After a recent presentation, a private consultant surgeon telephoned me. He wanted all his fees checked.
He heard about the MHM fee checker from a colleague who had attended the presentation so he wanted to commission a full review of his fees.
But he wasn’t so much a colleague of an MHM client. More he was married to one!
The standard charge for doing this is £100; sometimes it takes a few hours, sometimes it takes a whole day.
But as the husband of a current client, he got a freebie
To do it accurately however, you literally have to shut the door and have a “do not disturb” sign also.
Do Not Disturb.
You first need to know precisely where to look!
Especially with this surgeon as I calculated he had 204 separate fees to check.
It is very much a case of paying attention to the detail relating to each fee. This one took me about 6 hours and was emailed to the consultant on the same day.
During those 6 hours I identified 2 fees which were wrong.
Big deal.
Two problems
Save the fees published by the two insurance companies concerned were actually HIGHER than the consultant had been charging.
He had undercharged for his services.
In one case he had undercharged by £150 (21%)
In the second case, he had undercharged by £21 (16%)
So he immediately amended his fees and started to charge the correct amount.
He called me this morning; the last working day of the month.
So far and by using the correct fees he had charged and been paid an additional £513.
Of course, fees can go down as well. Sometimes the consultant’s fees are absolutely correct too.
But if they go UP you are literally undercharging for your services. What made it worse for the consultant concerned is that the fees had gone up at the end of September so he estimates he has missed out on around £1,800.
Look at it this way and work the maths out. He has earned an additional £513 this month. Less the £100 it should have cost him (my fee) he is still £413 better off.
I should have charged him after all. Nah!
pete@medicalhealthcaremanagement.co.uk