Physicians Practice - October 2008 - (Page 68)

GREAT PRACTICE MAKEOVER most user-friendly, but she has a lot of experience with it and plans some streamlining in the weeks and months to come. Clymer also stresses that she’s not yet fully up to speed in her new position, especially after an illness forced a two-week absence early on. For most practices, staff costs consume the largest portion of the operating budget, and she notes that this one recently lost three experienced employees. The learning curve involved in replacing them contributes to the outsized overhead, too. “It’s those things — having to learn new systems because the person who knew it or set it up is gone — that have thrown us, but I’m getting a good handle on it,” she says. “For so long we were just treading water, trying to keep up with the day-to-day claims submissions.” She’s happy to report that following up on collection calls has now made it back onto her daily to-do list, and Dionne is even happier that they were able to close out this month’s accounts a full two weeks earlier than the previous month. When dealing with new systems and staff, some amount of trial and error is unavoidable, but this practice is on the right track. Dionne’s challenge — and that of the physicians — is ﬁguring out what’s truly a problem, and what just needs time to work itself out. “I did panic when I ﬁrst got here, because so many things were undone,” says Clymer with a laugh. “But it’s getting better now.” The accountant and/or a ﬁnancial advisor may be able to help with taxplanning strategies to increase the amount of cash on hand and ease those cash ﬂow worries. The practice will also want to plan expected outlays each week, paying bills strategically within their 30-day windows, and ensure that an adequate line of credit is in place for emergencies. Before further straining the practice’s ﬁnances with a major new software purchase, even one that stands to improve cash flow in the future, spend some time focusing on the top opportunities for bringing patient visits and revenue to a more comfortable level. The bottom line: If your patientprocedure mix isn’t profitable when you’re on paper, breaking into the black will be even harder when you go digital. • Laurie Hyland Robertson is a senior editor with Physicians Practice. She can be contacted at lchrobertson@ physicianspractice.com. *The Great Practice Makeover is getting a mini-makeover of its own. From now on, the individual practice we’re proﬁling won’t be identiﬁed, and we’ll be focusing our advice on a single issue to give the feature even more practical applicability. So, got some dirt to dish? Worried about an especially sensitive situation? E-mail me at lchrobertson@physicianspractice.com for a chance to have your own practice “made over” — anonymously. 68 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | OCTOBER 2008 WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM http://www.aapa.org/joblink http://www.aapa.org/joblink http://www.aapa.org/joblink 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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