Physicians Practice - October 2008 - (Page 30)

MANAGEMENT The wrong billing technology is just one of many IT-caused cash drains killing practices. Want another? Well, is your front desk using an old-school light or ﬂag system to alert your nurse to a patient’s arrival? We say that’s a no-no, because these tools divulge so little useful information: Which patient? Why is he here? Do you need to check for his lab results? Your staff must spend extra time on these questions before rooming the patient, slowing down their work ﬂow and reducing — signiﬁcantly over time — the number of patients you can see. Instead, use readily available tracking software to ﬂow your patients through appointments quickly and accurately. Here’s another example: Getting patients back in for annual physicals, rechecks on PSA levels, and the like is difficult, as is keeping track of who needs to come in for what. Take the tedium and time waste — read: money waste — out of this by using the appointment recall function on your practice management system. You do have an up-to-date practice management system, right? Keeping this practice underpinning as technologically leading edge as possible will save you big money, simple as that. YOU LET OTHERS TAKE YOUR MONEY Two out of three physicians will be victimized by embezzlement at some point in their careers, says practice management expert Elizabeth Woodcock: “And most embezzlers don’t want ﬁve dollars. They want $50,000.” Apparently, stealing from busy docs is disturbingly easy. A common scenario? An employee — perhaps a nurse in charge of exam room inventory — sets up a fake company with a collaborator, often a relative, at the helm. She regularly “orders” supplies from there, and you sign off on the likely to get caught when they lose oversight, even temporarily, of whatever operation they’re stealing from, so they often guard it zealously. YOU’RE A PUSHOVER WITH PAYERS Renegotiating payer contracts is as much fun as cleaning the deep fryer at Burger King, only greasier, so it’s no surprise that it ranks below the bottom of many practices’ to-do lists. Cheris Craig, practice manager for the six-physician, Atlanta Women’s Obstetrics & Gynecology, says it’s particularly tough if your practice is small, offers a common subspecialty DOUBLE CHECK Review your accounts regularly, looking for patterns. Patient refunds are common, but not to the same person over and over. invoices. The price on the invoice is inﬂated by, oh, 30 percent or so, which she and her partners pocket before paying the real vendor through the fake company. Another way to pick your pocket is through bogus refunds. Legitimate refunds are common within practice ﬁnances — overpayment on a copay, for example. Trouble is, says Woodcock, there’s usually no oversight of refund processing, so it’s easy to approve fraudulent payments to associates. All it takes is setting up a real-looking patient account to start the erosion. Put controls in place. Make sure at least two people are involved in any transaction where money changes hands. Also, review your accounts regularly, looking for patterns. Patient refunds are common, but not to the same person over and over. Finally, be wary of the dedicated employee who refuses to take a vacation: It may seem like dedication, but thieves know they are more (such as obstetrics), and has a lot of nearby competition. “Many carriers won’t even start negotiations with our practice,” she says. What to do? Stop selling yourself short, stop taking your cues from what “they” say, and don’t allow the assumption that you won’t succeed to be your excuse for not even trying. Occasionally, you will succeed in affecting changes in payer policies — and those changes will add up, but only for the practices that ask. Woodcock says that in her city (also Atlanta), “we have a lot of Medicare Advantage plans. They [tend to] pay 85 percent of Medicare, but if you pick up the phone and say, ‘You’re Medicare. You’re supposed to pay me Medicare rates,’ they usually say ‘Oh, OK’ and do it. But nobody picks up the phone.” Before you pick up that phone, though, arm yourself with the facts. Gather all the numbers you need, including reimbursement rates and denial rates compared to other payers. WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM IN SUMMARY Here are the top ways practices lose money: • You persist with the wrong technology. • You let others take your money. • You’re a pushover with payers. • You leap without looking. • Your piggy bank is broken. • You don’t collect copays consistently. • Your marketing is half-baked. • You walk too much. • You let the cynics get to you. • You’re not well-informed. • You’re in a 99213 rut. 30 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | OCTOBER 2008 http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Physicians Practice - October 2008

Physicians Practice - October 2008 Contents Another Reason to Go Cash-Only? Letters How ’Bout Them Gas Prices? Second Opinion: Oh, Canada! Noteworthy Cover Story: Fixing the Leaks: How to Tighten Your Money Spigot Navigating a Lawsuit Ask the Experts The Administrators Desk: What’s Your Mission? EMR: Help or Hindrance? Dealing with Dr. Dangerous E-Mail Abuse Primer The Road to EMR Interoperability Don’t Let Staff Costs Stifle Profits Coding Classifieds Advertiser Index

Physicians Practice - October 2008

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