Doctor Held Hostage: News at 11
PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
Kathy Mills Chang
He was one unhappy doctor. And no wonder! The doctor's billing CA had left the practice to go on permanent maternity leave, and when he tried to familiarize himself with the billing procedures so he could train her replacement, he discovered that, well, there really were no
procedures.
By the time he called us, he’d learned that there actually was very little work being done. There had been no follow-up with workers’ compensation and personal injury claims. The aging report had been languishing for months. Stacks of explanations of benefits (EOBs) had never been posted, which meant the patients hadn’t been billed for their balances.
Yet, every time he’d asked his former billing CAhow things were going, she’d said, “Everything’s fine!”
Perhaps it was, from her point of view. He told us that she’d been in the habit of clocking in, working at a leisurely yet erratic pace, drinking cup after cup of coffee, and having one unproductive day after the next—punctuated with frequent requests for time off. Because the doctor didn’t know enough about his own practice’s billing procedures to properly supervise, he also had nothing with which to compare his situation. He was basically being held hostage by his own employee’s quirks and failings.
We wish we could say this situation is unique, but the truth is that it happens all the time. We hear from many doctors who know their revenue stream has slowed to a trickle, but they’re not sure exactly why. It’s not as surprising as it might sound. DCs go to chiropractic college, not business school. Many of them expect to show up, take care of patients, and leave the financials to employees they think they can trust.
And why not? There are plenty of trustworthy, competent employees out there. However, if you have no basic understanding of how your financial departments should be run, then how can you know if someone is competent? How can you know whom to trust with your practice’s survival?
It doesn’t take an MBA to run the financial side of a chiropractic practice, but learning the basics and establishing procedure does take intention, commitment, and often some outside help. After working with us, this doctor learned how
to create a daily claim batch, read his insurance aging report, print his own patient statements, work the patient collections process, and monitor his front desk’s collections.
Oh, and he also learned it could all be done in 24 hours a week instead of the 40 hours for which he’d been paying his less-than-stellar biller.
Today, he’s no longer held hostage by his team members and the results they give. He can accurately assess every aspect of his practice, make better management decisions based on his own knowledge, and even keep things up and running in the event of a team member’s sudden departure.
Will he continue to work with a biller? Of course, because he’s a doctor, not billing specialist, and he has patients to see. Now that he knows every aspect of his practice, though, he’s no longer dependent on others for inside knowledge of the financials.
This, he says, is true peace of mind.
2 Kathy Mills Chang is a certified medical compliance r specialist (MCS-P) and certified chiropractic professional I H coder (CCPC). Since 1983, she ’s beenproviding chiropracHt vy-jfi tors with reimbursement and compliance training, analysis, flk ^ and tools to help practices increase revenue and decrease risk. Kathy leads a team of 16 at KMC University, and is biown as one of our profession ’s foremost experts on Medicare. She or any of her team members can be reached at 855-832-6562, at http://kmcmriversity.com, or by sending an e-mail to info(a kmcuniversity. com.
