Spring Cleaning Dust the cobwebs from your practice

by Shellie Pruden, DCMS director of medical practice relations

Springtime generates a feeling of renewal, awakening, and rebirth. With the invasion of spring fever, it’s also an opportune time to look at your medical practice and do a little spring cleaning.

Looking at your practice from a patient’s perspective always provides valuable information. Walk through the process as if you were a new patient. Think of yourself as a “mystery shopper,” such as those used to improve service in retail stores. From the moment the patient dials your office phone number to schedule an appointment until he receives a bill or EOB, check each step to learn if the process is effective and efficient.

Assess each point of the patient encounter. As the patient enters the front office, are the office and staff neat and welcoming? Does the schedule run on time? Many models are available to assist practices in running more true to schedule. The best model is only as good as the implementation. Patients have less loyalty to practices that are disrespectful of their time and routinely expect patients to wait an extended time before seeing a physician. Do you have patient education material available to make use of wait time? The Dallas Medical Journal includes an article each month in the “From Your Doctor” page designed to be photocopied and made available to your patients.

Friendliness makes a significant difference in the perception of care. Smiles, calling someone by name, and making eye contact are invaluable in a service-oriented practice. As a result of the constraints of managed care and declining reimbursement, physicians have less time to spend with each patient. The friendliness in the office can translate to a more satisfying encounter even though you actually spend less time with the patients.

When you evaluate your practice from the patient’s perspective, it’s also important to review business systems. Meet with your staff members and ask them—within reason, what would they do to create more efficiency? Many times, the least likely staff member has a valuable solution. One of the greatest hang-ups in revamping an ineffective internal system is, “that’s the way we’ve always done it.”

Physicians may see reviewing a policy and procedure manual as enjoyable as cleaning rain gutters or the garage, but it becomes invaluable if something goes wrong. Does your manual reflect the way your business operates? Does it comply with law? If it needs serious updating, TMA offers a policy and procedure manual for $250. The manual comes with discs that allow customizing to meet your practice needs. To stay compliant with changes in the law, annual updates to the manual are available for a small fee. For more information or to order, contact TMA at 800-880-1300 and ask for publications.

Physician practices operate on smaller and smaller budgets. Make sure that cost-cutting measures are not hurting the practice. For instance, one practice thought it was saving money by using 4-year-old CPT coding manuals. But by saving the expense of purchasing new books, the reimbursement process had to overcome expensive setbacks in denials, additional records submissions, and re-filing claims. The denials on claims with outdated codes cost the practice far more than what it would have spent to purchase the updated versions.

Take advantage of a great member benefit at the upcoming TMA mini-consults. This free, 30-minute private consultation with a reimbursement specialist can help you and your staff work through coding and reimbursement issues with private insurance, Workers’ Compensation, Medicare, Medicaid, and managed care. With your private consultation, TMA provides a handbook that can answer most questions received by the TMA payment advocacy staff. The book includes template letters, contact information, and tips to assist you and your staff with reimbursement issues. The mini-consults will be April 10–12 at the DCMS office. To schedule an appointment, contact Donna Kracmer, DCMS membership coordinator, at 214-948-3622. Please bring documentation to make the most of your appointment.

Much like spring cleaning at home, the chore of cleaning up issues in the practice can be put off. The reward for taking time to do it now is to shed some of the old and ineffective procedures that prevent the practice from operating at an optimal level.