Articles to Help Your Practice Succeed
A community lender can advise dentists on ways to increase revenue in other areas, or to consider refinancing for better rates or terms. Whether you’re operating, merging, buying, or selling a dental practice, here are a few ways your bank can get you closer to your financial goals.
Think of your dental business plan as a road map toward where you see your practice in five or 10 years, and how you can get there. Whether you’re looking to start a new practice or expand your existing practice, here are some do’s and don’ts to keep in mind.
Medical practices are constantly targeted by scammers, but the end of the year is an especially busy time for two types of fraud. Scammers use invoice fraud to take advantage of increased patient and payment volume as well as increased payables and invoices. As the tax season approaches, many physicians are also the target of dangerous tax and investment schemes. Make sure you and your staff are on high-alert during this busy time to protect your business and your money.
As we approach the end of another year, it’s time to review your practice’s 2015 financials and prepare for the 2016 tax season. Here are a few tips to set your practice up for financial success in 2016.
Practices of all sizes should have a business plan, even if they don’t intend to add a new service, hire new staff or open a new location. A business plan explains where you want to go and how you plan to get there. A well thought-out business plan will help your practice be more patient-oriented, more efficient and more profitable.
Before you make the decision to sell your practice, it’s important to do your homework. The following four steps will help you determine your practice’s financial health and how it compares to others in your industry. The results from these assessments will arm you with knowledge and help you decide if it’s the right time to sell.
While ancillary services can help your bottom line, the most important benefit is enhanced patient care and a boost in patient satisfaction. In an environment of rising costs and decreasing reimbursements, it’s no surprise that practices are expanding their menu of services.
Many physicians are concerned about this retail-based clinics popping up in their neighborhoods, but if you embrace the challenge, you can learn a thing or two from these clinics.
Work with a team of professionals who understand your practice, your goals and your personal circumstances, and avoid these common financial mistakes.
These five metrics will help you analyze pre and post office visit activities to identify weaknesses and improve profitability.
It’s easy to make excuses for putting off asset planning, but it’s important to have a protection plan in place before its too late. Asset planning is complicated and includes legal, finance, tax and insurance planning. Proper planning protects your practice and your personal assets from a potential lawsuit.
Today’s doctors are starting their careers with more debt than any other previous generation. This is partially due to a sharp increase in tuition, but it is also due to the changing demographics of medical students. Today, more medical students are married with children and are already living a pricier lifestyle than when they begin their schooling. Balancing this lifestyle with a large amount of debt may seem overwhelming. If the debt is from a federal loan, developing a strategic approach to repayment can ensure you are one of the many physicians that manages to repay your debt in a timely manner.
Acquiring new equipment for a medical or dental practice requires thoughtful planning and strategic budgeting. These five steps may take more time and effort upfront, but your due diligence will help you prevent any buyer’s remorse in the future.
The quality of care and patient outcomes have always been a priority for healthcare providers, but with an industry shift to result-based reimbursement, providers are now more focused than ever on improving processes that affect patient outcome. The following four applications will help you take control of your data and put it to use to improve your outcomes and your bottom line.
These strategies can help your practice improve revenue stream, collect what is due and streamline processes for a more successful operation.
Taking the time to identify your IT needs will help your practice stay on budget, provide uninterrupted service to your patients and be compliant with ever-changing regulations.
While circumstances vary, a common goal for retirement saving is 10-20 percent of your gross income. The goal for doctors and dentists, however, can be a bit more aggressive. Because of the many years of schooling needed to enter the industry, these professionals get a later start on saving for retirement.
The success of a practice rides on the talent, effort and experience of one person, the physician or dentist, and a creditor’s ability to recoup a loan is dependent on the health and well-being of that one person. Because of this, creditors must have a guarantee that funds will be repaid should the physician or dentist pass away. This is why many banks and lenders require term life insurance, naming the bank as the beneficiary, in order to secure a business loan.
There are several methods used to value a medical or dental practice including the asset approach, the income approach and the excess earnings approach. There are also other factors to consider such as risk and compensation structure. With some time and effort an acceptable value can be determined and the sale of the practice will be successful.
Not many business owners want to think about a time when they will have to hand over control of their company, but succession planning is necessary for any business owner. It is especially important for medical and dental practitioners because only those with formal training and licensure can take over the business. Developing a succession plan keeps the practice running, providing continued healthcare to patients and jobs to employees who work for the practice.
There are many benefits to starting your own medical or dental practice. You get to be your own boss, make decisions quickly, decide what types of patients you want to serve, match your practice to your lifestyle, set the tone and culture of your office and become more creative because you’re the main decision maker. If you’re thinking about or have already decided to start a practice, these tips can help you get started.
Medical and dental professionals operating private practices should regularly review their practice’s financial health. Because of changes in health care, including more high-deductible health plans, higher out-of-pocket costs for patients and changes in reimbursement rates from insurance companies and Medicare/Medicaid, maintaining a healthy practice is becoming more difficult. Consider these strategies to keep your practice’s financial health in check.