Funny
Like any other business a doctor office needs to generate a certain amount per hour to pay expenses and salaries. That�s the starting point in this equation. Of course doctors may be greedy and trying to milk every available dollar. But let�s assume a practice were the doctor is making an average salary for his field.
In order for things to run smoothly the following needs to happen
1) the doctor doesn�t overbook, rather he leaves enough time per patient . This is difficult to guess but doable.
2) every patient shows up on time (or early to fill out paperwork)
3) if a patient doesn�t show on time then the doctor needs to make a decision, reschedule the patient or allow the schedule to start to get backed up . Ideally the patient would be rescheduled but the patient would…
4) ability to charge patients for missed or late shows. With dedicated appointment slots comes the need for definite revenue . Otherwise several missed appointments and the dollar per hour is in the negative range.
It all comes down to insurance. Low reimbursement means a need for high volume in general. The worst Is a Medicaid practice, besides for low reimbursement,doctors can�t charge for missed appointments . And when patients have no skin in the game they have no incentive to not show so multiple cancellations is the norm and thus overbooking by doctors is the norm.
I�m not saying doctors can�t do a better job. I�ve left doctors for being bad about wait times. I�m saying that a lot of this rests on pt insurance and pt irresponsibility.
Like in all other areas of life , those that are on time end up having to wait for those that have no concept of time.
