8 Dallas Medical Journal December 2018
Brad Davis is a practice management consultant
with TMA Practice Consulting, a full-service
practice management consulting firm to help
physician members meet operational challenges.
He has more than 10 years’ experience in
health care, working with solo practitioners,
large group practices and hospital systems. His
expertise includes group practice management,
process improvement, electronic health record
implementation, financial analysis, and revenue cycle management.
Contact TMA Consulting at 800-523-8776, practice.consulting@
texmed.org, or texmed.org/Consulting.
PRACTICE EXAMPLE 3
What about this practice?
Payments from BCBS accounted for 36 percent of this practice’s
collections. What would happen if it lost that BCBS contract?
Medicaid collections make up 30 percent of the practice’s
collections. What if CMS sanctions the practice and it gets kicked
out of the Medicaid program? Or Medicaid and Medicare? More
than 45 percent of the practice’s revenue would disappear.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
FOR A FINANCIALLY HEALTHY PRACTICE
Make your decision.
Take your time. Make the right decision. Get answers to your due
diligence questions. Consider all offers — don’t rush to accept the
first one. Understand all your contracts:
• Don’t sign blindly.
• Have your attorney review.
• Know what you’re committing to.
Build a support team.
If you are concerned about your practice, then contact a consultant
or practice adviser. An attorney who is board certified in health
care, a CPA with healthcare experience, and banker all have insight
and expertise about how to make your practice grow.
Review and understand monthly financial reports.
Through your support team you should know what to look for:
trends, benchmarks. If you haven’t seen a financial report in two
years, you won’t know if you could be collecting more or bringing
in more revenue. What is measured can be improved.
Maintain internal controls to prevent embezzlement.
Experts estimate that three out of four physicians suffer
embezzlement at least once in their career. Medical practices are the
second-most embezzled-from business … right behind pawn shops.
Your office should split duties and implement checks and balances.
Be involved.
No matter your practice situation, you should have monthly
reviews with your billing staff/vendor/company. Do not be afraid to
ask questions. Most importantly, be involved — it’s your practice!
DMJ
RESOURCES
Texas Medical Association 800-880-1300. www.texmed.org
TMA Practice Consulting 800-523-8776. www.texmed.org/
consulting
Texas Medical Board. www.tmb.state.tx.us/
Continuing Medical Education. www.texmed.org/education
Compensation Data. www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm
www.salary.com
City Profiles: www.city-data.com
/www.swdic.com
