Navigating A Shifting Landscape: Solutions To Top Practice Management Challenges

Every medical practice faces ongoing challenges in maintaining a successful bottom line. New challenges crop up whenever Medicare and Medicaid policies, or the economy, changes. Still, a handful of problems rise to the top in most medical practices. Here are some ideas for solving them before they become overwhelming.

What are some problems?

In looking at the top challenges that medical practices face, first on the list might be administrative burdens. Most doctors go into medicine because they want to help people and because they are interested in science and medicine. They probably do not expect to spend a significant amount of time filling out forms and figuring out how to practice medicine profitably.

Although administrative burdens are not likely to go away, there are some potential solutions. These include staying current with business trends and creating standard operational procedures and routines, both clinically (to the extent possible) and administratively. It is also important to train and empower select staff members to handle most business-related activities, so you can concentrate on practicing medicine.

The decision of whether to opt for maintaining an independent practice or joining a health care system is another significant challenge many physicians face. Currently, there is a trend toward consolidation into larger group practices, thus enabling physicians to leverage size without having to work for hospitals. This option also allows physicians to share resources, which can go a long way toward relieving the administrative burdens. For some physicians; however, hospital work may be the way to go. It all depends on your personality, energy and focus.

Often one of the biggest headaches for physicians is the need to do battle with payers. It is hard to imagine that this problem is going to go away anytime soon. However, having a lean practice with motivated and trained staffers who can stay on top of billing and payer issues can go a long way toward easing the pain. Size matters in negotiations with payers, so group practices or regional networks can help to make this issue more manageable and profitable.

What about patients?

The advent of the Internet and easy access to health care informationregardless of how inaccurate or uninformed it iscan complicate the doctor-patient relationship. It can be hard to balance practicing good medicine with handling patients who attempt to dictate their own health care. Talking to patients...