Medical Practice Management



For a small medical office to survive financially, it is critical to develop good medical practice management strategies. This article provides you with many useful tips on how to generate revenue, reduce overhead costs, and avoid the pitfalls many practices fall into.



Whether you are a healthcare provider, office manager, or medical biller, you should find these medical practice management suggestions helpful. Some may be a good fit for your type of practice, others may not. Take what you like and leave the rest.

I can't take credit for all of these ideas because many of them have come from my clients. You are getting the benefit of their experience. When it comes to healthcare, I could go on and on about how it has changed over the years, but that would be preaching to the choir. The point is, if a private practice is to survive, it is important to reduce overhead costs and generate revenue where you can.

Remember, the purpose of this site is to find practical and cost effective solutions. Let's start off with some tips to improve your reimbursement.

Increasing Your Revenue


Obtain E/M coding education, improve your documentation and receive higher reimbursement.

Most providers undercode their office visits for two reasons: a limited knowledge about E/M coding rules and lack of confidence in their written documentation. By learning evaluation and management coding rules, providers can code more confidently and improve their reimbursement. Also, by utilizing electronic health records software, providers can generate more complete patient notes to support the code used and avoid the consequences of costly audits.

NOTE: Medicare is deploying more RAC "Recovery Audit Contractor" audits. These auditors are not government employees and are paid a percentage of "overpaid fees" which has led some to view them as "bounty hunters." That's why it is so important to take the necessary steps to protect your practice while, at the same time, get paid for the work you do.


Patient Collections

Collecting money from patients is one of the most challenging aspects for any medical office. The doctors' focus is to help patients not to collect money so they need knowledgeable staff to help them and the right tools to collect reimbursement as fast and efficiently as possible. We highly recommend BillFlash to manage the entire patient collections process.

You should also review our medical billing collection strategies for use by your office staff.


Become a Concierge Practice

More and more providers are taking this step. It is a good medical practice management strategy for family practice, internal medicine, and other specialties who see the same patients on a regular basis. 

It works as follows: The practice charges each patient an annual fee anywhere from $500 to $2000 depending on specialty, your location and the number of providers in your area. An administration fee is not a covered service for most insurance carriers so it is a legitimate fee. Check with the insurance carriers that you are contracted with and your local AMA.

The practice continues to bill insurance as it normally does. The administration fee income allows the physician to spend more time with each patient.

Many providers worry that they will lose patients but a carefully worded letter explaining the need to offset expenses will help. The public is finally getting clued into the fact that doctors aren't millionaires. In the scheme of things, a yearly administration fee is not that much compared to the hassle of switching doctors. For your convenience, you can download a sample letter here.


Review the section on medical practice marketing.

Like it or not, you have to think of your medical practice like a business. And any business will benefit from marketing. You can review several successful strategies to increase your volume and keep your patients coming back.


Explore Medicare programs like PQRI and extra reimbursement for practices in rural areas.

Some providers, depending on their specialty, can improve their reimbursement by participating in PQRI program or Physician Quality Reporting Initative.

You can find out more about this by visiting the CMS website.

Also, some specialties are eligible for additional Medicare reimbursement if located in a rural area. You would be surprised as to the areas that are considered rural so it's a good idea to check with Medicare. The AMA or regional seminars for your specialty are good sources for this information.

One of my clients found out he was eligible and his practice collected an additional $12,000 last year.


Consider doing more telehealth visits

Telehealth visits became a necessity during Covid, but now have become commonplace and can work well with certain types of patient concerns.

How To Reduce Your Overhead Costs

As you well know, healthcare is a business and good medical practice management is critical to your survival.

All the advice provided here concerns your office administration as it relates to medical billing, collections, and accounting. One practice management challenge is what I call optimizing your staff. Some medical offices have staff that are not used to their potential. In other practices, the staff is stretched too thin. Depending on your specialty and the makeup of your practice, medical billing outsourcing may be a good option for you.

One thing all medical offices never have enough of is time. That's why good medical practice management is so important. Over the years, I've collected many tips from experienced office managers on office personnel management.

Explore this page and find useful information on how to get the most out of key medical office staff.

Anywhere money is handled, there should be adequate safeguards in place to avoid medical billing fraud. A medical office is no exception.

Good medical practice management requires training, proper procedures, and the use of technology.   A medical biller armed with the information provided will be a great benefit to any practice. I hope you will take advantage of some of the ideas presented on this site.