Where Should We Go Tonight?

Can Shannon make the commitment to automate her billing reports and take control of the office finances?

Shannon and Mike were having a familiar conversation: What should we do about dinner? They had both returned home from busy days at work, both were a little frazzled and hungry and “as usual” the refrigerator was lacking in appetizing options.

“I’ve heard that the new Indian buffet is very good,” said Mike. “But it’s downtown and it’s almost 6:30, so there might be a bit of a wait.”

Shannon thought about that. “That sounds delicious and we should definitely get there at some point, but I’m too hungry for a long wait. Why don’t we just go grab some Chinese at our usual place – there’s never a wait there.”

“You know, Shannon, we’re never thrilled with our meals there and we’ve tried everything on the menu,” Mike said. “There’s a pretty good reason why there’s never a wait there.”

They looked at each other testily for a moment – hunger and a lack of accord might become a threat to their nice evening out.

Just then Laurie came running out of the living room and hugged Shannon, happy to see her mother. “Mommy, you’ve got to see my new art book –  I drew all of the pictures myself!”

“Of course, Laurie, I’d love to see it,” Shannon said. “Listen, Mike, I’m going to look at Laurie’s artwork and then we can go try that new restaurant downtown. It sounds like fun.”

She went into the living room with Laurie and sat down on the couch with her. She wondered why she was so irritable this evening as she turned the pages of the book.

Her thoughts kept returning to earlier in the week, when Teresa explained the difficulty she was having keeping track of the office finances. Too often they were surprised to learn that some patients had accounts that were past due. And between varying accounts receivable windows and some insurance companies that were dragging out the reimbursement process due to even minor errors in data entry, it was making confident budgeting impossible.

Shannon pondered how difficult it was for her to keep track of crucial patient information until she put a system in place. Between her voice recorder, written notes and meticulously organized files on her computer, she felt confident in her mastery of the most important details for each patient.

But then she thought about how many areas of office management that Teresa was expected to stay abreast of: office supplies, scheduling, working with outside vendors, insurance reimbursements her plate was truly full. And considering that third parties don’t always respond when and how you want them to, the level of complexity and the time it takes to handle each task can be multiplied exponentially.

Mike and she had talked about the program that could automate many of the functions of her office and Shannon had been serious about actually following through and implementing it. But there always seemed to be a crisis to attend to – trying to collect from patients who owe balances beyond a certain date, trying to figure out where long-overdue insurance reimbursements were.

Shannon knew when she started her practice that it wouldn’t only be about attending to patients –  she knew there would be crucial administrative work that would have to be handled by her staff.

Teresa had certainly had shown she understood the benefits of having data to inform business decisions. But customization is key when reviewing large amounts of detailed data and it didn’ t seem like Teresa was tapping the full potential of the system when it came to the billing reports. Shannon knew that there were reports that could be broken down in a number of different ways and could be endlessly customized so that they could stay on top of potential problems in the office.

Well, maybe we should take some time to figure it out together, Shannon thought. Without getting these reports done – and done right – we really have no idea how well our office is functioning. This sounds like something we should talk about on Monday.

But first she wanted to enjoy a nice dinner with Mike and the kids. She appreciated how Mike listening to her talk about the various issues in his office, and he often responded with some great feedback.

When Shannon had finished looking at Laurie’s artwork and congratulating her on being the next Rembrandt, she found Mike and the kids in the hallway, ready to go –  the car keys in one hand and a small lunchbox in the other. “What’s in the lunchbox, Mike?” Shannon asked.

“Well, since you’ve agreed to my pick of restaurants, I wanted to reciprocate by packing some snacks for the drive so you won’t be starving while we wait for a table,” Mike said with a smile. “The kids helped – we’ve got some fruit, cheese and crackers, and your favorite, cashews.”

Shannon smiled at Mike, who never failed to make even the most hectic and frustrating day better. “We’d better get going,” she said. “Maybe we can be on the lookout for a new Chinese place on our way there.”

Both were laughing on their way out the door.

Can Shannon make the commitment to automate her billing reports and take control of the office finances?

Disclaimer: For HIPAA compliance, all characters appearing in this post are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons or actual events is purely coincidental.