Sometimes, getting more patients isn’t always the right answer.
The right answer is to get paid for the ones you have already seen.
Over the last three months MHM has been working very closely with an ENT consultant. His sole aim is to see more and more patients.
That way, he will make more money and retrieve the dire financial situation he has found himself in.
Thus he has reduced his consultation time down from 30 to 20 minutes. Therefore he’ll see one more patient each hour.
But the cause of his financial problem is not he doesn’t have enough patients.
Show me the money
He is owed a considerable amount of money. He is not getting paid.
Seeing more patients and not getting paid for them, will not help!
He needs to get paid for the ones he has seen as well as the new patients.
Why isn’t he being paid
A simple cause.
Invoices aren’t being raised after each clinic. Instead, they are being raised every Saturday morning when “it’s quiet”.
But the problem with that is not all invoices are being raised.
Many of the patient details are incorrect. But his secretary can’t correct the details because many of the insurance companies she needs to speak to to get the right aren’t open on a Saturday.
Or if she needs to speak to a patient, she may or may not be able to reach them by telephone.
Right the first time.
The very first thing to do is to make sure the details ARE correct. That is much easier than it sounds.
Then, she needs to invoice every single day.
In doing so she will identify issues quickly. Then she must resolve those issues the very same day.
It’s only by doing so will the dire financial situation the ENT has found himself in will get resolved.
Seeing more patients but not being able to charge for them, won’t resolve his problem.
pete@medicalhalthcaremanagement.co.uk