Financial benchmarks pinpoint efficiencies, deficiencies

Practice Management. By Mike Norbut, AMNews staff. May 23/30, 2005.

When it comes to treating patients, physicians search out plenty of information at their disposal, from textbooks to journal studies, to see how other doctors might act in a similar clinical situation. When it comes to evaluating the financial health of their practices, however, physicians don't always have the same instincts.

Whether it's for a lack of time or a lack of understanding of what factors are important, some doctors might not bother tracking their own data against regional and national averages to see how they compare.

Using benchmarks, however, can be a helpful, inexpensive way to see if your practice is in a typical financial position and not losing money where it shouldn't, physicians said.

Surveys such as those released annually by the Medical Group Management Assn. and the American Medical Group Assn. offer comprehensive data broken down according to group size and specialty.

The surveys give snapshots of what a typical practice sees in terms of compensation, productivity and costs, and they often break the information down per physician.

From a practical perspective, a group should know what other practices in the region and within its specialty are paying its doctors, because it's almost guaranteed a physician candidate will come to an interview armed with that information, said Fred Rasp, MD, a pulmonary critical care physician and medical director and chair of The Heart Center Medical Group, a multispecialty group with 44 physicians in Fort Wayne, Ind.