How To Develop A No-Show Policy For Your New Practice

There is a challenge in every work we do. Challenges make us prepared for the success yet to come. These make us stronger to run among many talented people. So what is the major challenge for independent practices in the present?

There are many challenges new practices have to face daily. Some of them are, payment processes, keeping up with the technology, managing patient engagement, etc. 

But we are here to talk about the major challenge that keeps the practices in a struggle zone. And that is the “no-show” rate. This factor alone can affect the patient’s well-being and health and also the practices’ financial stability.

Lets’ Get Into How It Is Done

• Find the rate of no-shows that your practice has been experiencing. If it is between 7% and 20%, potential losses can be reduced by creating a policy immediately.
• For a new practice to develop a new no-show policy, there are some practice management considerations. This includes ensuring the writing and communication of the policy properly for achieving patient retention.

When Does It Occur? – The Reasons

• This occurs when a patient doesn’t show up for an appointment without any prior notification.
• The reasons that can make a patient miss a scheduled appointment can be many. Some of them are, miscommunication between the service provider and the patient, lack of communication, personal reasons, conflicts, traffic, geographical barriers, sudden natural causes, even forgetting about it, and so on.
• They might have decided not to go due to any of the reasons.

Impacts Of No-Shows

• A no-show typically means, not showing up for a scheduled appointment. This can negatively impact a patient’s health and well-being due to the delay in diagnosis and treatment.
• From the practice’s side, it affects the efficiency of practice management as it wastes the time taken for booking that particular appointment and others related to that, that could have been used for attending to other patients.
• It also reduces the appointment booking chances of other patients who needed them desperately.
• It will also create a negative impact on the practice’s resources and revenue flow.

What To Consider?

• The first thing to be considered while developing a no-show policy is how patients will take it.
• The second one is how you as a practice will implement and strengthen it constantly.

Approaches

What will ease your patients and staff into the new policy is a progressive or gradually developing practice management approach. This is to be done while highlighting the need for communicating effectively and regularly throughout the process.

The Important Notes While Developing

• Medicaid patients cannot be charged for no-shows.
• Medicare patients can be charged but it cannot be billed for the missed appointment.
• Strengthen the importance of keeping the appointments and of notifying the practice when an issue arises, while developing your no-show policy.
• Fix and let your patient know a timeframe, within which they should inform if canceling an appointment.
• Create guidelines for finding the situations which kept your patients from coming in for the scheduled appointment.

What You Should Do Once Your Policy Is Developed?

• Let your patients know about your new no-show policy and explain to them any fees attached to it. 
• Post it officially on social media, websites, in your patient paperwork, and particularly in your patient intake form.
• At the check-in desk, place a notice or sign regarding this in a visible and readable manner. If it’s a digital check-in platform include it in the respected area.
• Train your staff to deal with it and provide them with scripts to use while explaining the policy to the patients.
• Take charge of scheduling appointments in a way that reduces the waiting time of patients which can directly impact their next visit.
• Don’t reschedule appointments often, this can let the patients choose other facilities.

Conclusion

Reducing the no-show rate in your new practice can increase your patient retention and outcome. As a new practice, you should know the best practices to retain your existing patients and attract more in the future. Vozo’s practice management software can make you achieve this effortlessly.

Our practice management software helps you to optimize your practice for carrying out appropriate charge capture, submitting claims, payment postings, managing collections, collecting co-pays, and supports unique billing requirements to get you paid faster and receive higher reimbursements.

Our PM Software also helps you to deliver better clinical care to your patients with automated patient communication tools.

Also, our cloud-based electronic health records (EHR) software has the key feature of advanced patient scheduling. It reduces no-shows and ensures better patient collections through online appointment scheduling and automatic appointment reminders, via email or text.

Welcome to Vozo and explore the endless possibilities we provide especially for you.

“Let’s make your practice experience a no-no-show zone, together”