Reimbursement dwindling, expenses increasing, managed care woes, does this sound familiar?
Managing your practice isn’t as lucrative as it used to be, but it can be with some creative approaches to maximizing your practice.
Here are a few ways to successfully build your practice and increase revenue in this environment of declining reimbursements:
Team with your Pharmaceutical Partners to Educate Patients and Colleagues on your Niche areas of expertise.
Pharmaceutical reps can be your allies; their mission is to educate the physicians in your area about their products. If you have a special niche area, take advantage of this and offer to speak to your local internal medicine and primary care doctors. Your local representative will be happy to facilitate a lunch or dinner meeting with your local referral physicians. You can educate them on your niche, whether it is new prostate treatments or new advances in the treatment of sexual dysfunction and your hospital and insurance affiliations.
A win, win, win for all, you will build a great referral source, the primary care physician will be better informed on the appropriate patient to treat and those he can refer and the rep will have their doctors educated on the indicated uses for their medications.
Network with Your Hospitals:
When was the last time you met with your local hospital marketing department to discuss your specific niche area of medicine? Are there new developments that your patients and the hospital community should be aware of? Are there new equipment and procedures that the hospital can also benefit from? marketing department of most community hospitals spend ample dollars on marketing their hospital to patients. Why not discuss opportunities to partner with them and help educate the community together. Offer to provide an outreach seminar to patients on Prostate awareness, Sexual dysfunction or new advances in OAB.
Most hospitals provide quarterly newsletters on topics and new treatments available, so make sure your practice gets fair representation to your local community. Many times your office manager can help facilitate these discussions.
Consider partnering with the hospital and start a “men’s health center” or “women’s health center”. Another way to bring more patients into your practice and to the hospital.
The best way to grow your practice-
You’ll be pleasantly surprised!:
One of the most cost-effective ways to grow your practice is to cross-market to your existing practice population. How many times has a male patient had their wife visit another physician because the patient had a perception that your office wouldn’t be able treat her needs because your office “specializes in the treatment of men”. It’s important to make sure to educate your patients on all the available services and treatments that your practice provides and that you sincerely appreciate their referrals.
The best way to do this is with a practice brochure highlighting your areas of expertise.
Aside from the internet, this tool has the most versatility and is cost-effective. Practice brochures have been shown to save 20% of the front office staff time alone, by saving time discussing directions, parking, and billing protocol. They are also a great resource to provide to patients while waiting in the office to educate them on the services they provide and to build future referrals for your practice.
In this challenging environment it is important to utilize your partnership opportunities to best educate your patients and maximize your practice. A practice management consultant can easily help you and your practice to implement these ideas.
Amani Abou-Zamzam MBA
Practice Management Consultant
Affiliate of PRS, Physician Reimbursement Systems
UrologyPracticeConsulting.com, www.Amani.md, amani@UrologyPracticeToday.com
