Digg It - Business

When patients miss appointments, they interrupt the flow of patient care and impede clinic productivity. A missed appointment amounts to reduced bi

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

lling and missed revenue. The rate of no-shows runs at thirty percent for the average Family Practice clinic. Worse, if the clinicians are part-time

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

r full-time staff rather than contracted, they sit idle on the company clock. In this case, a missed appointment is not just a missed opportunity for

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

revenue; it's lost money with each passing minute.

An effective office manager uses three strategies to protect clinic revenue:

Char

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

e for missed appointment. This strategy works well in terms of no-show reduction for ongoing cases but it is ineffective for missed intakes. Al

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

so, billing full service fees for misses is not possible for procedures covered by medical insurance. Moreover, billing insurance companies for serv

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

ces not rendered is a major felony that carries severe punitive action including both financial penalties and jail time.

Minimize no-s

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

hows. Recognize that any activity that reduces the frequency of no-shows is a revenue-generating activity. Use down time to

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

b>Make reminder calls for upcoming appointments. It works best when reminders reach the consumers one to three days ahead of their appointments.

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

Note that any degree of success is improved billing and money in your pocket.

Follow up on recent no-shows. Call patients who fa

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

led to appear this week, survey them as to the reason for their missed appointment, and reschedule next appointment.

Analyze no-show s

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

tatistics. Feed missed appointment survey information back into patient scheduling system, alarming about the types of appointments that are most

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

likely to be missed. Use this knowledge to target reminder efforts, or to change scheduling. For instance, waiting time for appointment is related t

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

o the likelihood of missing it. Specifically, both very short turn around times (one to three days) and longer waits (10 to 14 days) are associated

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

ith poorer attendance. Waiting periods of four to seven days positively correlate with best attendance.

Overbook.

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

Overbooking is an effective strategy in terms of billing revenue protection. It requires good understanding of your no-show statistics and it rests

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

n the premise of the interchangeability of clinicians. Identify the most vulnerable appointment type in terms of missed revenue and cluster them duri

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

ng periods of the day (“target periods”) when you can have a pool of clinicians on site. You can implement this strategy by scheduling appointments o

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

the quarter-hour rather than the half-hour increments during the target period.

Reference

C. Moore, P. Wilson-Witherspoon,

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

J. Probst, “Time and Money: Effects of No-Shows at a Family Practice Residency Clinic,” Family Medicine, July-August 2001, Vol. 33, No. 7, pp. 522-52

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.diggit.org.ua/article/40918/diggit-3-Best-Strategies-to-Reduce-Patient-NoShows-and-Improve-Medical-Practice-Billing-Revenues.html">3 Best Strategies to Reduce Patient No-Shows and Improve Medical Practice Billing Revenues</a>

BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.diggit.org.ua/article/40918/diggit-3-Best-Strategies-to-Reduce-Patient-NoShows-and-Improve-Medical-Practice-Billing-Revenues.html]3 Best Strategies to Reduce Patient No-Shows and Improve Medical Practice Billing Revenues[/url]

The world of business is moving forwards at a fast pace. Globalization, huge marketing exposure and low distribution costs over the recent years have had a huge impact on small businesses. I have been told that opportunities for the adventurous and ambitious were in abundance only ten years ago but the 'markets have changed' and margins are tighter making new ventures all the more risky.

You know that Google has a corner on the market when people refer to pay per click advertising as Adwords campaigns, but Google isn't the only game in town. Still, if you're looking to make money with PPC, Google is still King.

Even if salespeople have undergone progressive sales training, there's no guarantee that they will be successful. It is common knowledge that skills grow rusty over time and salespeople are prone to pick-up bad habits along the way or to simply skip steps and take shortcuts that can lead to long-term trouble. Perhaps even more important these days, is the fact that markets, competition, technologies and customer preferences are all in a constant and accelerating state of change. This fact requires that sales people are able and willing to rethink their sales strategy and approach frequently and receive a regular top-up of skills and motivational coaching.

Tags

Links

Digg It - 3 Best Strategies to Reduce Patient No-Shows and Improve Medical Practice Billing Revenues

Related Articles: