This is a true tale, but a cautionary one.
We know of a practice where an excellent young physician hired his recently retired CFO dad to help him run his practice. The physician loved treating patients, and Dad, fresh out of corporate America, started a new career as a practice administrator.
I bet you can already see the writing on the wall.
Neither of them understood how to manage the revenue cycle, and they didn’t have the right people in place to tell them what they didn’t know. By the time they considered outsourcing their RCM, it was too late. After some painful conversations, including one with us (with only regrettable news), they filed chapter 11.
Our takeaway? Experienced office managers and billing managers are worth their weight in gold. Medical practices aren’t paid based on every minute they’re treating patients. So it’s incredibly important that insurance claims are coded expertly and filed within payer timelines.
This physician ended up with too many denials and claims that were non-reimbursable.
Although an extreme case, this father/son misfortune shows how traditional skillsets don’t translate into medical practice. It also demonstrates the need for new practices to seek out objective third-party expert advice. Every physician needs an expert revenue cycle manager working hard on their behalf to make sure every dollar worked for is realized.
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