Episode 88: 5 Tips to Increasing your Practice Revenue

What was discussed?

Quote of the day: “Feeling blue? Change your color.”

1. Control Costs

Controlling your costs might seem obvious but they can easily get out of line if you aren’t careful. Upgrading your software, giving yearly raises, or hiring new staff are just a few ways that costs can sometimes sneak up on you. You have to take your costs seriously, even if some might criticize you or call you obsessive — at the end of the day it’s your business and the costs do matter. Controlling costs should be a focus throughout the growth of your business. Medical office employees often fail to accurately verify recorded write offs and they fail to properly handle charge reconciliations. Ensure that your office staff doesn’t become complacent in these areas. Try to go through the books at least every other month, line by line, and check how much you’re spending.

2. Listen to your Patients

Listen to your patients and what they’re actually looking for from your practice. Take a look at your online reviews and see what your patients are saying about your practice. Often times a practice will receive a negative review not because of the practitioner, but because of the office staff. Complaints against your staff can impact patient volume and how often they’re coming back.

3. Offer Ancillary Services

Having a specialty is great but it’s extremely important to offer additional services that can grow your practice and help your patients. At least 31% of Anesthesiologists, 20% of Family Practitioners, 20% of Internists, 19% of OBGYNs, 33% of Orthopedic Surgeons and 18% of Pediatricians offer additional or complimentary services. Additional services include pharmacy services, physical therapy, toxicology tests, alternative treatments, allergy treatments, urgent care services, cosmetic services, and more.

4. Look at Benchmarks

Pay attention to your key metrics and compare them to regional and specialty providers in your area. Looking at medical practice benchmarks will help you determine how much other providers are charging, what they’re charging for, and how your own prices add up. If you’d like to find out more information on this topic, check out our blog post.

5. Use Smart Scheduling

Unfilled appointments and no-shows are inevitable, but need to be minimized as much as possible to maintain and increase revenue. Consider moving away from Wave Scheduling to Modified Wave Scheduling. Wave Scheduling is when appointments are scheduled at the top of the hour. Modified Wave Scheduling sets two appointments at the hour – one at quarter past and the other at half past. This allows doctors to use the last part of each hour for documentation and follow up calls. By optimizing the doctor’s time, patients experience better care and will be happier which will lead to better reviews and an increase in revenue. Try to take at least one or two items from this list to help you grow your revenue and your practice. Put them in place and see what kind of improvements they make!

If you need assistance with increasing your revenue, contact us today so we can see if we’re a good fit for each other.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter @TitanWebAgency if you enjoyed this podcast!