Practice Analysis

If Practice Setup is working with an existing practice and the physician feels that their methods could be improved upon, our team of individuals will completely evaluate the practice so the mistakes aren’t carried into the new facility. Below are the most important areas that are studied and recommendations then made to the physician:

1. Financial analysis – review of payer mix, monthly charges, # of patients seen, net collections ratio, monthly services analysis and practice expenses as a % of collections. This review and benchmarking will help track historical performance, detect trends and determine how the practices compare to other similar medical groups. Areas of concern and opportunities for improvement will be identified through this analysis.

2. Billing and Collections analysis – patient scheduling practices; demographic collection and insurance verification practices; patient check in practices, patient check out practices; collection activities, charge capture, claim filing frequency, handling of denials; A/R analysis by bucket and payer class; treatment of small receivables balances. By reviewing the current and prior years metrics regarding billing and collections, determinations can be made as to where the billing and collections process can be tightened or if no changes are necessary.

3. Operational analysis – includes review of office policies and procedures, staffing levels and process analysis for key physician practice workflows. Through observation, interviews and data collection, process weaknesses will be identified and recommendations for improvement will be made.

1,2 and 3 would all include benchmarking performance statistics to the MGMA standards where standards are available.

4.General Building Expenses – this category involves the month to month expenses that are often overlooked and yet can and do add up into the thousands of dollars each year.

a. Technology – With the many changes that are happening so rapidly and competition so intense in the technology industry, often times new and less costly methods are available to the practice but often overlooked due to time constraints on the administrators schedule.

b. Utilities – Businesses as well as residential buildings can be put on “Average Billing” cycles where the bill remains the same all year long rather than the seasonal upsurge we all see in the summer months in the southern states and the winter surge in the northern most states. Also “Close Scrutiny” of every bill on a periodic basis often reveals potential problems in the building structure that need to addressed.

c. Maintenance- Maintenance schedules are often seen as “I will do it when I have to” not “Let’s make up a schedule and have our software tell us when something needs to be done”.