Top Up or GAP invoices – my view
Top up (or GAP) invoices = asking the patient to agree to pay the difference between a consultant's fee and the fee an insurance company is prepared to pay. The discussion concerning them seems to...
Stumbling from Crisis to Crisis
It is marvelous how some private practices manage to make ANY money. Actually, in one recent case, I'm not entirely sure the consultant concerned was making any money at all. More frighteningly, the...
Think Big but act small
All MHM clients want to see more patients. They want to grow their practice by taking advantage of the reported 7.5% per annum growth in self-funders. Quite right too. Self-funding patients are an...
Just see the patients!!
One of the very worst things any consultant in private practice can do is get involved when he shouldn't. When is that? It's when he or she is doing ANYTHING other than seeing or operating on a...
No Pre-Authorisation
The patient arrives for the consultation. He hasn’t obtained a pre-authorisation. Should you see the patient? Yes, of course, you should. Patient care must come first. But the patient does not have...
Why do patients have insurance?
Most consultants are concerned, quite rightly, with how and why a patient has chosen to see them. Before asking the question of why and how does a patient chooses you as a consultant an early...
Don’t you like money or something?
There a few things I hear that automatically set alarm bells ringing when I look at the billing process of a medical practice. "I'll take a look at it next week" "I'll get round to it in a bit"...
Who is your Boss? The Practice is!
My Boss is Medical Healthcare Management Ltd. And a very demanding Boss she is too. She requires my undivided attention every single day of the week. Even a private consultant surgeon has a Boss....
You can’t run a practice by email
We are in the people business. That means you can't run a private practice by email. Nor should you for we are dealing with people. Reluctantly, that lead to one of the MHM clients having to dismiss...
Don’t just talk about it; get on with it
Not getting paid doesn't happen by accident. Something causes it to happen. There is ALWAYS A CAUSE. If you leave invoicing until later (Friday for instance) it is very easy not to invoice at all....
Toys out of the pram – again
Two different MHM clients - both consultant surgeons - have been advised by a specific insurance company that the fees for their initial and follow up consultations are being reduced. They are not...
Clinical outcome isn’t that much to do with business outcome
Every single consultant I've ever met is dedicated to patient care and the best possible outcome for his or her patient. But sadly that has little to do with the outcome of the practice as a...