Cash-based Practices

Running your practice as a cash-practice operation may be your best option, but it comes with challenges that you should consider in advance. The AMA has developed educational resources to help you research this alternative, decide if it’s right for your practice and implement it successfully.

• Are you seeking ways to simplify your practice and reduce administrative overhead? The document “Cash practice alternatives: Considerations for physicians” will assist you in evaluating whether limiting your practice’s financial dependence upon health insurer contracts might be a viable option for your practice. This resource walks through the various cash practice alternatives and helps you assess which business model suits your practice’s particular situation best.
• One of the best ways to ensure receipt of your patients’ payment responsibility is to offer the option of credit and debit card transactions. The resource, “Shopping for a credit or debit card merchant agreement: Guidelines for physicians,”  will help you put those mechanisms in place, which can improve your practice’s bottom line. Learn how to maximize the benefits of accepting credit and debit card payments by contracting with a payment processor that suits your practice’s specific needs and by recognizing how you may be able to save thousands of dollars a year on fees with your current processor.
• Online medical consultations, also known as e-visits, present opportunities for growth and increased efficiency in the physician practice. To learn more about this new patient convenience and whether it’s right for your practice, access the educational resource, “Online medical consultations: Connecting physicians with patients.”
• When patient feedback is collected and acted upon in a meaningful way, the physician’s office can use the data to create satisfied and loyal patients who will help a practice grow. View the AMA’s educational tools for patient satisfaction for more information.

• The AMA has developed the educational resource “Fee schedule analysis: Using your complete practice cost as a guide” to help physicians and their practice staff recognize the need to establish their practice fee schedule based on what it actually costs to provide a service rather than basing their fee schedule on what a third-party payer or other entity wants to pay. This resource includes a 12-step guide to help physician practices create their own unique physician practice fee schedule with an easy-to-complete spreadsheet that will allow physician practices to include additional markup percentages to account for profit, contributions to reserves and future capital expenditures.
• The AMA has developed the educational resource, "What do I need to know about payer and patient credit cards," that helps educate physicians and their practice staff regarding the impact on each practice's bottom line when accepting and processing credit card payments from patients and payers.