Photo Credit: Ipopba
During medical school, doctors receive no business training, we don’t have a financial department or compliance managers in private practice. However, doctors who are not business-savvy tend to lose a lot of money.
How can we better handle the business side of medicine?
Learn to delegate work. Sometimes, we see things we could do better than our billers and take over the workload. Instead, break down the business side of the practice into smaller tasks and then assign these tasks to different people.
Watch your accounts receivable. You often don’t know there is a problem until you review your accounts receivable. Perhaps an insurance company hasn’t been paying you, and you need to make a phone call to find out why.
Hold your billing staff accountable. If you hire someone to do a job, be sure they are doing it. Sometimes, it may not be done just because a person is unaware of how to do it.
If someone owes you money, don’t feel guilty expecting them to pay for it. Sometimes, we have patients who are going through hardships, and it is never wrong to be compassionate. More often, some patients just don’t want to pay.
Collect copays and deductibles up front. This will save a lot of hassle, including sending statements and making phone calls to patients who are past due.
Keep financial matters out of the exam room. Inside the exam room, we should only discuss the patient’s healthcare needs. Knowing a patient doesn’t want to pay can sour the doctor-patient relationship.
Help the patient understand their coverage. Remind patients that the amount they are required to pay for each visit is a contract signed between them and the insurance company. The doctor is not determining this fee.
Private practice is still feasible, but we must become more educated in business dealings. Many of us learned by trial and error, losing much money in the process. It is smart to educate ourselves on healthcare economics so we can take back some of the sector taken from us by hospital systems and big corporations.
