Everyone in your office needs to be accountable to someone, so that things get done accurately and in a timely fashion. Every month certain reports need to be submitted to the doctor so that there can be an assessment about the health of the practice at that moment. Perhaps certain changes need to be put into place based on that assessment so that the practice can continue to thrive.
Some of the reports that I believe are important to study on a monthly basis are: Accounts Aging, Credit balances, Insurance Claims outstanding over 30 days, Referrals Sources of New Patients, and Adjustments to Production or Collections by Type. The owner of the practice should review these reports and talk about them to the employees involved to make changes that are necessary.
The Insurance Claims outstanding over 30 days should only be a few pages. The person responsible for the insurance payments should be working on this every day. The total Accounts Receivable should not exceed the monthly average adjusted production number of the whole practice. Credit balances should be a few thousand dollars at most. Adjustments must be entered properly so that your monthly numbers are accurate. A referral source should be entered for every new patient. Patients who have referred new patients to the practice should be acknowledged with at least a thank you note.
I have many clients who have asked me to do the assessment on a monthly basis because they are too busy or not focused enough to do it. I have the availability to do this for a few more successful practices. If this service is of interest to you, contact me at flossier1@gmail.com or 215-378-9833.
Photographer: Lorene Troyer for Freerange.