So you are heading out to practice on your own, escaping from a residency or joint practice and doing your own thing. Congratulations. The image of the family doctor is a positive one for most people, and the profession is struggling to keep enough people in practice. So you’re already ahead of the curve when it comes to the esteem of your community.
But esteem doesn’t pay the bills. When reality sets in, you will have a business to run in between all the sore throats and allergies. As you start out from scratch, the workload can be overwhelming and can cause you to lose sight of your clinical aspirations. Here are a few key steps for the earliest days of your setup that will keep you in the black:
Proper Records Management
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act and HIPAA, there is a massive load of paperwork to deal with in any medical practice. Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance require similar truckloads of forms and filings. It’s easy to let workers get snowed under in these chores and end up getting very little back in return.
Through Practice Suite, you can avoid a lot of the headaches that come with this side of the business. This service handles a lot of the most complex record-keeping tasks in your practice, freeing up your personnel for in-office work and reducing you need for additional staffing.
If you do everything in house, training is critical. Keep your staff current on ICD codes (now on version 10; are you ready?) and all the necessary filings. If they get it right the first time, you get paid the first time, and that is especially important in your first years of practice when you have little margin for error. The incredible complexity of the system is the reason so many doctors farm out the work.
Good Enrollment Systems
But let’s not put the cart before the horse here. Before you can properly manage records, you have to properly create them. When a new patient comes to your practice, you need to make sure that you have forms and systems that compile and store all the information you will need for your patient.
This can be tough for physicians to do sometimes, because they usually put all their attention on history, medications, and other medical information at the expense of demographics, insurance coverage, and contact information. The fact is that it is critically important to manage the patient’s account as effectively as you manage the patient’s body, and in the long run the patient gets better care if there aren’t delays in insurance approvals, misdirected mail or phone calls, and so forth.
Basic Business Management Skills
It does you no good to collect prompt payments from insurers and patients if you’re wasting the money on overhead. Keep the stars out of your eyes and be realistic about what you spend. There’s no need for fabulous new lab coats for every staff member, or a gleaming LED sign out front soliciting patients. Janitorial and groundskeeping work can probably be best managed by a contractor instead of a full-time staff member. (Or better yet, come in and mow the grass on Saturday yourself.)
The temptation to buy the coolest and newest stuff is present in any budding entrepreneur. You need to be practical. Invest in a quality building, but plan to add space for expansion later rather than up front. There’s no need to rent and heat hundreds of empty square feet just in case you eventually take on a partner.
Perhaps the best way to say it is to be practical and cautious in how you proceed with every purchase or lease you make before you open your doors. You can always upgrade later, but it can be tough to step down without losing money.
Plan your course carefully and use good judgment and your practice will thrive.
