Docs Satisfied with Epic, Warming to Cerner Practice Management

Epic may have won best overall software suite in 2020, but the Cerner Practice Management product was the most improved solution for physician practices, according to the latest KLAS rankings.

The Best in KLAS 2020 Software & Services report released last week named Epic the best overall software suite for the tenth consecutive year. The health IT company was also named the top overall physician practice vendor and won Best in KLAS awards in eight segments, including top practice management product for practices with over 75 physicians.

But its top competitor in the EHR space is edging closer in the practice management arena, KLAS found.

The Cerner Practice Management product saw the greatest customer satisfaction improvements, the report showed. Small physician practices that use Cerner for practice management reported a 10 percent increase in overall satisfaction, with satisfaction rising in all areas measured by KLAS. Small practice leaders also reported improved relationships with Cerner and said the practice management system was a “solid technology platform.”

Cerner has faced issues with some of its more financial products available in its software suite. KLAS previously called the company’s revenue cycle software its Achilles heel. However, Cerner has made significant progress with the software. KLAS reported in September 2019 that provider organizations using Cerner’s revenue cycle management product reported improved relationships, which boosted their satisfaction despite a lack of tangible financial outcome improvements.

In KLAS’ latest report, Cerner landed at number 7 on the list of best overall physician practice vendors. Epic was number 1, followed by athenahealth, NextGen Healthcare, eMDs (Aprima), Greenway Health (Intergy), and Virence Health. Allscripts and eClinicalWorks were behind Cerner at spots 8 and 9 respectively.

Epic also took the top spot for practice management solution for practices with over 75 physicians. The vendor widely known for their EHR system just beat NextGen Healthcare, which was favored by mid-size practices with 11 to 75 physicians.

Small practices with ten or fewer physicians ranked athenahealth’s EHR/PM product as Best in KLAS. Other top vendors for small practices included NextGen Healthcare, Greenway Health, eMDs, DrChrono, Kareo, and Cerner.

athenahealth was also named Best in KLAS for its ambulatory revenue cycle management solution, beating out Allscripts, Greenway Health, and NextGen Healthcare in the category.

Overall, physician practices liked the top vendors for their loyalty. The number one practice management vendors according to different size groups tended to score higher on loyalty compared to the other metrics, which included culture, operations, product, relationship, and value. A high loyalty score meant that practices would buy the product again and recommend the product. High loyalty scores also indicated high overall satisfaction and forecasted satisfaction.

KLAS also ranked vendors in other financial and revenue cycle management categories. Best in KLAS for revenue cycle management solutions included:

• Workday for enterprise resource planning vendor
• Dimensional Insight for healthcare business intelligence and analytics vendor
• Pelitas for patient access
• Epic for patient accounting and patient management vendor (large hospitals and integrated delivery networks)
• 3M MModal for speech recognition, front-end EMR vendor

“Providers and payers demand better performance, usability, and interoperability from their vendor partners every year,” Adam Gale, president of KLAS, stated in a press release. “Best in KLAS winners set the standard of excellence in their market segment. Earning a Best in KLAS award should both excite and humble the recipients. It serves as a signal to providers that they can expect the best from the winning vendors.”