School prepared us to be competent practitioners, but seldom prepared us to run a business. If you have no business experience or training we recommend that you enroll yourself in a business management course that can give you the fundamentals of what you need to know on how to run a business. Another good source of knowledge is your association which also offers Practice Management course and seminars. We strongly recommend that you get all the knowledge you can on how to run your practice since it will only make you more successful. Applying the knowledge you will learn will not only make you a great doctor or optician but a successful business owner.
When in doubt make use of the service of a professional such as an accountant and of a professional legal adviser to properly setup and guide your practice for success. There are many complex rules (taxation, accounting, insurance, HIPAA, PIPEDA) that you must follow and having sound advise from competent professionals will go a long way to making your business successful.
In addition to your business knowledge and those of your advisors, you must remember that you are doing business in a market place with increased competition and complex business and insurance rules. The industry is constantly changing, you need a tool that is always up-to-date and can help you manage your practice efficiently. Filopto is such a tool! So keep it up-to-date, remember to do your updates on a regular basis to insure that you always have the latest industry changes.
To run a successful business you must be able to :
1) Attract Customers/Patients
2) Retain Customers/Patients
3) and Manage Efficiently and Effectively.
Success in a business is a result of many varied things that you do well. Filopto provides tools that can help you market your practice, stay in contact and retain your customer, manage staff and help you organize your practice so that your patients come back and you become successful. Following is a brief summary of some of the things you should consider when setting up your practice and how Filopto can help you manage and grow your practice into a successful practice.
Establish your Business Objectives:
If you do not know where you want to go, How will you know if you arrived? Although simple to understand establishing and communicating your Vision and Practice values to your Patients and Employees is not as simple as you might think. Clearly define what you want your Practice to represent and the services standards you want to offer. Continually communicate clearly and verify that your communication is clearly understood. It may be clear to you, but can be easily be misunderstood by everyone else. make certain that everyone understands!
A good starting point is to create an Office Manual which clearly states how things are to be done. This Office Manual is a binder that contains the Mission Statement, Doctors Profile, Personnel Policies and Guidelines, Condition of Employment, Benefits, Job Descriptions, Office Procedures, Forms, Directive, Office standards and Task to the completed. It should communicate to your employees such things as;
1) How you will operate your business, (hours of service, Providers expertise, Practice expertise, why patients want to do business with you, your standards for customer service and office efficiency)
2) What you expect from your Employees ( personnel policies and guidelines, Condition of employment, benefits, job descriptions, office procedures and policies, HIPAA and PHI Acts requirements, the legal and professional conduct requirements, the practice work environment, employee review procedures, etc.. )
3) Who are your Patients ( Who are you targeting as customers?, What information you need from them?, What forms do they need to complete?, How to communicate with them?, Define the Customer Service level you want to provide to your patients).
4) What insurance companies/policies you will accept, (What each plan will pay (plan coverage), Eligibility requirements/guarantees, Why you refuse certain plans, How to complete a claim, Do you do it manually or do you use the automated Claim feature in Filopto? )
5) What is the price list for your services and products, (how to explain the fees to the patients, do you have a different price depending on the serving office, Do you manually price items or do you use Filopto 's automated pricing feature, how to handle disagreements, how to manage your inventory items, how to show and display products, what is your marketing strategy?)
6) Direction and scripts to the receptionist (Identify how she is to greet the patient, how to schedule appointments, What information is required from the patient, how to handle objections or disagreements, when to recall a patient)
7) Script for the Optician, (what services are provided, what information to provide the patient, How to handle disagreements)
8) Script for Patient Recalls ( how and when to recall a patient, what to say if calling, what should our recall reminder look like, when to schedule a recall).
9) Monitoring Payments, ( How to record payments, How to run the daily balancing reports (see Daily Accounting Procedures), What to do if reports do not balance, How to make a bank deposit, How to check for late payments, How to make a collection call, How to create a claim, How to follow-up on claim status, How to resubmit a claim, How to track overdue payments and claims)
10) How Staff is to be trained ( What does your staff need to be trained on, How to use Pre-test equipment, What training is required on Filopto? Answer all the questions the staff needs to do their job effectively and efficiently)
Filopto comes with many forms and reports that you can customized to better reflect the philosophy and environment of your practice. They are in Filopto as a starting point for monitoring your practice achievements and getting your practice organize. Start by reviewing the available forms and reports. Print a list of them using the Report Manager ( see in the Report Manager the reports called "Forms Report List, and Report List). Decide which form or report best suites your practice, customize them to your needs and make them a part of the daily procedures and task of your Practice.
We also recommend that you review the Eye on your Business section, since this tool can help you monitor the progress and issues in your Practice.
Filopto user interface suggest the normal work flow of a practice and can help you complete the various task your practice demands. Understand all the elements that your practice need to do and keep track of them to be successful. Seek advice from expert in your industry via seminars or other opportunities available to you. keep up to date and knowledgeable of the changes that can affect your practice. Be pro-active!
Attracting Patients
The best referral a business can receive is one from a satisfied client. But before you can get a satisfied customer you must let them know you are open for business. Filopto offers marketing and patient tracking tools to help you define an effective marketing campaign. The Marketing and Communication tool permits you to create flyers, e-mails, newsletters etc.. The various tracking reports available will help you determine how your new patients are finding you, who they are (demographics) and help you decide where to put your marketing energies to attract more patients. Define your marketing strategy and then use Filopto to see which one is effective.
Retaining Patients
Good Customer Service is one of the keys to success. If your patient are happy about their interaction with your practice they will return. If they are unsatisfied they will not come back. It is important that you define with your staff what is the policies and guidelines for delivering good customer service (see Your Office Manual). Then you must measure how effective you are in delivering what you believe is good customer service. Filopto can help you create Patient Surveys to find out what you are doing right and what you can improve. Filopto also has a comprehensive Recall Manager whose message you can tailor. The numerous reports available can also help you track the various key pieces of your Customer Service strategy. Good service will keep them coming!
Managing Efficiently and Effectively
Filopto provides numerous tools to help you manage efficiently and effectively. Please review the users manual and customize Filopto to your needs. You will want to establish the office procedures and guidelines (Office Manual) that your staff are to follow in completing their various tasks. To Manage Efficiently and Effectively you and your staff will need to know information, procedures and guidelines which will range from:
1. |
What information will you need from the employee? |
2. |
What documents does the employee need to sign (HIPAA)? |
3. |
What is the job description of the employee? |
4. |
What training to the employee must be provided? |
5. |
What is the office hours of service? |
6. |
What is the provider appointment schedule? |
7. |
What information must be provided by the Patient? |
8. |
What documents must be signed by the Patient (HIPAA)? |
9. |
What insurance policies will you accept? |
10. |
What insurance policies will you not accept? |
11. |
What insurance and patient information needs to be entered into Filopto? |
12. |
What is your pricing policy? |
13. |
What needs to be entered in Filopto to track effectively the Inventory, Insurance policies and Invoices? |
14. |
What is the Payment policy for Patients ? |
15. |
What are the returns, credit memos, adjustment policies? |
16. |
What is the Claims processing policy (send electronically every day ?) |
17. |
What report will we use to track payments due, how often is this list generated? |
18. |
What is the collection of account policy? |
19. |
What action and when is it taken to collect over due accounts? |
20. |
What is our Inventory Policy? |
21. |
What is our Purchase Order Policy? |
22. |
What items are verified on a daily basis? (Daily Reports run and verified) |
23. What security, backup and other procedures are required to protect patients and the business?
Filopto can help you manage all of these items and much more but you must establish your office procedures and task and communicate them to all employees. Filopto can help you track these items once you have identified the ones important to your practice.
Once you have communicated your objectives and vision to your staff, you must constantly review if the office staff is successfully following and completing the identified procedures and tasks. As the owner or manager of the practice, it is your responsibility to review the operation and identify issues and make sure they are properly addressed. Filopto provides many reports that can help you in managing and identifying issues. We recommend that you identify the key reports you need to be successful and that these are reviewed on a regular basis.
Following are some reports that should be considered as indispensable:
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Production report: Gives a summary of the daily activity of the practice - Should be reviewed on a daily basis, items not meeting your standards should be immediately investigated. |
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Bank Deposit for a Day report: To be used to reconcile the Daily Bank Deposit - Should be reviewed on a daily basis, all discrepancies should be immediately investigated (see Daily Accounting Procedure for more details). |
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Patient and Insurance Accounts Receivable: The goal is for all payments due to be collected immediately. The norm is that any payment not received over 30 days has a higher risk of not being able to be collected. Therefore, somebody should be on a daily basis, calling for payments of all over due accounts starting with the oldest first. This has to be constantly tracked with positive results being generated on a daily basis. |
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Various Invoice and claims Reports: To verify that all Patients have been invoiced, and where applicable, that claims have been generated and sent in a timely fashion. Verify all write offs, adjustments, returns and credit memos for compliance with your office policies. |
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Various Purchase Order Reports: Verify that Lab Orders and Inventory orders are approved and sent. Verify that Lab Orders and Inventory P.O. have been received, delivered and invoiced to Patient where applicable. |
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Various Operational Reports to verify that office policies and procedures are properly followed. (Example: Are the patient recalls being sent in a timely fashion? Are Patient customer service policies being followed? What are the errors being done on submitted claims and do we need to do training sessions to reduce errors and improve payment times? Are Tasks assigned being completed?) |
