What A Difference A Few Days Make

Just after the Massachusetts election of Scott Brown to the Senate, Speaker of House, Nancy Pelosi, commented that she did not have the votes in Congress to pass a Healthcare Reform bill. Fast forward 2 days, and the Speaker commented that she and the Congress were moving forward with Healthcare Reform. Well which is it? I suspect that the Democrat controlled Congress will pass some form of Healthcare Reform. So what does that mean for us?

Well, sadly most practices opened on January 2, 2010 with business as usual. While any reform is probably several years off, this reminds me of the good old RVRBS days. For those of you who are too young to have been affected, RVRBS represented Medicare's strategy to get control, that is to say reduce, reimbursement physicians received from Medicare patients. This occurred in my early days as a consultant. Our team introduced to physicians strategies to prepare for the scheduled annual reimbursement cuts. As such, physicians were prepared with information and could make strategic changes in their practices to manage the reimbursement reductions.

So the question remains. What do we do now? Without the benefit of passed legislation we can study, it seems prudent that physicians take a hard look at their business processes to ensure they maximize their budgets and get as much efficiency out of their employees as possible. Taking stock in own time budget is crucial. The old says, "Time is Money," is no more true than it is today. Improving your efficiency is just good business.

• Have you created a strategic plan for your office?
• If you have a strategic plan, when was the last time it was updated?
• Are your employees committed to your Vision and Mission Statements?
• Are your Vision and Mission Statements still relevant?

Now is the time, while the healthcare business environments remains intact, is the time to make adjustments. Consider making the changes necessary to take advantage of the current environment and prepare for the next.