MicroPractitioners

There is a slow but steady stream of physicians who are sizing down in their practices. It is a method known as a micropractice and it defies the conventional wisdom of practice management experts.

A micropractice doctor typically works without any employees and they usually occupy a space that's drastically smaller than the average office.

This substantially reduces overhead costs as well as the break even point.

As of now, micropractice doctors typically earn 25 percent less than their peers but they gain autonomy and control.

Hands-on and idealistic, micropractitioners view themselves as the future of medicine but whether this turns out to be true or not will have to be determined.

When you understand that they see typically less than half of other physicians, there would need to be more than double the amount of current physicians to meet the need and we are already in short supply.

Micropractice doctors would be characterized as being fanatical cost-cutters.

Overhead generally represents between 50 and 60 percent of collections for primary care physicians, according to the Medical Group Management Association.

So if your overhead stands at 60 percent and you see 25 patients a day at a clip of four per hour, 15 of those visits cover staff salaries, rent, equipment, supplies, malpractice insurance, and other costs. The remaining 10 visits account for your compensation.

So if you reduce overhead to 30 percent of collections which is very likely, now you need to see only 7.5 patients a day (in addition to the 10 appointments paying your salary and benefits), bringing the daily total to 17.5.

With a 30 percent reduction in the number of daily visits, you're able to lengthen the time for each one from 15 to 20 minutes but you also have a lot of other non-direct patient care duties that need to be completed.

In reality, micropractice doctors typically see only 10 to 12 patients a day, with the average visit lasting 30 minutes. Handling chores that traditionally fall to employees puts severe constraints on their productivity.

As a micropractice doctor, you can create any office routine you want, when you want and do not have to deal with employee complaints, work habits, etc.

Micropractice doctors usually rely on an EHR system that generates notes and insurance claims and sends claims to the payers.

But to be a micropractice doctor you must be willing to master management minutia like scheduling, billing, referrals, running your own EKG’s, blood work, and other ancillary tests and dealing with contracts.

For most practices, this is extremely time consuming and frustrating and it would take a certain personality to survive this for the long haul.