1. Develop a list of potential softwares:
• Talk to the Medicare carrier, DMERC, or FI;
• Ask other providers of comparable size/specialties what softwares they use for what services and how satisfied they are;
• Ask a consultant;
• Attend standards conferences, follow trade magazines and investigate Web pages.
2. Call or write the softwares selected/recommended to discuss the organization’s needs and request a proposal.
3. Tell the softwares how the proposals should be structured so that the various proposals can be more easily compared.
4. Attend demonstrations of at least two to three softwares and pay close attention to:
• How individual requirements will be met;
• Ease of understanding;
• Ease of features – data entry, search features, editing/compliance checking features, help features, error correction features;
• Security – disaster recovery plans, controls, and audits;
• Daily Procedures;
• Reporting/Tracking features.
5. Check software references and ask specific questions such as:
• How long has the business been in operation?
• How long has the system been in place?
• What is the quality of the training and ongoing support?
• Is there a user’s group in place?
• What formats are supported?
7. Check with providers served by the software and ask specific questions such as:
• Have you experienced any problems with the system?
• Have you experienced any problems with the software?
• How long did it take to get up and running?
• Are you happy with the system/software and would you recommend it/them today?
• Is there anything else I should know or ask before making my decision?
Make site visits to the software as well as other clients of similar size and bill mix that have been running the system for some time.
Evaluating Proposals
Vendor proposals should be evaluated on several levels including company reputation/history, system functionality, flexibility, overall costs, and support provided. Providers should create a checklist that compares the vendor proposals against their original requirements by assigning a relative weight to each requirement and then rating the vendor’s ability to meet each requirement based on their written proposals. Although some aspects of each checklist will be highly individual, the following are some of the elements that should be considered:
1. Overall costs:
• Software costs;
• Hardware costs (types as well as quality);
• Licensing fees;
• Training costs;
• Installation costs;
• Cabling;
• Phone lines (leased line/toll charges);
• Remodeling/Furniture;
• Forms;
• Conversion costs;
• Electricity costs;
• Supply costs (diskettes, tapes, paper, ribbons);
• Annual hardware maintenance;
• Annual software maintenance;
• Cost of custom program changes; and
• Cost of continuous software support.
3. Evaluate hardware differences;
4. Evaluate quality of training and support;
5. Evaluate system documentation;
6. Consider the staff size of the vendor;
7. Determine how well each vendor responded to requirements and questions in the proposals;
8. Determine flexibility (whether the package is proprietary, whether the software can be easily modified, whether the vendor can accommodate changing payer requirements, and if so, at what cost);
9. Determine overall system convenience including hours of customer service, technical support, and connection times;
10. Assess future risks and the vendor mitigation of such risks through system trial periods and source codes placed in escrow.
