Today, virtually every primary care physician feels that they're seeing too many patients and spending too little time with them. With an average PCP seeing 104 patients per 50-hour week, that's not surprising. Under these circumstances, it sometimes seems that accepting new patients will only make things worse. But closing your practice should be a last resort, as they're far more profitable than established patients. For example, Medicare pays an average $97.02 for an intermediate office visit from a new patient compared with $52.68 for the same type of visit from an established visit. What's more, new patients offer stimulation and a fresh look at practice issues. Most importantly, new patients are your lifeblood: the average primary care practice must add 50 to 100 new patients a year to maintain the status quo, one consultant notes. If you absolutely need to address a bursting schedule, one alternative is to cut back on the number of new-patient appointments you offer per week, rather than eliminating them entirely. Another option is to create a new-patient waiting list. Yet another smart move is to close the practice only to new patients with insurance that pays badly.
Learn more about the pros and cons of practice closures:
- read this Medical Economics piece