Medical Office Management: Alternatives to a Full-Time Manager
Do you need a full-time office manager at your medical office? Do you really need to pay that full-time office manager salary of $60,000 or more, plus benefits? If you have a well-developed system of policies and procedures in place, chances are you may not need to. But what would be the alternative?
Instead of hiring a full-time office manager, you could consider hiring a medical office management company to run your office. The management company does not take a financial interest in the office and will simply come in three or four mornings a week to deal with the finances, staff issues, and any other issues that may need to be handled by an office manager.
A major advantage of using a professional company is that they typically have a number of different people in their company. They may be able to help with issues that your current manager has to call outside experts to deal with, possibly at $150 an hour.
The company my physicians hired has an attorney, a CPA, a banker, and a physician to deal with whatever headaches need to be dealt with. Besides the terrific support staff, the cost of hiring that company was half what the physicians were paying me (with benefits). So the savings can be substantial.
So outsourcing the management of your medical office could definitely be a viable option. At the very least, you may want to review your office’s situation. Of course, each office is different, and I’m not suggesting to fire all the office managers out there. But if the opportunity arises where your office manager is thinking of leaving, you should at least know that may have the option of replacing him or her with a professional management company.
