Claim denials interrupt practice cash flow, take up valuable staff time and cause frustration for patients. Because this is such a common problem in practices, we reached out to an expert, Sarah J. Holt, PhD, FACMPE, to find out how to reduce claim denials. Read the rest of this entry »
With more third party payers moving toward reimbursement based on clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction, practices are looking for ways to measure those indicators. If you have not conducted a patient satisfaction survey in your office within the last few years, get ahead of the information curve by doing one now. There are several survey methods from which to choose. Depending on how much time and money you want to invest, here are some of the options: Read the rest of this entry »
Are you a practice administrator or department manager who is overwhelmed with work? Is your to-do list so long that you don’t even know where to begin? Do you feel like no matter how many hours you work each week that you’re always behind? Are important projects falling by the wayside because you’re dealing with minutia? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, it’s time to get serious about delegating. Here’s how. Read the rest of this entry »
This year, federal and state income taxes are due on April 17, but two extra days beyond the usual April 15 deadline probably won’t make much difference if you haven’t started getting organized by now. Every year, millions of people (and businesses) wait until the eleventh hour Read the rest of this entry »
Being a loyal employee and demonstrating dedication to your career are positive traits, both of which employers love to see in members of their team. But just like too much dieting can turn unhealthy, and watching too much news can produce stress, being too loyal and too dedicated can also have a downside. If you’re putting all of your eggs in the work basket and, in doing so, neglecting other important aspects of your life, you may be putting yourself at risk for career burnout. Much has been written in recent years about maintaining work/life balance. In this post, we’d like to share a series of simple exercises designed to help you determine how balanced you are and create an opportunity to reflect on where you need to focus more or less attention.
Note: It might be helpful to print out the following exercises, or copy/paste the text into a document to print so that you can do the exercises several times over the next year. Read the rest of this entry »
When we hear patient complaints about long wait times to see their doctors, and we usually envision them sitting in the reception area, thumbing through magazines, repeatedly checking their watches, and looking hopefully toward the door to the back office area each time it opens hoping that it might be their turn. Solving wait time problems, however, requires focusing attention not on the reception area, but rather on the back office where the bottlenecks that cause delays occur. Becoming more efficient by reducing exam room turnover time has the potential to dramatically reduce wait times in your practice, which will lead to higher rates of patient satisfaction, not to mention increased profitability. Here are questions to consider on this topic.
Do you have enough staff? Moving patients in and out of rooms and tidying and cleaning rooms between patients requires people power. Every practice wants to keep their overhead under control, and it’s well known that staffing is a major budget line item, but adding just one additional medical assistant whose primary focus is room turnover could turn out to be the best investment your practice will make this year. Read the rest of this entry »
