Acupuncture is a rapidly growing alternative and integrative therapy that offers a range of benefits for pain management and other health conditions. However, starting and running a successful acupuncture practice requires a well-thought-out marketing plan to attract and retain clients. A marketing plan helps you define your target audience, understand your competition, and develop a strategy to reach your goals. This blog post will provide tips for how to develop a marketing plan for your acupuncture practice and list five top resources for small business owners.
Step 1: Define Your Target Audience
The first step in developing a marketing plan is to define your target audience; this includes identifying the demographics of your ideal patient, such as age, gender, income, and location. Additionally, consider the health conditions and symptoms for which your ideal patient may seek treatment, such as pain management, fertility, or sleep disorders. Understanding your target audience will help you down the line to tailor your marketing messages and strategies to reach and engage with them effectively.
Step 2: Conduct a Competitive Analysis
Next, conduct a competitive analysis to understand your competition and identify potential gaps in the market. Research other acupuncture practices in your area and evaluate their marketing strategies, services offered, and the type of patients they target. This information can help you identify opportunities to differentiate your practice and position yourself as a leader in the market.
Step 3: Set Marketing Goals and Objectives
Once you have defined your target audience and conducted a competitive analysis, it’s time to set marketing goals and objectives. These goals should align with your overall business strategy and be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound. For example, a plan for your acupuncture practice may be to increase new patient visits by 20% in the next six months.
Step 4: Develop Your Marketing Strategy
With your target audience, competitive analysis, and goals in mind, it’s time to develop your marketing strategy; this includes identifying the tactics and channels you will use to reach your target audience and achieve your marketing goals. Some common marketing tactics for acupuncture practices include:
- Website and SEO: Your website is often the first impression a potential patient will have of your practice. Make sure it is professional, easy to navigate, and provides all the information your target audience needs. Additionally, optimize your website for search engines to improve visibility and attract new patients.
- Online Advertising: Online advertising, such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads, can effectively reach your target audience and drive traffic to your website.
- Content Marketing: Content marketing involves creating valuable, relevant, and consistent content to engage with your target audience and build trust and authority. Consider writing blog posts, making videos, or hosting events to educate your target audience about the benefits of acupuncture.
- Referral Marketing: Referral marketing encourages existing patients to refer friends and family to your practice. Offer incentives, such as discounts or free treatments, to encourage patients to guide others.
- Social Media Marketing: Social media marketing means using social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Facebook to promote your practice and sell your products and services.
Step 5: Monitor and Evaluate Your Results
Finally, monitor and evaluate your results to see what is working and what is not. Regularly track your marketing metrics, such as website traffic, patient visits, and conversions, and adjust your strategy as needed. This ongoing evaluation will help you improve your marketing efforts and achieve your marketing goals.
Resources when establishing your marketing plan.
- Small Business Administration (SBA): The SBA provides a wide range of resources and support for small businesses, including loans, grants, counseling services, and training.
- SCORE: SCORE is a national organization that provides free mentoring and resources to small business owners.
- National Small Business Association (NSBA): The NSBA is a nonprofit organization that provides advocacy, networking, and resources for small business owners.
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH): The NCCIH provides information and resources on complementary and integrative health practices and therapies.
- American Holistic Medical Association (AHMA): The AHMA provides education, resources, and networking opportunities for holistic healthcare practitioners.
How does this relate to a billing company focused on acupuncture, chiropractic, and medical massage billing? While you are busy creating your business plan, your time does not need to be consumed by the tedious and complicated medical coding and billing process. By letting a trusted firm like Holistic Billing Services, handle your online appointments, SOAP notes, or your medical billing burden, your time, energy, and creativity are freed up to focus on what matters most: your patients. The friendly experts at HBS have decades of experience and are eager to help you succeed in EHR and medical billing! Contact us today to get started building a custom solution that suits your acupuncture practice needs and goals.
Developing a social media medical strategy for your holistic practice can be valuable for connecting with your patients, building trust, and promoting your services. However, knowing where to start with social media platforms can take some work. This blog post will discuss the pros and cons of various social media platforms and provide tips for developing a social media strategy for your holistic practice.
When developing a social media medical strategy for your holistic medicine practice, it is vital to consider the following:
- Identify your target audience: Whom are you trying to reach with your social media efforts? Are they current patients, potential patients, or other healthcare professionals?
- You can choose the right platform from our guide below: Based on your target audience and the type of content you want to share, you can choose the social media platform that will most effectively reach your audience.
- Create a content calendar: Plan your content for the next month, quarter, or year; this will help ensure that you have a steady stream of content to share and that you are sharing relevant and engaging content.
- Engage with your audience: Respond to comments and messages and use the platforms’ features to engage with your audience.
- Measure and adjust: Track your social media metrics to see which posts are performing well and which are not. Use this information to change your strategy and improve your results.
Social Media Guide
Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms and is a great place to connect with patients and promote your practice.
- Pros of using Facebook include the ability to reach a large audience, create posts that are easy to share, and post events and appointments.
- Cons of using Facebook include creating engaging and relevant content, keeping up with the algorithm changes, and the potential for negative comments or reviews.
Twitter is a fast-paced platform that allows you to share quick updates, news, and information.
- Pros of using Twitter include the ability to reach a large audience, the ability to connect with influencers, and the ability to share real-time information.
- Cons of using Twitter include being concise and to the point, managing the character limit, and the potential for negative comments or reviews.
Instagram is a visual platform that allows you to share pictures and videos to promote your practice.
- Pros of using Instagram include the ability to reach a large audience, the ability to communicate visually appealing content, and the ability to connect with influencers.
- Cons of using Instagram are the need to produce high-quality content, keep up with algorithm changes, and the potential for negative comments or reviews.
LinkedIn is a professional networking platform for connecting with other healthcare professionals and promoting your practice.
- Pros of using LinkedIn include the ability to communicate with other healthcare professionals, the ability to share industry-related content, and the ability to promote job openings.
- Cons of using LinkedIn include creating professional and relevant content, keeping up with the algorithm changes, and the potential for negative comments or reviews.
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing platform that allows you to share videos to promote your practice.
- Pros of using YouTube include the ability to reach a large audience, share informative and educational videos, and connect with influencers.
- Cons of using YouTube need to produce high-quality video content, keep up with algorithm changes, and the potential for negative comments or reviews.
Social media can be a powerful and cost-effective tool for promoting your holistic practice and connecting with patients. By identifying your target audience, choosing the right platform, creating content, and tracking your social media results, you’ll have a strategy to connect with your patients, build trust, and promote your services.
How does this relate to a billing company focused on acupuncture, chiropractic, and medical-massage billing? While you are busy creating your social media strategy, the tedious and complicated medical coding and billing process does not need to consume your time. By letting a trusted firm like Holistic Billing Services handle your online appointments, SOAP notes, or your medical billing burden, your time, energy, and creativity are freed up to focus on what matters most: your patients.
The friendly experts at HBS have decades of experience and are eager to help you succeed! Please reach out to us today to build a custom solution that suits your acupuncture, chiropractic, or medical massage practice needs and goals.
Cash flow is the amount of cash a business generates and uses in a given period. Understanding cash flow as part of your business plan is essential to ensure that the practice has enough money to pay its bills and invest in its future growth. Projecting cash flow in a medical practice can be daunting, but it is essential for the practice’s financial success. In this blog post, we will discuss the steps involved in projecting cash flow for a medical practice and provide tips for maintaining a healthy cash flow.
Step 1: Identify your sources of cash
The first step in projecting cash flow is to identify the sources of cash for the practice. These sources include patient payments, insurance reimbursements, and investments. Understanding the timing of these payments and any trends or fluctuations in the amount of cash received is essential. For example, if the practice experiences a spike in patient volume during the summer months, it will likely receive more money during this period.
Step 2: Identify your uses of cash
Once you identify the sources of cash, it is crucial to identify the uses of cash for the practice. These uses include expenses such as rent, salaries, supplies, and equipment. It is important to understand the timing of these expenses and any trends or fluctuations in the amount of cash spent. For example, if the practice plans to purchase new equipment, it will likely spend more money during the month or quarter in which you bought the equipment.
Step 3: Create a cash flow projection
With an understanding of the sources and uses of cash, the next step is to create a cash flow projection. This projection should include an estimate of the amount of cash received and spent in a given period. It is vital to have both expected and unexpected events in the projection and any trends or fluctuations in the amount of cash received or spent.
Step 4: Monitor and adjust your projection
Once you create the cash flow projection, it is essential to monitor it regularly and make adjustments as necessary; this may include adjusting the prediction based on actual results or making changes to the practice’s operations to improve cash flow. For example, if the practice is experiencing a cash flow shortage, it may need to increase its billing and collections efforts, recruit patients or reduce its expenses.
Tips for maintaining a healthy cash flow
- Review your billing and collections process: A poor billing and collections process is one of the most significant contributors to cash flow problems. Regularly reviewing and improving this process can help ensure that the practice receives payment for services promptly.
- Control expenses: Keeping expenses under control is essential for maintaining a healthy cash flow. Reviewing expenses regularly and finding ways to reduce them can help to improve cash flow.
- Communicate with patients: Clear communication regarding their financial responsibilities can help ensure that payments are received promptly.
- Maintain a good relationship with insurance companies: Building a good relationship with insurance companies can help ensure that reimbursements are received promptly.
- Keep an eye on future trends: Monitoring future trends in the healthcare industry can help to anticipate any changes that may impact cash flow.
In conclusion, projecting cash flow in a medical practice is a vital task that requires a thorough understanding of the sources and uses of cash. By following the steps outlined in this blog post and implementing the tips for maintaining a healthy cash flow, medical practices can ensure they have the resources they need to grow and succeed in today’s competitive healthcare landscape.
How does this relate to a billing company focused on acupuncture, chiropractic, and medical-massage billing? While you are busy projecting your cash flow, let us handle your EMR technology needs and the tedious and complicated medical coding, and billing process. By allowing a trusted firm like Holistic Billing Services, to capture your online appointments and SOAP notes, or offloading your medical billing burden, your time, energy, and creativity are freed up to focus on what matters most: your patients. The friendly experts at HBS have decades of experience and are eager to help you succeed! Contact us today to get started building a custom solution that suits your acupuncture practice needs and goals.
Opening a holistic healthcare practice is an exciting and challenging endeavor that requires careful planning and preparation. A business plan is a critical tool that can help you to organize your thoughts, set goals, and create a roadmap for your practice’s success. In this blog post, we will discuss the steps on how to establish a business plan for your holistic practice and provide some tips for creating a successful strategy.
Step 1: Research the market
The first step may seem obvious, but all too often is overlooked. When developing a business plan, you must first do your market research; this includes identifying the ideal patients for your practice, researching other holistic practices in your area, and understanding the trends and opportunities in the holistic healthcare industry. This research will help you know your target patient’s needs and concerns, allowing you to develop strategies that align with your strengths and interests.
Step 2: Define your business model
Once you understand your market, the next step is to define your practice’s business model; this includes identifying your services, setting prices, and determining how you will generate revenue. It is also essential to consider the costs associated with opening and operating your practice, such as rent, salaries, furniture, and equipment.
Step 3: Create a marketing plan
A marketing plan is a critical component of any business plan and is essential for promoting your practice and reaching your target audience. This plan should include strategies for getting your brand and message in front of potential patients, such as advertising, networking, and social media. In today’s world, it is critical to establish early how you will use social media and other digital marketing tools to promote your practice.
Step 4: Develop a financial plan
A financial plan is a crucial part of any business plan and is essential for understanding the costs associated with opening and operating your practice. This plan should include an estimate of your startup costs, operating expenses, and projected revenue. It should also have a projected cash flow statement, which will help you to understand your practice’s financial health over time.
Step 5: Review and refine your plan
Once your business plan is complete, regularly reviewing and refining, it is essential; this includes monitoring your progress, adjusting your plan as necessary, and seeking feedback from industry experts. It is also crucial to stay updated on industry trends and regulations and adjust your plan as needed.
Tips for creating a successful business plan
- Be realistic: Setting realistic goals and conservative projections for your practice is important; this will help you to avoid disappointment and make adjustments as needed.
- Please keep it simple: A business plan should be easy for someone else to understand and follow. Avoid using jargon or overly complex language.
- Seek feedback: Get input from industry experts, friends, and family to get an outside perspective on your business plan.
- Be specific about your goals and plans. Your goals should be measurable; this will help you stay focused and on track.
- Be flexible: Be prepared to adjust your business plan as necessary. The healthcare industry is constantly changing, and it is vital to adapt to changes.
Finally, developing a business plan for opening a holistic healthcare practice is a critical step in ensuring the success of your medical practice. By following the steps outlined in this blog post and implementing the tips for creating a successful plan, you can create a roadmap for your practice’s success and ensure you have the resources you need to grow and thrive in today’s competitive healthcare landscape.
Resources when establishing your business plan
- Small Business Administration (SBA): The SBA provides a wide range of resources and support for small businesses, including loans, grants, counseling services, and training.
- SCORE: SCORE is a national organization that provides free mentoring and resources to small business owners.
- National Small Business Association (NSBA): The NSBA is a nonprofit organization that provides advocacy, networking, and resources for small business owners.
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH): The NCCIH provides information and resources on complementary and integrative health practices and therapies.
- American Holistic Medical Association (AHMA): The AHMA provides education, resources, and networking opportunities for holistic healthcare practitioners.
How does this relate to a billing company focused on acupuncture, chiropractic, and medical massage billing? While you are busy creating your business plan, your time does not need to be consumed by the tedious and complicated medical coding and billing process. By letting a trusted firm, like Holistic Billing Services, handle your online appointments, SOAP notes, or your medical billing burden, your time, energy, and creativity are freed up to focus on what matters most: your patients.
The friendly experts at HBS have decades of experience and are eager to help you succeed! Contact us today to get started building a custom solution that suits your acupuncture practice needs and goals.
Opening a holistic medicine practice can be a rewarding and fulfilling experience, but it is also a significant financial investment. As a healthcare consultant, I want to share some critical business advice and tips for opening your first practice.
First and foremost, it is essential to have a clear and comprehensive business plan in place before you start. This plan should include a detailed budget outlining the costs associated with opening and running your practice and projected income and cash flow, including a marketing plan and a strategy for acquiring and retaining patients. A solid business plan will help you secure funding from a bank or investors and serve as a roadmap to guide your business decisions and practice growth.
Another essential piece of advice is to keep detailed financial records. This is especially important when it comes to taxes and compliance. As a holistic medicine practitioner, you must stay up-to-date on the latest laws and regulations, and having accurate financial records will make this process much more manageable. Additionally, keeping detailed records will help you identify areas where you can improve your financial performance and make adjustments as needed.
One of the most significant financial decisions you will make before opening your doors is how to structure your business. There are several options: sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company (LLC), and corporation. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, so it is essential to consult an attorney and accountant to determine the best fit for your practice.
Another important consideration is how you will finance your business. Depending on the size and scope of your practice, you may need to secure funding from a lender or investor. I think having a solid financial plan in place, including a detailed budget and projected cash flow, is essential to show potential lenders and investors that you have thought through the financial aspects of your new practice. Also, you will need to clearly understand your creditworthiness and be prepared to provide the necessary documentation to secure funding.
Additionally, stay on top of your cash flow. This is especially important when starting your practice, as you will likely have a lot of upfront costs and may still need a steady income while you fill your schedule. A clear understanding of your cash flow projections and having a plan in place for dips in cash frequently is the difference in making it to the second year of your practice.
Finally, it is essential to have a good handle on your pricing strategy. As a holistic medicine practitioner, you will provide a unique and valuable service, but you will also need to be competitive with other practitioners in your area. It is essential to research the prices of similar modalities in your area and to have a pricing strategy that is both competitive and profitable. Additionally, you will need to consider logistics like: billing insurance for your services, how you bill your clients, and what payment methods you will accept.
In conclusion, opening a holistic medicine practice can be a fulfilling and rewarding experience, but it is also a significant financial investment. By following these tips, you can ensure that your practice is financially sound and successful. Remember to have a clear and comprehensive business plan, stay organized and keep detailed financial records, understand the laws and regulations associated with your profession, and have a solid pricing strategy. Good luck with your new practice!
The healthcare revenue cycle is fraught with various moving parts and pieces that can throw a wrench in your financial performance; one such example is that of rejected claims, which can delay your payment for services rendered, cause extra stress, and result in lower financial performance for your holistic practice.
The ideal metric for tracking the performance of your claims processing strategy is to have a 95% or higher clean claims rate—in other words, you want to aim for at least 95% of your claims to be processed without issue. These clean claims demonstrate that your medical coding and medical billing approach is effective and efficient. Reworking rejected claims costs your practice time and money, plus it causes unnecessary headaches.
While a 95% clean claims rate is ideal, the reality is that practices average 75-85% clean claims, which means that up to a quarter of revenue is being held up by rejected claims. If your holistic practice accepts insurance or patients covered by Medicare, then this can significantly stymie your healthcare revenue cycle.
Hence minimizing rejected claims is a priority; in this article, we’ll dive into how rejected claims help your practice, hinder your practice, and some best practices for the medical billing and coding process.
How Rejected Claims Help Your Practice
It might sound counterintuitive, but if you shift your perspective to see rejected claims as something that can help your holistic practice, then you’re already on the right track.
Rejected claims can present an important opportunity for your holistic practice’s overall revenue cycle in terms of revealing the points of improvement in your medical coding and billing process.
Rejected claims were, more often than not, rejected for important reasons—maybe the claim wasn’t completely filled out, perhaps the codes were inaccurate or didn’t fully illustrate the services rendered, or something else happened.
Gather your rejected claims over the last 6 months or so and evaluate the frequency of claims being rejected, the reasons for the rejection, and the average time it took to correct and resubmit the claims. Armed with this information, you’ll notice where the points of improvement exist within your medical billing process.
Maybe you need to update the list of frequently-used medical billing codes that you reference when filling out your claims or perhaps one important part of the claim is constantly left blank by accident. Whatever the case, taking the time to see why the rejected claims are happening can empower you and your holistic practice to refine your internal medical billing and medical coding process.
Since insurance or CMS claims can be a significant portion of your holistic practice’s overall healthcare revenue cycle, rejected claims can reveal where your financial performance needs more attention or education.
How Rejected Claims Hurt Your Practice
Of course, on the other hand, if you can avoid dealing with rejected claims then you should absolutely do so! These types of claims cost your holistic practice time and money and negatively impact your revenue cycle.
By having to spend more time reworking a claim, you’re unable to focus on more strategic initiatives like your marketing presence or attend to patient feedback. Plus, this time spent costs money; whether it’s the time you spend on the clock or paying for a team member to tackle the rejected claims issues, reworking claims can be costly.
If the average cost for filing a claim is $6.50, the average cost of a reworked claim is $25. This might not be too bad to deal with when only one or two claims need to be reworked, but if your holistic practice is dealing with dozens of rejected claims, then this amount can quickly add up!
For example, if you have 100 rejected claims in one month, you’ll have to spend an additional $2,500 per month. Now, think about it from an annual standpoint—that’s a whopping $30,000 each year. Plus, rejected claims result in delayed reimbursement, which slows down your practice’s revenue cycle and skews your financial performance metrics.
4 Steps to Minimize Rejected Claims
So what are some steps you can take to minimize the amount of rejected claims your holistic practice has to deal with? Check out these tips:
Verify Patient Eligibility Prior to the Date of Service
Established patients are great for your practice, but make sure you don’t assume their insurance coverage hasn’t changed over time. Simply asking them at every visit if their coverage has changed or if they have any patient information updates can save you and your practice time later down the line. Outdated patient information is a tremendous source of rejected claims, so take the extra minute ahead of time to confirm your patient’s information before proceeding with the claim.
Double-Check Medical Coding Modifiers
The world of medical coding and medical billing is complex and intimidating; one crucial step in the medical coding process is to verify that you’re utilizing the correct medical coding modifiers. These modifiers might seem too small to matter, but your claim can be rejected if not appropriately coded!
File Your Claims In a Timely Manner
Insurance companies and CMS typically require you to submit claims within a tight window of time, and missing that window can increase your chances of a rejected claim. Be sure to pay attention to claim filing deadlines and keep in contact with the pertinent insurance company if you encounter issues or have questions. Resolving any issues before filing a claim—while staying within the timeline—can help ensure your claim goes through without any troubles.
Outsource Your Medical Billing Altogether
If you find yourself and your team members swamped with rejected claims and simply wish you could make that part of your holistic practice disappear, then it’s time to consider partnering with a medical billing firm!
Outsourcing your medical coding and medical billing process to a trusted partner can immediately boost your revenue cycle and keep your holistic practice’s finances running smoothly. Plus, with the medical billing partner, you won’t have to worry about keeping up with esoteric legislation that impacts the billing process or stress about reworking claims since they’ll be handled correctly from the beginning.
Consider partnering with Holistic Billing Services to comprehensively manage your medical billing process so that you can focus on what matters most: your patients. Our experts have experience in your specialty, and we’re eager to help your holistic practice thrive!
No matter the specialty of your holistic practice—whether you offer acupuncture, massage therapy, chiropractic treatments, or a combination—you’re there to provide quality care to your community. How do you know that you’re squarely hitting that target, though? What if there are some areas of your holistic practice that patients wish were a little more streamlined for them? That’s where a patient satisfaction survey helps facilitate effective patient communication.
Patient satisfaction surveys are a great way to get feedback on the perception your patients have regarding your overall holistic practice experience. Encouraging their feedback can lead to a stronger patient-practice relationship and optimize your overall practice to best suit the patient experience.
Why Is Patient Satisfaction Important for Your Holistic Practice?
The success of your holistic practice depends upon patients having a great experience, ideally from start to finish. Your patients, both new and returning, are the heart of your practice since they dictate the financial performance and are there to receive quality care from your organization. A negative experience, or repeated pattern of not addressing patient feedback, can lead to loss of business.
Implementing a patient satisfaction survey can help your holistic practice prioritize the feedback of your patients beyond delivering great care: simply initiating the conversation and asking for their feedback and taking steps to apply that feedback demonstrates great care for the relationship. A strong patient-practice relationship behooves you and your practice’s enduring success!
How to Write a Patient Satisfaction Survey
Writing a patient satisfaction survey for your holistic practice’s patients doesn’t have to take a long time—nor is it meant to be unchanging! It’s completely fine if you start with a few anchor points to ask them about but later pivot to ask about something else pertaining to your practice.
Start with these foundational steps to put together some questions that you feel best to apply to your patient population:
Reflect Upon What Might Need Improvement
Internally brainstorm for ideas regarding what might apply to your patients; is there a problem with the scheduling system? Do you often have issues with designating parking spots for your practice? Are you seeing patients return to your practice or do they visit once or twice but move to another organization? Jot down your practice’s internal points of interest to consider including on the patient satisfaction survey.
Listen to Your Patients
Some patients might be telling you what they think about your practice without having the official survey in front of them—picking up on what they discuss when making small talk can help give you insight into what is inconvenient to them or what they’d like to see more of.
For example, if you hear your patients ask if they’re okay to park in front of the business next door, then that might be a clue into what your holistic practice needs to address in your patient satisfaction survey. Picking up on these informal comments that share a theme or pattern is a great way to scope out what to include in your survey.
Determine Your Rating Scale
Your survey results won’t be as actionable as you’d like if your rating scales are inconsistent; your survey needs a measurable way to compare data to make it effective! There are many different ways to scale your patient satisfaction survey, but keep these points in mind when determining which to implement in yours:
- Try to avoid offering a “neutral” option since that won’t help your holistic practice yield specific results
- Stick to one rating scale method for all quantitative questions; for example, utilizing a variety of emoticons or a numbered scale for the survey will help keep your results comparable
Questions to Consider Using for Patient Satisfaction Surveys
If you’re ready to write your holistic practice’s patient satisfaction survey, consider including some of these questions to jumpstart discussion and select the best range that suits your patient population:
- How long did you wait for your appointment to start (beyond your appointment time)?
- How clean was the waiting room?
- How knowledgeable were the staff?
- Was the staff courteous?
- Were you informed of the payment options available to you?
- Are our appointment times convenient?
- How would you rate the parking availability of this office?
- Did the practitioner meet your needs?
- Did you feel you were treated as a top priority in this office?
- Will you return to this practice?
- Would you refer your friends and family to this practice?
You’ll notice that none of these questions are double-barreled—or, in other words, asking about two separate things in the same question. For example, asking if the patient will return to your practice is different from asking if they would refer their friends and family to your practice.
Be sure to also include some open-ended questions for your patients to share their free-form opinion and ideas for improvement. For example, ask the question “What can we do to improve your experience?” to demonstrate your holistic practice’s eagerness to hear from the patient directly about what can be streamlined for their experience.
Focus on Your Patients and Let Holistic Billing Services Handle Your Medical Billing!
The shaping of your holistic practice’s reputation is happening whether you’re directly handling it or not. Your prospective patients will make quick assessments about your practice based on the first impressions they get when searching the web, which includes patient reviews! That’s why creating an effective patient satisfaction survey is a core component for strengthening the relationship between your practice and your patients, and can be a great tool for attracting new patients.
Wish you had more time and energy to spend working on these questions and your patients? Partner with a medical billing firm to handle your medical billing and coding processes. Holistic Billing Services is here to help you grow your practice in a variety of ways and has been facilitating the growth of holistic practices since 1999.
Contact us today and let us help your holistic practice reach its potential!
If you’re on the fence about opening up your practice to patients covered by Medicare, but you’re dubious of the extra workload dealing with billing Medicare for services rendered, then you’ve come to the right place.
Expanding your pool of patients to include those covered by Medicare is limited depending on your specialty—primarily acupuncture or chiropractic practices are covered by Medicare at this time—but can provide a great boost to your revenue cycle. Anticipating a headache when dealing with the medical billing process, however, is reasonable.
We at Holistic Billing Services understand the struggle, so let’s break down a few tips for the Medicare billing process!
What Types of Holistic Services Does Medicare Cover?
While Medicare’s coverage of complementary and integrated healthcare isn’t terribly comprehensive, there are a couple of holistic services that Medicare currently covers; these include:
Acupuncture
Acupuncture has been proven to be effective for treating a variety of ailments and chronic conditions. At present, Medicare beneficiaries may be treated for chronic lower back pain, defined as:
- Lasting 12 weeks or longer;
- nonspecific, in that it has no identifiable systemic cause (i.e., not associated with metastatic, inflammatory, infectious, etc. disease);
- not associated with surgery; and
- not associated with pregnancy
Medicare will cover up to 12 visits in a 90 day period; if the patient demonstrates improvement, then Medicare will cover an additional 8 visits but treatment is not to exceed 20 treatments in an annual period.
The good news is that there are legislative efforts to greatly expand Medicare coverage for acupuncture! In July 2021, the Acupuncture for Seniors Act, legally classified as HR 4803, was introduced to Congress and would significantly broaden the scope of acupuncture coverage provided by Medicare.
Chiropractic Treatments
Did you know that Medicare has technically covered chiropractic treatments for 50 years?
In 1972, Medicare first introduced coverage with the limited scope of spinal manipulation; not much has changed since then, unfortunately.
However, much like the Acupuncture for Seniors Act would improve coverage for acupuncture services, there are promising legislative efforts to expand Medicare coverage of chiropractic treatments! The Chiropractic Medicare Coverage Modernization Act, legally identified as HR 2654, would enable patients under Medicare coverage to visit a chiropractor for their comprehensive range of services.
Such services might include manual manipulation of the patient’s spine and extremities, evaluation and management of conditions, diagnostic imaging, and the utilization of other non-drug treatments in an effort to combat prescription abuse and fight the opioid epidemic.
Essentially, this bill:
- Provides patient access to all Medicare-covered benefits as delivered by a chiropractor’s state licensure
- Categorizes a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) as a “physician” in Medicare’s programming and thus expands their authority as recognized by Medicare
- Requires that DCs complete a documentation webinar
- Has bipartisan support and was introduced by 16 cosponsors from both sides of the political aisle
As a whole, this legislation would enable tremendously more access to all services provided by a chiropractor and thus empower chiropractors to treat a new range of patients who are covered by Medicare.
Medicare Billing: 3 Tips for Your Holistic Practice
When it comes to the Medicare billing process, follow these essential steps to streamline your holistic practice’s revenue cycle:
Submit Accurate and Complete Claims
One of the biggest tips for Medicare billing—and any kind of medical billing processes your holistic practice might handle—is to submit claims that have been coded correctly and to the fullest extent possible. Inaccurate or incomplete claims really throw a wrench in your practice’s revenue cycle by delaying payment and dedicating resources to reworking a claim that could have been better utilized elsewhere.
Medicare coverage and payments require an item or service:
- Meet a benefit category
- Isn’t specifically excluded from coverage
- Is reasonable and necessary
Be sure to employ the most current and comprehensive CPT codes needed, plus any further documentation required with the claim so that your submission can be addressed in a prompt manner.
Send Claims to the Appropriate Programs
Filling out claims correctly and completely is an essential foundational step for Medicare billing, but an important follow-up is making sure you’re sending that claim to the appropriate program pertaining to your patient.
For example, if your patient is enrolled in Medicare’s Fee-for-Service program, you’ll need to send the claim to your Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC); on the other hand, if your patient is enrolled in a Medicare Advantage (MA) plan, then you’ll need to submit your claim to their MA plan directly.
A third option is that your patient might have primary coverage provided by another payer—known as the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) program—like an insurance company; in this case, you’ll need to submit the claim to the primary coverage provider first.
File in a Timely Manner
Medicare mandates claims are filed within 12 months or 1 calendar year; claims that are filed after this strict deadline are automatically denied. Keep in mind that this kind of denial isn’t the same as a determined rejection based on the claim itself—missing the window for filing is a denial that cannot be appealed.
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Want to optimize your practice’s revenue cycle? Ready to expand the range your holistic practice offers to your community by including acupuncture or chiropractic services? Partner with an expert medical billing firm that has specialized expertise in handling medical and Medicare billing experience.
At Holistic Billing Services, we deal exclusively with holistic healthcare practices that deliver acupuncture, massage therapy, and chiropractic treatments to communities around the country. Whether you have questions on chiropractic insurance billing or other methods to enhance your revenue cycle management, feel free to contact our team today and let us know how we can help your practice today!
At Holistic Billing Services, we know that trying to make sense of the medical billing cycle can be confusing and intimidating. There are so many acronyms to learn and putting the pieces of the massive puzzle can feel impossible; we’re here to help break down the process and explain some of the acronyms involved. In particular, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has an intricate methodology to determine physician payment.
Their methodology, the Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS), is also used by some private payer entities, so understanding how the RBRVS and its basic unit, the Relative Value Unit (RVU), impacts your holistic practice’s revenue cycle and the Medicare billing process is helpful to know a component of your practice’s finances.
What Is a Relative Value Unit?
A relative value unit (RVU) defines the value of a service or procedure in relation to all other services or procedures. This measure is based on the extent of physician work, clinical and non-clinical resources, and expertise required to deliver the healthcare service to patients. It’s important to note that RVUs don’t directly represent the payout for a physician’s services but are a relevant factor in helping CMS determine that figure.
Why Are RVUs Important to Understand?
From one perspective, anything to do with your financial bottom line is important to understand—therefore understanding what relative value units do and their role in Medicare billing is helpful for evaluating your revenue cycle and anticipating future changes.
CMS operates under the rule of budget neutrality—that means that if one area’s rate goes up, a rate in a different area goes down. Since RVUs and their physician fee schedule are updated every year and liable to have some changes, it’s helpful to recognize the role that RVUs play in these changes so that your holistic practice can anticipate them.
What Is the Role of RVUs in a Physician Fee Schedule?
The Medicare physician fee schedule (MPFS) outlines more than 10,000 physician services, their associated relative value units, miscellaneous payment policy information or contexts, and more. The pricing amounts included in the MPFS are adjusted regarding the geographic region and other factors that are taken into account.
As a whole, under the resource-based relative value system (RBRVS), physician payments are determined by the following factors:
- RVUs
- Geographic Practice Cost Indices (GPCIs)
- Conversion Factor (CF)
An RVU is comprised of three components: work, practice expense, and malpractice. The work RVU reflects the general time and intensity associated with the service or procedure; the practice expense component reflects the cost of owning and operating a practice, such as renting space, practice equipment, and more; the malpractice RVU reflects the cost of malpractice insurance.
CMS adjusts the cost of each relative value unit in relation to the geographic practice cost index, which essentially factors in the cost of living depending on the location of the practice.
Finally, the conversion factor is updated by CMS every year and translates RVUs into dollar amounts.
The final equation for all of this results in the following:
Payment = (Work RVU + Practice Expense RVU + Malpractice RVU) x Conversion Factor
Overall, relative value units play a critical role in the equation that CMS and commercial fee systems utilize to establish the Medicare physician fee schedule.
How Do RVUs Impact Medicare Billing?
If your holistic practice is providing quality care and treatments to patients covered by Medicare, then it’s vital to gain a foundational understanding of how relative value units impact Medicare billing and thus a part of your finances:
Facilities and Non-Facilities Fees Differ
Payment rates for facilities differ from those for non-facilities; facility fees cover hospitals and in-patient services or procedures whereas non-facility fees cover physician offices or other independent settings.
Be sure to utilize the CMS Physician Fee Schedule search feature to learn more about the differences in fees.
RVUs and Audits
Relative value units are helpful for Medicare and other private payer systems to gauge an estimate for how much your services cost based on your geographic location and the other aforementioned factors. As such, there’s a state and national norm for what your services cost—and if you’re found to be charging exponentially higher than your competitors, then it could raise a red flag. In this case, you might be audited to see what’s going on.
Inaccurate Medical Coding and Billing Has Consequences
Since every service you provide to patients covered by Medicare has a correlating relative value unit and associated code, it’s vital that you submit accurately coded claims to Medicare for your services. Inaccurate billing can lead to an increased chance of audits and throws a wrench in your revenue cycle!
Partner with Holistic Billing Services to Handle Medicare Billing and Streamline Your Revenue Cycle!
Medicare billing and coding can be frustrating and overwhelming to deal with, especially if your internal resources are already stretched thin. That’s why partnering with a medical billing firm is proven to significantly optimize your revenue cycle and ensure that your practice is always up to date on current regulations and fee schedules.
At Holistic Billing Services, we deal exclusively with holistic healthcare practices that deliver acupuncture, massage therapy, and chiropractic treatments to communities around the country. Whether you have questions on private insurance billing or Medicare billing to enhance your revenue cycle management, feel free to contact our team today and let us know how we can help your holistic practice.
Healthcare documentation is a critical component for your holistic practice, both in terms of delivering great care to your patients and for insurance billing purposes—not to mention the importance of having some form of documentation in the event of a legal situation.
Treatment notes are needed to keep a live record of how your patient is feeling and what plans have worked in the past or what needs to change for the future; keep reading to learn more about a particular outline of healthcare documentation called SOAP notes and how they can play a role in your holistic practice’s insurance billing cycle.
What Are SOAP Notes?
One standard form of healthcare documentation is called SOAP notes, which stands for Subjective Objective Assessment and Plan. Each section of this general formula is key to gathering a comprehensive report of the patient’s current experience and determining the best treatment plan.
Subjective
This is the first section of SOAP notes and pertains to the subjective experience of the patient you’re treating; this includes their feelings, perspective, and personal views as relevant to the treatment setting. The purpose of this section is to provide context for why the patient is visiting your holistic practice and to allow the patient to put into their own words what is going on with them.
Depending on the setting of your holistic practice and what type of treatments you offer to your patients, this section might have a few other subheadings to further elaborate on what the patient is experiencing.
For example, if you were doing a consultation for massage therapy services, you might include the following sections:
- Rate the intensity of pain on a scale of 1 to 10
- Describe the sensation of the pain, such as shooting, dull, cramping, tingling, throbbing, aching, etc.
- Note the places of pain on the body
- Explain how the pain started and how it might change during the day with different movements, what makes it worse or what helps reduce the pain, etc.
This initial section is important for illuminating how a patient’s condition is affecting them so that you can determine how best to address their pain points—both literal and metaphorical.
Objective
As opposed to subjective, this second section deals with objective, unbiased facts regarding the patient’s condition. Such information might include:
- Patient’s vital signs
- Diagnoses
- Allergies
- Imaging results
- Lab data
- Behavioral or physical signs
- Body posture
- Range of motion
It’s important to distinguish between symptoms and signs in this section; symptoms are considered subjective whereas signs are considered objective notes. As with all medical documentation, it’s also crucial to filter out any kind of assumptions in the note-taking process; each objective note should be verifiable through evidence.
Assessment
This third step of SOAP notes is where you bring together the subject and objective portions of your documentation and determine what might be ailing your patient. In this section, you might list whatever problems or diagnoses that patient is presenting with, in order from most to least important or severe.
The assessment portion of SOAP notes is important because it provides documentation of the diagnosing process and serves as a record of your thinking. Assessing the patient is helpful for other providers to review your conclusions and inform them on how best to deliver holistic care from their specialty or perspective.
Plan
The final step in writing SOAP notes is, of course, to outline a plan of care for the patient you’re serving. This section might include information like:
- What follow-up appointments are needed
- Referrals to other specialists
- Orders for further testing
- Therapy needed
The plan section is an essential conclusion to the SOAP notes outline because it provides the appropriate next steps and pertinent information for the patient to follow in order to begin their plan for treatment.
Importance of SOAP Notes and Treatment Documentation
The phrase “if it’s not documented, then it didn’t happen” might sound extreme, but in the world of healthcare—whether medical or holistic—it’s the norm. Treatment documentation is essential because it functions as part of the patient’s medical history, enables collaborative care between providers and authorized entities, results in a better quality of care, and more.
SOAP notes are simply one outline to follow when doing healthcare documentation; it’s an easy acronym to remember yet ensures that all cornerstone portions of a patient’s experience are documented. From the patient’s subject experience and reported history of their ailment to what your recommendations are for treatment, SOAP notes provide a comprehensive record that can be referred to in the future.
Why SOAP Notes are Important for Insurance Billing
SOAP notes are also important for insurance billing purposes; because healthcare documentation is an essential part of operating a successful holistic practice, it’s vital that your insurance billing process is as streamlined as possible. SOAP notes—and healthcare documentation, in general—are crucial for insurance billing purposes for the following reasons, including:
Improved Patient Outcomes
With precise, consistent documentation comes better patient outcomes. This, of course, helps insurance companies regulate the cost of healthcare because improved patient outcomes are the result of efficient and effective care.
Streamlined Claims Processing
As you well know, you can’t just willy-nilly code a patient-provider interaction with just any kind of coding; you need to back up your medical billing and coding with evidence of why you’re submitting a claim for that interaction! SOAP notes and healthcare documentation overall help justify why you’re submitting a claim for reimbursement.
Reduce Risk
Precise, comprehensive documentation that follows a logical line of reasoning is an effective way to reduce the risk of malpractice claims at your holistic practice. It’s hard to justify any kind of treatment plan or diagnosis without evidence, so SOAP notes and other forms of healthcare documentation are essential to reducing your practice’s risk in terms of delivering misguided care.
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Do you find yourself staying late to catch up on the medical billing and coding process of your holistic practice? Turn to the experts at Holistic Billing Services to streamline this entire process for you so that you can focus on what matters most: delivering great care to your patients.
Contact us today to learn how our experienced team can help boost your medical billing process and optimize your revenue cycle along the way!