Orthopedic Surgeons: Are you treating as many patients as possible and making less money each year?
By Stephen A. Veals / CEO MRI Consulting Group
MRI Consulting Group
April 14, 2024
Topped out and losing ground? You can change this! Profit from MRI Ancillary Revenue Stream that rightly belongs to you!
In an all too short number of years after beginning practice, Orthopedic Surgeons find they are losing ground and making less money each year.
A good surgeon can physically and emotionally only see a finite number of patients per day or perform a finite number of surgeries.
But inevitably, you watch your income erode year after year. You are working your tail off, perhaps to the detriment of your family life and, certainly, to the detriment of your quality of life, only to confront decreased revenue per RVU and shrinking distributions. You are topped out and losing ground!
WHY IS THAT?
Annual Average Insurer Reimbursement Decreases
The average reimbursement across your mix of payers and insurers will, in my experience as a seasoned Orthopedic Medical Group Practice CEO, typically shrink by a small but measurable amount each year (typically 1-3%)
Managed care insurers can implement a change in the contract agreement, including creating or including new networks the practice may not be aware of or payment methodology changes that result in reimbursement adjustments. Practices can be left unaware of these changes that nevertheless impact their revenue.
At the end of the day, the one thing that is clear is that the amount insurers reimburse you has decreased yearly. This is a common problem and one that most physicians are not fully aware of since, in our experience, they rarely have even seen their most recent managed care agreements.
Annual Medical Practice Expenses Increases
Medical Practice expenses, like most expenses in daily life, will increase each year.
Staff members expect and deserve raises and cost-of-living increases. Unemployment rates are extremely low, and valuable staff members will vote with their feet and go to another practice if they do not have a competitive employment package.
You cannot afford to lose knowledgeable staff members, so you watch as this expense column increases relentlessly.
Employee health and dental insurance rates will go up nearly every year, sometimes by a significant amount, and there are only so many times that you can shift that increase into employee deductions for these annual increases.
Professional liability insurance rates will increase nearly every year. And these are only a portion of your possible yearly practice expense increases.
Your facility rent may increase, or the costs of maintenance and overhead.
Your living expenses seem to be on the same upward trend. Everyone seems entitled to an increase... everyone but you.
Your trends are going in the wrong direction. …Less procedure revenue, greater practice expenses, and resulting less income to you, the physician owners.
How you can change things with MRI Ancillary Revenue
Every Orthopedic Practice orders hundreds of MRI Imaging scans per year.
MRI scans will earn imaging providers ancillary revenue.
The provider and the recipient of those revenues can be your practice and you.
Because earning less income per Orthopedic Provider each year is unacceptable, we recommend keeping the MRI Ancillary Revenue you are giving away to other imaging entities!
Utilizing very conservative assumptions, if your medical group currently refers out at least 160 scans per month, you are certainly in the ballpark to sustain and benefit from a profitable MRI! With surgeons and physician assistants both making referrals, experiencing solid profitability with your MRI becomes even stronger.
After the completion of one MRI Magnet Installation, I remember fondly and with great satisfaction reviewing the physician group's financials after their first year of operating their MRI and discussing the distribution of $1,000,000 in profit from the MRI Imaging Center among the five physician owners!
Recapturing the provider and medical group MRI Ancillary Revenue from your Orthopedic Medical Group that you have been giving away to other imaging entities is a strategic opportunity that should not be missed.
If done well, an MRI Imaging Center is an extremely valuable ancillary revenue stream and an enhancement to your practice equity, making it truly the gift that keeps on giving!
Welcome to your more profitable future!
Contact us for more information at mriconsultinggroup.com
Schedule your complimentary phone call to discover if owning an MRI Imaging Center is right for your practice!
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