Managing your schedule and caring for your patients leaves little time to examine finances. But, understanding the three steps of the Financial Mindset and getting staff involved just might improve your outlook.
Step I: Capturing Charges It begins with contracts that pay a reasonable rate for your services. Next, is collecting the appropriate demographics and financial data at each patient visit. Accurate documentation and coding, along with timely charge reporting for office and hospital care will help get you paid both appropriately and without delay.
Step II: Revenue Recovery The cost to bill the co-pay is often more than the co-pay. So collect at the time of service will save you money. It also is an opportunity to collect on old patient balances that haunt your collector.
Insurance companies bank on medical practices not taking the time to analyze claims reimbursement and appeal incorrect payments. So, give your insurance department the continued ed to keep them up on reimbursement issues.
If more than 20% of your A/R is 120 days aged or more, investigate the reasons why. If adjustments spike out of norm, it is a red flag that needs explaining. You may have one payer that has become delinquent in paying claims. Or perhaps your staff is not making patient collection calls. Once you identify the cause, appropriate action can be taken.
Step III. Profitability Cost containment and operational efficiency improves profitability. Give employees the tools and training to do their job. Benchmark expenses against national average. Explore costs above the norm and seek ways to resolve them.
With the right mindset, your practice performance may exceed your expectations.
Judy Capko is a healthcare consultant with more than 20 years experience. Her focus is practice operations, staffing, finance and marketing. Judy is a national lecturer and has participated in ACOFP conferences. She is based in Thousand Oaks, CA and can be reached at (805) 499-9203 or e mail: judycapko@aol.com
