David Kats: Hi this is Dr. David Kats and Dr. Michael Perusich, and we have of video tip for you. If you have staff, if you're working with staff, there's something that you need to do on a daily basis that's really going to make your office function a lot more smoothly. You're the king of this, so you explain it to them.

Michael Perusich: We started this a long time ago in our practice, and we call it the daily huddle. Right before, about 30 minutes before we open the doors, we get together as a group, as a staff, and we go over the schedule for that day. We talk about each and every patient that's on that schedule. We talk about what's going on with them. We talk about how their care is going. We talk about whether or not they're a new patient. What their condition might be.

Staff is able to ask questions about the progress of their care. What that does is it allows us to not only keep our patients present time consciousness, but we remember their names when they walk in the door....

Dr. Dave Kats: Hi, this is Dr. Dave Kats and Dr. Michael Perusich and we have a video tip for you. One of the things you have to get good at is using Facebook. There's a lot of different ways you can use Facebook. One of the ways is simply to get people to share with you, to like you.

Dr. Michael Perusich: That's right. Like, Share and comment. Like, Share and comment. That's what you need people to do. You put something out on your Facebook page, you want people to like it, you want them to share it, you want them to comment on it. That's how your message gets spread through the Facebook community.

Dr. Kats: Yes, that's right. We have a client and this client does consulting with me and she has about 400 people on her Facebook list. Anytime she wants a new patient, she just puts some information out on her Facebook page and it generates two or three new patients every single time. You got to get to that critical mass. She has 400, she's trying to get to 800. You got to start...

David: Hi, this is Dr. David Kats and Dr. Michael Perusich. Today we have a video tip for you. I'm going to talk to you about verifying insurance. Let me start, and then you finish on this. It's important that you verify insurance on every patient that has insurance if they're going to use the insurance in your office. Now, it used to be in the old days, which means a year or two ago, we called all the insurance companies to verify the insurance coverage, and we'd sit on the line for 15 or 20 minutes waiting for them to come on the line to give you the insurance coverage. Right now the online verification has gotten so good that nearly everybody has switched over to online verification, and if you haven't, probably now is the time to get started.

Michael Perusich: That's absolutely right. You said something very important in there. You don't just verify insurance with new patients, you verify a patient's insurance every year. That's really important, and not just to find out if...

Michael Perusich: Hi everybody, this is Dr. Michael Perusich and Dr. David Kats. We've got a video tip for you this week. One of the things that we always recommend is checking into every year doing a little checkup on your professional liability insurance and making sure that you're covered in the manner that you should be.

David Kats: That's right. It doesn't take but one call, and it's usually they're very interested in talking to you. You can usually get right through and talk to your malpractice carrier and find out if you're doing anything that you need to have special coverage for. Most insurance malpractice carriers will cover you for about anything, but a lot of times they want you to let them know if you're doing anything out of the ordinary. I'd say, every year or two, you probably should call your malpractice carrier and just talk to them and see if they feel you're properly covered.

Michael: That's right. Making sure if you've got associates in your practice, if you've...

Dave Kats: Hi, this is Dave Kats and Dr. Michael Perusich with Therapist
Consultants, and we have a tip for you. You know, you need to know what each
insurance company is providing as far as repayment to you, so you're aware of
where you stand with each insurance company.
Dr. Michael Perusich: That's absolutely right, David. You know, it's always amazing
to me that we go through our practices, we're busy seeing our patients and doing
those things, and yet, we never take the time, in some cases, to really stop and think
about what are we getting paid. Are we actually getting paid enough to actually
make some money because that's why we're in business?
Dave: Yes, sometimes your overhead is actually more than the amount you're
getting paid for that hour.
Michael: That's right.
Dave: If you don't get rid of the low payers, you won't naturally create room for the
high payers. Another reason you should lay out as list of what each insurance
company pays you, is because then you know who to go after as...

Therapist Consultants Privacy Policy from Kats & Therapist Consultants on Vimeo.

Dr. David Kats: Hi, this is David Kats and Dr. Michael Perusich of Therapist Consultants and we have a tip for you. Everybody has a patient sign the HIPAA acknowledgment of privacy policies page when they come in, the one page form. That form says, "I have a privacy policy in place and I've offered it to the patient." You better have a privacy policy in place you better offer to the patient. Now, those policies are a lot of times about five or six pages long and they should be kept in the office and offered to the patient. Where do keep yours?

Dr. Michael Perusich: We usually keep ours right at the front desk. It's laminated, it's ready to go if any patient ever says I'd like to see it.

David: Yes. Some people put it in a notebook in the reception area. Some people have it posted on the wall. Some people offer everybody a separate copy. I wouldn't give everybody a separate copy. They don't...

Therapist Consultants Collection Scripting from Kats & Therapist Consultants on Vimeo.

Dave Kats: Hi. This is Dave Kats and Dr. Michael Perusich with Therapist
Consultants and we have a video tip for you. There's a right way and a wrong way to
collect. There's right scripting and wrong scripting.
Dr. Michael Perusich: There is. Scripting is important when you're collecting money
from patients. You want to practice this. Little things like not saying "dollars". Let's
say, your charge for the session today is $150. You don't want to turn to the patient
and say, "Well, that'll be $150" because to the patient, that sounds like a lot of
money. If you just say, "Well, that'll $150 today. Would you like to pay that with cash,
check or charge"; It just really skims over it, not unethically, but it allows the patient
to just absorb that a little bit easier.
Dave: You said something also very good. If you give them a choice of yeses,
"Would you care to pay for that by cash, check or credit...