. We can do real-time benefit checks & create an accurate invoice so we don’t have all these outstanding balances at the end of the day. 

Would you say you are now a paperless practice? 

Yes, absolutely. One of the reasons that we can work completely digitally is the online calendar. I sync the calendar between our different branches, so we all have the same view of where the doctor is seeing patients & what appointments are set. Trying to set & change appointments between branches using paper is as frustrating as it is inefficient, so the online calendar has definitely made an improvement. 

We’ve also seen improvements when it comes to receiving claim instructions. The doctor is using customised click templates & so it’s all done on the system. No more paper, no more writing, no more files going missing or being misplaced. I can check claims in a matter of minutes because all the heavy lifting has been done for me. 

What would you say to a Practice Manager who was considering a new system? 

I know that for our practice, we’ve seen a distinct drop in rejected claims & we’ve benefited from faster payments. I can also quickly generate a Daily Transactions report & know that the information is much more detailed & accurate. This was something we struggled with in the past – balancing the amount in the system with what’s in the books. 

Now we have a more consistent cash flow which makes growing the practice much easier & more achievable. 

The other thing I would say is that as a Paediatric practice, Healthbridge has helped us improve our patient experience. We are faced with worried parents & sick children, so when they come in, we don’t have to burden them with unnecessary admin. We can access up-to-date patient information & focus our attention on the patient, instead of the system. Just making things simpler for the patient has been good for the practice.

For more information about how Healthbridge can help you build your best practice, click here.