How Do You Know If Your Practice Is On Target?
Many physicians are overwhelmed with their day-to-day activities and are not aware if their practice is doing well or is in need of some fine tuning. Below are five key areas of concern that should be looked into and followed up on to see how the practice is flowing.
1. Overhead
Calculate your overhead rate which includes staff and general operating costs by the total revenue the practice is bringing in. Do some research on other practices similar to yours and see if they are comparable. If your overhead rate is higher than the average for your specialty, consider reviewing all the cost that are involved within your practice and see if there are areas where you can reduce expenses.
2. How productive is your practice
It's a good idea from time to time to check the amount of referrals you are getting every month. Make a spreadsheet of all referring doctors and see where possibly there is a drop in referrals or you are seeing an increase in referrals for a specific doctor. By a physician taking 10 minutes out of their day to call a physician to remind them of your practice and also thank them for referring patients in the past, this could generate future referrals for the practice.
3. Access the practices financial situation
Start by calculating a net collection rate. When you enter into a contract with an insurance company, you agree to take a contractual adjustment from your submitted charges. The net collection rate tells you whether you are collecting the remainder of your submitted charges once the adjustment has been made. Calculate your net collection rate. It should be 97% or greater to ensure a healthy bottom line.
4. Avoid unnecessary hospital admissions or ER Visits
Evaluate a one month period and calculate the number of ER visits and admissions that were avoidable or potentially avoidable. If your practice has a high level of preventable visits and admissions, create a quality plan to expand continuity of care, transition management, and care outreach. Track this over time by checking it on a quarterly basis, with the goal of reducing your practice's rate to zero.
5. Survey referring physicians and patients
Many offices now use a patient survey or referring physician survey to evaluate their practice better. This could be something that could be e-mailed or mailed with a return postage envelope to patients and referring doctors. It can be done unanimously to protect their privacy as well. This is an excellent tool to use to find out what's really going on with the practice. This data can be analyzed and put into good use to further make changes within the practice to help it run better.
1. Overhead
Calculate your overhead rate which includes staff and general operating costs by the total revenue the practice is bringing in. Do some research on other practices similar to yours and see if they are comparable. If your overhead rate is higher than the average for your specialty, consider reviewing all the cost that are involved within your practice and see if there are areas where you can reduce expenses.
2. How productive is your practice
It's a good idea from time to time to check the amount of referrals you are getting every month. Make a spreadsheet of all referring doctors and see where possibly there is a drop in referrals or you are seeing an increase in referrals for a specific doctor. By a physician taking 10 minutes out of their day to call a physician to remind them of your practice and also thank them for referring patients in the past, this could generate future referrals for the practice.
3. Access the practices financial situation
Start by calculating a net collection rate. When you enter into a contract with an insurance company, you agree to take a contractual adjustment from your submitted charges. The net collection rate tells you whether you are collecting the remainder of your submitted charges once the adjustment has been made. Calculate your net collection rate. It should be 97% or greater to ensure a healthy bottom line.
4. Avoid unnecessary hospital admissions or ER Visits
Evaluate a one month period and calculate the number of ER visits and admissions that were avoidable or potentially avoidable. If your practice has a high level of preventable visits and admissions, create a quality plan to expand continuity of care, transition management, and care outreach. Track this over time by checking it on a quarterly basis, with the goal of reducing your practice's rate to zero.
5. Survey referring physicians and patients
Many offices now use a patient survey or referring physician survey to evaluate their practice better. This could be something that could be e-mailed or mailed with a return postage envelope to patients and referring doctors. It can be done unanimously to protect their privacy as well. This is an excellent tool to use to find out what's really going on with the practice. This data can be analyzed and put into good use to further make changes within the practice to help it run better.
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