Time is money and in the world of billable hours, we know that two-fold. Even the most business savvy clinicians may be still making errors that cost them valuable time and money. Find out how you may be throwing money away every day and what you can do to turn that around.
- Standard, cookie-cutter solutions. Every agency, administrator, clinician and therapist works in a unique way—and they should, as we all work differently in order to be most efficient and productive. Using non customized or turnkey software that force you to change your workflow can sometimes cause more problems than solutions. If you have to change the way you like to do business to fit your practice management software, then it’s the wrong software. Use a custom software solution that will allow you to work the way you do best. While it may take effort to customize it to work your way, it will be worthwhile in the long run.
- Too many different platforms. If you are switching between different programs to complete your scheduling, billing, human resources, data collection and reporting, then you are wasting valuable time that could be used working with clients. In addition, you could be paying a premium to maintain all of your different platforms when you could be saving money with an all-in-one streamlined solution. Furthermore, moving information from platform to platform increases the incidences of mistakes. Choose a solution that has everything in one place and all the arms talk to one another automatically. Remember, administrative hours aren’t billable hours.
- Manual data collection. We understand the portability and nostalgic comfort of using paper and pencil for data collection. However, we also know how manually collecting data, transferring it to an online program, manually generating graphs and moving information over into reports can be tedious, time consuming and ineffective. Electronic clinical solutions have evolved to the point where you have customization and can continue to conduct therapy as you always have, with automatic graphing and easy reporting. Many data collection systems even have mobile applications so you can collect data on the go. What used to take hours can now take minutes.
- Spending hours on insurance claims. Imperfect billing can hinder the growth of even the most successful practice. Sending first rounds of insurance claims, denials and resubmitting claims can drain valuable unbillable time. Following up with insurance claims can be even more time consuming, with some practices being forced to visit each individual insurance portal to check their claim status. Some clinicians end up choosing to turn their back on insurance claims completely, sometimes depriving clients of important services and clinicians of additional clients. Thankfully, technology is here to help streamline this process. Choose a billing system with integrated scheduling and billing features. Find a system that specializes in your industry that can generate invoices for you, help you with billing codes, automatically send out claims and monitor their status for you. A well designed billing system can actually increase your billings!
- Paper client files. If you are spending hours printing and filing client files, or worse going through piles of papers looking for information on a client before an appointment, then you are doing something wrong. Use your time with your clients efficiently by having all their reports, therapy programs and patient history online and accessible, even when you are on the go. A well organized clinician is a more effective clinician. Nobody chooses to be a clinician so they can do more filing!
- Poor client communication. Late or missed appointments, unclear therapy goals, poor follow up and slow reporting can really wreck havoc on your relationship with your clients. Even the most effective clinicians lose clients and referrals due to bad communication. Online client portals with relevant documents, automated reports and clear therapy tasks in writing can save you hours and relationships, and automation around reoccurring appointments and related authorization calculation helps streamline your process.
- Non HIPAA compliant systems. The fines and legal repercussions for HIPAA violations are no joke. Make sure your system and all your communications with your clients are HIPAA compliant. Even internal communications like instant messenger programs should also be HIPAA compliant. Keep your client’s protected health information safe at all points in time.
If you are looking for a solution to help your practice from losing money every day, book a demo with CentralReach and find out how their custom, all-in-one, HIPAA compliant solutions can take your practice to the next level. From practice management, clinical tools, human resources to learning management – CentralReach was designed by clinicians to help make life easier, and keep money flowing in, for clinicians.
