Show Me the Money: Five Ways to Improve Your Practice’s Economics

Est. Reading Time: 3 Minutes

As a busy healthcare provider, you have a lot on your mind. You work long hours. You strive to make the right decisions for your patients. You monitor government regulations and commercial payer shifts. You manage office staff. You try to maintain a reasonable work-life balance.

And somewhere in all this, you also need to make money.

With tax season over, now is the time to review your finances and ask yourself some difficult questions.  How did you perform in your “financial physical?” Did you see better or worse financial results than previous years? What are your areas for improvement?

We can’t control the government—nor commercial payers—but we can share proven strategies to improve your practice’s profits. Below you’ll find reader-friendly resources that will help you identify common financial missteps and provide you with simple solutions that will boost your bottom line. A quick glance could make a big difference on your practice’s economics.
Collect More of Every Dollar Owed to You
Regrettably, you’ll never receive full payments for your services, but you should aim to collect 94 cents for every dollar you’re owed. The average practice only collects 85–88 cents on the dollar. That’s a significant amount of lost revenue. Do you know what your practice is collecting? Read here how to track and improve your collection percentages and how to reduce time to payment.
Help Staff Improve Patient Interactions
Your front-office staff plays a critical role in patient satisfaction by ensuring a smooth operational flow. In addition, their engagement with patients directly impacts revenue. A compassionate and thorough team at your front desk results in a better patient experience and, therefore, higher profits. Learn the three stages of the ideal office visit in this podcast and identify how to streamline each step for a better collections process.
Manage Hidden Healthcare Costs
Prior authorizations add between $23 billion and $31 billion in annual healthcare spending due to additional processing. Through small investments of time and resources, practices can refine these operations, improve patients’ quality of life, and save time and money in the process. Click here to identify four ways to reduce the burden of administering prior authorizations.
Examine Payer Contracts and Practice Finances
Reviewing your current revenue and expenses are the first steps toward achieving a steady cash flow. This includes looking at your payer contracts. Have they remained flat year-over-year? Or worse, are your rates lower than in years past? What does your provider compensation look like? When was the last time you negotiated expenses for office and medical supplies? Read here to gather tips on business finance topics.
Succeed in Value-Based Care as a Small Business
In managing a practice, it can be useful to hear perspectives from other providers. Dr. Fred Taweel, an internist at Internal Medicine Associates of Reston and Chief Medical Officer of Privia Medical Group – Mid-Atlantic, explains how he applied his past experience working at his family’s small grocery store as a teenager to improve his independent practice. His practice aggressively opted out of contracts until payers came back with more favorable terms and had success in many arenas. Despite their successes, the shifts to value-based care and consumerism in healthcare, along with their need for more robust technology led his practice to make some key changes in order to survive. Read here and learn what they did.

Improve your “Financial Physical” by Joining Privia Medical Group

It’s challenging to go it alone in today’s healthcare environment and remain financially successful. Privia Medical Group is a “best of both worlds” solution that allows you to keep your autonomy, while giving you the resources you need to thrive economically and clinically.
Thousands of providers in five major markets are choosing Privia as their partner. Want to know why? Watch this two-minute video.
 

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