Wellness Growth

I run a small solo and independent family practice office.

I took the initaive in 2008 to decontaminate my practice from the pests that make up third party insurers. I knew that initially I would take a hit, but that word of mouth would again grow my practice. I do not like to be out of control. That includes the growth of my patient base. As many who have been following this blog know, my practice consists of the following:

1. Wellness Plans- prepaid or yearly contracts with monthly auto-debits
2. Traditional Medicare
3. Self-pay with payment at time of service

As mentioned in previous posts, my expenses have gone down, my available time to spend with patient's has gone up, and being a doctor is once again enjoyable. But unmanaged growth can change that. My goal is not to build a huge practice with large staff and overhead expenses. Thus managed growth is the key and it appears to be happening without any further change in my practice style.

My goal is to have between 600-1000 active patient's in my practice. I would like to have 60-75% in my prepaid wellness plans. These plans allow my overhead expenses to remain low.

Comparing June 2008 to June 2009:

There is an increase of 19% in Wellness plan patient's.

20% of 2009 wellness patient's are totally new to my practice.

7% of 2009 wellness patient's switched from self-pay to this plan.

When I opened my practice in 1998, it took a few years for the word of mouth to make me busy. That appears to be happening now, but I am not looking to be "busy" with bureaucratic and government insurance regulations, but instead busy on direct patient care.

So far, I am on goal. I only hope that "Government healthcare reform" does not push me off course. That would be a bad thing for our profession and even worse for our patient's.

DoctorSH