Author: Krista Wolfe

The economy is reportedly beginning to turn around, albeit slowly, which is good news. But we’re not out of the woods yet and your practice may be feeling the pinch as patients struggle to pay you. Certainly, they value your services and want to keep their accounts current, but buying food and paying utility bills […]

Patients pay dearly for the care they receive, either out-of-pocket or in the form of ever-increasing insurance premiums, and they have high expectations when it comes to both quality care and customer service. It’s difficult for most patients to accurately assess clinical quality, but you can be sure they’re able to spot good (and bad) […]

Have you ever Googled your practice? If you haven’t, you should. The Dieringer Research Group released a study that revealed 40 percent of Internet users in the US changed their opinions of brands due to information they gathered online. Knowing this statistic, it’s time to take action. First, if you have a practice Web site, […]

Everyone knows that taking steps to retain existing patients is more cost-effective than engaging in marketing activities to attract new ones. Once you have loyal patients in your practice, to keep them, you typically need only to meet their expectation of delivering quality care and providing efficient, friendly service. Sounds simple, right? It is. But […]

Exam rooms probably account for less than half of your total office space, but it’s primarily in those little rooms that income is produced. When improved exam room efficiency allows doctors to see just one or two additional patients each day, that extra revenue falls right to the bottom line because most office overhead is […]

Given that there are only so many patients you can squeeze into the appointment schedule each day, the amount of revenue that your practice can generate is limited. Unless, that is, you find sources of income that are not dependent on doctor/patient face-to-face time. The decision to sell retail products in your practice is one […]

Does anything else produce optimism like the sense of having a clean slate that accompanies a new year? Sure, it’s just a flip of the calendar, and you could choose to set annual goals every May 19th if you’d like, but most of us think of the beginning of the new year as a time […]

Each new year offers the opportunity to reflect on what you hope to achieve and to set goals that are aligned with your practice values. If you’ve not yet mapped out your 2013 goals, here are some possibilities to consider (or that might trigger you to think of other specific goals for your practice), each […]

The beginning of a new year naturally feels like a fresh start, when all things seem possible. It’s tempting to get caught up in the excitement and make long lists of tasks and goals to accomplish, only to find enthusiasm waning (or completely gone) by the end of January. One technique to avoid this rollercoaster […]

Medicare will no longer recognize consultation codes starting January 1, 2010. To avoid denials, it is imperative that your providers and coding/billing staff are aware of the changes and what your process will be to submit claims correctly. What is the change to consultation codes? The consultation codes (99241-99245 for office/outpatient and 99251-99255 for inpatient) […]

No matter how carefully you schedule and how consistent your appointment reminder system is, you will have no-shows in your practice. Patients are human and sometimes they forget appointments, write them down on the wrong day, or have emergencies that prevent them from getting to the office when they’re scheduled to be there. An occasional […]

In the midst of holiday shopping, parties, and visiting family and friends (or having houseguests descend upon you) it might seem out of the question to even think about planning for the new year. But plan you must if you have big practice goals for 2010. Here are a few things you can do now […]