Successful person-centered healthcare requires robust care management with collaboration across payers, providers, and community resources to personalize care and address all patient issues in a comprehensive, holistic approach to care.

The care management software you choose can have a huge impact on your ability to provide quality care. The right technology can empower care teams with the right information to deliver an effective and coordinated care experience, enabling efficient, collaborative care for diverse teams to treat complex populations.

Choosing the Right Care Management Software

Evaluating care management systems can be an overwhelming process. It is critical to evaluate not only your organization’s needs and the needs of your members, but also the systems currently in use across your payers and providers so you can select a technology that brings together disparate information that can be seamlessly and securely shared and is interoperable with your key systems.

Key Features of Care Management Software

After assessing the existing conditions, it is important to know what features to seek out. Every organization has different priorities, and various care management software exists to serve these priorities. There are some general features that most care management software will have.

Some of the key features of care management software include:

• User-friendly interface
• Screening and assessment library
• Person-centered care plans
• Referral capabilities
• Utilization Management integration
• Task management and automated workflows
• Alerts and reminders
• Interoperability with Electronic Health Records
• Care Team Portal
• Customizable reporting tools
• Advanced security

The usage of care management software with these features benefits all parties involved, resulting in quality care for the member. Additionally, a care team portal makes it simple for members to stay informed and involved in their own healthcare.

13 Criteria To Help You Choose the Best Care Management Software

Although care management software comes with most of the basic features, taking additional criteria into account will help with the decision-making process. Not all care management software is created equal and therefore may not be the right fit for your organization.

Important criteria to keep in mind are discussed below:

• Flexibility and configurability

Having software with configurability will enhance the efficiency of your organization, ultimately benefiting the members’ healthcare. Configurable systems also enable health plans and providers to be more agile, adapt quickly to emergent needs, and avoid costs associated with hard coded system changes.

• Integrated physical, behavioral, and social health

A care management system needs the ability to develop integrated care plans to address a member’s physical, behavioral, and social needs. An integrated whole person care approach to health indicates a shift from health as lack of illness to state of wellbeing. 

• Care Team based approach

Using an Interdisciplinary care team approach facilitates communication and exchange of information between members, payers and providers (physician and non-physician, physical and behavioral health) via real-time, online applications.

• Care Coordination

Relatedly, the ability of the care management software to coordinate amongst many different providers and the care team is paramount. Often, members will be receiving care from multiple providers, so the ability to communicate and coordinate services, medications, procedures, etc., enhances members’ care.

• Analytics

Analytics capabilities for identification and stratification helps to determine member risk level for assigning into the appropriate care management program. Additionally, analytics enables a member’s gaps in care to be identified for the Care Manager to address. 

• Social service referrals

Care management software focuses on an individual’s holistic health. Sometimes, this entails contacting non-clinical professionals. Using care management software, non-clinical professionals can be logged and contacted much more efficiently, especially by members themselves.

These are a few of the important criteria to consider when choosing care management software. Every organization will have different needs, so it is valuable to be aware of the organization’s daily operations and other requirements.

Other criteria to consider includes:

• Pricing
• Reporting Capabilities
• Ease of Use
• Clinical Content
• Integration Capabilities
• Support and Training

Conclusion

InfoMC was founded to pioneer the use of behavioral and social determinants and community resources to more efficiently and effectively manage health and eliminate the barriers that get in the way of quality medical care. Our Incedo care management solution supports whole-person care complex populations. Our deep expertise in implementing healthcare management solutions to support a wide range of business models will help you improve how you manage your populations so that you meet your business goals.

Our fully integrated health care management platform enables organizations to seamlessly manage how care is authorized, coordinated, and delivered, with a high degree of configurability enable organizations and flexibility to evolve programs as business and compliance requirements change.

For more information click here, or contact us directly today!