Want to know how to increase medical practice revenue? Add these 6 healthcare services
During times of increased payer scrutiny, denials, and recoupments, physicians can’t afford to leave any stones unturned in terms of potential new revenue opportunities. In fact, pursuing these opportunities is often necessary to increase medical practice profits and promote healthcare financial sustainability.
The calendar year 2024 physician fee schedule final rule includes several new revenue opportunities to consider. However, when thinking about how to increase medical practice revenue, here are six additional services to ponder as well:
1. Ancillary services. Depending on your patient population, it may be lucrative to offer one or more healthcare ancillary services such as med spa services (e.g., Botox, dermal fillers, laser hair removal, and skin care products), x-rays, electrocardiograms, ultrasounds, stress tests, or laboratory testing. This article says physicians should perform a cost-benefit analysis before adding ancillary services to increase medical practice profits.
2. Remote patient monitoring (RPM). CMS first began paying for RPM in 2019. Since then, the agency has expanded payment, and several states and commercial payers cover the service as well. In addition, the proposed agenda for the May 2024 CPT Editorial Panel meeting includes several items that, if approved, could make it easier for providers to bill for RPM and increase medical practice profits. Now is a good time to consider whether (and how) an RPM program can boost revenue. You’ll need to think about what conditions you’ll monitor specifically and how. This article can help you get started.
3. Chronic care management (CCM). CMS began paying for CCM in 2014. In 2021, it added five codes to report staff-provided principal care management services under physician supervision. While there are eligibility and documentation requirements to consider, CCM may be a healthcare service that can promote revenue growth in medical practices.
4. Tobacco cessation. Medicare pays for two tobacco cessation attempts per year, and there has been a greater push for commercial payer coverage as well. The good news is that you may already provide this service, and with a few tweaks to your healthcare documentation, you may be able to bill for it as well. Check out this article that describes the economic value of tobacco cessation and includes a link to an Excel spreadsheet that can help you calculate the estimated reimbursement for your medical practice based on billing every smoker for three-minute cessation counseling. Again, if you’re looking for how to increase medical practice revenue, this may be an easy solution.
5. Obesity counseling. Medicare pays up to 22 visits for obesity counseling in a 12-month period when patients meet certain weight loss criteria and when physicians document specific relevant details. Commercial payers may cover it as well. Thus, obesity counseling could be one way to increase medical practice profits.
6. E-visits. CMS began paying for e-visits (i.e., online digital visits during which physicians address patient concerns asynchronously through patient portal messages) in 2020. Physicians can bill these visits if the visits require at least five minutes of time for medical-decision making over a seven-day period. While underutilized, these healthcare services could promote revenue growth in medical practices, and it may make sense to provide them to patients with low-complexity medical issues.
Making your decision
As you ponder these and other new healthcare services in your medical practice, be sure to ask yourself the following questions:
Will adding the new healthcare service prevent us from losing patients to another medical practice?
Will payers cover the new healthcare service? If so, what specific diagnosis will the payer want to see in order to pay? And will it impose any limits on how many times per year you can provide the service?
Will the new healthcare service help lower healthcare costs because the medical practice can provide it less expensively?
Will the new healthcare service improve convenience for patients?
Will the new healthcare service improve turnaround time for an ordered service we would normally refer out?
Will the new healthcare service make the medical practice more attractive to health plans and referrers?
You’ll also need to think about the costs of providing a new service, such as equipment, remodeling the medical practice, personnel, supplies, and promoting/advertising.
Leveraging technology to promote revenue growth in medical practices
In addition to providing new healthcare services in your medical practice, you can also leverage technology to increase revenue. For example, claim scrubbing, claim alerts and tracking, and automatic secondary claim submissions improve financial performance and promote faster reimbursement. Learn how edgeMED can help and be sure to check the Healthy Snacks blog for more expert insights, best practices and industry trends.
