PracticeCare

Adding a new associate sounds cut and dry. After all, they’re there to treat patients, for which they have the training to do so. Easy, right? Not so fast. There’s more to it. My guest today advises his clients on numerous accounting and operational issues, including hiring, and he’ll share his experience with us. Joe Lessard is a partner at Professional Business Management, a healthcare practice...

Finding good staff in your medical practice seems only to be getting more challenging. At the same time, more tools that substitute for in-office staff are available. Those tools should be helping, but sometimes they seem to make things more confusing. My guest today runs a medical virtual assistant company. They help their clients deal with staffing shortages and make sense of their choices to fi...

As important as it is to understand the patient journey, my industry has done a terrible job of helping practices make “the patient journey” anything useful day to day. My guest today agrees, and he helps his clients turn that journey into a tangible, actionable mechanism practices can use to grow. Daniel Tribby is a healthcare provider, effective business growth strategist, award winning author,...

How do you know if your financials are healthy? Hint: there’s more to it than just having more in your checking account at the end of the month vs. the beginning of the month. At the same time, you don’t want to be buried alive in your financials. My guest today is a partner in a primary care practice, and she consults to private practices. She has a good idea of the basics of healthy financials,...

Private practice might seem like it’s on the ropes, but new ones actually start all the time. Who are the successful ones? Those who weigh out the pros and cons and really think through the business side of the practice. My guest today helps physicians figure out these questions, and he’ll share some of this thinking with us. Adam Middleton has committed his entire professional career to healthcar...

Should you add a new service to your practice? That depends on the answers to a few important questions, which unfortunately, we don’t see enough practices asking and answering before they do. My guest today helps his clients develop informed answers, and he’ll share his thinking with us. Joe Lessard is a partner at Professional Business Management, a healthcare practice management and accounting...

Agree or disagree – doctors and dentists are perfectly rational people who always make rational, emotionless decisions. It’s best that you disagree. They’re humans just like the rest of us, which means emotions get into their decision making. My guest today helps his doctor and dentist clients plan their financial futures, including managing their emotions along the journey, and he’ll help us unde...

Sales feed your income, which pays your bills and fuels your dreams. Since sales are so important, why wouldn’t you build a plan that drives sales instead of just taking what comes? My guest today helps her clients build plans that lead to the business outcomes they want, and she’ll answer this question for us. Michelle O’Connor, a believer in following one’s dreams, has risen from an inner-city c...

While I love marketing, I hate marketing jargon. Tops on my list: Brand. It’s a hugely important word, whose definition my industry has completely messed up. My guest today consults with practices about many things marketing, and together we’ll take on the task of simplifying what brand means and why even you need one. Daniel Tribby is a healthcare provider, effective business growth strategist, a...

If you take health insurance as payment, payers are a big part of your practice. What happens when they mess up? How do you hold them accountable? Can you hold them accountable? My guest today says the answer is “yes”. He runs a business that spends a lot of time holding payers accountable for their clients, and he’ll help us break this down. David Zetter is the founder and President of Zetter Hea...

A referral network is the lifeblood of many specialists, and LinkedIn has its place to help you build that network. LinkedIn is a rich platform with tons of features, so you better know what you’re doing. My guest today specializes in helping his clients build their brand on LinkedIn, and he’ll share some ideas with us. Sheikh C. Ali is a former medical student who pivoted to entrepreneurship. He...

Whenever anyone says “marketing problems” they think of things like volume of new patient leads, website and social traffic, return on ad spend, and the like. But are those truly the biggest marketing problems? My guest today says they are not, and I agree with him. What are they? Listen and find out. Since 2003, Jake Goates has given group seminars and training on sales and marketing. He is a Key...

If you take insurance, then you know about Revenue Cycle Management (RCM). The industry keeps evolving. You can bring your RCM in house, outsource it, or mix and match them. Not sure what to choose? Thinking so changing what you’re doing now? My guest today will break each option down for us to help you out. Vinod (Vinny) brings over 15 years of experience in operations, financial analysis, strate...

Why do some doctors get paid more for the same treatment than others? Even in the same city? Chances are the doctors who get paid more have a solid payer strategy. What does it take? My guest today helps his clients develop a solid payer strategy, and he’ll tell us all about it. Adam Middleton has committed his entire professional career to healthcare, working at for profit and not for profit hosp...

Looking for a way to reduce your taxes? Have a second property like a vacation home? The short term rental loophole can help you deploy your vacation home to reduce your taxes? How does it work? What are the requirements? My guest today runs an accounting firm that helps their medical clients get efficient on taxes, including using the short term rental loophole when it applies. She’ll explain all...

Incentives in compensation, used appropriately and ethically, are effective tools to help you grow your practice. You need to think them through. What sounds good on paper might not be in practice. My guest today consults with practices to help them grow. She often recommends incentives in compensation, and she’ll talk us through how to use them effectively. Lisa Levesque is the principal and Busi...

Cash is king, which means your cash flow needs to be working well. You can be strategic about cash flow, or you can be willy-nilly about it. We recommend the former, and today’s guest agrees. He helps his clients with their accounting, practice management, and cash flow needs, and he’ll help us understand how to make your cash flow strategies effective. Joe Lessard is a partner at Professional Bus...

As a private practice owner you cannot rely only on great clinical care to attract new patients and keep them over time. You’re supposed to be great and there’s plenty of competitors to you. How do you differentiate? One way is to offer great customer service, but unfortunately a lot of practices don’t take it seriously. My guest today consults with dental practice owners, and he helps them take i...

Retirement planning as a practice owner has more moving parts than it does as an employee. As an owner, you have personal income and business income, and frankly, more choices. More choice can be good as long as they choices make sense, and my guest today helps her clients sift through their choices to build a sensible retirement plan for them. Alexis E. Gallati is the founder and Lead Tax Strateg...

The federal tax code is almost 7,000 pages, not to mention your own state’s tax code. Buried in those pages are some obvious ways to save on taxes, and some not so obvious ways. My guest today works with individuals and business owners to find those non-obvious ways, and he’ll give us a few examples on this episode.  Drew Powers is the Founder of Powers Financial Group, LLC, a Registered Investmen...

Not every job, or every part of every job, has to be done by people physically located in your practice. Remote work is not new, and one of the keys to success is managing remote workers successfully. My guest today consults with private practice clients on numerous operational issues, including this one, and she’ll share her insights with us. Katie Nunn, MBA, CMPE, provides training and coaching...

While reviewing a contract between you and a third party is anything but gripping, it has to be done. Why? There can be landmines placed all over them. My guest today is a healthcare attorney who helps his clients negotiate fair agreements, among his other services. He’ll share some of the landmines he finds and what you can do. E.J. Cyran has spent over a decade as a healthcare lawyer, which mean...

“Do as I say, not as I do” makes life easy for a while, but guess what: your staff will see you holding yourself to a different standard than them…even on the same policies. That’s not good! Holding yourself accountable isn’t always easy, but if you want the credibility of your team, you need to figure out how. My guest today coaches her clients on a variety of leadership topics, including this on...

I’ve seen a number of job descriptions in my career, and that for the office manager in a practice is one of the craziest. Why? Everything is in it, making it, in reality, the job description for many people. The office manager role is crucial, so why do this to people? My guest today helps practices build strategic and operational excellence, and he’ll help us understand how to use the office man...

One of the keys to a profitable medical or dental practice is to be smart on overhead costs. They’re significant, and sometimes difficult to find. If you don’t understand your overhead costs, or if you feel like you’re working harder for the same compensation, then this is an episode you’ll want to listen to.  Joe Lessard is a partner at Professional Business Management, a healthcare practice mana...