CRM solutions are one of the most useful business applications ever. No industry should go without a CRM platform. The healthcare industry is no exception. We mean everything from hospitals to tiny private clinics. Choosing the best healthcare CRM software shouldn’t be too difficult.
To help your choice, we break down all the advantages a CRM platform can bring to healthcare businesses. Then we look at 15 of the best healthcare CRM companies and the tools they currently have available.
One important thing when considering healthcare CRM is this: HIPAA compliance. We look at several HIPAA compliant CRM software, and explain what it means. That’s because, when it comes to customer relationship management, healthcare customers have specific needs regarding the security of their data.
Healthcare CRM comparison chart (10 highest rated medical CRMs)
Software Company | Best for | Pricing (/month) | Website |
Salesforce Health Cloud | Salesforce Health Cloud (Best | $300 | |
Zendesk for Healthcare | Best healthcare CRM solution software for customer service | $19 | |
Onpipeline Healthcare CRM | Top medical CRM software for patient acquisition | $12 | |
Leadsquared Healthcare CRM | Best HIPAA compliant CRM software | $25 | |
IMS by Meditab | Good doctor CRM tools for EHR management | Contact vendor | |
OperaDDS | Top CRM program for dentists | $99 | |
PatientPop | Good healthcare CRM solution for email automation | Contact vendor | |
HIPAA CRM | Good cloud-based healthcare CRM for HIPAA compliance | $50 | |
Mercury Healthcare | Top healthcare CRM contact center solution | Contact vendor | |
PlayMakerHealth | Top healthcare CRM for business intelligence | Contact vendor |
What is healthcare CRM?
So what exactly is CRM for healthcare? Like any good CRM software solution, it helps you manage your contacts.
CRM definition says that it is a technology used to manage a company's relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers In the healthcare scenario, it is mostly patients. You might rather call it PRM, for patient relationship management. Anyways, this software will keep track of their medical and prescription data, as well as all their appointment and communication histories.
However, it is not only patients that count as contacts. Healthcare CRM can manage contacts like doctors and other medical professionals. It’s also good for keeping track of referral networks.
Healthcare CRM goes beyond managing current patients and contacts. There is a strong emphasis on marketing and sales too. This means helping clinics or other medical professionals find new patients and expand their practices.
Healthcare CRM can also help with things like customer support. It can help build online resource centers, create tickets and track issues. It also offers a unified dashboard for all communication from potential and recurrent patients.
Finally, some of the best CRMs for the healthcare industry do online reputation management. It can track engagement with your clinic across social media and other review sites. This lets you address any criticisms, and also bump your positive reviews to the top.
What is HIPAA compliant software?
HIPAA compliance refers to the protection of patient data and communications. It is meant to help streamline the flow of medical information. It makes it secure for different healthcare companies and institutions to exchange records. HIPAA compliant software protects patient information from fraud or theft. It also regulates the limitations of healthcare insurance.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was passed by the United States Congress in 1996. It consists of five areas. 1) Health insurance in case of job loss. 2) Standards for healthcare transactions. 3) Guidelines for medical spending. 4) Regulations for group health plans. 5) Regulations for governing company life insurance policies.
What are the different types of healthcare CRM software?
Patient relationship management
Medical data management
Patient engagement
New patient acquisition
Referral management
Payer management
Treatment sales pipelines
Appointment scheduling tools
Clinic reputation management
What is the best healthcare CRM software? Here’s our top 15 list:
From big names like Salesforce to niche names like HIPAA CRM, we’ve got a great list of the best healthcare CRM software. We break down the top CRM healthcare systems by scale, niche and best features. Many of these CRM solutions are also among the best HIPAA compliant software.
1. Salesforce Health Cloud (Best healthcare CRM software overall)
Salesforce is a leading CRM system for many industries. It has a solution for healthcare and life sciences. It’s a platform with customization for various healthcare needs. These include outreach for new patients. It has 360 degree views of patients’ medical records. It also keeps track of referral parties. Healthcare providers can engage with patients on any device. They can use this for things like appointment reminders and cancellations. There are tools to streamline payments with insurers. You also get pharmaceutical management features. Salesforce can also help with marketing and sales.
Salesforce Health Cloud is best for:
Private clinics
Hospitals
Patient management
Patient outreach
Payments and insurance
Sales and marketing
Is Salesforce Health Cloud HIPAA compliant?
Yes, Salesforce Health Cloud can be compliant with HIPAA standards. Customers can build applications to run on Salesforce. These can meet all the standards of HIPAA compliance. HIPAA protects the integrity of patient records. Salesforce Health Cloud is a good CRM platform for managing patient data.
Visit: Salesforce
2. Zendesk for Healthcare (Best healthcare CRM solution software for customer service)
Zendesk is a popular customer service platform and general CRM system. It has a solution for healthcare organizations. Zendesk helps maintain good patient experiences. You get complete patient information with EHR, medical devices and appointment histories. Zendesk Support makes it easy to stay in touch with patients. There are call center tools as well as SMS and other channels. Healthcare CRM tools from Zendesk do appointment reminders and follow ups. Medical professionals can also organize their daily tasks.
Zendesk is best for:
Private clinics
Patient satisfaction
Patient acquisition
Patient customer support
Daily tasks
Is Zendesk HIPAA compliant?
Zendesk can be made HIPAA compliant. Zendesk subscribers must comply with HIPAA configurations. They must do this before being able to use protected health information (PHI). Zendesk also has an advanced security add-on to help with HIPAA compliance. For more information users can contact an account executive at Zendesk.
Visit: Zendesk
3. Onpipeline Healthcare CRM (Top medical CRM software for patient acquisition)
Onpipeline is a decent overall customer relationship management tool. It can be used as a healthcare CRM system. Its main strength is in sales and marketing. This means it’s great for outreach as well as patient acquisition. There are marketing automation tools. These are useful for private clinics looking for new patients. You can also set up marketing automation workflows when messaging new and potential patients. As a CRM, it keeps track of patient data and medical histories.
Onpipeline is best for:
Private clinics
Patient acquisition
Marketing campaigns
Sales management
Is Onpipeline HIPAA compliant?
Onpipeline Healthcare CRM is now HIPAA compliant, whereas earlier it wasn’t fully so. The platform meets the security standards set by HIPAA. This does not include, however, data encryption for storage. This should not be a discouragement, because storage encryption is not a requirement of HIPAA.
Visit: Onpipeline
4. Leadsquared Healthcare CRM (Best HIPAA compliant CRM software)
Leadsquared is a CRM for sales and marketing. It has healthcare as one of its solutions. As a healthcare CRM, it is suited for specialty hospitals. These include women’s hospitals or children's hospitals. Leadsquare can capture leads of potential new patients. There is marketing automation to convert leads into paying patients. It saves all patient communication and even has telephone dialers. With Leadsquared hospitals and clinics can create email campaigns and landing pages. There are also patient satisfaction reports.
Leadsquared is best for:
Specialty hospitals
Private clinics
Marketing automation
Patient satisfaction
Is Leadsquared HIPAA compliant?
Leadsquared is fully HIPAA compliant. Through the Business Associate Agreement it maintains patient health information. This is done at very secure standards. Leadsquared boasts that they meet all regulatory requirements. This is to best safeguard sensitive patient data and other medical history information.
Visit: Leadsquared
5. IMS by Meditab (Good doctor CRM tools for EHR management)
IMS stands for Intelligent Medical Software. It specializes in electronic health records (EHR). It also has tools for medical practice management. IMS can help streamline payments and billing. Using IMS makes it easy to follow regulatory compliance. You get patient charting and tools to help make clinical decisions. There is referral management. IMS also has features to do electronic prescriptions.
IMS is best for:
Private clinics
Hospitals
Referral management
Electronic health records
Practice management
Is IMS HIPAA compliant?
IMS is HIPAA compliant. All electronic health records are very secure with IMS. IMS has a tool called FaxCloud. This streamlines sending and receiving electronic faxes. All faxes go directly to and from protected databases. This feature complies with HIPAA regulation.
Visit: IMS
6. OperaDDS (Top CRM program for dentists)
OperaDDS is a communication tool for dentists. It also has features which are good for general healthcare CRM. OperaDDS mainly does paperless forms, which is ideal for avoiding human touch. It keeps all patient information very secure. You get patient reminder tools. These work on email, SMS messaging and other channels. OperaDDS can also manage your clinic’s social media reviews. It keeps good reviews up top.
OperaDDS is best for:
Dental clinics
Reminders and follow ups
Paperless forms
Secure email
Reputation management
Is OperaDDS HIPAA compliant?
There are add-ons for OperaDDS. This includes a HIPAA secure email add-on. It is recommended for dental clinics not to use Gmail or Outlook. This may violate HIPAA rules. The OperaDDS secure email tool is fully HIPAA compliant. It also blocks spam and lets you retract messages.
Visit: OperaDDS
7. PatientPop (Good healthcare CRM solution for email automation)
PatientPop is a platform for growing private clinics. It helps clinics set up web sites and get solid web presence. There are tools to monitor and manage your online reputation. This platform allows patients to do online booking. There are workflows to automate things like appointment reminders and cancellations. PatientPop integrates with EMR and EHR systems. Marketing campaigns help attract new patients.
PatientPop is best for:
Private clinics
Landing pages
Email marketing campaigns
Workflow automation
Automated emails
Is PatientPop HIPAA compliant?
PatientPop is 100% HIPAA compliant. All patient data is securely managed according to HIPAA standards. You can safely manage your PatientPop platform from on-premise or in the cloud. PatientPop’s HIPAA compliance is in line with the Business Associate Agreement. All patient health information is protected.
Visit: PatientPop
8. HIPAA CRM (Good cloud-based healthcare CRM for HIPAA compliance)
HIPAA CRM is a cloud-based software CRM solution. As the name suggests this healthcare CRM system takes HIPAA seriously. Patient management gives you a 360 degree view of all patients. It lets clinics track the sales pipeline for new patient acquisition. Sales pipelines are also for tracking new procedure opportunities. There is a marketing automation tool which works with email and direct mail. You get task management tools too. HIPAA CRM has phone call features that are secure.
HIPAA CRM is best for:
Private clinics
Marketing campaigns
Workflow automation
HIPAA compliance
Is HIPAA CRM compliant?
HIPAA compliance is a major part of HIPAA CRM’s platform. Patient medical records are managed according to HIPAA standards. This is a cloud-based platform that follows the Business Associate Agreement. Patient health information is safe and secure with HIPAA CRM for all communications.
Visit: HIPAA CRM
9. Mercury Healthcare (Top healthcare CRM contact center solution)
Mercury Healthcare (formerly Healthgrades) is an intelligent platform for health systems and the healthcare industry. Tools to improve patient engagement include contact centers and appointment bookers. Mercury helps clinics understand their markets for email marketing campaigns. It does intelligent audience segmentation. Mercury platform streamlines referrals and health system partnerships.
Mercury Healthcare is best for:
Private clinics
Contact center
Marketing campaigns
Patient acquisition
Patient engagement
Is Mercury Healthcare HIPAA compliant?
Mercury Healthcare is HIPAA-compliant, making it one of the best customer relationship management tools for the healthcare industry. When health information is shared from a core provider, it remains protected and secure. This data could be name, age, treatment information, and more. Mercury Healthcare is also a Salesforce AppExchange partner.
Visit: Healthgrades
10. PlayMaker Health (Top healthcare CRM for business intelligence)
PlayMaker health does data analytics and BI for healthcare. It’s meant to help with marketing and sales for private clinics. PlayMaker has a CRM that has mobile apps. You get 360-degree referral profiles. It helps you identify prospective patients and use segmentation. There are also geo-location referrals. PlayMakerHealth also offers market insights for getting new patients. It does cross-selling and up-selling with recurrent patients.
PlayMaker Health is best for:
Private clinics
Marketing and sales
Referral profiles
Market insights
Is PlayMaker Health HIPAA compliant?
PlayMaker Health protects private health information according to HIPAA standards. Playmaker Health is a product for the healthcare industry. This includes hospice, private clinics and long-term care. PlayMaker Health offers HIPAA compliance. It also has other built-in features to ensure data security.
Visit: PlayMaker
11. Caspio
Caspio is an all-in-one customer relationship management tool. It’s good for building databases without knowing how to code. For helping healthcare professionals, Caspio has many features. You can get online patient portals. There are health scorecards and patient feedback tools. Caspio manages patient engagement programs. It also monitors staff productivity. There is medical equipment inventory tracking too.
Caspio is best for:
Private clinics
Hospitals
Patient satisfaction
Medical device tracking
Is Caspio HIPAA compliant?
Caspio has a HIPAA edition. It protects patient data according to rigorous HIPAA regulations. Caspio has Business Associate Agreements (BAA) with many vendors. It also offers BAA for users of Caspio’s healthcare CRM platform. Overall, Caspio is a secure platform for the healthcare industry.
Visit: Caspio
12. Happy Charting
Happy Charting is a specific CRM for healthcare. It mainly does electronic medical records (EMR) for the acupuncture industry. It’s aim is to save people time doing charting tasks. Charts are very important to acupuncturists. This is a very simple CRM platform. It stores patient information about things like where they experience pain. You also get patient history records. Finally, Happy Charting has a scheduling tool.
Happy Charting is best for:
Acupuncturists
Chart making
Scheduling
Is Happy Charting HIPAA compliant?
Happy Charting makes its best effort to have HIPAA standards. The company hires HIPAA consultant advisors. It even offers HIPAA training videos to Happy Chart subscribers. Happy Charting urges its users to learn about HIPAA regulations. This decreases the possibility of liability.
Visit: Happy Charting
13. Pega
Pega is a tool for customer engagement. It uses AI functionality in the platform. Pega has a solution for healthcare and life sciences. For healthcare organizations it can help with better personalized patient engagement. You get patient 360 degree views which include demographics. AI marketing is helpful for outreach. You get tools for pharmaceutical management. Pega offers tools for customer service for hospitals and clinics.
Pega is best for:
Private clinics
Hospitals
Patient outreach
Patient retention
Email marketing
Is Pega HIPAA compliant?
Pega is not officially HIPAA compliant. It does have HIPAA compliance attestation. But you can use Pega to do customer service at levels of HIPAA standards. Patient information is very secure with Pega. You can have your Pega running on-premise for some more added security.
Visit: Pega
14. Kea-CRM
Kea is made by VMS which is a total business solution. Kea-CRM is meant for hospitals and pharma industries. This is a sales and marketing CRM solution. It helps track your engagement with patients, doctors, medical companies and insurance companies. You can easily manage all data in one place. Kea-CRM also helps with patient outreach. There are marketing campaign tools. There are also tools for managing referrals. For pharma this is a great database.
Kea-CRM is best for:
Private clinics
Hospitals
Pharma
Marketing campaigns
Is Kea-CRM HIPAA compliant?
Kea-CRM is a CRM for hospitals and pharma businesses. However, it is not HIPAA compliant. HIPAA compliance ensures that patient data is secure on a platform. This includes medical history as well as patient communications. HIPAA helps with things like sharing x-rays or prescription histories.
Visit: Kea-CRM
15. Influx MD
Influx MD is a sales and marketing platform for the healthcare industry. It starts with good contact management. It lets clinics looking for new patients capture and score leads. You get customizable demographic information. Status of leads is updated in real time. Influx gets you total communication history. Marketing workflows let you automate email marketing campaigns. You can also integrate EMR and scheduling features.
Influx MD is best for:
Private clinics
Contact management
Lead capture
Marketing campaigns
Marketing automation
Is Influx MD HIPAA compliant?
Influx MD is HIPAA compliant. Influx uses a 3rd party to audit Influx to ensure data privacy. The Influx hosting environment is secured. The hosting environment includes a firewall, encryption and offsite backups. All Influx users can get a signed BAA. This attests to HIPAA compliance for users of Influx.
Visit: Influx MD
What is the best CRM for the healthcare industry? Our key takeaways
Whether a hospital, a chain of clinics, or a small independent medical practice, healthcare CRM is incredibly useful. Patients, like other kinds of customers, should be given a great experience at every touchpoint when engaging with your clinic. Especially when it comes to capturing leads for new potential patient-customers.
When it comes to the best CRM tools for small business or large practice in the healthcare industry, we hope you’ve found your pick here. Salesforce and Zendesk are not usually associated with healthcare but they offer some of the best healthcare CRM tools. Otherwise, take your pick of the above CRMs for healthcare and HIPAA compliance.
FAQs on healthcare CRM solutions
What is the best free healthcare CRM software?
The best free CRM software is usually not specifically tailored for this industry, but many general CRMs work for the healthcare industry. Caspio is a low-code CRM which can be used for CRM. It has a healthcare solution and there is a free version. HubSpot can also be used as a healthcare CRM.
What is the role of CRM in the hospital industry?
The role of CRM in the hospital industry is to manage patient profiles. This includes medical data, appointment and treatment history, and prescription information. CRM for hospitals can streamline bookings and mass email contact lists with important hospital information. It can also automate simple hospital administrative tasks.