6 Ways to Increase Revenue at Your Medical Practice
Focusing on profits is important for running a physician’s practice. It can help not only the bottom line, but also improve the experience of patients and staff. Physicians with more lucrative practices retain current patients longer; obtain more new patients through word of mouth via both referrals from colleagues and recommendations from current patients; and get better reviews online. Increased revenue can allow doctors to pay their staff more, hire more staff, and have the practice run smoother for a stress-free workplace.
Doctors running medical practices can increase their revenue substantially by making simple changes to their everyday systems and procedures. Here are six ways doctors can increase their profits and make their practices more efficient.
1. Make Yourself Easy to Find Online
Everyone who’s anyone is online these days. That includes medical practices. In addition to the normal places like Google business and the other major review sites, set up social media sites for your practice. Showcase your amenities and your employees and you will make your practice seem more approachable and less scary. Just make sure your handle is consistent across platforms, so people know when they have found you.
2. Optimize Your Appointment Schedule
Creating an efficient appointment schedule is necessary to make sure doctors can see as many patients as possible per day. Seeing more patients means more appointment fees flowing into the practice. A properly optimized schedule needs to account for patients not showing up and the possibility of appointments going longer than expected.
3. Offer After-Hours Virtual Visits
More appointments means more profit. If physicians have the time, they can make additional profits by adding virtual appointment times after the office is closed. These appointments can be restricted to simple activities such as answering patients’ questions and will add valuable revenue to the practice.
4. Improve Your Collection Strategy
Physicians only collect about 60 percent of copays due to them. Copays make up a significant part of a practice’s income. Improving your strategy for collecting copays can improve your overall profits significantly. Some practices may need to hire a collections agency.
5. Prevent Missed Appointments
Many practices charge late fees, cancellation fees, and/or no-show fees. These may seem like they are just a way to make more money from patients, but they are actually intended to make sure patients show up to their appointments. When patients miss appointments, doctors and staff lose time and money because that slot can’t be filled at the last minute. Finding ways to reduce missed appointments will increase profits for a medical practice.
6. Dispense Medications at the Point-of-Care
In-office dispensing allows doctors to sell medication directly to their patients. Practices purchase their most-prescribed medications at wholesale prices and then sell them for a reasonable profit. Essentially, doctors can intercept the profits that are usually made by pharmacies. Physician dispensing is the most effective way to increase profit at a medical practice while also enhancing patient satisfaction and office efficiency.
Often, practices order pre-packaged, pre-measured, pre-labeled medications for a simple dispensing program. Practices can even stock generic options. This process can save patients money and still turn a profit for the practice.
Physicians who work with patients using workers’ compensation or personal injury claims can especially benefit from medication dispensing. These physicians may be able to work with a third-party financial service to collect payments from workers’ compensation and personal injury claims. These payments can often be easily handled by the medication dispensing services that the practice works with.
Aside from the cost and profit benefits, in-office dispensing is also more convenient for patients and doctors. Patients don’t need to go to the pharmacy, and they can ask their doctors directly any questions they have about their medications. Doctors can be sure their patients receive their medication and have a better assessment of their patients’ understanding of their treatment plan.
How to Start Dispensing Medication In-office
Practices that wish to begin dispensing medication should start by finding the right partner to work with. A high-quality medication dispensing services company will be experienced and reliable. Its representatives will also have in-depth knowledge of personal injury claims, workers’ compensation, and all the state and federal laws that apply to physician dispensing.
The best medication dispensing services providers offer high tech software solutions and exemplary customer service. A quality dispensing company should help physicians set up their program, troubleshoot any issues, and provide ongoing updates and support. The sooner a practice begins dispensing medications, the sooner they can start taking advantage of the many benefits of these programs.
