My View on Top Up or Gap Invoices
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...
Meaning full patterns in Private Practice
Re-reading Matthew Syed's latest work reminded me of something I'm conscious of when I look at the business performance of the private medical practice. Meaningful patterns. One definition could be...
Problems with self-funders? Pick the phone up!
Many times I come across a consultant who is having problems getting paid by self-funding patients. This is often followed by a reference to numerous reminders and sometimes even final...
A simple mistake that almost cost £275
Get the details right! I'm very much a "do it once and do it right" type of person. As I write this I'm on hold to a particular insurance company and have been for thirteen minutes and 23 seconds....
Procrastination can kill a medical practice
There a few things I hear that automatically set alarm bells ringing when I look at the invoicing and billing process of a business. "I'll take a look at it next week" "I'll get round to it in a...
Put Beethoven in charge of your medical practice
He wrote the 9th Symphony. One of the most acclaimed pieces of music in the world was written by a deaf man! How? Actually, Beethoven wasn't deaf when he wrote the 9th but he was profoundly hard of...
Not getting paid? The reason is right in front of you!
Like many problems faced by a medical practice or any other business, an answer to a problem can often be hidden in plain sight. This was the case when I undertook a management consultancy towards...
What’s a CCSD code?
A CCSD code is used by insurance companies to identify a medical procedure. An Orthopaedic surgeon, for example, understands what a Multiple arthroscopic operation on the knee (including...
Want to get paid? One word – RITUAL!
It never ceases to amaze me the number of occasions where a new client claims he has been having issues getting paid by an insurance company only for me to discover why within minutes. Because the...
Do you know when and how to uplift your fee?
I've been asked to re-published the following which first appeared last year. The first thing to realise about increasing a fee is that you CANNOT increase a fee for all your surgical episodes. Nor...
The Insurance Company “Oops” Moment
An MHM client recently performed a certain surgical episode. The surgery was something he'd done many, many times before with invoices being sent and paid. Normal stuff Pretty standard in other...
Find the cause of the problem before you decide on the solution
A group of surgeons I know is having problems getting paid by insurance companies. Not just an individual insurance company but all insurance companies. More specifically or so the surgeon's...