Incentives can boost productivity, revenues
Incentives can boost productivity, revenues
Proper documentation measures productivity
(Editor's note: This is the second in a three-part series on innovative approaches to documentation that can significantly enhance your department's revenues, without making any changes in patient flow and throughput processes. This article discusses how the use of incentives can improve documentation and increase revenues. The final installment will discuss excellence in coding and billing practices.)
There can be millions of dollars of unrealized revenues "left on the table" if your staff are not documenting properly, say experts. One effective strategy for optimizing those opportunities is to offer productivity incentives, says James M. Fox, MD, FACEP, vice president of Emergency Medicine Specialists, a staffing company for emergency physicians and extenders, and managing director for Midwest Emergency Services, a billing, coding, and practice management company, both in Fraser, MI.
"We always incentivize doctors to be [more] productive," says Fox, noting there are two primary ways to do that. One is to incentivize ED physicians to see more patients and perform more procedures. "The other way, which is perhaps more subtle but more important, is to show doctors that they need to document what they do," notes Fox.
It's the incomplete documentation by ED physicians "that is probably the biggest detriment to doctors actually garnering the monies they are due for the services they render," Fox asserts.
Robert B. Takla, MD, FACEP, vice chief — emergency services at St. John Hospital and Medical Center, Detroit, has seen this approach first-hand. "One institution transformed from a hospital employee model to a private physician group," he recalls. "Before, the doctors were not making much money, and the hospital was losing $300,000 annually to pay for doctors' services in the ED."
After the hospital outsourced its ED management to a private group, says Takla, the group started working with Fox and adopted his incentivized approach. The physicians are paid a base hourly rate, but they also receive a percentage of what is collected, he says. "For every bill under their PIN number, monies are accrued to that doc account," he explains. "So, by documenting and optimizing revenue, more money comes to them."
The physicians are definitely not complaining. "I've seen a quarterly bonus check of $50,000 go to one physician," Takla says. "Those bonuses range anywhere from $10,000 and higher."
In addition, the hospital has increased revenues by $3 million because of improvement in productivity and documentation, he notes.
Such an approach fosters a change in attitude that patients no doubt appreciate as well. "At Robert's shop, he told me doctors would actually walk out into the waiting room and bring the patients in," Fox shares.
Before the change, says Takla, "What you'd hear more often is 'Don't bring any patients back until I tell you to.'"
Sources
For more information on improving documentation, contact:
- James M. Fox, MD, FACEP, Vice President, Emergency Medicine Specialists, Managing Director, Midwest Emergency Services, Fraser, MI. Phone: (586) 294-2700. E-mail: [email protected].
- Robert B. Takla, MD, FACEP, Vice Chief — Emergency Services, St. John Hospital and Medical Center, Detroit. Phone: (313) 343-7071. E-mail: [email protected].
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