Are You Leaving Money On The Table?

Kennedy Hawkins — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 00:09:05 +0000

I recently attended the American Physical Therapy Association’s Private Practice Section conference. It was great to reconnect with friends and industry colleagues. I appreciated hearing from leading experts about the trends in physical rehabilitation.

One trend is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Physical rehabilitation and much of healthcare is a low margin business. Since 2011, physical rehabilitation providers have seen their reimbursementdecline 37.0%^[1] At the same time reimbursement has steeply declined, expenses have risen sharply. Therapist and staff wages along with their benefits are at all-time highs. Compounding the expense side challenges, inflation is still running above historical averages.

Given this trend, it is more important than ever for healthcare providers to maximize their reimbursement. When was the last time you talked with your insurance companies about increasing your fee schedule? Are you leaving money on the table?

While physical rehabilitation provider margins continue to decline, healthcare insurance companies are making record profits. Here are some of the 2023 Q3 financial results for the major healthcare insurance companies^[2]:

United Healthcare brought in revenue of $92.4 Billion (14% Year-Over-Year growth) and $5.8 billion in profit.
CVS/Aetna total revenues increased to $89.8 billion, for the quarter and $264 billion for the year, up 10.6% compared to the prior year. The healthcare benefits segment, which includes Aetna, posted $2.3 billion in profit.
Cigna reported total revenues of $49 billion, up from $45.3 billion in Q3 2022.

Now is the time to put together a coordinated strategy to approach your insurance companies for fee schedule increases. Many insurance companies are already having these fee schedule increase conversations.

You need to have the right data when approaching insurance companies. In addition, you need to understand how insurance companies think and what matters to them. In putting together this coordinate strategy, you will need to the following data on your organization. This list is not an exhaustive one:

Patient Clinical Outcomes
Patient Satisfaction Results
Practice Differentiators
Practice Cost/Visit
Practice Billing Patterns
Patient Success Stories

Many healthcare organizations give up if they don’t receive a fee schedule increase on the first attempt. The key is persistence and having a solid coordinated strategy.

I can help your organization put together a coordinated strategy to seek fee schedule increases. Over time, this strategy will yield results. Please contact me at kd@kennedyhawkins.com or 503.881.0746 to set up a free initial consultation.

^[1] Kelly Cooney, President, National Association of Rehabilitation Agencies Spring Conference 2023.

^[2] Robert Hall, JD/MPAff, Senior Payment Consultant, American Physical Therapy Association Private Practice Section Conference 2023.

Do You Know Why Your Employees Stay?

Kennedy Hawkins — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 16:00:57 +0000

As I talk with organizations from coast to coast, I see a common theme. It is the lack of being able to identify exactly why an employee chooses to stay with the organization. Fully understanding why an employee stays in their job is vital. Today, the most pressing issue companies face is workforce, workforce, and workforce.

Earlier in the year, I came across a Harvard Business Review article by Thomas H. Lee, MD, and Patrick T. Ryan. Their article Why Healthcare Workers Stay In Their Jobs confirmed what I had been thinking for a long time. Lee and Ryan looked at employee surveys from 410,000 healthcare workers over the past three years. Assuming the organization is competitive on salary and benefits, the #1 reason why healthcare workers stay in their jobs is culture. Culture is essentially what your organization says it values and how it lives out those values. Culture matters more than ever to healthcare workers as well as workers in other industries. In my 30 years in healthcare, I have met onsite with organizations in 20 states. Those organizations with the best cultures clearly had the strongest organizations. Those organizations performed well on a variety of key metrics including patient care, financial, and employee satisfaction.

Currently, healthcare’s employee engagement and retention are at historic lows. Poor employee engagement and retention impacts the organization’s patient care, safety, compliance, financials, brand, along with a multitude of other issues. Healthcare organizations that make their culture a top priority are seeing a significant payoff with their employee recruiting, engagement, and retention.

Building a healthy and vibrant culture does not happen by accident. Leaders must be purposeful, have a solid plan, and methodically implement this plan. Leadership, at all levels, will be more important than ever. The Lee and Ryan article made it clear that leaders need to help healthcare workers get back to what they value about healthcare, and help them perform work that provides them with the most impact and satisfaction.

In my career at PT Northwest, I led them to become a 5-time Oregon Top Workplace. Through my work with various professional associations, I have also helped organizations, from coast to coast, build healthy cultures where employees want to stay long term and recruit others to join them. I can help your organization build an award-winning culture that delivers employee recruiting, engagement, and retention success. Please contact me at kd@kennedyhawkins.com or 503.881.0746 to set up a free initial consultation.

Kennedy Hawkins Consulting

Are You Leaving Money On The Table?

Do You Know Why Your Employees Stay?