Starting a Medical Practice: Key Responsibilities for First-Time Business Owners
As a physician opening your own medical practice for the first time, you have clinical responsibilities to provide quality care to your patients. But running an independent practice also makes you a small business owner, with legal, financial, operational, and administrative responsibilities to ensure your practice succeeds. As an accountant specialising in healthcare, I’ve outlined some of the key areas new practice owners need to manage:
Financial Management
You will need to set up accounting systems to handle billing, manage cash flow, monitor budgets, control costs, and track financial performance. Build projections, understand your revenue cycle, obtain financing if needed, and establish policies for bill collection. As business revenue grows, ensure adequate cash reserves.
Regulatory Compliance
There are many legal and compliance requirements to follow – having sound policies and procedures will keep your practice operating safely and legitimately. This includes areas such as medical record documentation, OSHA and HIPAA regulations, properly coded claims, physician licensing, and more. Stay current on changes.
HR Concerns
Handle talent recruitment and retention, payroll, benefits, establishing policies in an employee handbook, and setting up managerial workflows. Ensure HR practices follow employment laws and consider outsourcing HR needs.
Operations Management
Efficient office operations require defining processes for scheduling, patient intake, medical records, referrals management, ordering supplies, equipment maintenance, and IT/data management. Build infrastructure to support quality care.
Insurance Requirements
Obtain proper business insurance coverage including general liability, professional liability, commercial property, worker’s compensation, and other policies. Manage risk by reviewing annually.
Developing sound financial, administrative, compliance, HR, operational, and risk management skills – or partnering with those who have such expertise – is crucial to medical practice success. Pay careful attention to these key areas as a new business owner. Let me know if you have any other specific questions!
For more information, please contact Matthew Watson at matthew.watson@ballardsllp.com
Disclaimer. This article has been prepared for information purposes only. Formal professional advice is strongly recommended before making decisions on the topics discussed in this release. No responsibility for any loss to any person acting, or not acting, as a result of this release can be accepted by us, or any person affiliated with us.
