Resources on how a Primary Care practice can get revenue

[MSKalltheway]

Sorry for the duplicate post, my original intent was to post this question here:

I'm doing a capstone project on how primary care physicians can make money in practice. Obviously there's the traditional way through seeing patients, but I was also wondering if there were sources like articles or books that outline what a PCP can do to increase profits (like offering cosmetics, investing in physical therapy groups or radiology centers, etc.) A short article on how billing works would be helpful too and what to do to bill appropriately.

Thanks in advance!

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[FamilymedMD]

Surviving in primary care is getting tougher all the time.

http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/publications/journals/fpm.html is a useful link for the many of the traditional means of doing this including offering ancillary services such as labs in addition to E&M type visits. Procedures still pay reasonably well. Of course, some are peddling supplements or adding cosmetics such as Botox.

Another route to run a viable business in primary care is to change the business model for seeing patients. Very low overhead practices http://idealhealth.wikispaces.com/ are popular with patients because of the more direct access to the physician instead of staff. The low overhead means the (happier) physician can see fewer patients and have a much smaller panel of patients.

This allows a successful cash or direct practice outside of the wealthy and urban areas because you can make a stable profit with lower fees and with only a small panel of patients.

Many low overhead practices take insurance but many of these seem to still struggle with finances even though the docs are happier.

Quality primary care can cost less than most patients' monthly cable bill and still give a sane life and good income to the physician.

I hope this helps.

 

[nontrdgsbuiucmd]

I'm starting a project on rural healthcare related to how it is funded, what the demand for each community is and how that relates to the number/type of healthcare providers in, say, a community of 200,000.

One consideration, depending in your focus, is to consider funds available from state, local, or federal entities that may supplement a FP's compensation -- If I were truly looking at becoming a FP in a rural area and were concerned about the compensation (and knew that area was seeking FPs), I'd contact them to inquire about possible office space, funding to get the office up and running, maybe supplemental payment on an ongoing basis, etc.

Another thought is to look into medical practice consulting services -- I've heard second hand that there are a number of them, a relative used one to set up their own medical practice (kind of doc-in-a-box; the consulting firm set everything up and had access to lenders to fund it).

 

[DrJosephKim]

More are transitioning towards cash-only (which is not the same as concierge). They bill the patient and then expect the patient to collect reimbursement from the insurance company. Many dentists and medical specialists use this method.