Written by Debbie Weinstein Tuesday, 03 August 2010 06:00

Talking about the finances of the practice usually takes providers out of their comfort zone.  They treat patients; they don’t “count beans.”  This makes the practice administrator’s job very difficult when trying to get their point across to providers/owners of the business.  Often, providers play a part in the patient A/R collection write-offs, insurance denials and lack of co-payments being collected at the front window.

We all have our comfort zones and along with that, those dark areas of our jobs that we will avoid at all costs, those horrible tasks that lead us into the deep dark waters of uncertainty.  If you are me, we are talking about writing. I am by trade, an accountant. We are good with numbers, not creative writing assignments. So writing a blog is totally out of my comfort zone.

I may not be passionate about writing, but I am passionate about my work. For twenty years, I have been in the client service industry, first as an accountant/CPA, and then as a Health Care Consultant. Very early on in my career we recognized the importance of educating our physician clients and their office managers about how to interpret their numbers, their practice statistics. Not just the amount, but what the numbers actually mean. For instance, let’s take your accounts receivable balances. Can you answer the following:

• What is the breakdown between current, over 30, days, 60 days, etc. What percent of your A/R is over 120 days. If it is more than 18%, what is causing the delay in your payments, or the denials that you are receiving?
• What is your Net Collections Ratio? MGMA says it should be 95%
• What is your average Days in A/R?
• What is your “clean claims” submission rate?

If you can answer those questions, great, awesome, you are passionate about the success of your practice.  The next question is; are you reaching those goals?  If not, why and  what do you need to do to get there, most likely there are people within the practice that need to wander outside of their comfort zone.  If you cannot answer these questions, ask your self why, and then get some help to answer them. Make sure the person educating you does what I do with my clients; have them put it in terms that you understand.  They should apply it to what you are passionate about.  Everyone needs to understand that the practice cannot heal patients if it’s a financially unhealthy practice.  At some point your finances need a check-up and the administrator may need to have the providers and/or staff make a few life style changes. 

These changes may again put you out of your comfort zone.  This will only make you grow, make your practice strong enough to endure all the upcoming changes in the healthcare industry so that you can continue to provide the exceptional healthcare you have grown accustom to providing.