Let’s break this this down to a simple business idea:

 

Assets and Liabilities, everything in your clinic fits into one of these two categories including your staff. Everyone and everything is either an asset or a liability.

 

A healthy business manages assets and liabilities. Consider liabilities, your physical space, the power it uses, exam tables, paper, unproductive employees etc. 

 

And your assets? Any piece of equipment or employee that produces income above it’s cost.

I was speaking with a physician/owner of a large practice who was airing his frustrations with me about his employee’s lack of work ethic. I asked him if he had ever thought of this issue as a case of assets and liabilities? Simply put, why wouldn’t you eliminate the liability and replace it with an asset, then reward your productive employee (asset) in-order to retain them. Makes good sense doesn’t it? We should take a look at the rest of our business practices the same way and limit or out-source the liabilities. 

I consulted with many physicians on ancillary opportunities. What I hear most often when discussing a program or piece of equipment is: “How much does it cost?”

A ancillary program or procedure that makes you more money than you paid for it at a faster rate than the interest accrues does not cost you anything. A new car at 50k will cost you 50k plus interest, as the car does not earn you any money. A ancillary program with 50k price tag that earns you 100k over the next year cost you nothing.

Do your homework of course, figure in the cost of the employee

running the test. Will you need to hire a new employee?

Your time as a physician is your biggest asset, limit or out source those tasks that don’t require your time.    

 

 

Here is a list of some of my favorite revenue producing assets right now. These all require little to no time by the physician, generate revenue instantly and are of benefit to your existing patients.

 

Automated Annual Wellness Visits on all Medicare patients (G0438/G0439)

 

This is not the annual physical (99381-99397). An automated questionnaire is given to the patient during the wait time, the questionnaire is filled out on a tablet and only takes about 5 minutes.  

a report is then generated for the physician and patient.

This test (questionaire) pays $120-$180, no co-pay, no deductible. This is an immediate revenue boost that requires no doctor or employee time. The patient does all the work for you.

The company I represent includes alcohol and depression screening questionnaires on the same device. These two additional questionnaires generate about $40, paying for the service and allowing you to pocket the $120 - $180 for the Annual Wellness Screening.   This simple screening helps you with MIPS and MACRA scoring as well, there is no down side to your practice, it is good for you, good for your patients and great for your bottom line.  

 

Chronic Care Management (99490)

 

Once again if done properly this should be an automated program which runs in the background, requires little to no extra work for the doctors and nurses. If done correctly CCM should free up doctors and nurses time allowing them to produce more income.  These systems are a lot more complex than the wellness system discusses above and therefore take a little longer to implement usually 3 to 6 months to get them fully implemented into your EMR system. Once your CCM system is up and running it will generate a continuous stream of income in the background. It will automatically track MIPS/MACRA reporting measures. It provides your patients with 24/7 access to care nurses, reducing incoming call volume. Hospital admissions are reduced by 20 – 30%.

 

This program is recommended for practices that see 10 – 12 Medicare patients daily.

 

Fall Assessments for All Seniors

 

$250-$350 per exam.

50% at risk, 75% fall repeatedly

Provided during Annual Wellness Visit or Office Visit.

Provides 90% effective treatment for dizziness.

 

Even if you are just seeing 2 seniors (60 +) a day the odds are 1 of them would qualify for this test. At $250 for this 15 minute test, that is 90% effective as a treatment for dizziness, what’s not to love? Even if you only did this test once a day that would be $1,250 a week. Put this on a lease program and you in the black on the first week of every month, leaving you 3 weeks of pure profit. For those of you with a big senior population this is a no brainer. You will be saving lives while generating a great revenue, which places this procedure in the strong asset category.

 

ANS system (95943-59, 95923 and 93922)

I do like the ANS System particularly the one by LD systems that only takes 5 minutes to do. This system is a diagnostic tool, too many physicians put this in their office and utilize it as a ATM. The ANS system is best utilized as a tool for communicating with patients.  A physician that is adept at using the ANS system and its pages can communicate and motivate patients to follow protocols and strive for goals which make this perfect for weight loss clinics. If you are going to take the time to review the report with your patient (which you should for your $250) then this is a winner, good for the patient, good for your practice, that makes this an asset.       

 

For more information on any of these resources click here: www.FallPreventionPlan.com