Workers’ Comp: A Revenue Stream for Physicians

Managing a physician practice is hard and has been exacerbated by the ramifications that COVID-19 has had on day-to-day practice operations. Providers have had to rethink the delivery of patient care, especially in outpatient settings, and practice managers feel pressure to do more with less, making it more challenging to achieve profitability.

Aside from providing quality care, a healthcare practice is like any other business in that they share the same end goal, reduce operating expenses and increase revenue. When it comes to workers’ compensation, the same principles hold true. Those tasked with navigating the maze of the workers’ compensation landscape must maintain a high level of industry knowledge and keep abreast of industry trends. Practice managers must remain steadfast in their commitment to decrease administrative inefficiencies by eliminating workflow bottlenecks and managing treatment times to ensure that the practice is profitable. Through workflow and schedule optimization, practices can accelerate visit turnaround times allowing for the opportunity to increase patient volumes and generate additional revenue.

Why would a practice want to increase workers’ compensation revenues?

Clinicians that treat injured workers can see a greater uptick in their workers compensation referrals through payor mix diversification. According to former Claims Examiner and Advisory Board Member for the American Academy of Workers’ Compensation Physicians, Bill Cleave, there are many other benefits to growing a workers compensation practice, these include:

• It is estimated that workers compensation generates $60 billon in the US, 60% of which represents
        medical costs.
• Depending on the state and the rate that is negotiated with networks, workers compensation, more often            than not, has proven to be the best payer in a medical practice.
• Let’s not forget referrals! Workers compensation can open doors to receive referrals from other sources.

Here are a few ways that practices can leverage their resources to boost productivity and increase profit margins:

• Implement accurate and efficient processes to mitigate potential delays in care
• Invest in time-saving automations
• Educate your team on workers compensation to include back-to-work protocols
• Commit to keeping open channels of communication with all stakeholders
• Partner with a network management company to outsource claims processing to increase network               
        penetration and improve score card rankings.

Learn more about our Physician Services program and email us at SPS_Consult@onecallcm.com.