Clinic Billing-Scheduling Software

We use Clinic Essentials (only available in Canada) and I am looking for something better and more cost effective. We pay over $350/month which I know is too much for scheduling software.

I do not have any recommendations but will share way i am looking for so any of you have advice please share.

-Multiple practitioners
-Multiple locations
-able to be networked
-scheduling and billing
-Different billing codes fro different treatments and product sales
-user friendly
-Cost less than $1500/ year (if updates are needed). Remember I am paying more than that for my two locations.

It does not need to be an accounting software. To be frank I would be skeptical as it is hard to have one that is great at both scheduling and billing as well as the accounting function.

What I see out there in the TCM world is software that helps you with TCM diagnosis and treatment. This does not interest me personally. My need lies in the points above. The software i use now is fairly good. It is not easy for reception to master however and it way over priced for what i use it for. So love to hear some suggestions.

Hi all,

If your looking for a good program for your clinic, visit www.taoclinic.com

This is the best software I've seen. It has everything you need and much more.

Nadav.

We use AcuBase by Trigram. The recent upgrades are much better then the old version. You can schedule several practioners and even rooms, it has many different reports and HCFA setting/printing made EASY or electronic billing. I don;t like how the scheudle shows up like lines across the screen instead of coloumns down the screen which would make each practioners schedule easier to view when there are mutliple practitioners. You can view one practitioner's schedule at a time though, but sometimes I need to see all and it takes a while to get used to how it is set up for that. You can easily set up repeating appointments for patients. It also handles inventory! I believe thier website will let yiu download a version to try out for like 30 days. Tech support is helpful and kind. If you are having a problem you can link with them online so they can see your screen and help out. They are very interested in how to improve thier software and come out with free updates regularly. we wait to dwonload these because sometimes they have bugs that need to be worked out sowe watit ot make sure everything is ok by asking tech support before we try it. There is a new cost program, I forget the intial cost then something like $250/year.

We used another program once that cost us $800 to buy and had free tech support out of California. The owner/tech support/acupuncturist with his own practice treated my staff awefully during the training and in subsequent tech support programs. We could not get our money back so I just stopped using it :( But it was just an aweful experience.

I hear that Ginko is also good but I have no experience with it and do not know if it good for multipractioner practices.

Sorry if there were mispellings and grammer errors i have a patient on the table...gotta run.

Be Well,
Juliette Aiyana
http://www.amazinghealing.com

We've got almost identical needs right now, but for a naturopathic clinic. I'm keen to hear any other recommendations!

We use acubase pro because it used to be the only thing around and it works pretty well. I use the pro version, released in 2003 and it does not support exporting files. I understand that the new version does support this. (While you cannot export into excel, you can print labels to do mailings to your patients). I use it only for payments, I do my scheduling on Outlook so I can sync it with my palm and schedule patients when I am not in my clinic.

It is a little clunky, but it does what I need. I may upgrade soon to the new version. I am afraid that I will be stuck with Trigram forever, because I never want to re-enter all my patient data.

Jason Bussell
President - Illinois Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine

We have Smart Series from Regeant Software at our clinic. It's $900/year for 3 practitioners, training is reasonable and help from the call centre is mostly ok. they are based out of Burnaby. We can make codes for all sorts of treatments and products, stats on referral sources and the month end summary to give to the bookeeper is good as well. Scheduling is also possible but I'm still attached to paper and haven't tried it yet. Making changes once a posting has been done has been a difficult skill for both of my receptionists to master but a temp I've had in recently who has more computer experience says that verall it's a fairly basic, easy to navigate system.

Hope this helps!
Steph

We use Global Office from Great White North in Winnipeg. I have a large Massage Therapy clinic and it seems to work alright. It is web-based, so there are no problems with data loss if one of my computers goes down at the clinic. They are constantly adding things to it (for better of for worse). They have an inventory area of the program but I have not used it yet. The scheduling is good, the reports need to be added to, but they add them slowly as we ask for them.

I am a little frustrated with the program as I would really like online scheduling which has been in development for over a year.

It is $360.00 per license per year and there is a training fee which I forget how much.

There is multiple practitioner scheduling, which is viewable by practitioner, by room, by day, week and month. The scheduling is slow because it is web based and there is a lot of automatic refreshing done by the program.

If you have questions about it after looking at it on the net, contact me.

Paul

I spoke with them a few weeks back and also played with their Demo. They were kind and the software looked good. But my understanding from them is that it cannot be networked or not good for multiple locations.

These responses are great. Thanks. We have one of admin managers looking into each one and also doing some demo work with each. Once we come up with a decision we will share with all here.

Please making suggestions. i am happy to have my staff look into each one and then come up with the best solution based not only on cost, but user friendly, multiple doctors, scheduling, billing, reports and multiple locations.

Lorne
www.acubalance.ca
www.prodseminars.com

Hey everyone.

Thank you for your sharing!

Ginko's software does not allow more than one user on at the same time. At that point, I stopped investigating.

I am in talks to try demos of Acubase pro and Global Office.

So far I can say about both that their support system seems to be very efficient. They both replied to me (one actually called me!) within about an hour of my query, which I would say is very good. I will report my findings to all of you hopefully tomorrow.

We are still interested in anyone else's software info. good and bad for us to try out.

Thanks again everyone!

Melissa
www.acubalance.ca

Hi y'all. Just noticed these posts and thought I'd add my biased 2 cents' worth.

I noticed (and appreciated) Jason's and Juliette's comments re AcuBase. Jason: You can export to Excel from the current version of AcuBase, as well as attach and view files related to patient data in other apps such as Excel, Word, etc. Juliette: The AcuBase calendar will allow you to view multiple practitioner schedules simultaneously, with times of appts down the left side like a regular appt book. You need to assign practitioners as Resources in the calendar preferences section of the program, then assign your appts to practitioners as you make 'em. Hope that helps.

For you Canadians, be aware that AcuBase has a lot of functions specific to the CMS form (the American insurance billing form). Of course, it also has regular superbills as well.

Hope that helps. And yeah, free 30-day downloads are available at trigram.com, as well as all the other details. A new update with more reports, fixes, and functions will be out first week of Dec.

-Jason Luban, L.Ac.
Chief Geek
Trigram Software

Hello,

I am just wondering if your software changes at all for Canadian customers? For example state becomes Province. Or any other things. I am currently trying the demo and am finding a few things that could be customized for your Canadian clilents.

I appreciate your joining us for our discussion.

Melissa

Nope, it is 'state' for now. But we'd love to know what would make it useful for Canadians. To be honest, we figured Canadians wouldn't be interested in AcuBase, as so much of it is based on the US CMS forms. If you'd be willing to let us know what needs to be tweaked to make it more Canada-friendly (I assume there's more than just the state/province thing), we'll definitely look into it.

-Jason de Trigram

Hello everyone.

My name is Yoav Berchik and I’m the CEO of Taomedic Ltd, the developer of Taoclinic Pro. I’ve received an email from Dr. Pentland inviting me to this forum. I’ve read the various posts in this thread and would like to add few words (and thank you for the kind comments about our product…)

As much as I can understand from the posts above, Taoclinic Pro is not the right tool for you and was built with different aims in mind. We concentrated on the patient’s treatments and sessions handling, and created the best product we can for those purposes, with advanced technology for handling the patients’ sessions, soap, medical questionnaire, medical database, diagnostic wizards, formula etc etc. We did also add various tools, one of which is the appointment calendar but it was not our goal to maximize its abilities.

Taoclinic is able to handle hundreds of practitioners simultaneously (and includes Canadian provinces) but is not a network (client/server) product. It cost a onetime payment of $399 no monthly/yearly fees. In case you would like to test it we will be happy to provide a demo. Just contact our sales at: sales@taomedic.com

As I see it there is a need for good scheduling software (from this thread and others), and since I personally would like our company to develop a full-scale scheduling product it might be a good time to have some serious thinking about it.

What I would like to suggest is for all those of you who are interested, to provide a wish-list of needed options, what such a product should provide in general, and/or specific features you would like to have.

I thinks this can be divided into three levels – features you do have in your current product and are very happy with, features you do have but are unsatisfied with – those you feel are incomplete, and features you really think are necessary but are missing from your current product/system.

I will have our entire staff gather and give it a *very* serious examination. At worst, we all lose little time (but will probably get more focused on our needs), and at best we might end up with a new first-rate billing-scheduling product. You can contact me directly on this matter at:
berchik@taomedic.com

Good luck in whatever choice you make,
Yoav.

Cool! Thanks for the tip. My office manager and I are trying out today!

Be Well,
Juliette Aiyana
http://www.amazinghealing.com

Hey ya'll,
I just purchased TCM Pro a few months ago (choosing it over Acubase because of their annual fee) and am really happy with it. I am a bit new to computers and was quit intimidated to learn a new program. They offer free support and the support is EXCELLENT. I have never had to wait for support and it has always been very kind, very helpful and patient. That has been very valuable to me. Also, I was able to make payments on the purchase which was very helpful. The program might not be as pretty as others but functionally- so far so good.
Cheers!

Hello all, I thought I'd join in the discussion with some information on ClientTracker from Ginkgo Software.

- User friendly: we get top marks in this area, according to many of our customers who have switched to ClientTracker from other products in this category
- Supports multiple practitioners and multiple rooms, and makes it easy to track appointments and SOAP notes according to which practitioner or room was involved.
- Does scheduling for multiple practitioners
- Does billing using the new CMS-1500 form with NPI numbers, including electronic claims filing
- Does non-insurance billing using Superbill or Simple invoices
- User-customizable lists of billing and diagnosis codes
- Makes it easy to track client payments on account and insurance payments for a number of invoices
- One-time cost of $325. No subscription fees.
- Support is $149/year, 30 days for free. Live phone support 5 days per week.
- Comprehensive user manual
- Includes a simple account register for tracking one bank account, and makes it easy to automatically track payments against invoices as they are deposited, reconcile totals, etc.
- Works on Windows and Macintosh computers
- Training sessions can be arranged using live web-based demonstration and phone conference
- You can download our free unlimited-time demo here: http://ginkgosoftware.com/download.php

We have a number of customers who are naturopaths and massage therapists as well, and will be adding some great features with our next version release to help those with multi-disciplinary practices.

We have made a few adjustments for our Canadian customers, including the way taxes are handled to allow for GST/PST and a few other invoicing details. Province abbreviations work fine in the program, and from what we hear the program works great for Canadian TCM practitioners.

We have put a lot of thought into refining the processes and workflows in ClientTracker to save clicks wherever possible and to make it easy to use, and having a 'humane interface' will remain a top priority as we continue to improve our product. We maintain a database of all requests we receive for improvements and changes and our advisory panel of acupuncturists reviews ideas and works with us on how to best implement them.

Networking is not supported, though we do have plans in this direction for the future. For those who need a web-based schedule, it possible to use one of the many web-based scheduling products available for keeping track of appointments, and at the time of the visit create a SOAP in ClientTracker, and from there an invoice, and so on.

For all the details about ClientTracker, check out our website: http://ginkgosoftware.com/
For any further information, you can contact me at info@ginkgosoftware.com.

All the best,

Kevin Suggitt,
Partner/Developer, Ginkgo Software

Thanx Kevin,
why no networking? This is a must.
what info can be indicated about the client? is it all databased so that marketing reports can be done?
Is there a good reminder function built in (calendar, client call back, tasks, etc)?

Hi Yoav,

Your software sounds pretty good to me.

Most of the complaints I've heard about existing software isn't usually that it can't do something - it's that it's hard to work with. I've looked at a few software programs myself, and after seeing them I'm not surprised so many clinics do everything on paper.

That's why In addition to your above list, I'd also suggest collecting a list of problems with current software. It's one thing to have all the features you want, it's another to have them organized well so they're easy to use. I think the ideal would be a system as easy to use as paper, but much more powerful.

Webdoktor,

One idea that a lot of practitioners may want to consider is outsourcing their scheduling.

PatLive.com is a company I've used (but not for this scheduling feature), and they're very good. They're also much, much cheaper than a receptionist. If your scheduling system is web based and relatively simple, you can have an 800 number where people can call 24 hours a day to make appointments. The 800 number is answered by a live operator using a prewritten script that YOU wrote.

A cheaper option is to have it go to a menu system (e.g. "Hi, this is the XXXX clinic. If you would like to make an appointment, please press 1 for a live person. If you have treatment questions, please press 2 to leave a voice mail with your name, phone number and question, and we'll call you back.")

You could also have a mix, and when your receptionist isn't available, forward your calls to the 800 number.

You'd have to work out some instructions for initial consultations vs. follow-up treatments (meeting with one patient vs. treating several) but it's entirely doable. If I were running a software company, and had web scheduling available, I'd definitely talk to Pat Live about making it work with my system. I'd also try to get a special discount for people who choose this option. That's just me though.

In our next version of ClientTracker, expected sometime in 2008, you will be able to network the program among computers in the same office using a local network. You will also be able to export your appointments into vCal format, which will then update your online (Google Calendar, etc.) or desktop (Outlook, iCal, etc.) calendar. The timeline and pricing for this version of ClientTracker have not yet been worked out, but we'll keep you informed.

Client-related info that can be indicated about a client includes: complete contact information, emergency contact info, what documents have been submitted to (or signed by) the client, insurance accounts, a client# or folder #, who referred them, a photo of the client, client history, whether they are part of a family involving other clients you bill (for family medical plans, etc.), and all other information required for insurance billing.

Referring physicians are tracked and thank-you form letters can be easily generated to help manage your communications with referrers. Default practitioner and room can be tracked per client to speed up the creation of appointments, SOAP notes, etc.

All data in the program is kept in a relational database and can be used for reporting in a variety of ways, both internally and by exporting into Excel to create custom reports, charts etc.

A built in calendar is used to track appointments as well as reminders. Appointments can be marked as no-show, cancelled, etc. Reminders can be assigned a date and time and can be used for a variety of purposes.

Let me know if there's any other information I can provide about our product.

All the best,

Kevin
Ginkgo Software

Hi,

I emailed your company several times to get an answer concerning if your software is Mac compatible. Could you or anyone please answer this... Thank you.

Clayton

Oh, this is directed towards Taomedic--- Thanks!
Clayton

This looks like a great product. Please let me know directly when it is ready.

The software we use (available only in Canada) is OK, not the most user friendly but priced too high for how we use it. It does have some interesting beels and whistles. Check them out for some ideas http://www.clinicessentials.com/

Lorne
www.acubalance.ca
www.prodseminars.com

I've tried many of the billing/scheduling software out there, and I really like Acubase the best, although it's still not perfect. Second runner would be ClientTracker. Now I have heard of someone doing all their billing, etc. with Quickbooks, but seriously, if you are going to be doing insurance billing, best to have something simple like Acubase.

Also for a insurance clearinghouse service, you may want to look into SecureEdi www.secureedi.com

I guess the best thing is to get many demos and try them all out, find out what works for you. Also there are some chiropractic scheduling software out there too that could work.

I concur re the demo process. With such mission-critical software, it´s essential to be sure you are comfortable with your investment. When people ask us how we´re different from ClientTracker, TaoMedic, TCM Windows, etc., our answer is always to download as many demos as possible, call for support, ask about frequency of updates, etc., and see how it all works out. We´ve sent many customers to our ´competition´with this answer, but 10 years in the biz has taught us that we´d much prefer to have happy customers than to sell to just anyone.

Good luck, y´all.

-Jason de Trigram

PS: I´m writing from a small town in Nicaragua , so I apologize for any issues with characters in this post. Strange keyboards and spotty internet here. But a good place to introduce acupuncture. Lots of Canadians here as well! If you need to get out of the rat race and practice in an environment of appreciation and respect, come on down...

We have a multi-practitioner clinic and have been using NueMD scheduling and billing software. www.nuemd.com. It's an extensive scheduler and works cross-platform (Mac and PC) which is why we chose it. It also has a HCFA-form generation, insurance billing capacity, patient appt reminder call feature (for an extra fee), and an accounting feature (which we do not use - mostly because it didn't track sales tax on products). It's US $ 440/yr per practitioner.

Once we got the hang of using it it's been seamless.

Dagmar

We use Clinic Essentials (only available in Canada) and I am looking for something better and more cost effective. We pay over $350/month which I know is too much for scheduling software.

I do not have any recommendations but will share way i am looking for so any of you have advice please share.

-Multiple practitioners

-Multiple locations

-able to be networked

-scheduling and billing

-Different billing codes fro different treatments and product sales

-user friendly

-Cost less than $1500/ year (if updates are needed). Remember I am paying more than that for my two locations.

It does not need to be an accounting software. To be frank I would be skeptical as it is hard to have one that is great at both scheduling and billing as well as the accounting function.

What I see out there in the TCM world is software that helps you with TCM diagnosis and treatment. This does not interest me personally. My need lies in the points above. The software i use now is fairly good. It is not easy for reception to master however and it way over priced for what i use it for. So love to hear some suggestions.

Did you check out the posts above? AcuBase does all that, for $295/year ($495/year if networked for up to 5 computers).

-J

http://www.oemr.org/ is supposed to be decent, but the technical requirements may be a problem. I'm personally looking for a web based system just for scheduling. Patient records would be a bonus but not mandatory.

I haven't checked out these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open_source_healthcare_... but they look promising.

Thank you Acugeek. I did miss the other post. I did not realize there were 3 full pages of post on the software topic. Lots of good advice. I will look into the suggestions listed.

Lorne

www.acubalance.ca

www.prodseminars.com

Hey Burton, if you don't care about other features and you just want online scheduling, why not use Google Calendar? Even though I use AcuBase, I also put my calendar online via Google and share it only with my office people so they can check in remotely and make reminder calls, etc.

-Jason

Hey Burton,

I was approached by genbook.com to do a review of their scheduling software. I didn't get into it in enough detail to really review it, but at first glance it looked reasonably slick for online software with a free version. Might be worth a look!

Dan

http://www.AlternativeHealthPractice.com

www.mindbodyonline.com

We are about to move from our current scheduling software to mind body software online. We will use the reports generated and put them into quick books for accounting.

Anyone using this software? Any feedback?

Dan,

As it turns out, some website clients use GenBook.com, another uses MyReceptionist.com. The folks at chinesemedicinewebsites.com would also be able to set them up.

Personally, I spent about 6 hours a few months ago going through all the different paid and free, online and self-hosted options. Genbook simply has the most user friendly (for the patient) interface. I didn't see what it's like for the practitioner though.

MyReceptionist.com is higher-end - allows for phone appointments and is obviously more expensive.

You can see the discussion from various people here.

 Thanks for starting this thread and thanks to Burton for listing some  software to test out.

I personally use Google Apps email and calendar/scheduling in our office (3 people) and it's been working great for our uses so far.  The system is quite self-explanatory, although it may require more computer experience to set up than a typical computer user might have.

It would be nice to have an online scheduling option, though.  And, if our practice involved more than one location, I'm not sure how well it would work.  Google has recently added the ability to specify rooms with their calendar function, so it may not be an issue.  I'm curious to check out Burton's previous suggestions and compare...

The big difficulty I see, and what's been mentioned before, is how to effectively combine the scheduling part with the accounting/business tracking part.  I personally feel that Quick Books is overkill for an acupuncture/holistic healthcare practice.  On the other hand, Quick Books doesn't have the ability to create useful billing forms without some major customizing/headaches.  But, it's the best thing available that an accountant (in the States, at least) can work with.  I've searched out OpenSource equivalents to Quick Books, but the headache in transferring data would kill me, and no accountant I know of uses any of them.

I have been putting off looking into Ginkgo's software, so I think I'll check it out and see what progress has been made since I last tried it.  It may have progressed to a point where it's worthwhile.

Any updates to what other people have found useful since Burton's last post would be greatly appreciated!

We use NueMD software http://www.nuesoft.com/nuemd/  . It has a cross-platform (Mac/PC) internet based scheduler that is expandable to multiple locations. It can run the entire billing as well as insurance billing (HCFA-forms). For 5 practitioners runs US $2450/yr, then each additional practitioner and likely each location is extra. We like it a lot though it's pricey. We use Quickbooks for accounting though it's not great for generating patient statements.

I use GNUmed. It is Free software and build by the doctors who actually use it. Everybody is encouraged to help create and improve it. I think it really is in the spirit of the long history of Chinese Medicine, in which time and time again techniques and theories have been refined by many people. It is free of charge as well, and truly multi-platform, for Linux, Windows and Mac.

What is GNUmed?

GnuMed is a group of practising doctors, programmers and free software enthusiasts from around the world, committed to provide a superior, free software solution for community practice. Using tried-and-true technology, GNUmed software will start out having record-keeping, but will eventually cover all aspects of medical practice, and will interface well with third-party software. Technically speaking, it tries to do things "cleanly", but takes a pragmatic rather than purist approach. Currently, GNUmed's data is accessed via business objects implemented in Python which provide and govern direct access to the PostgreSQL RDBMS, but GNUmed will also be able access various types of data stores such as other RDBMS or LDAP.

GNUmed cleanly separates the medical aspects (record keeping) from the administrative aspects (billing, storage) of a medical practice. Thereby it allows GNUmed to be internationalized to different jurisdictions.

Who is GNUmed for?

GNUmed is suitable for any health care provider interested in keeping a sound and comprehensive medical record. It is currently in use with GPs and physical therapists. GNUmed safely operates on networks of a few to many users, and supports secure, remote access. It does also operate on a single computer, which makes it possible to initially examine the software, and may suit doctors or nurse clinicians serving rural or disadvantaged areas with limited infrastructure.

We offer The Apcupuncture Practice Management System (APMS) which was developed in colllaboration with a practicing Acupuncture Physician and Herbalist.

The software supports meeting GMP requirements as it tracks inventories by batch, including expiration date, through to the patient.  Some of the features are as follows:

• Manages inventory and generates suggested replenishment orders.
• Supports compounding formulas including pricing, inventory allocation, and printing of labels.
• Tracks formula components by batch through to patient.
• Records patient checkout data including services performed with CPT and ICD9 codes; prepared medicines, formulas, and supplies dispensed; and payments made by user defined categories.
• Generates patient statements for the current episode or for a given time period.
• Generates data for the 1500 form.
• Captures patient charting data including history; intake; tongue observations and pictures; session and treatment notes; and attachments - all customizable to the needs of an individual practice.
• Tracks history of formulas, herbs, prepared medicines, and supplies dispensed by patient.
• Supports multiple practitioners.
• Can be implemented on several computers over a local area network.
• Tracks revenue by category.
• Generates many reports.
• Other features - see the website at www.jlsystemsllc.com

The price for the full system is $595 and includes two months support.  An annual support agreement is available that includes upgrades - pricing depends upon number of practitioners.

The system requires Microsoft Access 2007, available as a standalone or as part of select Microsoft Office 2007 versions.  A demonstration can be arranged at no cost via GoToMeeting.com

Thomas Jordan

JLSystems, LLC  352-214-8069

I've been in practice 20 years and have used several billing software programs, inlcuding Lytec and Raintree.  We have been using Quixote now for 4 years and love it.  Orginally designed with chiropractors in mind, but very adaptable to our medicine.  We are a multi-specialty clinic with two LAc's.  Quixote manages all our SOAP notes, scheduling, billing, insurance tracers, etc for all providers.  We are truly paperless now.  check it out at www.quixotesoftware.net

 Hi paddy - thanks for the tip.  I love the idea of GNUMed, but how much time did it take you to customize it for your needs (point selection/herbal prescriptions/insurance billing)?  If there are acupuncture templates already available, I would more than happily contribute any changes/updates I make to the GNUMed community.  Starting from scratch, though would take more time than I can devote to it right now.  I will check it out and see how it looks.  I'm a Linux/OpenSource enthusiast, but the trips ups for me surround the ability to use Quick Books for accounting, and to find practice management software that can easily communicate with QB.

Go to our Feature page: http://chinesemedicinetools.com/resources/featured-product-s.... Watch the video, it is quite informative.
- it is a new software that we are featuring. The creator Sean Koo has graciously offered to give away 6 months free and no start up cost (total value $780) to 3 people picked by Chinese medicine tools!
- to be entered into this contest you must fill out the 'Best of TCM 2010' http://chinesemedicinetools.com/Best-of-TCM-2010 and leave your email (hint: filling out ALL the fields is recommended)
- Winners will be announced early March 2010.

Click here for more info: http://www.healthstream.tv/tv/therapy-care-plus-your-next-cl.... Join Sean Koo, creator of Therapy Care Plus, a new clinic mgmt software, in this free live interactive Q&A webinar about his new software.

For people who bill insurance:  I have been using Office Ally's free Practice Management Software (Practice Mate) for a few years. (officeally.com)  They're a web-based insurance billing clearinghouse in the US. They offer free start-up and support. You can manage patient scheduling, payments and all phases of insurance billing online. You can export data to excel or pdf files. If you want to use your own Practice Management Software, you can simply upload your data for processing claims. Overall, Practice Mate has worked really well for me. When I switched from Acubase a few years ago (when Trigram raised their prices significantly), I was relieved to find Office Ally's software so complete and easy to use.

On the down side:

It's not a reference for CM-specific information. I don't think it has much of an inventory capability.

Creating "superbills" or just statements for patients is adequate but not great. It would work better to export the data to a program that creates a clearer statement.

Another thing that does not work well with Practice Mate is when I've received payments for awhile from a patient and then have to amend those records. It happens when the insurance deductible is met or insurance pays a different amount than expected, for instance. I have to create a separate spreadsheet to tease apart all the payments and credits. There must be an easier way! Probably an accounting program would work well but I don't know which one or how it would interface with Practice Mate. I've thought of Quickbooks for a long time for the business side of my practice but don't know how it would work for patients' accounts.

Great discussion! Thanks everyone!

I just read your question now. The easiest way to see if GNUmed works for you is to try it out- it is free anyway.

I spend just minutes setting it up. Install it, remove the sample data, create user and enter first patient.

GNUmed will not do billing. As I understand it, it is a choice, because there are just too many different juristrictions and too many different professions. Personally, I have just a bunch of textdocuments that are my bills, and an spreadsheet to add it all up. very simple indeed, but I do not need more.

As for point selection, I just write "Lv3R / Li 4L" for (obviously) Liver 3 Right and Large Intestine 4 Left. I like it much more than if the software forces me to comply to its format. And, if I use a "alternatieve" location, I can write "Lv5 bit higher up", or so. Rm6M in my notes means: Ren Mai 6 with moxa. Just should be  you're consistent with the abbriviantions.

Version 0.7 of GNUmed wil include the possebility of visual notes, that is, drawings. So, if you like to draw a patients tongue, facial map or hara-diagnose, you can. That I really like. 

It is meant for all who work with patients, so not specifically for acupuncture/herbs. Right now, work is done to have a drug database coupled/ integrated. It would be awesome if somebody would take it uppon them to integrate Chinese herbal formulas, but indeed that is not a small project.

Not perfect, not for everybody. But worth checking out, I think. You can send me a PM if you have more questions.