Find Out EXACTLY why you haven’t been paid!
Sometimes it can be confusing why an invoice is declined for payment. The patient arrived for her consultation. She brought her pre-authorisation number too. An invoice for her consultation and the...
Who Decides How Much You Get Paid?
Who really sets your fees? Most consultants, and certainly when they first start a private practice consider how best they can set their fees. In reality, however, it is not the consultant who sets...
Slight Change of Plan During the Operation
This issue has come up a few times over the years. Consider if, during the initial consultation, you advise your patient surgery is required. The patient is therefore given a CCSD code equating to...
It’s much different working in the private sector
One of the most common remarks I hear from my guys is the number of patients they see in the NHS. They literally have patients queuing up to see them. Such a comment is normally followed by the...
Do you know where you are?
All MHM clients are very dedicated individuals. Having spent approximately 15 years of training and finally becoming medical professionals, they go on to work incredibly long hours. They do so...
Why some get paid faster than others.
There are only 24 hours in a day. All of my guys are incredibly busy. I'm amazed at the volume of work they get through in a single day. They are either on-call, doing a ward round or in theatre....
The Insurance Company Race to the Bottom
In response to this morning's blog about “gap” invoices being increasingly used to mitigate fee reduction(s) imposed on consultant surgeons, many emailed me and disagreed. It is of no surprise the...
My View on Top Up or Gap Invoices
Top up (or GAP) invoices - asking the patient to agree to pay the difference between a consultant's fee and the fee an insurance company is prepared to pay. The discussion concerning them seems to...
Meaning full patterns in Private Practice
Re-reading Matthew Syed's latest work reminded me of something I'm conscious of when I look at the business performance of the private medical practice. Meaningful patterns. One definition could be...
Problems with self-funders? Pick the phone up!
Many times I come across a consultant who is having problems getting paid by self-funding patients. This is often followed by a reference to numerous reminders and sometimes even final...
A simple mistake that almost cost £275
Get the details right! I'm very much a "do it once and do it right" type of person. As I write this I'm on hold to a particular insurance company and have been for thirteen minutes and 23 seconds....
Procrastination can kill a medical practice
There a few things I hear that automatically set alarm bells ringing when I look at the invoicing and billing process of a business. "I'll take a look at it next week" "I'll get round to it in a...