It’s the beginning of a new year, and time to get your practice organized with some simple housekeeping.
Doing a careful review before the end of this month will give you ample time to take the appropriate steps, schedule any renewals, and make any necessary changes to guarantee your practice’s success in 2023!
As practice owners and managers, we strongly recommend that you review your approach to, and management of, the following components:
Insurance – Liability & Malpractice
Policies renew periodically, and you must familiarize yourself with any new terms, including: premiums, coverage, and malpractice amounts. Do not let this go un-reviewed.
End of Year Financials
Make sure to review the previous year’s statistics, and then use those to set new goals for 2023. Make sure to map out specific monthly plans to achieve these goals.
Tax Data
Although you most likely have managers and accountants who handle this for you, a personal review is very important, even just a summary sheet.
Compensation & Bonuses
It’s easy to fall into the habit of just giving an hourly raise during an annual performance review. However, all compensation and bonuses (including doctor compensation) should be annually reviewed based on the practice production for the prior year. This will help ensure a proper viability analysis of the practice.
Patient Insurance Plans
Review current plans to check participation and negotiate reimbursement rates. It’s important to annually review which providers you accept (in-network and otherwise). This way you can drop, continue accepting, or re-negotiate as necessary.
Employee Benefits
An annual review of each employee’s compensation package is very important (including PTO, medical and retirement benefits, salary, etc.). These do not all need to be done at the same time, as long as they are completed before each employee’s annual performance review. Having accurate numbers on each employee is an important factor when reviewing performance, and is a PR tool to increase staff job satisfaction.
When a full compensation package is taken into account, a salary of $38k easily becomes $45k.
Office policy
Schedule annual reviews of practice office policy to include and update any changes to employment law. Additionally, it is vital that you look at any staff issues that have occurred during the past year and add the appropriate office policy in any cases that were not covered.
It goes without saying that all office policy must be uniformly enforced – this will reduce staff conflict and legal risk to the practice.
Equipment & Instruments
Has any equipment deteriorated? Regularly scheduled inspections of practice equipment and maintenance appointments will save the practice money in the long run.
Hardware & Software
Keep the computers updated and cleaned. Ideally, someone should come in quarterly to check the hardware and ensure that all of the software is updated with the latest version. This also applies to any practice management software—make sure to keep up with the annual licensing fees as this will ensure proper support and access to the latest tested versions.
DEA
Ensure all credentials are completely up-to-date and that any documentation that needs to be submitted, upcoming inspections, and renewals are on the calendar.
Licenses & Memberships
Stay on top of renewal dates for any licenses, dental associations, study clubs, etc. Ensure that all are scheduled on your calendar with appropriate buffer time so as not to let any lapse.
Continuing Education
Review the past year’s documentation to ensure accuracy, as well as the upcoming schedule for 2023.
Property Management
Are there any improvements needed in the space, and is there a budget for that? Are you leasing, and if so, when is the lease up and what are the new terms? Make sure to thoroughly review any needs or upgrades, maintenance, and the terms for the space.
Following this simple housekeeping checklist will ensure your practice is all set up and organized for a great year ahead!
Here at ePractice Manager, we understand that running a practice is stressful, which is why we offer a full suite of onboarding, training, and management resources—to help you focus on what matters most, patient care.