This is not intended to insult anyone’s intelligence, but the key to increasing your revenue is as simple as seeing more patients.

Now, once that simple premise is agreed upon, there are a number of variables that can be discussed on this topic.

Some of these variables include:


#1 – How do you see more patients when you are already very busy?

This is a legitimate question. There are only so many hours in a day and only so many hours in your ability to adequately care for patients.

You need time for your family, your hobbies, and your other commitments.

The first question to answer is, “Do you have the capacity to see more patients?”

Could you start seeing patients 30 minutes earlier? An hour earlier? One day per week? Several days per week?

Can you see patients on Saturday for a half-day clinic? Maybe once per month?

Could you open a special clinic to see patients one evening per month?

Many providers have the ability to add more time to see patients into their schedules.

However, most don’t want to. And that’s understandable.

But then, if you aren’t willing to see more patients, the brutal truth is that you shouldn’t complain about your decreased revenue.

Remember, seeing more patients is the quickest way to increase your revenue.

If you genuinely cannot find more time personally to see more patients, you should consider adding another partner or a provider extender such as a PA, NP, etc.

You will have to do the math for your specific location as to how many patients would the new partner or provider extender need to see to be profitable once expenses are covered. Then, you will have to calculate how much positive change that will bring to your practice’s revenue. And you will have to determine if it is worth it?


#2 – Can you change the make-up of the patients you see?


In a discussion about revenue generated from seeing patients, at some point we have to acknowledge that every patient does not impact the bottom-line revenue equally.

Medicare patients often generate the least revenue of the patients you see.

In addition, some of your insurance contracts are reimbursed at a lower rate than others.

So, if you are very busy, adjusting the make-up of the patients you see can increase your revenue.

Many providers have started limiting the number of available new patient slots in their schedule for Medicare patients.

Now, if you do so, you run the risk of losing those patients to other providers with whom they received an earlier appointment time. You will have to decide whether this tactic is worth it to your practice.

The same is true of the lower paying insurance contracts.

Most providers say they didn’t go into healthcare to ration care. And although that is true, they also didn’t go into it thinking they would be worried about their reimbursements.

At some point, even for providers, healthcare is a business, and the business needs to maximize its revenue.


Conclusions:
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​Every business in every field needs customers. 

Without customers, there is no business.

The same is true in healthcare.  However, in healthcare, we call them patients, not customers.

But likewise then, in healthcare, without patients, there is no business. 

So, to improve the revenue of any healthcare business, that business has to see more patients. 

What are you doing about your declining reimbursements?

There are a number of options available.

But, by far the least complicated option is just to see more patients!
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