Chronic Care Management Software: A Key Player in Preventive Care

Amol Shete
May 10, 2024
1:36 pm
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You must have heard that one out of every four Americans (about 75 million people) has two or more chronic conditions. The numbers have risen rapidly in recent years, which is a warning sign.

Living with chronic conditions is painful and dangerous for patients as they suffer from them daily. These difficulties of living with chronic conditions put an emotional and financial strain on patients and were found to be a significant reason for the increased patient count for availing of chronic care services.

However, it is painful for providers as well as delivering effective care services to this huge number of patients when they are at significant risk.

But yes, this is not a challenge nowadays!

Surprised?

Well, the answer is often right in front of you. In this case, it is in the form of CCM software.

Chronic care management software has came into the picture that helps providers to deliver patient-centric preventive care and reduces the administrative burden on them.

Chronic care management software is a platform through which care providers can manage patients with different chronic conditions, assign and customize care plans for them, and complete monthly activities like care plan reviews and clinical consultations.

But wait, there’s more!

Are you excited to know more about CCM software and how it can help you in preventive care?

Let’s find that out in this blog below!

Before we go into detail, what benefits does CCM software provide? We will look at the different types of CCM software’s exist in the healthcare industry.

Unlocking the Potential: Exploring Various CCM Software Solutions and Their Target Audiences

Some of the CCM software types are

1. Comprehensive CCM platform

These platforms offer a wide range of functionalities, including care plan management, CCM integration with EHRs, data analytics and reporting, etc.

The target audience of this platform is large health and care management organizations, Healthcare Facilities, and accountable care organizations (ACOs).

2. Specialty-specific CCM software

This software is designed in a way that it offers a particular specialty and follows the workflows and needs of that specialty.

The target audience of this software is Providers specializing in specific chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, or mental health.

3.Telehealth-enabled CCM platforms

This software integrates telehealth functionalities like video/Audio conferencing, remote patient monitoring, and secure messaging for delivering virtual care.

The target audience is the providers looking for remote patient monitoring services for patients in rural areas and those having mobility issues.

Unlock the Power of Chronic Care: Exploring Core Functionalities of CCM Software

A CCM software consists of various functionalities that promote efficient care delivery and patient engagement. Some of the key functionalities of CCM software are:

1. Remote monitoring

Patients with chronic conditions require frequent clinic visits, laboratory tests, and regular checkups that make them tired and put financial strain on them. The remote patient monitoring capability of CCM software enables care providers to consult patients virtually, configure care plans, and review them periodically, which helps reduce patients’ health complications and delivers quality care.

2. Care Coordination

Delivering coordinated care is essential in managing chronic conditions of patients. Difficulties coordinating with healthcare providers are the most common complaint of patients in the CCM program. However, this issue is resolved by chronic care management software. As it enables various communication features like secure messaging and care plan sharing between various care providers like nurses, physicians, care managers, and patients to communicate regarding the treatment results in improved access to patient medical records for all and informed decision making. It results in improved health outcomes for patients.

3. Patient engagement

Chronic condition management takes a prolonged duration, and it becomes difficult for care providers to keep the patient engaged with the care. However, it’s okay now, as the CCM software facilitates secure communication between care providers and patients. It enables continuous interaction, sending educational material, and continuous health assessments that keep the patient engaged with the treatment plan.

4. Data analysis

The chronic care software centralizes the patient’s health data and helps care providers make informed decisions. It includes information like readings of patient health vitals, monthly notes of goals achieved and barriers resolved, medications, allergies, and assessments assigned to the patient. This cumulative data signifies the care provider’s need for necessary intervention and customization of care plans to obtain better health outcomes.

The Remarkable Benefits of Chronic Care Management Software

The Chronic Care Management Software provides various benefits that result in improved health outcomes, increased patient engagement, and reduced healthcare costs. Let’s figure out,

Benefits of using CCM software for patients

CCM Features	Benefits for Patients
Medication Reminders	The CCM software provides medication reminders to patients at designated intervals over email, text SMS, or push notifications to improve medication adherence and obtain expected health outcomes.
Education Resources	The CCM software enables care providers to send educational materials to patients. It helps patients understand about chronic conditions and lifestyle recommendations to follow.
Reduced hospital readmissions and emergency visits	The CCM software creates alerts and notifies care providers if a patient's vital goes beyond threshold levels. It helps care providers to intervene at the right time and reduce patient health complications and emergency visits.

Benefits of using CCM software for Providers

CCM Features	Benefits for Providers
Reduced Administrative Burden	The CCM software enables providers to create bulk patients using CSV files and send invitations to multiple patients with a single click. It results in reduced manual and administrative tasks for providers.
Saves time and enables focus on patient care	The CCM software provides automated care plan suggestions and customization, reducing the hassle of searching for an accurate care plan per the chronic condition. It results in saving time for providers.
The analytical dashboard helps to make informed decisions	The CCM software provides a statistical dashboard that provides a count of enrolled and not enrolled patients, billing submitted or pending, received &pending reimbursement amounts from insurance companies, patient satisfaction rate etc. It helps care providers make informed decisions and maximize resource utilization.

Key Features to Look for in Chronic Care Management Software

While talking about features the chronic care management software has, it becomes difficult to count those at the fingertips. Let’s explore some of the critical features of chronic care management software:

1. Remote patient monitoring capabilities

As we discussed earlier, living with chronic conditions can be a costly affair for patients. As the treatment and diagnosis of chronic conditions require a longer duration, it becomes hectic for patients to visit hospitals for regular checkups, lab reports, and follow-up visits. Doing these activities continuously creates emotional and financial burdens on patients.

But not now, as chronic care management software’s remote patient monitoring capability enables patients to take virtual consultations, attend appointments, and communicate with care providers at home. It allows care providers to deliver preventive and proactive care that helps to reduce patient readmission in hospitals and reduces health complexities.

2. Integration with electronic health records

Accessing and exchanging patient medical records was a big challenge in the healthcare industry. Integrating electronic health records and CCM software facilitates seamless data exchanges as it enables bidirectional integration through which patient data, including demographics, diagnoses, medications, lab results, and progress notes, can be imported from EHR software into the CCM software.

3. Automated care plan creation and customization

To obtain better patient health outcomes, care providers must deliver more patient-centric care. What’s the challenge in it? The challenge is that a diverse range of chronic conditions exists in the healthcare industry, and each patient has diverse chronic conditions. So, it becomes the responsibility of the care provider to configure and assign the care plan that fits all the patient’s health requirements and helps the patient recover faster.

Chronic care management software like eCareMD helps care providers a lot as it enables them to create separate care plans for each chronic condition and store them within the software. It suggests accurate care plans for the patient’s chronic conditions and allows the provider to customize them. Because of these functionalities, the eCareMD software is considered the best chronic care management software. This helps providers assign accurate care plans for each patient and improves the health outcomes for the patient.

4. Secure messaging and communication channels for patients and care providers

Chronic care management requires continuous interaction with patients and providers to deliver more patient-centric, coordinated care. Continuous interaction of patients with care providers increases their engagement with care and confidence. It also reduces the health complications for patients.

The chronic care management software consists of telecommunication functionalities like secure messaging, voice and video calls, etc. With the help of these features, care providers can provide virtual consultations, resolve patients’ doubts, suggest required recommendations, etc. Also, care providers and patients can communicate with other care team members like pharmacists, physicians, nurses, and laboratory technicians regarding the treatment.

5. Data analytics and reporting functionalities for tracking patient progress and identifying trends

The rising number of patients with chronic conditions increases the number of patients enrolled in the CCM program to obtain health services. This huge count of patients makes it difficult for care providers to manage them efficiently and pay personal attention to each patient.

CCM software’s Data analytics and reporting feature helps care providers track patient progress regarding goals, barriers, interventions, etc, and identify potential trends. These analytics and reporting features show details on the CCM dashboard to help care providers make informed patient health and practice decisions.

Beyond Boundaries: Innovating the Future of CCM Software Solutions

The aging population and improper lifestyles of people cause the rise of chronic conditions. Hence, chronic care management software has become the heart of the global healthcare ecosystem.

The healthcare challenges, such as inaccessibility to care and overall healthcare costs, have been significantly reduced by technological advancements in chronic care management software, such as telehealth integration and remote patient monitoring. With increasing technological advancements and features, chronic care management software is considered the epitome of the healthcare industry.

Conclusion

In a Nutshell, With the rising number of patients with chronic conditions, chronic care management software in CCM programs has become an essential aspect of the healthcare industry. It allows continuous monitoring, early detection of potential issues, and resolution of capabilities before they cause complications in patient health.

With its capabilities and features, the CCM software has made an impression in delivering preventive healthcare to reduce hospital readmissions and obtain expected health outcomes.

Frequently Asked Question’s

1. Is chronic care management software safe and secure?

Yes, the chronic care management software follows the compliance regulations set By HIPAA(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) that signify secure patient health information.

2. How much does CCM software cost?

The average chronic care management software costs from $0.99 to $10 per patient per month; however, this cost can vary from vendor to vendor. Further customization in the CCM software features can further affect the cost. The pricing of chronic care management software varies from vendor to vendor.

3. What Features should I look for in CCM software?

It would help if you looked for features in the CCM software like bulk patient creation and enrollment, automated care plan suggestions, customization, alerts and notifications, secure communication (Messaging, voice, and video call), etc.

4. How does chronic care management software ensure patient privacy and data security?

The chronic care management systems follow all the regulatory compliances set by CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) and HIPAA( Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) that ensure patient medical records privacy and confidentiality.

5. Can a chronic care management platform integrate with electronic health record systems?

Yes, chronic care management platforms can integrate with multiple electronic health records systems, enabling secure patient data exchange.

6. What types of chronic conditions can be effectively managed using this software?

Chronic conditions like Hypertension, asthma, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, anxiety and more can be effectively managed using chronic care management solutions.

7. How can healthcare providers ensure patient engagement and adherence to care plans through this software?

By scheduling recurring calls for routine clinical reviews and care plan progress evaluation, the care providers can ensure patient engagement and adherence to care plans using eCareMD software.