A lot of doctors ask questions like why is growing a practice so hard? Why is taking care of patients so hard? And there are three things you really got to focus on.
Number one, we got to focus on treating the patients. Number two, we got to focus on growing the practice well, how you do that; marketing and different things like that to grow the practice. And then lastly is getting paid and being in compliance.
We love treating patients. As doctors we just love to treat patients; that’s why we got into chiropractic what we got into this profession to take care of patients. We don’t care if it’s hard. We love to serve the patients but there are some skills we’ve got to work on and focus on and develop so we can continue doing what we love.
So growing your practice is a learned skill, you just don’t come out of school open the doors and patients flood to you. You’ve got to develop how to grow and how to focus on implementing and growing your practice.
Getting paid, that’s a challenge in today’s economy and market, getting paid for your services. Some of the patients don’t want to pay; they don’t want to pay your full fee your full service. Insurance companies don’t want to pay.
Well speaking of that, insurance companies make money on the float, meaning, you’ve taken care of the patient, you’ve provided services and if you’re billing insurance they get paid or they make money on floating the money that they owe you and, you know, the game is interesting. It’s stacked towards the dealer, meaning the insurance company, they do different things to help them hold on to their money so that they don’t have to release it to you, after you’ve provided the service, you’ve worked hard, you’ve taken care of the patient, the patient is satisfied, but yet they’re floating the money they owe you.
That’s why if you want to succeed, if you want to save more lives, if you want to help more sick people get well in your office, we have to have the documentation system, that’s no nonsense, that’s fast, it’s compliance.
Secondly, we have to have a scheduling system that can keep patients on track, that can help you see what people are missing.
And then lastly, we want to level the playing field and at the end of the day know and rest assured that that billing is going to be taken care of and that check’s coming in the mail sooner than later, not on the float, not on the time that they send you paperwork to try to, you know, slow down the claim but you know you’re on top of your game.
– Dr. Troy Dreiling