Following on from a recent blog and questions raised by a group of consultant surgeons, I was asked to further explain why you must invoice quickly.
The obvious answer is that the sooner you invoice, the sooner you get paid. Fairly straight forward you may think. Yet many consultants in my view take far, far too long to invoice – delays of up to 2 weeks are not unusual.
However, have you ever considered what might happen if there is a benefits limit on a patient’s policy. You won’t even know if there is or not and certainly you won’t know what the limit is. But if the limit is reached either partially or in full before you’ve submitted your invoice you are pretty certain to be shortfalled. Therefore its a case of “whoever asks first gets paid first” and whoever asks last gets paid IF there is enough money left. So if you invoice for your work a few weeks after the event and more importantly after every one else, you run the risk of increasing the number and value of the shortfalls you are subject to.
For example: MHM was asked to review the invoice process of the consultant surgeons mentioned above. In doing so, the cash flow of the consultants was compared to that of an existing MHM client. The consultants had many, many shortfalls and excess amounts on their accounts. The MHM client had less than 12. Why? Same specialism. Similar volumes of work. However, MHM invoiced for the original client within 48 hours of receiving the clinic / theatre list. The consultant was raising invoices at the end of each month. Coincidence?
No.
That is why it’s important to invoice quickly. If you are not, what can you do about it?
If you wish MHM to benchmark against what it should be, email me.
I’ll work it out for you. And it’s free!
pete@medicalhealthcaremanagement.co.uk
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