Dissecting the business of a private pediatric practice for the purpose of examining its parts & discourse
We've talked about in-house billing vs outside billing before. I even teamed up with my friend Chip Hart and devoted a full podcast to the topic. But we've never talked about billing staff ratios. How many billing staff should we have? How do we know if we are understaffed or overstaff? Should we calculate the ratio based on charges and collections or should we base it on physician count? Dr. Suzanne Berman, one of the many outstanding … [Read more...]
Empathy, of course, is an important part of what we do. Right? I mean, how else could we restore health, help children reach their full potential and cure them if it is not with some sort of empathy? In my last post, I talked about how empathy was part of our practice's core values but that from time to time, we forget to have it. We start out with it, but we either get comfortable, annoyed, caught up in the day-to-day that we tend to … [Read more...]
As many of you know, EMRs have been around for some time. Although I wouldn't go as far as to say they have matured as a product, there have been some progress in terms functionality (notice I didn't say innovation). The new word around the block is that apparently, practices are leaving their old EMR for new shinier ones. Now, some people say that moving from one EMR to another EMR is actually harder than moving from paper charts to an EMR. … [Read more...]
I get this question from time to time. Especially from people that are thinking about opening their own practice. As with most things, it is hard to say unless one understands the situation. For example, some doctors go for profitability regardless of lifestyle, while others are going for lifestyle and don’t mind forgoing some profitability. Deciding which one you want will go a long way in understanding how to tackle this question. So … [Read more...]
Many experts and pundits are predicting that the downward pressure we are seeing in healthcare will claim small independent private physicians first. Those that are not affiliated or belong to a hospital or large healthcare network will not survive, say the pundits. The argument is that these small practices will not be able to withstand the financial and administrative pressures of the new healthcare landscape. Others very eloquently argue … [Read more...]
If y0u were to ask the average business owner, how much does it cost to make widgets, my guess is that 9 out of 10 would know exactly what that figure is. On the other hand, if you were to ask a doctor who owns the practice, how much is it costing you to see each patient, I’d argue 9 out of 10 wouldn’t know. Now, I’m making huge assumptions of course, but I think the point is valid. Doctor’s offices do a very poor job of … [Read more...]
I wrote the blog post below on the Survivor Pediatrics blog titled “What I wish parents Knew about Medical Billing”. I didn’t post it here on PediatricInc because placing it here would have been like preaching to the choir. To my surprise, the post has gotten a lot of attention and I’ve received a lot of great feedback from people in the healthcare industry (those that actually live this day by day) as well as non-clinical or … [Read more...]
I was talking to a friend the other day who’s trying to get a public speaking business going. He was telling me about one of his recent gigs and how several people came up to him after his presentation to ask him for his presentation slides. He told me he was happy that people thought his material was good; but at the same time, he was offended that someone wanted him to hand over the slides he worked so hard on. He said that most of the … [Read more...]
When I decided to start the blog, I made a commitment not to complain about how bad things were in the health care industry without at least providing some resolution to the issue at hand. So, when I was asked last week to give a practice manager’s perspective on health care reform, how doctors ought to be paid, and what needs to change so people can get the best quality of care at the lowest possible price, I jumped on the opportunity … [Read more...]
