Amid the chaos, you should take care of these six key areas of your business before you shut your clinic down for the holidays. An easy way to manage this is by activating data/reports from your Practice Management Software (PMS).  An advanced PMS like Auditdata Manage makes it much easier (and more accurate) to review and analyze business data to make more informed business decisions moving forward.   

6 Important Year-End Reports To Review:

1. Year-end financial reports

2. Unscheduled treatments

3. Active Clients clean-up

4. Fee Adjustment

5. Patient Credit Reports

6. Staff Schedule

While many hearing practices run financial reports each month, reviewing and evaluating your overall financial performance for the year is also wise.  

Running year-end financial reports provides important information that you can compare to goals you set at the start of the year (and compare to last year’s financial results). By reviewing and analyzing the data from the entire year, you can detect areas that should be addressed (and improved) in 2023 to maximize your bottom-line.  

If you’re falling short of your desired financial metrics, determine how you’ll adjust for the coming year. If you do not have set KPIs in place, then this is the time for you to think about the KPIs you wish to measure in your clinic.

Pull a list of scheduled treatments and inform your clients about any available appointments for early next year. This is an efficient way for your clinic to fill any open spots in your schedule, while helping your patients start the year with a proper hearing examination. 

To do this, run the Appointment Booking Report in Manage (under Marketing and CRM).

The Appointment Booking Report can be run by appointment reasons, statuses and outcomes. Additionally, users can also specify appointments booked by specific users

Clinics can create recalls (or follow ups) in the Manage system as a way track who needs to come in for an appointment. The Recall Inquiry report is under Marketing and CRM in Auditdata’s Practice Management Software (PMS). Many clinics find it helpful to customize the recall reasons in the PMS. 

Some clinics, depending on their workflow, may understand the patients’ coverage entitlement and will book appointments in advance to ensure these patients are seen at the beginning of the new year. 

Use the Client/Patient Inquiry Report (under Marketing and CRM) in Manage to easily (and accurately) pull an active client report. The end of the year is a great time to scrub the list and clean up your client database, to ensure that all information is correct and updated going into the new year. 

Determine whether you’re going to raise the prices of any products or procedures for the new year. If so, you’ll need to inform your patients and insurance providers of these changes.  

Keep in mind that if you’re raising any prices for 2023, you’ll likely increase your appointments and insurance collection before the end of this year, as patients may want to take advantage of the lower pricing before the price hike. 

Clinics can run the Product Report (Under Reports > Inventory) to see what’s in their inventory, and their current prices.   

Keep in mind that in some regions, prices are driven by regulatory standards and can't be altered for profit. 

It’s time to tackle your patient collections! Check to see if any of your customers owe you money, and remind them about any outstanding debts. 

This is a good time of the year to run an Aged/AR report, which is found under Reports > Accounting - Accounts Receivable. Make a proactive effort to collect these outstanding payments ASAP. 

Also, pull a Patient Credit Report to determine whether you owe money to any patients or insurance companies, or if there are refunds that you can’t reimburse.  

This time of year is “Recoupment Season” in many countries. Insurance companies slow down their claims processing around this time and start performing their own audits. 

Insurance recoupment occurs when the insurance company has processed a claim and then take back (or recoups) the payment because they’ve determined that those benefits shouldn’t have been given, due to an error, an overpayment, a duplicate claim, an illegible claim, etc. 

Almost every medical practice has experienced some type of insurance recoupment.  It’s good practice to perform an in-office audit so you’ll understand the most common reasons for recoupment. It’s also essential to stay up to date on the latest regulations and reimbursement guidelines, which vary by country. 

It’s important to start the year off strong, so look at your clinic’s internal schedule to determine staff vacation times, and make sure you’re properly staffed for January. If you have multiple staff members planning to take extended holiday breaks, ensure that you have enough coverage to cover the January appointments and other important tasks. 

Also, update your clinic’s holiday schedule and dates you’ll be closed throughout 2023. You can set Office Closed Days in Manage Under Scheduler Parameters (Configure System Settings > Scheduler Parameters > Office Close Days). You can also set different locations, start times, and specialists using the Scheduler Parameters tool. 

Taking care of these six year-end reports will help you stay organized as you close out the year and be prepared for a successful 2023.