Let’s Start
“Doing Things on Purpose!”

It’s never too early to start talking about New Year Resolutions…Whether it’s the ones you made this year (or two or three or ten years ago) or the ones that you will be making for 2008.  The main thing is to make resolutions that you actually believe you can follow through on and that will really be beneficial to your life.

In the case of your practice, you may be already way ahead of most of your colleagues, in that many of you have aligned yourself with America’s best consulting corps, Williams Group.  They don’t just help you with annual resolutions, the construct their entire relationship with you around all kinds of resolutions.  Resolutions which result in better doctor patient relations, better income, better staff commitment to the goals of the practice, etc.  In reality, the process of making; and making good on; resolutions is ongoing and critical to your success in your personal and professional life.

But, I can’t help you with all of those things.  All I can do is attempt to motivate you to help yourselves in several critical areas.

First, your fee schedule is possibly out of date and very likely unrelated to the value of your services.  This would be a great time to take a look at each and every fee you charge to be sure that each fee represents your feeling about the value of the service.  You might consider what Medicare and other payers reimburse for each service to provide some background, but not of that is as important as your relationship with the patient and the value that your services provide to each patient.

If you are like most of our colleagues, your fees are probably too low.  I can say that because we do hundreds of analyses of doctors’ fees every year, and compare ODs’ averages to MDs’ averages for identical services.  ODs provide excellent care at fees that average nearly 35% below the fees charged by the 50th percentile of MDs.  It’s time to review your fees and make sure they match their value…”Do it on purpose!”

How about your medical records and your choices of codes?  Most of the services you provide will be reported using one or more codes from Current Procedural Terminology (CPT © American Medical Association.)  It is critical that you use the codes that match the content of the medical record, which also will match what you did for the patient, which will also match exactly what the patient needed that day.  Can you do that?  Do you know the requirements for the 92000 and 99000 office visit codes?  For the special ophthalmological services?  For the anterior segment surgical services?  If not, it’s time to study up and make sure your coding is ‘up to snuff.’  It’s time to get better at this important phase of your practice.  It will only get done if you “Do it on purpose!”

Finally, this would be a great time to look at every contract you have with every payer, be it for refractive services only or for medical services.  Are the conditions of the contract, including the fee schedule, still acceptable to you?  If not, it’s time to contact the payer and ask for a new contract.  You’ll be surprised at how many insurance companies are ready to pay you more for your services if you just ask.  So ask…”Do it on purpose!”

There.  All you have to do is take care of these three ‘end of 2007’ resolutions and you won’t need to make any New Year’s Resolutions for 2008!

Take this month's brief survey on fees, codes and contracts.

About the author:
Chuck has served as Executive Vice President of the Wisconsin Optometric Association (WOA) since January, 1990. He practiced optometry in Weyauwega (WI) from 1971 through 1989. Dr. Brownlow has volunteered in his profession, serving as president of the Wisconsin Optometric Association in 1981-82, of the North Central States Optometric Council in 1984 and acting as chair of public relations for the American Optometric Association from 1986-1989. For several years, Dr. Brownlow was a member of the AOA Eye Care Benefits Center. In his present position, Dr. Brownlow is very active in legislation, regulation and public relations, especially with respect to health care reform. He is a frequent author and speaker on the future of health care and often helps citizen groups understand the complicated health care issues by referring to the development of the current health system.

Williams Group Exhibiting at Vision Expo West

Including Practice Director and EyeMotion

If you plan on attending Vision Expo West, make sure to stop by the Williams Group booth (#21102) to learn more about our executive training and consulting services, our powerful, user-friendly software and our state-of-the-art mulitmedia services.

Williams Group provides the best of practice development services all under one roof supported by the best relationship-based support and consulting in the industry.

We will have our software up and running with demos available throughout the day, so be sure to see the cleanest interface available. You'll be surprised just how easy Practice Director is to use!

EyeMotion will be displaying rich, interactive educational animations that will help increase your product awareness and boost your bottom line.

We welcome your questions and would very much like to learn about you and your practice. We look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas!

Don't forget to ask about Show Specials!!!