CareCloud EHR Software Review and Pricing

Ease of Use

CareCloud is one of the most user-friendly medical software platforms we reviewed. Medical software is complex and often overwhelming, but CareCloud organizes information in an easily digestible and intuitive format. The first screen you generally see when using the integrated practice management and EMR system is the dashboard, which offers a customizable overview of crucial information. When we tested the software, the dashboard displayed information about the practice’s financial performance and appointments. Each table shows a color-coded bar graph that’s easy to filter with the adjacent drop-down menu.

The EMR system features a series of icons along the top of each window showcasing the scheduling tool, patient charts, financials, documents, billing and reports. The tabs are organized in an organic, easy-to-understand setup. For example, when a patient comes into the office, the first tab displays the scheduler, where they can be checked in and assigned a room. When the provider is ready to see the patient, the next tab over allows them to review the patient’s information and begin the exam. Following the exam, the next tab opens the billing module. Because CareCloud is designed to follow a patient’s visit from start to finish, it makes the navigation fairly intuitive, even for newcomers.

We like that CareCloud is easy for patients to use, too, since they have access to the integrated Breeze patient engagement application. In fact, Breeze is one of the easiest-to-use patient portals we encountered in our investigation of the top medical software products. The application also works with on-site kiosks that allow patients to check themselves in more quickly, saving time and money in the front office. Patients can use Breeze to update their personal information and check their medical records from any internet-connected device.

CareCloud Features

CareCloud is loaded with features to make running your medical practice stress-free. For example, CareCloud Charts help you identify drug interactions for prescribing the right medications to your patients. In addition to simplifying clinical handoffs, CareCloud also has patient engagement and clinical reporting tools that allow you to drive better patient outcomes. Additionally, CareCloud delivers real-time analytics so you can leverage insights from every corner of your organization.

Medical Practice Management Software Features

CareCloud’s medical practice management software, known as CareCloud Central, offers a user-friendly, branded and customizable patient portal, as well as a flexible, easily navigable and seamlessly integrated calendar. Here’s an overview of the features found in CareCloud’s medical practice management software.

Appointment Scheduling

CareCloud’s appointment scheduling tool offers daily, weekly and monthly calendar views. We especially liked that you can filter the calendar by individual providers and display a daily view of multiple providers. Its drag-and-drop scheduling system helps you book appointments, track patient visits and verify insurance eligibility.

The calendar is customizable, allowing practices to add information, such as exam rooms or specific pieces of medical equipment. This is a feature that’s common but sometimes missing among the best medical software. We also like that the schedule is color-coded to clearly show the status of each patient while making it easier for users to see appointment types and other key information.

The default color coding displays future appointments in gray, confirmed appointments in light green and checked-in patients in dark green. Checked-out patients are shown in dark blue, while telemedicine visits are in light blue. Practices can customize this color-coding scheme, which is a nice touch we didn’t see with other medical software. You can also customize and set automated appointment reminders for both in-office and telehealth visits by text, email or the patient-focused Breeze application.

Insurance Eligibility Verification

CareCloud integrates with clearinghouse pVerify for batch insurance eligibility verification. CareCloud’s agents communicate with insurance companies to confirm patient benefits, process claims and verify that payments are correct. The verification process includes co-pays, deductibles and required pre-authorizations to prevent any billing mistakes. If a patient’s insurance doesn’t cover everything, CareCloud sends monthly statements with the remaining balance due. This is an important feature we looked for in all of our medical software evaluations.

Billing

Within the CareCloud billing module are several tabs, including ones for unbilled visits, booked patient visits and posted bills pending submission. Under unbilled visits, the software lists patients who have been checked out but not billed, along with the date of service, appointment type, insurance information, provider, location and outstanding value of the encounter.

Once charts are signed and the billing is released, encounters go to your billing team. Users can click a patient’s name to view their chart in more detail. Once the billing team confirms the accuracy of the information, it posts the charges. Once posted, the charges are checked by CareCloud’s CollectiveIQ claims scrubber to flag any errors before the claim is submitted to the clearinghouse. Claims scrubbers are critical billing software tools that we believe all top medical software should have.

Denied claims are also monitored in the billing module, and detailed reports of your most common denial reasons and most commonly denied payers appear in pie charts and bar graphs. This kind of broken-out visual can make it easy to spot billing problems.

CareCloud’s in-house medical billing service, CareCloud Concierge, offers outsourced medical billing services that are said to increase collections or reduce staffing costs by at least seven percent. It’s also said to relieve practices of the tedious parts of the revenue cycle, from claims submission to accounts receivable follow-ups. The vendor’s RCM experts provide strategic advice on industry changes and full transparency of their processes through its CareCloud Concierge analytics. This is a huge benefit for large practices regularly handling massive amounts of claims.

Patient Portal

CareCloud’s patient portal, Breeze, can be accessed by patients via desktop and mobile devices (iOS and Android). We were impressed by the abundance of tools it offers. Breeze allows patients to complete intake forms before their office visits, request prescription refills and update their personal information. They can also establish payment methods, send direct and secure messages to providers, and sign consent forms. Patients can receive automated appointment reminders, too.

In fact, Breeze is one of the most user-friendly patient portals we found in our medical software investigation. With Breeze, office staff can also collect any outstanding payments, arrange payment plans and run insurance eligibility verification checks. Additionally, practices that offer patients products can set up an e-commerce store through Breeze. Providers can also use Breeze to send patients important communication and the latest news about their practices.

Breeze is one of the reasons we rated CareCloud ideal for large practices. It helps you eliminate practice inefficiencies when dealing with patients and, as one user told us, reduces the patient check-in process from 25 minutes to five minutes for new patients and as little as two minutes for returning patients.

Reporting

CareCloud Analytics gives you rich, detailed reporting capabilities that show how your practice is tracking toward “Meaningful Use” goals across core and menu objectives and Clinical Quality Measures (CQMs). These detailed reports help you know where to focus to improve your practice and adhere to HIPAA (and other) regulations.

Detailed reporting dashboards are available by category. You can filter these reports by provider, payer, insurance policy and other options, as well as view reports in a daily, weekly or monthly format and export them as PDF, XLS or CSV files. You can also create custom reports to occur at regular intervals and have them delivered to your inbox.

In addition to these reports, CareCloud offers a Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)/Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) dashboard that allows you to track your practice’s performance against criteria set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

EMR System Features

CareCloud’s EMR system includes an intuitive charting function with easily accessible tools that expedite the process of charting during a patient encounter. This EHR Charts system has one of the best workflows we found and integrates seamlessly with CareCloud Central for a single clinical, administrative and financial solution that improves interdepartmental operations at large practices.

Here’s a look at the key features of CareCloud’s EMR system.

Charting

CareCloud’s Charts feature provides configurable templates, integrated order sets and flexible charting options to streamline patient encounters. It also provides a unified inbox to intelligently track and manage daily tasks. There’s an integrated patient portal to securely engage patients in their own care plan, real-time clinical decision support tools and advanced analytics to help you improve clinical, financial and operational outcomes.

One feature we found different from competitors and really great for the busy doctors of large practices is the drag-and-drop scheduling. This incredible tool gives you a complete, real-time view of how patients are flowing through your office, from check-in to checkout, so you can see how resources like rooms are being used and how long patients are waiting to maximize efficiency.

The charting application shows three columns: the queue of patients who have upcoming appointments, patients who have been checked in and placed in an exam room, and patients who have completed their visit. You can customize the charting tool to display patients by provider, location or both. Moving a patient to another queue is easy; you just drag their tile from one column to another.

Patient History

To view a patient’s chart in detail, double-click their tile. A special tab allows you to see your immediate chart history, and you can have multiple charts open at the same time. The charts display a summary of patient information with medications, problems, allergies, vitals, labs, immunizations and more. The “Glance View” tool gives you quick access to critical patient information anywhere on the chart. Overall, we found this feature useful and comparable with the functionality of other medical software we reviewed.

You can also send a form to patients requesting their history. They’ll submit their own release of information requests to CareCloud with ChartSwap.com, which will submit the release of medical records or billing records information requests. 

Templates

CareCloud helps you insert information in a patient’s chart through customized reports with exam notes. We loved that this process was easier than it was with some of CareCloud’s rivals. Using the “Charts” tab, you can automate documents and letters to stakeholders (e.g., referring providers, payers or patients).

If you’re using CareCloud’s Breeze application, existing patient information, such as medical history, will automatically populate in the chart. Overall, we found that the integration of Breeze improves the medical software’s functionality across the board, and all fields can be filled out using free typing, quick-text hotkeys or voice dictation.

Another function we found especially useful in CareCloud’s charting application was the “Wand” feature, which marks everything about a patient as normal. You can then individually select abnormalities from the list, and it will highlight those aspects of the patient’s condition in red. This makes it quick and easy to identify problem areas.

It’s worth noting some of the other medical software we tried had similar tools, such as Tebra’s “Same As Last Time” feature and DrChrono’s critical clinical decision support capabilities for identifying critical drug interactions. You can find out more in our detailed Tebra review and our full review of DrChrono.

E-Prescribing

One-click e-prescribing, lab ordering and rapid pharmacy look-ups are available through CareCloud’s integration with Surescripts, which pulls a patient’s complete medication history from a database of U.S. pharmacies. Patients’ charts display their medication histories, which work in tandem with preset treatment plan templates to help you quickly access and prescribe your preferred medications for specific conditions. It also checks prescriptions against current medications and allergies to screen for harmful interactions. Its integrated order sets allow you to dramatically speed up the patient encounter so that you can see more patients throughout the day and ultimately generate more revenue.

Coding

CareCloud includes a full diagnosis and prescription library, which makes it easy to look up ICD-10 codes or medications. Through CareCloud, you also have access to a billing module where your claims are generated. The vendor’s in-house medical billing service scrubs claims, submits them to payers, follows up on unpaid claims and manages any denials. You can monitor all of your CareCloud billing operations directly through the system in real time. [Read our review of CareCloud’s medical billing service to learn more.]

CareCloud Community

CareCloud Community allows your staff to interact with one another and with patients through a secure online chat. This is a great way to engage your patients and collaborate with your entire team anytime and from anywhere with the mobile patient portal. In this single platform, you can talk about upcoming appointments, retrieve lab results instantly, schedule follow-up visits, access clinical records and pay bills.

Integrations

CareCloud has a number of possible integrations, including with what the vendor calls “preferred partners.” Among the companies that collaborate with CareCloud to provide the best patient care are Google Cloud, Box, Zocdoc, Quest Diagnostics, LabCorp, Surescripts and Amazon Web Services.

CareCloud Pricing

CareCloud offers both a stand-alone EMR system and an integrated EMR and practice management package. Each subscription is priced per provider per month.

• CareCloud Central: This system includes, analytics and reporting, medical billing, billing rules engine, insurance verification, electronic remittance advice, denial management, clearinghouse connectivity and document management. It also includes patient scheduling, profiles and appointment reminders. Pricing begins at $349 per provider per month.
• CareCloud Complete: If you opt for the integrated EMR and medical practice management software platform, it costs $629 per provider per month. It includes everything from CareCloud Central plus clinical task management, e-prescribing modules, orders and results, E&M coding and templates library.
• CareCloud Concierge: For the RCM solution, the vendor deducts three to seven percent of your collections. This is slightly less than the typical four percent to seven percent of collections taken by CareCloud’s competitors. It includes everything from CareCloud Complete plus a few extra tools.

CareCloud also offers access to Breeze, its patient experience management platform, for an additional $199 per provider per month.

Implementation and Onboarding

CareCloud offers medical software implementation and training packages to suit practices of various budgets and needs with three options. Each requires getting a custom price quote from the vendor to find out exactly how much it’ll cost your specific business. The pricing will depend partly on whether your training is for just one person or a group of individuals.

1. Essential: The Essential tier is for businesses who need to get up and running as fast as possible. You’ll get access to CareCloud’s modern tools and resources for rapid implementation and training. It comes with a standard configuration with no customization of templates or other tools. It includes a discovery call, electronic data interchange enrollment and the building of interfaces between labs and pharmacies. Medical practices at this tier don’t receive direct training but have access to CareCloud University, which includes more than 40 hours of self-guided training materials. This package also includes a check-in with an account manager five days after your go-live date to ensure the system is running smoothly. One downside is that importing data from previous systems is the responsibility of the medical practice.
2. Rich Patient Summaries: The Rich Patient Summaries tier, previously called Enhanced, is a professionally facilitated setup process. It offers greater configuration customization, with additional guidance and training from CareCloud. It also includes a managed data import to bring existing patient demographics, insurance information and charts over from any legacy systems.
3. Enterprise: The Enterprise tier takes a comprehensive, consultative approach to implementation and training. It includes a completely customized configuration based on the practice’s preferences and needs to maximize ROI.

For clients of CareCloud’s medical billing services, a full implementation and training package is included in the monthly percentage of collections agreed upon with the vendor. Fortunately, both implementation and onboarding are rapid and easily completed in a matter of hours.

Customer Service

CareCloud provides customer support via email, phone, live web chat, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook — similar to most vendors we reviewed. The company also publishes online information on its services and products, with a “Resources” page that has blogs in the Continuum section, different events across the world, occasional webinars and case studies.

The Resources page also leads you to CareCloud’s digital healthcare assistant, cirrusAI. CareCloud breaks cirrusAI into four different AI assistants: cirrusAI Appeals, cirrusAI Chat, cirrusAI Notes and cirrusAI Guide.

cirrusAI Appeals generates customized appeal letters for your staff to send after it analyzes patient claim details. cirrusAI Chat streamlines training, reduces response times and assists in navigating EHR workflows as an AI-powered chatbot. cirrusAI Notes creates clinical documentation and supports multiple languages so you can focus on patient care. cirrusAI Guide automates clinical data input, provides real-time and evidence-based recommendations and assists workflow tasks while offering personalized suggestions.

We were very satisfied with the customer support we received when we explored CareCloud. Two representatives took more than an hour to walk us through the software and discuss pricing and implementation options with us. They asked direct questions about our hypothetical practice, which helped us better understand the options available to CareCloud clients.

Limitations

One potential drawback of CareCloud is that it prefers clients to sign a three-year contract. This could be a major commitment for some medical practices, but it may not be a significant limitation for large offices. CareCloud says it promotes longer-term contracts because the company takes a consultative approach to help medical practices grow over time.

Methodology

We extensively researched, analyzed and examined medical software to determine the best products on the market. Our investigations included software demonstrations, phone interviews and customer service calls. We also searched online reviews, including those on the Better Business Bureau website.

To find the best option for large practices, we looked closely at the user interface, user experience and system flexibility in particular. We chose CareCloud as the best medical software for large practices looking to streamline operations because of its easily navigable system interface and consultative support.

Bottom Line

We recommend CareCloud for …

• Large practices that can benefit from workflow organization.
• Practices that focus on making data-driven decisions to optimize their office.

We don’t recommend CareCloud for …

• Practices that don’t want to sign long-term contracts.
• Practices that don’t want to pay implementation fees.
  
  
  

Amanda Hoffman contributed to the reporting and writing in this article.