Skype (the personal edition or Skype free) was a web meeting, video conferencing, and VoIP software, now superseded by Microsoft Teams' free edition and unsupported from May 2025.
$2.99
per month
Tebra Billing & Payments
Score9 out of 10
N/A
Tebra Practice Management (formerly Kareo) provides cloud-based management and billing solutions for small medical offices. Some key features include: Patient Management, Scheduler & Patient Reminders, Insurance Billing & Reporting, and Patient Billing & Collections.
Having interacted with a new replacement tool, Microsoft Teams, it is challenging to recommend Skype, as it lacks some essential features, such as being less equipped with the latest updates, and it is not platform-independent, causing issues on PCs and phones, as well as during calls that might hinder work.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
In my experience, problems with them adding incorrect fees to pad their bills coupled with their unethical business practices such as locking you out from accessing your EMR at the drop of a hat prevent me from recommending Kareo to any practice. Reliability is paramount. Kareo's use of unethical business practices (locking you out from your EMR or disabling your EMR all together) can result in a physician being sanctioned by the medical board (inappropriate medical record keeping) or financially destroy a small practice leaving them with NO ACCESS to their ERAs/patient billing accounts etc leads me to NOT reccomend their products or doing business with them.
The instant chat function is great. Very straightforward, easy to use, easy to learn, no technical issues.
Video calls are pretty easy also, user friendly and a mostly stable connection with no issues.
Voice calls are easy also, eliminates the need for an external landline or the need to use your cell phone. Clear connections, not really any dropped calls.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Kareo stays up to date on insurance changes which allow for smooth transitions.
Kareo asks for feedback and has a place to go and request changes or additions that would make our job easier.
I love that you can submit a help ticket or call, if you prefer, with any questions or problems that you may have. They are always very prompt with their follow up.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Where to start...for one, during my start-up with a "success coach" and trust me, I use that term broadly, I had to f/u on every single issue that came up. I was told she was taking care of my electronic lab enrollment, after waiting 3 months and reaching out to my success coach, Kayli, countless times, I only was told when contacted by management that my Quest lab access had been denied after 2 weeks because I was never told to independently create my own account with Kareo- after asking/emailing/calling multiple times trying to figure out the process. So needless to say, I have NO electronic lab access 4 months after signing with Kareo and they are now just starting the process.
Prescriptions- I had reached out to Kareo, no exaggeration, over 10 times to figure out why I wasn't receiving prescription refills. Spent countless hours on the phone with "support line" that could never give me an answer- to any question. And never f/u either until I directly insisted to my salesperson to have management contact me directly. I had a patient go to the hospital due to not having their medications because apparently their pharmacy had sent refill prescriptions over 3 times which I never received. Only after talking to management, did they look into further and then inform me that I had 3 locations in the system (?? I have ONE location). They were all prior addresses of offices, one from over 4 years ago. To date, again, 4 months after paying a year up front, I can't receive refill requests. And the solution proposed to me by management was to call my prior EHR and request they delete my prior addresses. And I cannot contact my prior EHR because I was in a large group that restricted the account to only 2 individuals in a group of 18 doctors to even have access to talk to them. So I can't resolve the issue, Kareo after 4 months instructs me to call them myself, and the prior EHR doesn't even recognize I had an account with them because it was under a group practice name.
Online booking- I thought this would be an amazingly efficient add-on. What they don't tell you is you can only designate "increments" of appointment times. Kareo will tell you it syncs with your existing schedule so that online bookings are only in vacant time slots. I had new patients selecting a time increment of 15 minutes, existing patients selecting 45 minutes (with a deductible) and any increment over 15 minutes (which the patient can select at their own will, being if you choose 15 min increments, it will offer appointment length for 15 min, 30 min, 45 min, 60 min etc with no outline of the appropriate time length) will over-book your schedule. So if you have a 10-10:15 slot, the patient can select a 45 minute appointment that starts at 10 (Because that 15 minute slot is open). But then will overbook the patients at 10:15 and 10:30.
It created utter chaos in my practice. My office manager spent more time calling patients to inform them they had booked an inappropriate time increment, they can't book a new appointment for 15 minutes, we don't accept their insurance...the list goes on.
There is no way to restrict the increments or who can book an appointment.
Messaging- I can't view what incoming messages from patients are sent to whom. And neither can my office manager. And the patient gets to select who to sent the message to, either the "provider" or "location." And 9 times out of 10 they send to the "provider." So as a physician, I am inundated with patient messages simply wanting to book a new appointment or reschedule. As a physician, obviously prioritizing my time is important and my office manager can't view these messages.
The list goes on, unfortunately. "A/R" reports only allow them to calculate a theoretical A/R based on your self-pay rates to patients, not individual contracted rates with insurances. So my A/R has an inflated number, which I can't even quantify by how much, because the A/R is based as if every insurance patient paid as a self-pay patient. Seriously, no one thought this through?
Can't send multiple controlled scripts at once electronically. Have to enter, go to separate site, enter code, be redirected back to KAreo then re-enter another med, be redirected to separate site, enter code, be redirected...Any other EHR I've ever used (and I've used around 6 between residency and private practice) you could enter multiple Rx, but then check the meds you wanted to send and then enter ONE code for, say, 2 controlled scripts. Kareo, you must enter separate codes one by one.
I could go on but will choose to hope for all reading, you get the general point...
Skype is not as good as Facetime in terms of ease to glance at it and figure out how it works. I think that's a result of Skype trying to be too many things at once. A lot of the menu and UI could be streamlined, and I would jettison some of the additional functions that have been tacked on over the years to simplify. That being said, while some options are slightly hard to find, they all work flawlessly once found.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Kareo Medical Billing is very user friendly and the support they provide allows users to get their questions answered quickly and efficiently. The wait time to receive help is usually pretty good and most of the time we can ger our questions answered. We have found that is the tech help is unable to answer our question, they will attempt to find a colleague who is able to help!
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
I am not aware of the current support level for Skype for business, as I have never used even though I have the product. However, the support for Skype's personal paid users is not where it could be. Users who pay for Skype features do not have a clear path to reach out to support. So, rating 6, can be better as soon as I need to use Skype for business support and get a good experience. I will say that I will renew Skype for Business subscription, which is a significant inconsistency on my end. The explanation is that Skype for Business comes bundled with Office for Business, with no additional cost, so why not.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
We use Skype in combination with Grasshopper. While Grasshopper acts as a routing toll free number with extensions, if we are making calls directly, we do it through Skype. Skype's desktop and mobile apps are easier to use, and provide unlimited local calls at a flat, affordable rate. Allowing our team to use their existing mobile or desktop devices without additional hardware for business office phone calls is important, and Skype makes that possible
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
We have used several Practice Management programs which our doctors have chosen. Kareo is far above those in ease of use, efficiency and reporting. Training takes very little time as the program is intuitive. Licensing cost is reasonable. Our doctors enjoy the integration with the Kareo EHR and our staff appreciates the integration from the EHR to the practice management. It makes their job easier.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
