If you are a practicing physician, then you know there are many expenses associated with running a successful practice. Relying only on insurance payments or reimbursements alone can be risky. Ancillary medical services is one option to turn to for additional income.
Aside from the lengthy periods it takes to receive money from an insurance company, they sometimes dispute claims, extending the time you receive the money you are due.
These lapses in time can cause your practice to suffer financially, even if it is temporary.
Your office most likely has a lot of expenses.
Expenses
Unexpected expenses can arise, requiring funding your practice may not be prepared to handle. An example may be when the large oak tree falls on your office building, creating huge repair costs.
Even if there are no surprise incidents that cost you money, there are regular, ordinary expenses. These are the ones that keep your office functioning properly. For instance, hiring good nurses and staff, malpractice and liability insurances, trainings and conferences, updated medical equipment, rent, and even student loan debt.
Necessities such as these can have a huge fiscal impact on your practice. Adding ancillary medical services in your practice can help offset unexpected costs. In-office dispensing of medications is one of these ancillary medical services that can bring in more money for you and your business.
In-Office Dispensing Explained
With an in-office dispensary, you can prescribe medicine and fill prescriptions for your patients at the point of care. Meaning, before your patient leaves your office, you can provide them with the medication they need.
Patients no longer need to travel to a pharmacy and wait long hours to get their prescription. They simply pick up their prescription before they leave your office. This allows your patients and your staff more time to focus on other needs.
In office dispensing makes it easy for patients to comply with treatment. This improves patient outcomes. The outcomes are measurable and allows doctors to show patients the correlation between taking their medicines and better health.
There is a reason millions of people shop at Wal-Mart. It’s easy and affordable. They can get everything they possibly need to live in one location. This one-stop-shop also can offer them lower prices on the items they need.
While you don’t want to become another Wal-Mart, you could benefit from offering the one-stop-shop experience for your patient’s medical needs.
Same Number of Patients, Increased Income
Providing ancillary medical services such as in-office dispensing can offer you more money without having to expand your patient case load. When others find out you provide this service, they may want to become your patients. But instead of feeling obligated to take them on to increase revenue, you will have the option to choose the patients you want to see.
By keeping your case load lower, you can devote more time to your current patients. The community will value you as a patient-centered physician. Meaning, you put your patients’ needs first.
There is specific software technology that makes dispensing easy so you can stay focused on patient care.
The technology used with in-office dispensing is practical and provides many services to you and your staff.
The Technology
It is fair to say you did not attend business school on top of medical school. You have the knowledge and talent to save lives, repair bodies and heal illnesses. But when it comes to technology, you may sometimes feel intimidated.
The technology used with in-office dispensing makes it easy for anyone who will be using the system. Software packages are created specifically for your office’s needs that have been shown to reduce errors in prescriptions.
A software specialist will guide you and your staff through the straightforward steps involving claim submission, inventory, patient information and much more.
Choosing the right software program is the most important part of beginning the process of introducing point of care medication provider. The right company, with the right technology, will streamline your business so much that you will find yourself saving time and money.
One example is in working with insurance companies.
Quick Claim Adjudication
Insurance companies can take a while to decide on a submitted claim. This is time you and your staff don’t have. They have a process that includes several review stages, from initial reviews to manual reviews. They then decide on whether they want to pay the claim. The last step is pay the claim or reject the claim.
Direct dispensing software does all the work for you, giving you back your time.
As you know, your time is valuable. The more time you have, the more money you can make in your practice.
Using the right software program, your office can be connected online with every insurance company’s claims and payments departments. All you must do is submit the information and press send. The insurance company responds electronically, making the entire process simple and organized.
How Much Money Can You Make With Ancillary Medical Services?
Some reports claim adding in-office dispensing as part of an ancillary medical services program can bring between $50,000 to $200,000 extra each year. Both numbers make it worth the effort.
Other reports claim you can make up to $5 per prescription written through your point of care prescribing program. Now take the number of prescriptions you write per year and multiply that by five. That’s a significant increase.
Adding a service such as this leads you to add even more ancillary medical services down the road. Retail is one of the largest ancillary medical services that offers the greatest returns. Just like ophthalmologists sell eye glasses in their office, you can sell ancillary medical services to your patients.
There are hundreds of products to help treat multiple medical problems. Choose the products your patients need the most. Or, you can offer ancillary procedures to make more capital.
These can include surgeries, like those considered to be cosmetic, that are mostly paid for by the patient, giving you even greater profit margins.
Additional income streams can be beneficial for any medical practice. In-office dispensing is an easy to use method of creating more revenue that will increase as the years go on.