Small family medical practices (less than 10 doctors) and traditional medical providers often encounter very different challenges from those of larger provider organizations. Although the quality of patient care is usually very good, it is often very difficult to balance quality care with effective office administration.
The medical billing environment is very complex and keeps changing. Meaningful use, chronic care, and conversion to ICD10 are just some of the factors making the running of an efficient and profitable medical office difficult.
The pressure of Medicare and private payers to keep costs down makes it harder and harder to bill for less and less. Reimbursement costs continue to decline, while reporting requirements keep getting more complicated.
Large practices usually include a “Revenue Officer” whose job it is to navigate all of this complexity and devise a strategy to maximize revenue. Small practices must rely on their Practice Managers to keep up with all of the changes to the rules while running the business at the same time.
What small offices need is the ability apply large practice revenue strategies to their own practices. To this end, there are some key approaches that small practices can take:
- Stop leaving money on the table. Make sure you are billing for all of the services that you provide. Ask your EMR vendor to support new billing models.
- Make sure that your staff is aware of all of the options and the rules for what can be billed for your chronic care patients. Your staff can track the time for all activity associated with supporting these patients.
- Automate consent forms and screenings. The staff should never need to input a paper form into the EMR.
- If your staff is overbooked, outsource routine tasks and focus on patient care.
Dulcian can help with Physician Support Services.
Let us know if there are any other pain points that you have. How can we help your staff be more efficient? How can we help you better serve your patients?
Leave a Reply