Doctors face increasing operational costs and the pressure to deliver value-based care with higher quality metrics while dealing with high patient expectations and insurance reimbursement challenges. As a result of these business challenges, many physicians are coping by merging with larger groups, selling to conglomerates, or turning over their business to managed service organizations.
However, there are plenty of independent physician groups continuing to thrive and grow. The most successful medical practices embrace strategic growth initiatives tailored specifically to the healthcare industry.
Here are five key strategies we recommend to grow your medical practice immediately and achieve long-term, sustainable success:
1. Enhance Patient Satisfaction and Loyalty
Patients have choices. Building strong patient relationships is crucial to sustaining a recurring panel of regular patients and word-of-mouth marketing. Satisfied patients are more likely to return for future care, recommend your practice to others, and contribute to positive online reviews.
Here’s how to prioritize patient satisfaction:
- Deliver exceptional care: Invest in your staff’s training and development to ensure they provide high-quality, compassionate care. Culture starts at the top. Everyone on the team should feel they’re in a safe and positive working environment, with expectations to give outstanding service and support to patients.
- Optimize the patient experience: Respect patients’ time by optimizing providers’ scheduling slots and reducing lobby wait times. Offer clear communications with a welcoming front counter and streamlined paperwork.
- Implement patient engagement strategies: Gather patient feedback regularly through surveys, post-visit links for reviews, or feedback loops on your website. This allows you to respond to patients, identify areas for improvement, and tailor your services to meet their needs.
- Personalize patient interactions: Be sure everyone on the team knows to focus on one patient at a time, spending the moments necessary to understand individual patient needs and preferences. Follow up quickly on any patient request.
- Embrace technology for patient communications: Deploy the latest EHR/EMR and PM systems to utilize online appointment scheduling, patient portals, and telehealth options. Consider e-check-in features and HIPAA-approved text communications.
Need help with onboarding new technology for your healthcare practice? Discover UnisLink’s advanced tech solutions for modern practices and gain efficiency throughout your workflows.
2. Expand Your Medical Service Offerings
Offer a broader range of services to attract new patients and generate additional revenue streams. Consider the following strategies:
- Identify your patients’ needs and gaps in local healthcare: Assess your local demographics and patient feedback to identify unmet needs in your community. Some ideas for internal medicine include nutritional counseling, implantable contraceptives, and cosmetic services.
- Expand into new specialties: Consider adding new specialties based on patient needs and your practice’s capacity. As an example, regenerative medicine is being used in orthopedic settings to improve surgical outcomes and, in some cases, avoid surgery altogether.
- Expand Service Hours: Consider expanding service hours to better match the needs of patients.
- Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM): RPM utilizes digital technologies to collect vital signs and other health data from patients with chronic diseases. Information is transmitted from one location (ex: a patient’s home) and securely transmitted to healthcare providers for remote monitoring. Practices can experience substantial reimbursement for RPM services. This not only incentivizes physicians to adopt RPM but also helps in managing the financial burden associated with chronic disease management. Learn more about RPM for management of chronic care conditions
- Chronic Care Management (CCM): Chronic Care Management is a collaborative approach to coordinating care for patients with two or more chronic conditions that includes medication management, personalized care pathways, care coordination, and regular check-ins to ensure patients receive comprehensive and continuous care. There are also financial incentives for practices that implement a CCM program, including billing for monthly visits with a care coordinator who can help provide connected care and a personalized care plan for every patient.
- Add Ancillary Services: If it makes sense for your specialty, add ancillary services like lab, x-ray, advanced radiology, or pharmacy.
- Add Telemedicine: Consider offering telemedicine services to provide greater accessibility and convenience for patients.
3. Leverage Data-Driven Marketing for Targeted Patient Acquisition
Traditional marketing methods are becoming increasingly less effective. Data-driven marketing allows you to target your outreach to the most likely patients seeking your services. Here’s how:
- Utilize patient data: Analyze demographics, insurance types, and past service utilization patterns to identify ideal patient profiles for digital marketing outreach.
- Targeted online advertising: Leverage social media platforms and search engines to reach patients actively seeking specific treatments or healthcare providers.
- Invest in content marketing: Create valuable content (e.g., blog posts, videos) that addresses patient concerns and positions your practice as a trusted source of information.
- Develop targeted email campaigns: Allow patients to opt-in with their email addresses to send informative and engaging content about new services or promotions on HIPAA approved platforms.
- Outsource marketing to experts: Digital marketing has become too complex for the average practice administrator to tackle. It’s a better return on your time and investment to hire a local digital marketing team that is well versed in online advertising. Give a few companies a specific objective and budget, and then accept several proposals before making a decision.
4. Execute Better on Traditional Patient Acquisition Strategies
- Physician Referrals: You can significantly increase patient volume by effectively leveraging physician referrals. Make sure you are executing well on all of the traditional methods of generating physician referrals.
- Network and Collaborate: Attend local medical events and network with other healthcare providers. Building strong professional networks leads to more referrals.
- Patient Referrals: Patient referrals are a typically underutilized source of additional patients and revenue. Make sure you are executing will on all of the traditional methods of generating patient referrals.
- Provide Exceptional Patient Care: The foundation of patient referrals is the quality of care provided. Satisfied patients refer friends and family to your practice.
- Ask for Referrals: Encourage your patients to refer others by asking. On average approximately 20% of patients will refer to others without you asking. Another 20% will not refer no matter what you do. But approximates 60% of patients are willing to refer but only if you make the effort to ask.
- Simplify the Referral Process: Make it easy for patients to refer others by providing referral cards, online forms, or a dedicated referral section on your website.
- Offer Incentives: Consider offering incentives for referrals, such as discounts on future services or small gifts. This can motivate patients to refer others.
- Build Strong Relationships: Develop strong relationships with your patients by listening to their needs, addressing their concerns, and providing personalized care.
- Educate Patients: Inform your patients about the services you offer and how they can benefit from them. Educated patients are more likely to refer others who may need your services.
- Train Your Staff: Ensure that your staff is trained to ask for referrals and provide excellent customer service. A friendly and helpful staff can leave a lasting impression on patients.
- Participation in Insurance Networks: Insurance networks are an important source of patients. Attract more patients by effectively leveraging insurance networks.
- Join Multiple Insurance Networks: By participating in a variety of insurance networks, you can increase visibility and accessibility to a larger patient base.
- Understand Insurance Plans: Familiarize yourself with the different insurance plans and their benefits. This knowledge can help you guide patients in choosing plans that cover your services.
- Optimize Online Presence: Ensure that your practice is listed accurately on insurance provider directories. Many patients search for in-network providers through their insurance websites.
- Negotiate Favorable Contracts: Work with insurance companies to negotiate contracts that are beneficial for both parties. This can include better reimbursement rates and encourages payers to direct patients to your practice.
- Educate Patients: Inform your patients about the insurance plans you accept and the benefits of choosing in-network providers. This can help retain existing patients and attract new ones.
- Collaborate with Insurance Companies: Partner with insurance companies to participate in wellness programs, preventive care initiatives, and other health-related events. This can increase your practice’s visibility and credibility.
Executing well on these traditional strategies will attract more patients and grow your practice.
5. Outsource Your Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) Processes
Optimizing your revenue cycle process can produce growth in revenue without having to increase visits or productivity. When you outsource your RCM operations to an experienced, qualified medical billing company, you’ll ensure timely and accurate reimbursement for your medical services. Here’s how outsourcing RCM will result in maximum financial performance:
- Advanced technology: Utilize modern RCM software that automates tasks, streamlines workflows, and reduces errors.
- Prompt Medical Credentialing: Stop delays in reimbursement with swift provider approval by experts in medical credentialing.
- Accurate Medical Coding: A qualified medical billing services company will implement RCM best practices and team training to ensure accurate coding of services for optimal reimbursement.
- Timely and Clean Claim Submission: Your RCM team will scrub claims and perform regular claim submission audits to reduce denials and maximize reimbursements for timely payments.
- Denials Management: Your RCM team will work directly with insurance providers to resolve any questionable claims and implement processes for recovery and denial prevention.
- Payment Posting: Get peace of mind knowing that you’re getting the payments you have earned as quickly as possible.
- Patient Collections: A professional team of friendly collection representatives can help your patients get up to date on balances due. They’ll help train your team on how to collect from patients at every touchpoint, reducing your days in accounts receivable (DAR)
- Payer Follow up: Let RCM experts work with insurance providers. They’re pros in payer communications.
- RCM Data Analytics: Experts in RCM billing will help your practice succeed by presenting data analytics with key performance metrics and handy dashboards that help your management team see where they can prioritize improvement.
- MIPS Reporting: Simplify your MIPS reporting requirements by working with a team that understands the intricacies of regulatory compliance and ongoing changes required for submission. They can provide the reports you need to accurately complete your submissions.
Partner with UnisLink and Start Growing Your Practice
UnisLink serves hundreds of healthcare clients across the nation with a full suite of RCM billing services, advanced technology, RCM data analytics for better practice management, and expert consulting for optimized financial performance. Partnering with our experienced team pays massive dividends for medical groups who are ready to move their practice into the future.
Remember, success requires a patient-centric approach, a commitment to quality care, and the ability to adapt to evolving healthcare trends. Partnering with the right resources, such as Unislink for RCM, can significantly enhance your practice’s efficiency and profitability.
Contact us today to learn how your practice can outsource your RCM, streamline operations, and optimize financial health.