New Year Practice Resolution?

Goals are as important to business as they are in one’s personal life. Here are a few steps for setting successful goals for the New Year.

STEP ONE: Set aside time. You can never be too busy to evaluate areas of improvement. In fact, being too busy may indicate the need for improved efficiency. One of my favorite cartoons depicts a caveman trying to share the invention of the wheel. The other two cavemen say, “No thanks were too busy,” while straining to push their wheel-less cart up a hill. Generally, if you are too busy to evaluate new ideas you are too busy to track performance.

STEP TWO: Select the area for improvement. There are many metrics a practice can track and many tools from which to identify them. Most key performance indicators (KPI’s) will relate to revenue cycle. Here are a few examples:

• Scheduled no-shows
• Insurance verification rate
• Insurance denial rate
• Days in AR (DAR)
• Percent of AR > 90 days
• Operating costs per full-time-equivalent (FTE)
• Collection rate (gross and net)

If you don’t know how to calculate KPI’s nor have a good way of tracking them, there are various solutions available which automatically track and place them into an informative real-time “dashboard.”

STEP THREE: Set your goal. Once you have selected an area for improvement the next step is to set your goal. One of the best ways to do this is to use the tried and true method of setting S.M.A.R.T goals which are as follows:

• S—Specific: Smart goals are specific. Ask “what” you want to accomplish, “why” it is important, and “when” you want it to be accomplished. A general goal would be to “improve business operations”. A specific goal would be “reduce 1rst quarter AR percent from __% to ___% by implementing ___ and____efficiency measures”
• M—Measurable: KPI’s are not only specific they are numerical and easily measurable
• A—Assignable: Who will be involved and accountable for the given task?
• R—Realistic: Is the goal realistic given available resources? When setting realistic goals it is important to review specialty specific benchmarks among peers. The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) provides members with an annual best performers report in accounts receivable, for example. Other resources include national associations like hfma, ADDOM, JAWS Society, or even specialized blog sites.
• T—Trackable or Timely: Individual KPI’s not only provide a starting point (your current numbers) but they also identify when a goal is accomplished.

With this, I end with one of my favorite quotes from Will Rogers, "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." Good Luck and Happy New Year.         

Josh Shipman is a patient A/R efficiency specialist with TSI. TSI achieves the nation’s highest net back recovery while maintaining patient diplomacy and the highest compliance standards. TSI has been vetted and peer reviewed by the Nation’s top medical associations and offers technology solutions uniquely compatible with the top EMR software –helping medical groups significantly improve internal efficiency and effectiveness of patient collections. For more information or to request a demo of these solutions contact Mr. Shipman via email [email protected]