11 Things to Consider Before Buying Auditing Software

The long days of reviewing stacks of paperwork on your desk are finally over. But, spreadsheet tools like Microsoft Excel are terrible for healthcare. Medical record coding and auditing require the ability to store and access information that can be utilized for educational, compliance, and management decisions. And, a spreadsheet database lacks flexibility when other needs arise and there’s the continued problem with how easy it is to corrupt, delete, or change data, along with a poor user interface for coding purposes.

Solutions for auditing software have been lackluster, ineffective, or extremely scaled down until now. New auditing software on the market can turn you into an auditing rock star, so you can conduct the perfect audit. But, there are numerous considerations for picking a good auditing solution.

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What to Look For When Buying Auditing Software

• Can the software incorporate tailored coding and auditing policies and procedures?
• Does the software have robust reporting capabilities?
• Does the software have inclusive coding tools and resources?
• Is documentation and training education easily available within the product?
• Can the software be customized for both government and commercial payers and include Medicare carrier guidance?
• While the audit software might have multiple quality metrics, can you add additional metrics by specialty if desired without the need for vendor design changes?
• Will you be able to adapt various types audit methodologies within the tool?
• Does the product foster post-audit education and training based upon previous audit data, benchmarking, and allow for easy feedback for providers and other staff?
• Can you add notes at various points throughout the software which will continue for the life of the audit or audit setup?
• Are screens easily navigated by a user?
• Can information be imported and exported with ease?

One of the most important features of auditing software is restricted access to the users. Providing authorized access from an administrative level is important for compliance purposes. The security features of medical billing and coding software should be comparable to audit software, with the ability to keep track of the access details, the details edited and data details transferred over the internet.

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