Computer programs are commonly regarded in the role of anything but hardware, which means that the “hard” are the parts that are physical while the “soft” part is the intangible objects found inside of the computer itself. Software encompasses an exceptionally broad array of products and technologies created using various techniques like programming languages, scripting languages, microcode, or an FPGA configuration.

The types of applications include web pages created by technologies such as HTML, PHP, Perl, JSP, ASP.NET, XML, and desktop programs like OpenOffice, Microsoft Word created by technologies like C, C++, Java,or C#.  Software generally runs on an underlying software operating systems such as the Linux or Microsoft Windows.  Software also includes video games and the logic systems of forward-looking consumer products such as automobiles, televisions, even toasters.

Software can include such items as web pages, programs or video games, that are coded by a variety of different programming languages like C or C++.  The term “Software” is from time to time used in a much broader context to mean something which is not hardware but which is used with computer hardware, this may include film, tapes and in some cases even records.

Software’s Unique Relationship to Computer Hardware

Computer software is so called to distinguish it from PC hardware, which is a broad term designed to encompass the physical interconnections and devices necessary to warehouse and carry out the software. At the lowest level, software consists of a machine language restricted to an individual processor. A machine language consists of groups of binary values signifying CPU instructions that alter the state of the PC from its preceding state. Software is an ordered sequence of directives for changing the state of the computer hardware in a specific sequence. It is generally written in high-level programming languages that are easier and more efficient for people to use than machine language.

The phrase “software” was originally used in this sense by John W. Tukey in 1958. In computer science and software engineering, computer software is all computer programs. The theory that is the foundation for most current applications was initially planned by Alan Turing in his 1935 essay Computable figures with an application to the Entscheidungs problem.

Different kinds of Software

Applied computer systems divide software programs into 3 main classes: System software, programming software and application software, even though the distinction is arbitrary, and commonly blurred.

System software

System software helps run the PC hardware and computer system. It often includes a combination of the following:

• device drivers
• operating systems
• servers
• utilities
• windowing systems

The intention of systems software is to relieve the applications programmer from the details of the individual computer complex being used, together with such accessory products as communications, printers, readers, displays and keyboards, and additionally to partition the computer’s assets such as memory and processor time in a safe and balanced approach.

Programming software

Programming applications typically provides tools to help a programmer in creating computer programs, and applications using assorted programming languages in a more suitable way. The tools include:

• compilers
• debuggers
• interpreters
• linkers
• text editors

An Integrated development environment or (IDE) is a individual application that tries to handle all these functions.

Application software

Application software permits end users to complete 1 or more specialized tasks. Characteristic applications include:

• manufacturing automation
• small business software
• computer games
• quantum chemistry and solid state physics software
• telecommunications
• databases
• learning programs
• medical software
• military software
• commercial software
• molecular modeling software
• image editing
• spreadsheet
• word processing
• decision making software

The Quality and Reliability of Software

Software quality is extremely crucial, especially for commercial and system software like Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows and Linux.  If software is faulty, it can delete a person’s work, crash the PC and do other unexpected items.

Faults and errors are often called “bugs.”  Many bugs are revealed and eliminated through software testing.  Although, software testing seldomly – if ever – gets rid of every bug.  In fact, a number of programmers say that “every program has at least one more bug”.

All key software companies, such as Microsoft, Novell and Sun Microsystems, control their own software testing departments with the particular goal of just testing.  Programs can be tested through unit testing, regression testing and other methods, which are completed manually, or most commonly, without human intervention, since the amount of code to be tested can be pretty substantial. For example, NASA has exceptionally rigorous software testing procedures for its Space Shuttle and other programs because faulty programs can crash the entire program and make the vehicle not functional, at significant expense.

Software Licenses

The software’s license gives the user the permission to use the program in the approved environment.  Some software comes with the license when purchased off the shelf, or an OEM license when bundled with hardware. Other software comes with a free software license, granting the user the rights to change and redistribute the software.  Software can also be in the form of freeware or shareware.

Software Design and Implementation

Design and implementation of software varies depending on the complexity of the software.  For example, design and construction of Microsoft Word software may take much longer time than designing and developing Microsoft Notepad because of the difference in functionalities in each one.

Software is usually designed and created in integrated development environments (IDE) like emacs, xemacs, Microsoft Visual Studio and Eclipse that can simplify the process and compile the software.  As noted in another section, software is ordinarily produced on top of existing software and the application programming interface (API) that the underlying software provides like GTK+, JavaBeans or Swing. Libraries (APIs) are categorized for various purposes.

For example, JavaBeans library is used for designing enterprise applications, Windows Forms library is used for designing graphical user interface (GUI) applications like Microsoft Word, and Windows Communication Foundation is used for designing web services.  Underlying PC programming concepts like quicksort, hashtable, array, and binary tree can be beneficial to creating software. When a program is designed, it relies on the API. For example, if a user is designing a Microsoft Windows desktop application, he/she might use the .NET Windows Forms library to design the desktop application and call its APIs like Form1.Close() and Form1.Show() to close or open the application and write the additional operations him/herself that it need to have.  Devoid of these APIs, the programmer would need to write these APIs him/herself.

Companies like Sun Microsystems, Novell, and Microsoft provide their own APIs so that many programs are written utilizing their application libraries that generally have numerous APIs in them.

Computer Software: Industry and Organizations

Software has its own niche industry that is called the software industry made up of numerous entities and peoples that generate software, and as a end result there are numerous software companies and programmers in the world.  Because software is increasingly used in numerous unique areas like in finance, searching, mathematics, space exploration, gaming and mining and such, software companies and people usually concentrate in certain areas.  For example, Electronic Arts primarily creates video games.

Several of the well recognized software companies include Microsoft, Oracle, Novell, Adobe and Corel.

A medical billing software is designed to manage the patient billing process in every aspect. These software implementations typically file and manage insurance claims, eliminate human error from claims and organize medical billing for your practice.

Some companies have developed their traditional medical billing software into a full scale office management suite allowing for appointment scheduling, patient data storage, storing medical records and even word processing, but not every health care practice is large enough to warrant the use of such an extensive, and often expensive, software.

One factor does remain the same, every medical professional has the undesirable task of processing patient claims through insurance companies on a regular basis. Medical billing software will allow you, the health care provider, to not only speed up but also semi-automate this task and cut down on the hours needed to manage patient billing.

Who Needs Medical Billing Software

Medical practices of every size use medical billing software on a daily basis to cut down time and costs associated with processing insurance claims and managing patient billing. Every health care practice should have some sort of billing management implementation in place. If your office is very small, you may consider foregoing the software and instead use a medical billing service that can handle these claims for you on a case by case basis.

Over time, medical billing services will cost your practice more money than buying a billing software from the beginning and managing these tasks yourself, however, if you are short staffed and have time constraints that prevent you from being able to manage your billing in a timely manner, medical billing software may not be for you. Try analyzing the costs associated with purchasing and running a software or going with a billing service to find the best fit for your office.

The Features of Medical Billing Software

Medical billing software is often all over the board in terms of usability and functionality. You will find that some programs have every feature imaginable while others do little more than process and submit claims to insurance companies. While the full featured software implementations are invaluable to hospitals and large medical centers, the majority of smaller medical practices just won’t find a need for so many bells and whistles.

When choosing a medical billing software for your practice, you should determine which aspects you need help with and then go from there. Try to find a program that not only meets every need that your medical practice has, but also exceeds the expectations ever so slightly. Some of the features that can typically be found in the best medical billing software include:

• Patient Information Management
• Electronic Claim Filing
• Paper Claim Filing
• Financial Ledger/Records
• Word Processing
• System Reports
• Claim Status
• Appointment Scheduling

This is by no means an exhaustive list of features but should some up the primary focuses of many individual software. You should notice by the list that some of the features may just not be beneficial to your business, for instance, small medical practices often use a program such as QuickBooks to organize and manage business finances, rendering an additional financial program useless. Choose your software wisely.

Free Medical Billing Software

It may seem almost to good to be true but there are some free options in medical billing software field. Below are the top choices that will get your medical practice on track without costing you a cent.

Office Manager – Encompassing office management health care software for medical practices, doctors groups, DMEs, retailers, etc. It does User/patient management, point of sale, scheduling, sign-in, inventory, insurance claims, accounting, etc. Works with any operating system!

ClearHealth PM/EMR – ClearHealth is a next generation practice management and EMR. It takes DNA from the FreeMED, OpenEMR projects. The software supports Demographics, Scheduling, Full Medical Billing, Disease Management, Decision Support, ePrescribing, HL7, and Web Services.

MirrorMed – MirrorMed is a free and open source EHR and practice management system written in PHP, it is a web-based application that is capable of running a health care practice. MirrorMed shares code with FreeMED, and OpenEMR.

Paid Medical Billing Software

Open Dental – Open source dental software designed to manage most aspects of a dental practice. Some features include billing, appointment scheduling, imaging and 3D dental charting.

Medisoft – Medisoft Medical Billing Software, Medical Records Software, Medinotes EMR, Electronic Health Records Software, Medical Biller, Billing Medical Practices.

MedicsElite – Full featured medical billing and practice management software with additional scalability through additional modules and enhancements.

EZ claim – Medical billing software designed primarily for small physician practices that allows for both paper and electronic claim billing. Company offers a thirty day free trial of the software.

Medisoft Software – Medisoft Software Lytec EMR EHR Electronic Medical Records Medical Billing Upgrade Support.

Advanced MD – Advanced MD offers several types of software to aid medical practices of varying sizes and scales. On their website you can find medical billing software, medical claims software, practice management software, scheduling software and medical record software.

MPM Soft – Medical billing software for the Windows platform. This software will help you to manage claims, eliminate claim errors, organize medical billing and staff, correct non-compliant coding issues and more.

NueMD – A complete electronic medical billing software solution that is easy-to-use and will help you better serve your clients by shortening their reimbursement cycles, increasing efficiencies within their practices, and providing them with detailed reports on revenue trends, collection aging, and payment status.

More Information on Medical Billing Software

If you are in need of assistance or curious to learn more about what is medical billing software and how it can help your medical practice, please feel free to contact us. We are regularly adding medical and patient billing software to this page, so please check back often. Visitors often ask us which software we recommend the most, and our response is usually to look into Medisoft Medial Billing Software as it has helped many medical practices and remains the leader in the billing industry.