Inefficient and manual processes have far-reaching financial impacts on chiropractic practices. Is this true of your chiropractic practice?

How dangerous can be the inefficiency in a chiropractic practice? Some quick calculations can reveal the potential effect on a practice’s revenue chart.

If a chiropractor takes an average patient fee of $60-100 and collects lower reimbursements from payers because of mistakes in insurance billing, he/she is potentially losing thousands of dollars every year! But that’s not all…

The fiscal health of a practice could also be affected by a higher number of no-shows, billing errors and paper costs, and lower patient retention.

Inefficiency in chiropractic practice – Where it begins

The consequences of inefficiency in a chiropractic practice can be multi-faceted and damaging to its bottom line. But where does it begin? The sources of perceived inefficiency in chiropractic practices are diverse. Here are some common causes:

1. Inefficiencies in patient management 

• Patient Pre-Visit – Patient appointment scheduling through phone calls and making reminder calls or sending messages could reduce productivity and result in ineffective use of staff time. The “no-show” appointments also disrupt workflows and can cost you both time and money. In fact, it costs practice on average $200 per unused time slot.

• Patient Actual Visit – Using papers for patient intake forms and asking patients to fill them during the visit increase wait times for other patients. When chiropractors use paper SOAP notes for patient charting, it increases the length of the visit and decreases the value-added time for patient care. The amount of data entry required for paper notes for billing purposes could take up to two hours of staff time every day.

• Patient Post-Visit – Manual invoice-to-pay processes are needlessly complicated. A manual AR process is time-consuming and increases the risk of making errors. It has a profound impact on productivity and cashflow. 

2. No workflow integration

Consider this – a chiropractic practice is using an EHR system for patient health records, a billing company to manage the claims and AR processes, and front-desk staff to schedule appointments and manage paper-based patient intake. All these processes are not integrated and lack automation for manual, repetitive tasks.

Without standardized, integrated chiropractic EHR software that automates and streamlines practice management, a chiropractic practice will have to continuously shift between disparate sources of information, resulting in productivity loss and even greater revenue leaks.

3. Complacency and bottlenecks

“This is the way I have always done, so why change” – it’s a sign of complacency. Just because a practice has been managed in a certain way for a long time doesn’t mean it is the best way to do so. This is where inefficiency in chiropractic practice begins.

Chiropractic practices that don’t make continuous improvements to their processes or services don’t grow their revenue. Resilience in adopting technological capabilities often creates problems for practices. Bottlenecks, such as wasted time on phone calls, increased wait times for patients, reimbursement delays, productivity issues for the staff, and errors and rework are the results of not adapting to new technologies.

Symptoms of inefficiencies in chiropractic practice

Check out for these inefficiency symptoms that may be affecting your revenue growth:

• Documenting patient health records is getting cumbersome
• Time wasted on phone calls and answering patient questions
• Patient wait time is high 
• Patient volume is good but not the revenue numbers
• There is no track of missed appointments
• Still using paper SOAP notes
• Staff wasting time rummaging through paper notes
• Patient compliance and referral is low
• There is no track of online reviews and reputation
• The number of unpaid claims increasing

Inefficiency in chiropractic practice – How to remove it

The good news is that chiropractors can make their practice efficient by automating productivity-killing tasks. By utilizing automated, integrated chiro software to manage a practice, chiropractors can remove complexities and inefficiencies from the day-to-day processes. Here are the areas where an all-in-one chiropractic EHR system can automate manual processes and improve workflow, performance, and revenue:

1. Patient scheduling

68% of patients prefer to book appointments online, generating more than $3.2 billion in added value for the healthcare industry. So practices must offer an online patient scheduling functionality to cut down on phone calls, save staff’s time, increase patient volume and revenue. With a patient appointment scheduling system, a practice can streamline the patient cycle, increase patient satisfaction, and offer a seamless experience to patients.

2. Appointment reminders

Patients are not always available to take phone calls in the middle of their work. This increases missed appointments. No shows cost healthcare systems $150 billion each year. Sending reminders to patients of their upcoming appointments is another process where automation can go a long way. With automated patient reminders, a practice can reduce no-shows by an average of 34 percent. With no phone calls to make, staff can focus on more important works. And by reducing no-shows, the practice can improve its bottom line.

3. Documenting

Practitioners deal with different types of paper files – from patient intake forms, patient SOAP notes, insurance claims to A/R reports. Paper files bring inefficiency in chiropractic practices. On average, an administrative staff uses 10,000 sheets of paper every year. The cost for using and managing paper files can easily reach thousands of dollars in a year even for a small practice if you include printing, storing, and managing costs.

Transitioning to a paperless practice by using a practice management software integrated with an EHR system helps you manage these important recurring documents and patient files with an automated process. You and your staff have access to all information, anytime, anywhere. Being cloud-based software, it offers you scalability and can help you easily handle your growing patient volume and data. Ultimately, a practice can save thousands of dollars per year by using an EHR system and electronic documentation process.

4. Patient flow

The easier and faster it is for patients to get what they want, the higher the satisfaction rate will be. Online check-in, filling intake form from home, no wait times, well-managed waiting rooms, and speedy payment process provide patients seamless experience and save more time for the chiropractor. If a practice can see one more patient a day, it can bring in additional revenue each year. To save more time in a day, improve patient flow with a practice management system that helps you automate patient check-in, intake forms, and payment will make your practice run efficiently.

5. Billing

Billing is the core of a practice that demands time and attention to detail. A single mistake could cost practices a great amount of money. Automating the claim submission process for a single claim could save a provider practice on average 40 minutes and more than $15 in direct savings. With chiropractic billing software, practices can auto-generate claims, submit claims with two clicks, get real-time updates on submitted claims, and generate billing reports.

6. Patient recall

When patients don’t adhere to their treatment guidelines, chiropractors miss out on revenue opportunities. A patient recall is an effective way to improve patient retention and reduce missed opportunities for practices. By increasing the retention rate by 5%, a practice can increase revenue by at least 25%. Automating patient recall campaigns with chiro software can reduce manual labor for staff and increase appointment volume and revenue.

“Running a chiropractic practice comes with many administrative burdens. Inefficient processes can make it more difficult. To grow and increase revenue, practices need to embrace automation and integration to create a truly efficient practice, says Sukhi Singh, founder of zHealthEHR, practice management software designed specifically for chiropractors. 

Conclusion

Chiropractic practices that will take advantage of practice automation are more likely to see revenue growth. From online patient scheduling, digital SOAP notes, billing to review posting, an integrated chiropractic EHR software system can eliminate inefficiencies and provide substantial revenue growth.