Staffing Software Helps Medical Practices Ensure Success

Implementing the right staffing software, along with other measures, can help medical practices ensure their future success.

A recent Physician News article by William A. Brenner, CPA, entitled, "Top 10 Tips for Ensuring Medical Practice Success in 2010," notes the importance of employee management and controlling staffing levels in order for a medical practice to maintain its success.

"With the economic rollercoaster settling down, now is a great time for the management teams at medical practices to step back and think about how they can keep their practices successful for years to come," Brenner notes. "Many of the practices that I, and my colleagues at Citrin Cooperman, have consulted with recently had to make difficult decisions to retain (or regain) their profitability in order to ride through the recession."

Here are the 10 steps medical practices can implement in order to ensure their success:

1. Plan a realistic budget - Instead of increasing prior year revenues and expenses by an arbitrary percentage, carefully consider each line item and build your budget from the ground up. Take into account any changes in patient demographics, variances noted in the procedure mix, and changes to insurance plans accepted. Also consider medical staffing levels and compensation packages.
2. Monitor billing personnel - A typical billing staff often loses focus on rejected insurance claims or patient receivables and concentrates on pushing current claims through. They should instead review unpaid claims, patient co-pays and deductibles with management on a regular basis.
3. Make sure recall and follow-up procedures are up to speed - Make it a policy to schedule follow-ups or routine appointments before a patient leaves the office. You should do an analysis to determine the effectiveness of recall procedures, as getting patients back to the office on a regular basis is one of the keys to success.
4. Review fee schedules - Many practices often bill less for procedures than insurance would reimburse, causing a potential leak in revenue. You can implement an office policy and supervise billing staff to avoid this.
5. Consider bringing provider referrals in-house - In many cases, referrals go unrewarded, so it might be more beneficial to bring the service in-house. Larger, multi-specialty practices may have more luck with this.
6. Centralize purchasing - If you have multiple locations, centralizing inventory monitoring and purchasing can result in the ability to negotiate the best prices and avoid over purchasing
7. Create a strategic plan - As medical practices shouldn't dictate when and how doctors work, strategic planning can enable physician-owners to take their practices to the next level. The process allows owners and equity partners to develop a realistic vision of where they see themselves and their practice going in three to five years.
8. Control staffing levels - This is important, because many practices add staff each year, even when patient volume remains consistent. At the same time, existing staff can become less sufficient and less flexible over time
9. Create a practice dashboard - This should provide the "vital signs" needed to monitor the practice in real-time and successfully manage the business. Dashboards should be specifically designed to provide the information most important to a practice's success, including such things as cash positions, the number of patients seen per day, patient or insurance receivable balances, numbers and types of procedures performed, and specific or overall expenses to date.
10. Consider reviewing controls over cash - Having a professional review internal controls can safeguard the assets of any practice and prevent any cash leaks or stealing.