Questions for Dr. Stern
About Your Urgent Care Center
78. I am working with a client to start an urgent care center. In your blog you stated to use $100-$110 as a net per visit at an urgent care. Can you give me a corresponding Gross for that number?
I say that number to be conservative. Real collections for stable existing urgent care centers are often above $140.
Note: Almost all startups collect less than they expect per patient and see less patients per day than they expect. Reasons for this reduction in patients are many, including poor advertising, poor or delayed signage, delayed contracting, problems with major payors in contracting, and many other possibilities. Every startup urgent care has its own tale to tell of why things went wrong. The good news is that the better you prepare, the less likely that you will run into problems. Gross billings can be whatever you want. It just depends on where you set your fee schedule. Some set the fee schedule at 150% of Medicare, others at 200%, still others at 300%.
Practice Velocity is involved in helping urgent care centers in several ways. Let me review several of our affiliated businesses (all owned by the same three urgent care physicians):
- Practice Velocity: software solutions (used in over 530 urgent care centers) for marketing, charting, coding, billing, occupational medicine protocols and collections.
- National Med Network: has performed consultant to over 50 startup urgent care centers. Offers pro-forma help, purchasing advice, floor plan review, and a checklist of over 1,500 items to complete in the startup of an urgent care center.
- PV Billing: with over 50 billers, we provide full-service billing services and managed care contracting for urgent care centers in many states.
- Physicians Immediate Care: We have operated urgent care centers for over twenty years, and our twelve-clinic network is the foundation and launching pad for all of our other businesses. We have done one joint-venture clinic and are actively developing a framework for (but are not yet offering) franchising opportunities.
With over 550 urgent care centers in 46 states, Practice Velocity now serves more urgent care centers for charting and coding than all other systems combined.
Our Guarantee: Practice Velocity will exceed your expectations with the:
- fastest charting,
- easiest implementation, and
- most return on investment (usually over $10 increased revenue per patient).
Thirty-Day Trial: Try PiVoTs for charting and coding for 30-days. If we don’t deliver, simply stop using the product and you don’t pay a thing. No questions asked.
We would be delighted to host your team for a full-day tour of our headquarters. Feel free to call and schedule a visit to our urgent care headquarters (only one hour from O’Hare Airport). Over 300 urgent care professionals took advantage of tours of our urgent care operations last year. During the tour, we outline our entire operation, including:
- Reception
- Marketing
- Site selection
- Added services
- Occupational medicine
- Patient flow
- Whatever else you wish to review
To schedule a demo or phone call or to schedule a tour of our headquarters, call 888-357-4209 and ask for Dana (ext. 2051).
