Physician Practice Musings: Percentages and evaluating yourself as a manager

When evaluating collection and adjustment percentages in a medical practice, be sure to include several months of activity, preferably one full year or at least six months. The reason is that the percentage can fluctuate drastically month to month. Patient volumes and the types of patients and procedures performed, change through the year. Example: More Medicare patients seen in the winter, thus higher write-offs and lower collections. Another month may include more particular procedures or surgeries in which a plan reimburses exceptionally well and thus adjustments go down and collections go up. There are also seasonal income changes for specialists such as pediatrics.

The demands of a medical office manager or administrator are great. Evaluate your management skills: (1) Don't perform tasks that your employees should be doing (2) Help employees with work but don't get too involved (3) Do more training and coaching (4) Don't demand too much too quickly of new employees.