The healthcare business model has evolved across the country and internationally due to policy changes and ongoing legislation. In this ever-evolving industry, effective management procedure and strategy are the difference between your healthcare organization’s business growth or stagnation.
Here are some useful tips on how to grow your healthcare business without compromising your employees’ needs.
Effective Payor Contract Negotiation
A top management technique that will grow your business with the increased revenue is the effective negotiation of payor contracts. Proper healthcare contract management is the key to signing contracts that not only grow your business but immensely benefit your employees. If your business has the data to show that the practice is cost-effectively getting optimal care outcomes, you have the leverage to negotiate for better reimbursement terms.
However, remember that these contracts often contain complex clauses, allowable deductions, and legalese. Plus payor providers are skilled at making the process long and tedious in a bid to frustrate the whole process by wearing you down. Thus, it’s best to employ the services of professionals skilled at contract management so that you sign the best contracts for your business and employees. The return on investment (ROI) is definitely worth the cost.
Build An Online Presence
The online space is one of the leading platforms that successful healthcare businesses use for growing their business. Your practice needs patients to grow and the way to reel in new patients is by having a strong online presence. There are numerous reasons why. A significant number of people search for healthcare providers online, relying heavily on online reviews in the making of their choice.
Plus an estimated 89% of people Google their health symptoms before seeing a healthcare provider. Therefore if you have a regularly updated website that contains educational blog posts and answers to frequently asked health questions chances are that they might run into your website, get the relevant information, and contact you or book an appointment.
Consider After Hours Virtual Visits
An extremely effective strategy to grow your business while also managing your employees’ needs is by providing virtual consultations after office hours.
Replacing those after-hours urgent patient calls with reimbursable video visits means you can fit more appointments into a day, compete with nearby practices that are only open from 9 pm to 5 pm, and keep the existing patients in your practice with convenient scheduling options. Additionally, the need of your employees for a work-life balance remains uncompromised, because these visits are conducted in the comfort of their homes.
Motivate Your Staff
Having a happy staff translates into having happy patients because the staff is responsible for optimal patient care, which is the primary reason why both old patients and new patients stay.
Here are tips on how to motivate your staff:
- Promote a team environment. Your staff will work more productively if they feel like they’re part of a team bigger than themselves. Foster a team environment by arranging office outings and celebrating birthdays
- Give the staff a voice. This can be done by creating an easy avenue for providing feedback
- Praise your staff. When a staff member handles a tricky patient encounter or goes over and above to implement a new workflow, make sure you thank them for a job well done
- Schedule one on one meetings. Research in behavioral science shows that attention from leadership can be a powerful motivator for employees
Juggling the management of a healthcare business with the management of employees’ needs can be daunting because of administrative and policy considerations. However, negotiating beneficial payor contracts, motivating staff, utilizing social media, and going virtual are strategies that can really grow your healthcare practice.
