Practice Makes Perfect: Act like an ostrich to help maintain physician compensation levels

Last June, MGMA-ACMPE released the results of a questionnaire that ranked members' most pressing practice management challenges. In this edition of "Practice Makes Perfect," we'll tackle No. 8 on that list: Maintaining physician compensation levels.

With all the changes occurring in healthcare today, it's difficult to anticipate the best way to do business. The horizon isn't as clear as we want it to be, but it's important to keep your eyes forward and your mind open. Just like an ostrich. They don't actually stick their heads in the sand, rather, they lower their head and look forward. And this is exactly what your practice should do. How you plan for and react to changes occurring in the industry will help set the direction for your future.

I've worked with practices for many years, and one of the major pain points continues to be maintaining physician compensation levels. Especially with the general economic climate, maintaining physician compensation levels is ever-more challenging. Here are a few items to consider as you look ahead:

• Ensure a rigorous business discipline. It may seem obvious, but in times such as these, it is imperative that your practice adheres to a rigorous business discipline. Plan, budget, assess and monitor goals and objectives on a regular basis and tweak your processes as necessary. Maintaining a strong business discipline is vital for a sustainable model and to maintain physician compensation levels.

• Manage the revenue cycle. Manage is the key word. Don't just let it happen, manage it to happen the proper way. In our work, we find many practices that believe their revenue cycle is effective and efficient. Our assessment can often prove otherwise. There is an opportunity for improvement in virtually every practice I work with. It's possible to improve your registration process, revisit verification of benefits, and streamline pre-authorization and point-of-service collections. It's even worthwhile to re-examine your coding and documentation process, and billing and collections in the practice. You can be more effective (by doing the right things) and efficient (by doing them well). Employ internal and external benchmarking to measure your performance as well.

• Educate, investigate and innovate. Take advantage of the top opportunities to keep informed. There are webinars, publications, on-site educational programs and other resources that can provide valuable information for your practice. Investigate these opportunities or consider joining an organization that can provide these resources, such as MGMA-ACMPE. And don't shy away from trying new things. Innovation is more critical than ever. Everything is changing, and your practice's ability to be nimble and innovate in this environment may help position you for success. Determine whether it makes sense to implement new technology in your practice or employ a new service line. Look at the challenges in front of you as opportunities not issues. Do the work to educate and investigate ways to maintain compensation levels for physicians.

• Be realistic. Set expectations based on past indicators, current conditions, and future realistic projections. Keep in mind that reimbursement continues to decline. It's not possible to maintain physician compensation levels without setting clear and manageable expectations and working hard to see and care for patients.

Now is the time to plan for the future. Gaze into the horizon, like an ostrich, to ensure compensation for physicians is maintained, even amidst such change in the industry.