Physicians Practice - October 2008 - (Page 34)

MANAGEMENT • Control your credit card costs. Credit cards do offer patient-pleasing convenience, so you don’t want to eliminate them, of course. But know that each merchant takes between 1.5 percent and 3 percent off the top of each of your credit card transactions. If your practice accepts, say, half a million in credit card payments, that’s between $7,500 and $15,000 of surcharges you’re paying to card merchants — about it; we’ll bill you’” was the practice’s modus operandi, says Sentgeorge. Today, there’s no question: “You’re here; you’re paying.” Copay collection rates have gone from 20 percent to 99 percent. Her advice: Tell your patients up front what to expect. Do this in writing, with reminder phone calls, and in person when patients arrive. Make it part of your normal patient communication — just one other ofﬁce is sending out balance statements and tearing its hair out.” Another effective way to tighten in-ofﬁce relations is to hold regular staff meetings. Make them as transparent as possible. Everyone, from the phone-answerer to the physician, should know what’s going on in the practice, and everyone’s input should be well-received. Sentgeorge says she doesn’t consider herself an expert on everything. “I know I need my team,” she says. “I see the bigger picture; they have a lot of the solutions.” YOUR MARKETING IS HALF-BAKED If your practice accepts, say, half a million in credit card payments, that’s between $7,500 and $15,000 of surcharges you’re paying to card merchants — ouch! A LOT OFF THE TOP ouch! You can mitigate this incursion into your proﬁts, although not by passing the surcharge to your patients — that’s strictly illegal. Instead, come at it from the opposite direction by offering a small discount for paying with cash or check. • Be careful about your use of collection agencies. Don’t send an account to collections without ﬁrst making a legitimate collection effort yourself — they’ll keep a third or so of whatever they collect. One the other hand, don’t turn your ofﬁce into a collections agency. It’s ineffective. Send, at most, three invoices, each with increasingly stern language about the consequences of nonpayment, and make one or two calls, tops, then send the account on to the collection agency. YOU DON’T COLLECT COPAYS CONSISTENTLY Three years ago, the Hey Clinic in Raleigh, N.C., didn’t have much of a system for collecting copays from patients. “It was totally haphazard,” recalls Cathy Sentgeorge, the clinic’s practice manager. “‘Oh, don’t worry 34 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | OCTOBER 2008 thing you’re informing them of when you leave an appointmentreminder message, for instance. Patients know they’re supposed to cough up a copay; making it a consistent part of your communication sends the message that you’re serious about actually collecting it. Also, set a ﬁrm, clear process in place for your staff. If your copay collector gets ﬂak from a patient, have her get the billing coordinator involved. This, too, clariﬁes that patients (and your staff) can’t simply blow it off. Train your staff to be extremely upfront and proactive about collecting on outstanding balances. Getting cooperation starts with your attitude, says Woodcock. Presume a patient will pay when he walks up to the front desk. “While you’re asking for money, start writing the receipt,” she says. “Part of it is setting expectations.” She espouses full and constant communication between the front and back ofﬁces. “Have the front-desk employees report to the billing ofﬁce to make that tie,” she says. “The leakage happens the moment the patient calls. There’s an outstanding balance, and nobody says anything. Meanwhile, the back So you buy a local mailing list and send out a ﬂier on your spectacular practice, in hopes of generating new patients, or a different type of patient. Fine, except that the ﬂier’s been copied so many times over the years that it’s fading and hard to read. The information needs updating, too: Dr. Smith retired from the practice a few months ago; the new PA you hired in the spring isn’t mentioned (heck, she was probably in high school when this ﬂier was printed); and oops, isn’t that your practice’s old phone number? You’re busy, we know. But lackadaisical marketing won’t cut it anymore. Why are you even spending money on printing and postage for a ﬂier, anyway? Instead, put that information on your Web site (No Web site? Get one.) and focus on more effective marketing techniques, like offering free presentations on health topics to libraries and senior centers, and carefully tending referral relationships. Pay some attention to your ofﬁce environment, too: Your waiting room shouldn’t look like a bus station, your front desk should greet people with a smile, and you shouldn’t be so overbooked that patient wait times are excessive and their time with you is too short. Patients are your best referral source. Improve their experience, and more will come. YOU WALK TOO MUCH Yes, walking is good for you, but you’ll serve your practice best by keeping your strolling to your offduty hours. Practices make money WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM 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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