Infographic Shows Increasing Healthcare Demand Is a Revenue Opportunity

At some point in recent years, you've probably heard that there is a projected shortage of primary care physicians on the horizon. But have you heard that there is already, and will continue to be, an increase in demand for healthcare services as well? In the infographic below you can see the details of the impact the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aging baby boomers, and a growing population are having on the demand for healthcare services. In fact, all the combined factors will result in an increase of 100 million more doctor's office visits per year by 2025.

If you see this as a challenge, it's time to change your perspective.

This is an opportunity for independent practices that are interested in growing their businesses.
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By optimizing your practice operations, you can retain your current patients, increase the appointment slots available for prospective patients, and recruit new patients who are looking for new providers and services.

How can you do this? Simple, by ensuring that you have implemented a seamlessly integrated practice management, billing, and EHR solution in your practice. Once you have that in place, it's important to implement best practices and take advantage of advanced tools like email or text reminders and statements, patient portal, and online appointment scheduling. You may also want to look at alternate scheduling models like modified wave scheduling that can increase the number of patient visits by as much as 20%. How can your physicians see 20% more patients a day? Again, by streamlining tasks and reducing time spent on administrative duties. The average primary care physicians spends a quarter of the day on administrative tasks

The use of technology can reduce a physician's administrative time and free more time for patient visits. Tweet This

What does all this mean for your bottom line? It could mean serious revenue. The average primary care physician sees 78 patients and works 50 hours a week. If you could reduce your time on administrative tasks and add more patients by using improved scheduling and other tools, each provider could see 15 more patients a week. If your average visit reimbursement is $100, you'd reap an additional $75,000 a year per provider. In addition, a UBM white paper showed that the average increase in revenue when using an EHR was $33,000 per FTE provider per year! You could be looking at an additional $100,000 a year or more.

As an added bonus having an EHR and patient portal can help you keep all those new patients, 73% of whom are more loyal to a physician who has a portal. Check out more interesting facts and figures in this infographic.