Ray A. Blackwell, MD

From your post I am figuring that you are talking about discovering the cause of low volumes?  Or are your volumes too high, or not consistent?  Each has a different business approach.  The first is not a process improvement issue.  There are no process problems causing low volumes.  This is really a strategy/marketing issue.  We do not discu…[Read more]

This problem closely parallels the pain control project in the CPI presentation of “Leading Improvement”.  Rather than jump to the first obvious solution, which would have been wrong, our cause and effect work brought us to a rather obscure solution that really produced significant improvement.  It is funny sometimes how our own bias will lead u…[Read more]

I always say the perception is the enemy of reality. As a physician, are we comfortable treating our perceived notion of what is wrong with our patients or should we be more directed toward the real cause of the illness. Of course we are looking for the real cause. Yet in our healthcare delivery process it always seems that perception is good…[Read more]

This came in from Joel.

“In identifying problem, esp. when it is personnel or the manager or his or her traits there is an unwillingness to address the real problem. Sort the “emperor has no clothes” or elephant in room situation.

This came in from Rubeen

In our dialysis clinics, there is the perennial problem of poorly controlled phosphorous. We have two ways of manipulating the phosphorous- diet and using phosphorous binders. I would like to see if we can improve our process in treating this problem. Step 1: understand scope of problem- percent of pts with uncontrolled…[Read more]

Velma, this is an excellent practice improvement problem that would benefit from CPI methodology.  The LQC or metrics to measure would likely be % patients with incorrect pillboxes.  This will help you make sure the problem is frequent enough to merit attention.  Sometimes small volume issues seem more frustrating and time consuming than they re…[Read more]

Janet, your comments are not unlike many comments I have seen from non-military physicians.  Even in the service, somewhere, somehow these financial decisions are being made based on financial information that is collected.  Fact is, they organization you work for has a global budget and revenue in the form of work and expenses are calculated to f…[Read more]

In looking back at my experience in an OB/GYN setting at Ft. Hood in Tx. I had the same dilemma.  You would think that there is no financial consideration.  Resources are allocated on some different basis that financial because there is no billing.  Of course that is naive.

I would start by getting involved in the budgeting.  There is likely a t…[Read more]

What accounting system are you using?  The statement above uses a hybrid system that combines features of cash and accrual.  They do not match allowables with collections, so they never have a month to month measure of collection efficiency.

Since you are so heavy on Medicare have you and your colleagues planned for the MACRA reimbursement adjustments?  There are large organizations who assure a “Don’t worry be happy” approach and tell their staff that they will take care of it.  Except the MIPS value is tracked to the individual physician and all that data will soon be public on M…[Read more]

First, cash accounting is only allowed by the IRS in healthcare and legal small business.  Many small businesses have a delay between earning and payment of the revenue.  Think of your practice’s payables, those are AR on someone else’s books.   You are correct, the AR is the accounting tool that keeps it all straight.  Those same businesses nee…[Read more]

I hear what you are saying.  Speaking of radiation oncology, I was at the 2016 national meeting in Boston and all of the major keynote speakers talked about costs, and the importance of calculating costs in your organization.  A director from UCLA described how their calculations had changed the way they deliver care, and that everyone should d…[Read more]

Hey Andrew

Also the terms adjustments and collectible are not defined and should be.

Although days in AR is a good indicator, it is nevertheless an indirect metric of your revenue cycle efficiency.  The reason they are using this is because it is likely an easy value to computer for them.  Above is where the money is and those values are all I w…[Read more]

One of the problems with yearly review is if you find an irregularity you are a year behind in correcting it.  Also blips in collection efficiency can be masked with yearly reviews.  One last thing, think about the purpose of financial statements.  They should supply actionable information.  If the review is a year after the fact, how act…[Read more]

Hey Louis.

The first question is what am I trying to collect?  If your goal is charges, you are trying to collect a fictitious amount.  What account should be the goal of your collections efforts?

What does the large write off in your practice represent?  In part 1 of the next section of the course you will find some of these answers.  Let’s rev…[Read more]

Hey Louis.

The first question is what am I trying to collect?  If your goal is charges, you are trying to collect a fictitious amount.  What account should be the goal of you collections efforts?

What does the large write off in your practice represent?  In part 1 of the next section of the course you will find some of these answers.  Let’s rev…[Read more]

This is a little of the cart coming before the horse.  Understanding some accounting gives you a big head start in figuring out how the numbers on this statement are generated.  Certain accounting methods, although commonly used in healthcare are almost worthless when it comes time to evaluating financial performance.  You will get this in Part 1…[Read more]