A strong financial position is important in all facets of business, and medical practices are no different. While the primary focus is on patient care, as it should be, in order to provide that care, your business must be solvent. With recent changes in the healthcare industry, namely the increase in patient cost responsibility, reimbursement can be tricky. The good news is this doesn’t mean an all-out disaster. Taking steps to ensure revenue diversification will help.
What is revenue diversification?
Revenue diversification involves creating variety in your income sources to increase revenue while mitigating risk. The idea is to never be too dependent on any one source of income so that your business is both flexible and financially stable. This will allow less volatility to your practice in the event of an economic downturn or other crisis, allowing an organization to weather most financial storms.
Why is revenue diversification important?
While revenue diversification is important in any industry, it may be particularly so in healthcare. Changes in recent years have led to a greater burden of care costs being placed on the shoulders of patients who, for a variety of reasons, may be slower to pay than other sources of reimbursement. Diversification allows you to be proactive instead of trying to play financial catch-up.
Relying too much on any one source of income is risky, and practices are faced with the task of increasing profits without sacrificing patient care. The best way to do this is by expanding services currently offered. This helps to grow your business and revenue while creating more convenient care options for your patients. Examples of this would be renting space in your practice to existing businesses that are closely related to your specialty, or by adding a service to your internal list of offerings, such as lab services, imaging, or prescription dispensing.
Whichever way you choose to implement revenue diversification in your practice, it’s integral to have more than one income source to protect your core business. This will strengthen your financial health and keep your organization prepared to face economic downturns.
If you’re ready to undertake the task of diversification, Henry Schein SolutionsHub is here to help with vendors who can come alongside you as you deploy new services to your current patient population and the potential patients you could be serving. Are you ready to learn more? Check out the solutions listed below or contact SolutionsHub to get started.
