As a CPA you have an opportunity to help your customers with issues that affect their business, lives and stress levels. Most business owners use a CPA either because they don’t fully understand the accounting process or for a lack of time. Some business owners simply want a CPA to handle the accounting needs because they trust that the CPA is staying up to date with changes from year to year. A great CPA offers suggestions to their customers on how they can improve their cash flow and create a more efficient office.
Being a CPA is so much more than just running the numbers or preparing the books. A CPA is more of a trusted consultant, a friend, who can truly add value to businesses by giving financial advice. I am a business consultant in Tulsa and I work with businesses nationally that have huge receivables and slow paying or delinquent accounts. Some businesses prefer to write off the accounts instead of messing with them. Others are willing to give up a percentage of their income by handing the account to a percentage collection agency. Neither of those choices are good ones.
I help businesses and medical practices by setting up processes from the point of sale or the point of patient care all the way through to identifying early on those hard core accounts that need to go to a collection agency. In most cases I have been able to eliminate 56% of the delinquent accounts and increase the businesses cash flow. This reduces the amount of money that goes to a percentage collection agency and decreases the internal cost of collection. For medical practices I can elevate the importance of a medical insurance claim and get the insurance company to pay much sooner.
The first thing I suggest to a company is to offer as many payment options as possible. Sometimes a customer will pay with a credit card and actually increase the amount of purchase if that is an option. If the customer cannot afford to put 100% of the payment on a single credit card purchase, may be the company can automatically set up a recurring payment on that credit card without having to manually enter that card every month. Allowing your customers/patients multiple payment options reduces the chance that they will become delinquent. I also encourage online bill pay. It is easy to set up and you can actually pass the transaction fee back to the customer.
The next process I look at is the internal process of collecting delinquent accounts. Too often I see poor policies and procedures that allow an account to go too long before taking action. The longer an account is allowed to go without being collected the greater the chances are that the account will never pay. A national study by the Department of Commerce shows that an average of 5% of the accounts serviced in the first month will not be collected, every month after that the numbers get substantially worse. Medical practices are closer to 10% in the first month. The key is take action sooner rather than later.
These processes can also help with the efficiency of an office. This saves your clients time and money and increases their cash flow. An efficient office is a happy office. For more information contact Kevin McDugle, Expect 3 Consulting, 918.409.5572 (Cell), kmcdugle@expect3.com.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Running an efficient medical practice
The business office of a medical practice is one of the craziest places to be efficient. Every office I work with seems to be overwhelmed with trying to collect on insurance claims and private pay accounts. Each office seems to be understaffed and over worked. Most Doctors would rather treat patients and be left alone with the business side of the practice but it is the business side of the practice that helps to pay the bills. So what do we do when it seems we have tried everything and still cannot become efficient business offices?
Automation seems to be a wave of the future but who wants to put all of their trust in some of the software packages being sold today. There are horror stories that seem to circulate about every software package. Some are not HIPAA compliant or others seem to crash with certain amounts of data. When do we have the time to implement or even look at something new? Sure, it would be nice to be automated but it is time consuming and costly, especially when not implemented properly.
When I work with a medical practice or hospital my main focus is to insure the office is as efficient as possible. From the point of seeing the patient all the way through to helping to insure insurance claims are not stretched past 60 days without a dispute. Other offices would love to implement new software but they need a project manager to assist in the implementation to insure there is no downtime during the transition. At the same time office staff needs to be trained and patients continue to walk through the doors. A project implementation plan can help solve a lot of issues during transition and some simple procedures can be implemented that allow staff to concentrate on the most important part of the office, patient care.
Another common problem I see in practice management is a lack of policies and procedures that protect the cash flow of the office. Sure it is common nationally that medical practices experience a high rate of delinquent accounts for several reasons. One reason that can be eliminated is a lack of proper internal procedures. The proper internal procedures in a medical practice can reduce the number of patient accounts that go delinquent. They can also speed up the recovery of insurance claims.
An office that is not efficient does not mean it is run by an inefficient office manager. Most medical office managers are simply overwhelmed with the work load and they need additional assistance in seeing the practice from the outside. I am amazed at the difference in stress level office managers have before and after they get assistance from an outside consultant that helps them to implement proper policies and procedures.
For more information on running an efficient office contact Kevin McDugle at 918.409.5572 (Cell) or kmcdugle@expect3.com.
Automation seems to be a wave of the future but who wants to put all of their trust in some of the software packages being sold today. There are horror stories that seem to circulate about every software package. Some are not HIPAA compliant or others seem to crash with certain amounts of data. When do we have the time to implement or even look at something new? Sure, it would be nice to be automated but it is time consuming and costly, especially when not implemented properly.
When I work with a medical practice or hospital my main focus is to insure the office is as efficient as possible. From the point of seeing the patient all the way through to helping to insure insurance claims are not stretched past 60 days without a dispute. Other offices would love to implement new software but they need a project manager to assist in the implementation to insure there is no downtime during the transition. At the same time office staff needs to be trained and patients continue to walk through the doors. A project implementation plan can help solve a lot of issues during transition and some simple procedures can be implemented that allow staff to concentrate on the most important part of the office, patient care.
Another common problem I see in practice management is a lack of policies and procedures that protect the cash flow of the office. Sure it is common nationally that medical practices experience a high rate of delinquent accounts for several reasons. One reason that can be eliminated is a lack of proper internal procedures. The proper internal procedures in a medical practice can reduce the number of patient accounts that go delinquent. They can also speed up the recovery of insurance claims.
An office that is not efficient does not mean it is run by an inefficient office manager. Most medical office managers are simply overwhelmed with the work load and they need additional assistance in seeing the practice from the outside. I am amazed at the difference in stress level office managers have before and after they get assistance from an outside consultant that helps them to implement proper policies and procedures.
For more information on running an efficient office contact Kevin McDugle at 918.409.5572 (Cell) or kmcdugle@expect3.com.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
THE STAFF
There are few things in my career that mean as much as the staff. I have won medals and honors as a Marine, sold the million dollar sale and achieved my goals as a Marine and Businessman. None of this compares to receiving the staff. I have always enjoyed working hard and setting high expectations of my people but I have also enjoyed helping to encourage and give direction in their personal lives. Of course I do this professionally but it is always a desire for my staff to set goals such as being debt free or simply keeping a paid off car a few years longer than they want. In every case I have been rewarded by watching each of them grow in their careers and in their personal life. I enjoy getting pictures of their kids and family.
Even with all that I have to hang on my wall the staff that stands in the corner means more to me than all the others. I had a sales representative quite a few years ago that was about 15 years older than me. His name was Tom Mosley. Tom was a great guy that was well grounded in his beliefs and really enjoyed working with law enforcement agencies. Many of them would call and ask for Tom just to let him know they had another grand child or that they had been promoted to a new position. Tom was also an author he wrote a book called "Marketing your invention".
One morning Tom did not show up to work and that was not like him at all. Usually he would call me at 0700 in the morning while he was in route to the office because he knew I was already there. He would usually just say "Hey, good morning boss, its a great day". I would agree and chit chat for a few minutes and then back to work. When Tom did not show up I told the Director of Engineering that something was wrong. We hopped in the car and drove to Tom's home. When we got there and Tom's car was in the drive way I knew something was wrong. I knocked on the doors and with no answer I called the police. The fire department broke in the back door and of course they found Tom had passed away while sleeping. I was so saddened by the loss. Tom was way to young at 52. He lived alone and had several kids that were on their own.
The funeral was nice and lots of Tom's friends came. Police agencies from around the country sent flowers to the funeral and or donated money to the family scholarship fund. After the funeral one of Tom's daughters walked up to me with a staff in her hand. Tom loved the outdoors and when he would go hiking he always carried a staff. He would find other 6' sticks that he would eventually hand carve and shellac to become a gorgeous walking staff. She handed me one of those staffs and said Tom would have wanted you to have it. Every time I see that staff it reminds me that there is more to life than simply meeting the bottom line. We can't let things to get in the way of helping others and motivating them to be better. I loved Tom and his family. What staff do you have in your life? What are you achieving in life that makes it worth while? Treat others with respect and know that each of them have a staff of some sort in their lives. Each of them are loved by others.
Even with all that I have to hang on my wall the staff that stands in the corner means more to me than all the others. I had a sales representative quite a few years ago that was about 15 years older than me. His name was Tom Mosley. Tom was a great guy that was well grounded in his beliefs and really enjoyed working with law enforcement agencies. Many of them would call and ask for Tom just to let him know they had another grand child or that they had been promoted to a new position. Tom was also an author he wrote a book called "Marketing your invention".
One morning Tom did not show up to work and that was not like him at all. Usually he would call me at 0700 in the morning while he was in route to the office because he knew I was already there. He would usually just say "Hey, good morning boss, its a great day". I would agree and chit chat for a few minutes and then back to work. When Tom did not show up I told the Director of Engineering that something was wrong. We hopped in the car and drove to Tom's home. When we got there and Tom's car was in the drive way I knew something was wrong. I knocked on the doors and with no answer I called the police. The fire department broke in the back door and of course they found Tom had passed away while sleeping. I was so saddened by the loss. Tom was way to young at 52. He lived alone and had several kids that were on their own.
The funeral was nice and lots of Tom's friends came. Police agencies from around the country sent flowers to the funeral and or donated money to the family scholarship fund. After the funeral one of Tom's daughters walked up to me with a staff in her hand. Tom loved the outdoors and when he would go hiking he always carried a staff. He would find other 6' sticks that he would eventually hand carve and shellac to become a gorgeous walking staff. She handed me one of those staffs and said Tom would have wanted you to have it. Every time I see that staff it reminds me that there is more to life than simply meeting the bottom line. We can't let things to get in the way of helping others and motivating them to be better. I loved Tom and his family. What staff do you have in your life? What are you achieving in life that makes it worth while? Treat others with respect and know that each of them have a staff of some sort in their lives. Each of them are loved by others.
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