In years past, independent primary care physicians, who understood the pressures on their livelihoods originating from government regulation(s) and insurance companies began searching their practices for new opportunities to both economize and increase revenue.
Hope is Not a Strategy
Many went to EHRs not only to meet regulations but in the hope that practice productivity would benefit.
When practices started getting audited over their coding accuracy, Physicians trained their staff, not only to minimize (punishable) coding errors but in the hope that better-trained coders would be better able to capture all the potentially billable codes, thus increasing practice revenue.
Some physicians looked at their payer mix to identify “bad payers, ” leading them to drop some insurance companies which, from a revenue point of view, might seem counterintuitive until seen in the context of physicians’ attempts to maintain their income by seeing more and more patients each day.
Other changes included implementing a prescription policy calling for 90-day evaluation visits and a cancellation policy imposing charges for missed appointments. These policies, while fair, were perceived poorly by patients.
Unfortunately, no matter how well-reasoned, these changes fail to address the more serious threat to independent private practice arising from the tremendous political uncertainty over the future of medicine in the United States. Cutting cost at the margins can’t safeguard private practice. While they do address some of the weaknesses in the current structure, they tend to reinforce the dangerous notion that physicians can remain profitable by (hoping) continuing to identify and achieve more and more of such efficiencies…without their practices (model and administration) needing to change anything else.
It’s About the Revenue
Given the uncertainties, staying in “private” practice requires that independent physicians embrace an “all-weather” strategy enabling them to remain “private,” no matter what the future holds. It’s not about cutting marginal costs. The key is in increasing revenue.
The Power of the Independent Primary Care Practice
An advantage that is unique to physicians with well-established private practices is the long-standing relationship(s) they have with their patients, a relationship built on trust, the patients’ confidence in their physicians and their physicians’ deep knowledge of their patients and their conditions.
This invaluable relationship makes possible not only the high standard and continuity of care these fortunate patients receive but a significant opportunity for physicians to further that bond by offering their patients the kinds of attractive and high- value products and services that heretofore they sought online. These patients need not go elsewhere. They can and should be able to access these products and services during office visits.
Political uncertainty over the future of healthcare and pressure on independent primary care/family medicine practices can only increase
Learn the “all-weather” strategies used by successful private primary care and family medicine practices to improve profits and enhance physician satisfaction
Attend a Longeviti Health Webinar and Learn How Successful practices:
Learn How to Diversify Practice Revenue Without Unnecessary Complexity Enabling You to Offer Your Patients
Learn How You Can:
In change, there is always opportunity. Changing conditions offer significant opportunities for those physicians able to rapidly adapt.
Thank you, your sign-up request was successful! Please check your email inbox to confirm.