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Monthly Archives: May 2015

Patient receivables blues? Master time-of-service collections. Join my free webinar

The portion of your revenue that must come from patient collections has skyrocketed.  If you haven't mastered patient collections, you risk losing more of your practice's earned revenue than ever before.  But -- on the plus side -- there are more new ways to tackle this problem than ever before. I've got a new, free webinar on June 9 that shares some of the ways you can collect more while actually improving your patient relationships.  To sign up, just visit this link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/351571408146784258 We'll have time for questions, and you'll even get to learn about some exciting new technologies.  I hope you can join us!

By |2016-03-04T11:31:17-08:00May 22nd, 2015|
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Silent profit buster: the quiet exam room

How many times do you walk down the hall and see empty exam rooms or alternatively, how often are they filled but you still have patients waiting to be roomed and the doctors are running behind? If nothing is going on in the exam rooms there is a financial cost to the practice; whether the room is empty or is occupied by a patient that is kept waiting. Ideally, if you have three rooms for each provider, this results in the physician in one room, the nurse rooming another or giving post visit patient instructions and a third room in transition by patient getting undressed or dressed and nurse preparing room for the next patient. It takes efficient and consistent facilities and processes, and optimizing the clinical staff’s time to make this happen. Depending on the specialty it may also require additional triage space or diagnostic space for pre-visit care such as cast removal, x-ray or blood work. The first step to finding out how efficient you are with your exam rooms requires taking a critical look of the use and function of space and human resources. Most EMRs now have the capability to track a patient through their visit from the time of check-in, when roomed and when the provider enters and leaves the room and when the patient is checked out. Use this information to analyze the variables and establish reasonable standards for the patient flow process that addresses how much time is needed for: Rooming a patient and preparing them for the visit; Clinical time each provider needs to spend with the patient; and Post-visit instructions and documentation Going through this assessment offers the practice an opportunity to identify which processes are efficient and standardized, and which ones have little or no value and can be eliminated or automated. It also allows you to explore how well you are using your resources and how to optimize them. For example, do you have the nurses doing everything their skill level permits to support the provider and is the provider consistently delegating processes to the staff that don’t require

By |2022-01-01T22:52:00-08:00May 16th, 2015|
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Can the federal government solve the health plan directory problem? You should hedge your bets

Paraphrased from my Management Rx blog: The New York Times reports that the federal government hopes to fix a problem that many citizens complain about: inaccurate health plan directories.  When health plan directories are incorrect, patients can wind up unintentionally receiving services out-of-network, which usually leads to unexpected, significant out-of-pocket costs. The administration is naturally concerned about the impact of directory errors on patients, but out-of-date directories are a huge problem for medical practices, too.  Out-of-network errors mean the practice probably is paid less, and the patient may blame the practice for not catching the costly mistake.  Patients may share their disappointment with others, via word-of-mouth or even publicly via a review or rating. And besides out-of-network errors that everyone would like to avoid, practices lose even more when they're not listed at all by a plan they participate in, or they're listed with the wrong address, wrong specialty, or wrong status (i.e., accepting new patients or not).  When these errors occur -- and they're common -- the directory is turning prospective patients away from your practice. You can read the rest of my post at the Management Rx site. But the short version is, health plan directories are such an important source of information for prospective patients, medical practices can't afford to leave their accuracy to the insurers alone, even if the government gets involved. And on the plus side, health plan directories may be your single best source of new patients, and fixing and enhancing your listings is free!  It's rare to find a marketing effort that can be so easy, so effective, and free. My practical, step-by-step ebook on the subject -- "The Quick Guide to Online Physician Reputation Management" -- will empower you or a staff member to take control of all your online directory listings, and start seeing the benefits of being easier to find online.  It's just $6.99, but you can download a free sample at Amazon to try before you buy.  (If you don't have either a Kindle device or the free Kindle reader on another device, you can also purchase a PDF version for the

By |2022-01-01T22:52:00-08:00May 12th, 2015|
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Improve patient collections for immediate bottom-line improvement

The portion of your revenue that must come from patient collections has dramatically increased over the past decade. And higher copays and deductibles aren’t going away – in fact, they’re becoming the standard. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation study determined that average deductibles for patients on employer-sponsored plans have more than doubled, and now average more $1,200 per year. Collecting effectively from patients has gotten harder, and not doing it well has gotten more costly. That’s the bad news. But there’s good news, too! Best patient collection practices are emerging – and technology vendors are stepping up their game, too.  And when  you collect more effectively from patients, you can simultaneously improve your bottom line (without adding more patients or visits!) and even solidify your patient relationships. I've got a new, free webinar on June 9 that shares some of the ways you can collect more while actually improving your patient relationships.  To sign up, just visit this link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/351571408146784258 We'll have time for questions, and you'll even get to learn about some exciting new technologies.  I hope you can join us!

By |2016-03-04T11:32:21-08:00May 7th, 2015|
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