For the second year in a row, medical practice professionals sounded off to the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) about handling a variety of challenges while safeguarding their practices’ financial solvency.
According to the MGMA 2009 “Medical Practice Today: What Members Have to Say” research, the top three challenges of running a group practice remain the same as in 2008.
• Dealing with operating costs that are rising more rapidly than revenues
• Maintaining physician compensation levels in an environment of declining reimbursement
• Selecting and implementing a new electronic health record.
But below those three, the rankings changed somewhat from last year. This year, respondents listed collecting from self-pay patients and those with high-deductible health plans and health savings accounts as the fourth-highest challenge. In 2008, the fourth- ranked challenge was recruiting physicians, which ranked sixth this year. Managing finances in the face of uncertain Medicare reimbursement rates rounded out the top five for the second year in a row.
“Medical practice managers have one of the most difficult jobs in healthcare,” said William F. Jessee, MD, FACMPE, MGMA president and CEO. “Running a successful business that provides medical care is an incredibly difficult task in these economically challenging times. But the professionalism that MGMA members bring to their work enables them to persevere.”
MGMA also asked study participants how the recession is affecting their medical groups and how they are responding. Ranked by average score, the participants indicated the most probable effects of the recession on their practices are:
• An increase in uninsured patients;
• Improved billing and collections and/or denial management processes;
• Decreased revenues;
• Postponed capital expenditures;
• Operating budget cuts; and
• Staff hiring freezes.
Many respondents said they were experiencing the effects of the recession on their practices:
• 36.6 percent said they have postponed capital expenditures;
• 34.7 percent are seeing a rise in uninsured patients;
• 34.5 percent have implemented a staff hiring freeze;
• 33.9 percent have cut operating budgets;
• 33.3 percent have improved billing and collections processes; and
• 33.1 percent have witnessed a decrease in revenue.
“At their core, medical practices are small to medium-sized businesses, and the recession has affected them in many of the same ways as other businesses,” continued Jessee. On the positive side nearly 82 percent of respondents said there was a zero probability that their group would file for bankruptcy protection. Nearly 80 percent said there was a zero probability their practice would close because of the poor economy.
From February 2-26, MGMA invited members via e-mail to participate in a Web-based questionnaire about their practices and the career challenges they face today. MGMA received responses from 2,077 people, a response rate of 13.4 percent. The research is featured in the July 2009 MGMA Connexion magazine.