The weather was sunny on Monday and Tuesday. It seems that nice weather days cause a slowdown in patient volume. I saw 9 patients both days. But of the 18 seen this week, 7 have signed up for the wellness plan, with another new patient tomorrow also expected to join. 2 of the renewals were not even seen. They just sent in a check for payment in full, and the memo section of the check was written "wellness plan". These 7 patients, with one more expected tomorrow represent at least $3,955 of revenues for the year.
Try this on for size.
- If I am able to grow the practice to 800 patients, with all in the wellness plan, that would be $395,500 in revenues.
- If each average 5 visits per year, that would be 4000 visits per year averaging just under $100 per visit.
- 4000 visits in 50 work weeks = 80 visits/week, or 20 per day in a four day work week.
- That would be 2.5 visits per hour, or about 25 minutes per visit. This is an average, some would be longer, others shorter.
This should be the future of primary care. But until more physicians utilize this system, and make it the standard, physicians will continue to be stuck in the inferior insurance mill style.
The main question about my system is whether I can grow it to 800 or more patients. It would be easy if the other docs in my area adopted a similar system. If this style became the main force in my community, I would have to turn people away. Revenues would be up, medical care would be non-rushed, costs would be controlled, the doctor-patient relationship would once again mean something, and residents would once again choose primary care as a specialty.
In other words, "Win,Win,Win, Win and Win!"
I just got a text message from one of my wellness patients, He faxed me some labs from another physician. He wants to chat about them. I can have him come to the office for a visit, but he has no copay, and it would take him away from his work. I'll check the efax from my laptop, and call him tonight. It's a nice thing not to worry about payment!!
DoctorSH
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2 comments:
You really have some good points on this transition. In a perfect world, I'd like to do this with my practice, too.
Unfortunately, as a medical subspecialist, this is not as easy. While there are certainly a number of chronic neurological illnesses, a fair percentage of my patients are only there for 2-5 visits until an active problem is effectively treated.
Good points Grumpy! This blog is geared more for primary care docs who are thinking about transitioning. But if we would look at the extra overhead we incur to get paid, the extra time commitment to deal with all the red tape, not to mention the "grumpiness" in not being in control of our profession, we must realize that there has to be a better way.
Just for fun, what would you charge a patient for an evaluation if your overhead was cut in half, and you got paid at the time of service? After you come up with a number, go through the machinations of how many patients you would need to see to earn a decent income as well as give the best non-rushed care as possible.
DoctorSH
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