High-Value Insight
When Your Patient Leaves Your Panel.
If your Medicare Advantage patient changes from you as a prime---call them.
That's a "weapons-grade" insight. A "secret sauce" that has saved me seven figures in revenue over the years.
The very worst thing that can happen to your panel is for you to have a patient leave your care.
You've invested time and money to get them healthy, to get all their chronic diseases addressed and to establish a relationship with them.
You make these investments in time and treasure, waiting for your capitations payments to catch-up so you can book some net profit---and then your patient changes PCPs. Frustrating.
it's pretty frustrating to watch as the new prime reaps all the benefits of your labor.
If your patient makes a change, you simply MUST call them---personally. It's painful and challenging, but it must be done. There may be a pattern of factors you can identify and address to prevent patient losses in the future.
But there is an even better reason.
If you call personally, you can actually demonstrate to your patient that you give a damn.
You don't have to be adversarial, you don't have to beg them to stay, you just have to ask "why?".
"I noted that you changed your PCP to another doctor. Was there anything that happened that caused you to make that change that I might help with?"
You just might find out some valuable information about your staff or the system you practice within.
Most folks that are angry with you personally won't tell you outright, but you can tell over the phone that you offended them in some way.
A few will curse you then and there. Congratulations, you now know what patients never to take back. A small price to pay for the rare episode of verbal abuse.
Finish the call with a guarantee that you will do anything necessary to smooth the transition to their new clinician. And if there are any problems, give them the direct number to your office fixer---or even better, to your own direct line.
In my personal experience, after a call like this, and after sampling some of the other local primes, patients often came right back.
Patients leave for many reasons. If the reason is personal, you can discover information that may help you make some necessary changes.
And if the reason is not personal, if they're moving or need to change coverage---you will generate some phenomenal word of mouth.
Just by demonstrating you give a damn.
|