Safety-net clinics and small physician offices play a critical role in California's health care system, and practice management systems play an important role in their operation and management. This report finds that information technology developments and health care administration trends have created opportunities for organizations to improve efficiency and quality. To fully leverage such opportunities, however, these clinics and offices must have a modern practice management system that can integrate effectively with electronic health records and transaction standards under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and/or support the outsourcing of billing and information technology maintenance.

The report also finds that although upgrading a practice management system can entail significant expense and effort, and may not be warranted in all cases, clinics and offices using an older, less functional system should at least consider the upgrade benefits and costs. Awareness of key considerations, including support for billing and reporting, support for outsourced billing, electronic data exchange, integration with an electronic health record, and the application service provider model versus the client/server model, are an appropriate starting point in deciding whether to upgrade and, if so, what type of practice management system will best meet the organization's needs.

The complete report is available under Document Downloads.