It’s a new year and that means many of us are taking a new look at our health—finding better ways to nourish our minds and our bodies. This is also a great time to assess the health of our businesses. In today’s environment every dollar of revenue matters, so what are some strategies that can help your practice improve its financial well-being?
Here are some fresh tips that can help your practice capture more revenue without spending a lot of money and best of all, they may just save you time as well!
Tip #1: Define your financial procedures
Does your practice have a defined financial process? When are patient co-pays due? Do you/should you have payment plans available? How long does a patient balance go overdue before it is goes into collections, and what are the steps of the pre-collections and collections processes?
Implementing standard financial policies is easier said than done and to be successful all stakeholders must agree to apply the rules consistently. Then educate staff members on these policies and best practices for collecting from patients. For instance, in a recent MGMA Connexion article Brian Roth suggests simple changes like asking, “How would you like to make your co-pay today?” instead of, “Could I collect your co-pay today?” This stronger wording implies that the patient doesn’t have a choice about paying their copay at time of service.1
Tip #2: Make the most of your appointments
Is your scheduling system working for your practice? Making sure that your patient schedule is optimized can mean:
- Optimizing productivity
- Serving your patients well
- Reducing no-shows
Scheduling strategies: A variety of scheduling options exist. Finding the right system for your practice can mean completing patient visits more efficiently, a plus your patients and staff.
Depending on your practice’s current pace (typically on-schedule or behind schedule), types of appointments offered, and appointment demand, a new scheduling model may be highly beneficial. Options include block scheduling, wave scheduling, open-access scheduling, go-ten scheduling or a combination go-ten/modified open access strategy.
Waiting lists: If you find out that a patient won’t be able to make their scheduled appointment, it’s critical that you fill that slot with another patient visit. This keeps revenue flowing to your practice and helps satisfy patients that are anxious to be seen. Automatic waiting list systems, like the one built into Sage Intergy, can facilitate finding an available patient quickly and easily.
Reminder systems: Surely you’ve seen it and maybe you’ve even done it—forgetting your doctor’s appointment! With the busy pace of life it’s easy to forget about things. This is why reminder calls are so important. Practices are busy places too and sometimes there may not be time to review all the reminders.
This is where automated calling systems like PhoneTree Patient MessagingTM can be very beneficial. This automated system can pull your appointment data from a practice management system like Sage Intergy, Sage MedWare, or Sage Medical Manager. It then delivers a customized message to each patient with information such as the date/time of the appointment, provider’s name, appointment type, etc. This can significantly reduce no-shows, and reduced no-shows can mean increased revenue over time.
Tip #3: Keep that money flowing
Once you have your financial and scheduling procedures buttoned up it’s time to think about your follow up tools.
Processing your patient statements electronically can help you receive your payments even quicker and save money along the way. This return on investment calculation shows how much you can save per month by utilizing electronic statements. Allowing your patients to pay by credit card allows them greater flexibility, and allows you to receive payments faster.
Additional tools exist for sending batch collection letters and recall notices electronically and can help keep the money coming in and the appointment schedule filled. Visit the Print & Mail section of our website for more information.
Ready to get started?
Register for our webinar, Lost Revenue Found—Capturing What's Due for more details on these strategies and more. Our host, Pamela L. Moore, Editorial Director for Physicians Practice, will provide valuable money saving tips and strategies that you can implement in your practice right away. And you’ll hear a panel of practice managers discuss tactics for capturing lost revenue and the results they’ve seen in their practices.
Just for registering, you’ll receive a free copy of a new white paper from Physicians Practice detailing specific evaluation strategies for the scheduling options mentioned in this article and tips for improving collections procedures.
Sage can help
Implementing a comprehensive practice management system like Sage Intergy or Sage MedWare can also facilitate improved scheduling and collections. Find out how these products can work for your practice by:
1 Roth, Brian. “Bad-debt blues”. MGMA Connexion. October, 2008, Medical Group Management Association, p 16 - 17.
