Doctor's Life Magazine, Tampa Bay Doctor's Life Tampa Bay Vol. 2 Issue 2, 201 | Page 16

By Don Jones
President and CEO
PhysiciansBusinessGroup
www.physiciansbusinessgroup.com

Increase Your Income

Without Seeing More Patients?
M

eet Dr. Bill. He’s an office-based practicing physician who is good at his job. He works
hard and generates a great income. Unfortunately, he doesn’t receive all he earns. He has
$750,000 in long-term accounts receivable. When he first became aware of the condition of his
business financials, he of course demanded answers from his in-house biller. The response was,
“Don’t worry, we’ll get it. And what’s the big deal? You’re making plenty of money.” That was
true. The problem is that he “made” that $750,000 also, but just couldn’t get his hands on it. And
when he discovered that he had unnecessarily lost revenue not even reflected in his AR, he was
furious!
Dr. Bill’s in-practice billing problems included the following
SEVEN DEADLY REVENUE-ROBBING SINS:
»» uncollected co-pays,
»» missed filing deadlines,
»» ignored claims returned by carriers,
»» insurance claims without follow-up,
»» incorrectly coded claims,
»» inaccurate insurance carrier submissions, and
»» delinquent patient balances.
Some would say, “shame on him” for allowing such a thing to
happen. “He must be blindly practicing medicine without adequate
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regard for his business.” Or is he? Are you entirely sure that your
trusted billing staffers are not dropping the ball and committing one
or more of those seven deadly sins? Are you sure you’re getting all
you’ve earned? Most office-based practitioners may not be!
But those who know and understand the often frenetic nature
of running their own practice are not so quick to indict this
troubled colleague. A practicing physician simply cannot dot all the
administrative “I’s” and cross all the “T’s.” Even with a proficient
office manager supervising the staff, it i