It's inevitable most businesses will experience slow periods throughout the year. The optical industry is no exclusion to an influx of patients at one particular time of year and fewer patients during slower periods. Meaning, figuring out how to avoid a slow period isn't cookie cutter and the process is unique to each individual practice depending on demographics, patient needs, location, etc.
Today we're going to discuss how to identify and manage slow periods in your practice and take advantage during downtime for improving planning strategies, brainstorming new ideas, and catching up on unfiled or denied and rejected claims.
Why It's Important To Take Advantage Of Slow Periods In Your Practice
Planning strategies
Once you’ve identified a slow period in your office, you can begin to plan future strategies. By planning out strategies you’re able to get head of peak business times and effectively prepare. Which might include hiring more staff, cross training staff, and or scheduling. Investing time into planning will set your office and staff up for success by eliminating future stress and possible burnout. Overall, prioritizing planning strategies is a time investment upfront that can benefit your office’s productivity in the long run.
Brainstorming Ideas
After you're finished finalizing your planning strategies, another helpful tip to consider is getting the input of your staff. Brainstorming ideas or soliciting their thoughts or concerns is an easy way to establish trust and credibility with your team. An example of brainstorming with your team can be as simple as getting marketing ideas for summer break such as promoting sunglasses sales. When you collaborate with your team for success, it helps your staff thrive in a healthy and positive work environment.
Working Past Claims
Now that we've covered the benefits of planning strategies and brainstorming ideas with staff, we can discuss reviewing and working previously denied or rejected claims. It can be difficult to keep up with claims billing in-house while facing challenges like staffing issues and low retention rates with staff. It might be time to consider outsourcing your billing and claims to VisionWeb's Revenue Cycle Management team. By outsourcing your billing, you can receive faster reimbursements and reduce your labor expenses to drive your revenue.
Does your practice have bad filing habits slowing you down? Download our eBook "8 Filing Claims To Say Goodbye To" to identify bad claim filing habits that your practice should abandon.
