Healthcare business planning is often the last thing a physician has in mind during a busy day. However, it is the day-to-day business planning practices that will make the office run smoothly and profitably. Whether it is an office of one or a combined office of two or three physicians, most doctors did not study medicine to worry about medical billing procedures or collecting payments. They entered the profession to help people.
The truth is that a physician’s office is still a business. Bills must be charged and paid to insurers, HIPPA regulations followed, billing codes entered correctly, and new government policies implemented. It’s easy to see how small clinics can become guilty of letting their bills get out of hand. In fact, it is the last thing they want to deal with after seeing multitudes of patients and writing up medical charts and transcripts.
But for any business to be successful, money must be coming through the door. Understanding how medical billing produces directly affect cash flow in a medical office is essential to being successful and increasing that cash flow.
One way for physicians to get a handle on their medical billing is by creating a business plan. Medical clinic business plans can help predict long-term and short-term growth. A healthcare business plan usually has a cash flow analysis in it for businesses to understand how to make a profit. A customized business plan for physicians allows many to avoid pitfalls in medical billing, and to increase cash flow.
Business plans need to take into account how you are handling medical billing for patients and how long follow-up should take for billing. This increases cash flow and profitability for a practice. Some other areas to be considered are:
- Objectives each year
- Mission
- Keys to success
- Staff and office organization
- Staff training
Every healthcare business can benefit from creating a clinic business plan that is designed to maximize profits and generate positive cash flow. Outsourcing this plan to healthcare business support professionals is the best way to create a customized business plan in the shortest time possible. Another benefit of outsourcing your clinic business plan to a team of professionals is that they understand the medical business as they will have worked with hundreds of other physicians who have the same issues. This can also help with avoiding pitfalls and headaches that go with growing a medical practice.
At Clinic Service, we have worked with over 400 new practices for their setup, so we know how to develop a business plan that can help you create a viable cash flow in 60-90 days. We also have a review after 120 days to make any changes necessary to the healthcare business plan.
Regardless of whether you write a business plan yourself or work with a professional firm, creating a business plan will improve and grow your practice. Then you will be way ahead of the business aspect of running a practice so you can do what you do best, helping people.
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