An excerpt from Systems4DC’s December 2008 newsletter.
Recently I stopped by a customers’ practice and met with the owner. Jane was not in a good mood. “This economy is really starting to take its toll on my business”, she said. Clearly worried, she continued, “It all started with $4.00 per gallon gas last summer and then everyone’s 401k got cut by 1/3 and now things are really tough. ‘Sure we have patients, but I’ll tell you this, most of my patients are not paying their copays. They can’t afford to! Who could these days? And if I forced the copay issue, most patients would simply stop coming to therapy”.
I asked about data and Jane produced month end summaries that perfectly defined reality. Treatments in her practice were flat. Flat last month. And flat when gas was $4.00 per gallon. Her practice volume was not down in any measurable way.
Every day, each of us are pummeled with media messages about recession, bail outs, lost investments, tough times – I’ve heard the word, ‘Depression’, twice today. News casts, websites, magazines. It all makes you want to put your money in a mattress.
It’s important that what happened to Jane doesn’t happen to you. Jane began to absorb these dreary economic messages and was planning to apply them to her own practice. She was about to cut back. ‘Had this happened, Jane’s somber economic mindset would have proven to be self fulfilling.
Have you heard the saying, “Don’t let the bastards get you down”? Please take it to heart!
Systems4DC has permission from our customers to aggregate data in HIPAA compliant formats for macro analysis. With nationwide volume of over two million patient visits per year, this is a credible database. ‘Want to know the impact of today’s economy on outpatient rehabilitation patient volume in America?
Just take a look at the graph shown below:
This ‘picture is worth a thousand words’ graph says it all. Flat... like Kansas.
Several interpretive points:
At the moment we can say, “2008’s numerous economics scares and challenges have not led to measurable decline of patient volume in outpatient rehabilitation. If trends in your practice differ – you need to research why, right away.
Maybe Jane’s point was right. Maybe patient volume is flat because practices nationwide are forgoing copay collections. Once again, our macro database can answer this question with the push of a button.
‘Same answer. Systems4DC practices are collecting between 90% and 97% of copays at the front desk on a sustained basis. In fact, nationwide copay collection at the end of 2008 is superior to one year ago!
Let’s review one last point – collections. Should practice owners be concerned that delinquent accounts are on the rise? Are uncollectible funds piling up toward our own industry collapse? What is happening with accounts receivable levels?
Once again, Systems4DC practice owners can rest assured that ‘in macro’ during recent months when the economic news has been at its worst, A.R. collection cycles have actually been improving! Perhaps this is the economic storm clouds’ silver lining – ‘Practices are paying more attention to their cash’.
Of course, Systems4DC has practices with deteriorating data trends. But for each of them, other practices are improving, and (in macro) our database, and customer base are very, very stable.
In reality, it isn’t clear whether these trends reflect actual U.S. outpatient rehabilitation industry trends. The true description for the above may be, “Measured performance by practices who have integrated departments and automated busywork with Systems4DC technology”. But I stand by my hypothesis: The economy is not having a measurable impact on outpatient rehabilitation (at least not on those practices who are using progressive tools).
Each month I’ll update these findings in this news letter for you in our Systems4DC newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter on the ‘Contact Page’.
For now:
And most of all, “ Don’t let the bastards get you down “.
