For healthcare providers, the demands between offering the best possible care to patients and running an efficient (and profitable) practice can often seem to be at odds with each other. As more and more time is spent on essential administrative tasks like billing, collections, records management, customer service, marketing, and follow up, it can feel like the two factors – efficiency vs. profitability – are mutually exclusive. Studies have found that healthcare and wellness providers across specialties and industries can spend as much as half of their time on the administrative tasks associated with running a practice.
But you don’t necessarily have to choose between a well run practice and a profitable one. In fact, investing in more efficient practice management solutions and identifying areas that are not working as well as they could can actually lead to less administrative costs and, as a result, more revenue for your practice in the long term. So, how can you create this efficiency? The first step is to identify ways in which a chiropractic office can begin to cut costs (without sacrificing quality or patient care.)
Maximize Practice Hours by Implementing Greater Efficiency
Unfortunately, there is only so much time in a day, and it’s not always possible to control how much time is spent on the services and tasks that are necessary to keep your practice running. However it is possible to spend less time on certain tasks by streamlining processes that may be taking up more time than necessary, with mixed results. For example, prioritizing schedules, balancing practice responsibilities, and taking an inventory of how much time is allocated to specific tasks each week can help to identify areas where improvements can be made.
How to Save on Administrative Costs and Increase Practice Revenue
Billing and collections alone often make up the bulk of a practice’s administrative tasks and budget. Services like chiropractic EHR and billing software are designed to manage the revenue cycle more effectively by helping to reduce administrative costs and resources, increasing payment rates for submitted claims, and improving cash flow for your chiropractic office.
Identifying redundant or outdated systems and processes can be a good place to start. Whether you run a lean practice or a larger facility with hundreds of clients each month, implementing tools to improve organizational efficiency can help your practice to save both time and money.