Plato

Plato

In Cycle 2 of CMS Sutra, we have noticed a significant dip in response numbers from plato users in our CMS User Survey as compared to other CMSes. The CMS Sutra team checked in with our CMS reviewers to identify the phenomenon.

As one reviewer mentions : “Although the HealthierSG functions are technically fulfilled, there is too much manual work involved with claims - it is almost like working with pen and paper.” SmartCMSes should aid clinics to streamline processes down to further improve clinical operations. The reviewer further illustrates to the team that claims are still not native within the system and the clinic has to still go through MHCP for CHAS and Medisave claims, manually going through claim reference numbers to reconcile claims as they are unable to reconcile the claims within the plato system. From our User Survey, 45.5% of users have given a rating of 1-2 out of a possible 5 stars rating for CMS ability to calculate billing for different coverage between HealthierSG and non-HealthierSG patients. After being shown the billing workflow to the CMS Sutra team, it is easy to understand that there is still much manual work that is needed for the user to key in by themselves. This will reflect in additional time spent on manual administrative work that is taken away from clinical staff which factors into cost for efficiency if the clinic owner were to engage additional staffing.

Another CMS Reviewer mentioned that “there is too much manual work needed to do to achieve the Early Contribution Incentives, and it is not within my power to fix the issues”. Looking at our User Survey, less than 20% of respondents have given a rating of 4-5 stars for Plato’s ability to meet the NEHR accuracy standards criteria. This is a concerning figure as it suggests that while passing the criteria is a possibility, variability is high and the system might not be as intuitive for the common user to meet the NEHR accuracy requirements. In regards to the timeliness criteria, over 70% of respondents have rated a 3 stars or below, this criteria is seldom the fault of the clinic as data is already inside the CMS and much is needed to be improved on the CMS’ capabilities to deliver the data to NEHR timely.

Plato is still regarded very highly as one of the most stable CMSes, with more than half of our User Survey respondents rating a 5 out of 5 stars for stability of the CMS. Our reviewers have also agreed that plato is a very stable system and have not experienced any system crashes since adopting the plato system. This is a highly valuable aspect as clinics would have a peace of mind on an operational basis.

Plato’s built in clinic appointment system is also a very functional feature which is easy to set up for clinics as well as for patients to book appointments. CMS Sutra reviewers mentioned that improvements could still be made regarding patient cancellations to free up appointment time slots on the physician’s dashboard as it is currently manual cancellations with patients having no ability to cancel appointments from their end.

Based on our User Survey, respondents were also lower on the confidence level as compared to other SmartCMSes regarding the CMS capability to apply price caps to whitelisted drugs with only 27.3% of respondents rating an above average of 4-5 stars out of a possible 5 stars rating . Our CMS reviewers have mentioned that “Oftentimes, suppliers have charged us a more expensive price than the HealthierSG pricing listed within the CMS.” The reviewer further expresses that their clinic usually has to take up monetary losses from the additional balance from the price differences. The CMS Sutra team wishes for all CMSes to be updated on latest whitelist drug prices to prevent clinics from taking in additional losses holding whitelisted drugs.

All in all, Plato is a very stable system for clinical operations with low to no crashes. Plato is also a feature rich CMS that is easy to use, with a notable rating of 0% scoring 2 and below by respondents from our User Survey.  However, much more improvements should be made to automate processes to better aid the multitude of manual work needed for billing and claims.

To learn more or book a demo, head over to https://platomedical.com/