Accounting Service for Medical Practices Ben Johnson, CPA

An efficient accounting system is essential for doing so without harming your practice. As a result, healthcare professionals are often unprepared to manage their company’s accounting and tax responsibilities. To make matters worse, the unique nature of the healthcare industry creates financial issues beyond what most business owners face. Most medical practices seem to overlook these statements due to a less complex business model. However, a Profit/Loss Statement can provide valuable insight and should be powerful accounting tool in your practice’s arsenal. By choosing in-house software, you’ll be retaining complete control of your practice’s operations, which provides peace of mind.

It’s also common for payers to have their own fee schedules, meaning accountants regularly face the complexity of keeping track of a huge web of different billings, receivables, and allowances. Health care providers are major users of IT infrastructure, capital equipment, and commercial buildings, all of which depreciate over time. As with depreciation accounting in other sectors, this process involves calculating the cost of the asset in question as well as its useful life. Established in Jacksonville, Florida over 15 years ago, we have extensive experience helping medical practices like yours thrive. For doctors just starting out, it pays to create solid systems from the time you open your doors.

Learn basic bookkeeping

Their healthcare consultants possess a wealth of knowledge best suited to provide practice advisory solutions tailored to improve your operational and financial performance. There are several deductions that doctors and other medical professionals miss out on. It is important to take the time to go over your deductions with a CPA to ensure the largest tax savings. Examples of deductions that are often overlooked include the cost of a medical license, education related to work, patient refunds, and mileage deductions, among others. Ben Johnson can help ensure that medical professionals are aware of all the deductions available to them and keep the appropriate records so that they aren’t missed.

• It assists you with verifying that the transactions you have input into the bank accounts match the bank statements you receive.
• If you enjoyed tracking numbers, you would have opted for a career in finance or mathematics.
• The ongoing shift of the health care system away from fee-for-service compensation toward value-based reimbursement means that holding providers accountable for cost and quality is more important than ever.
• It involves creating budgets for your expected costs, comparing them to your actual numbers, and investigating the differences.
• Under cash accounting, you do not count the claims you submit to payers for reimbursement as revenue until you receive payment.
• For most medical practices, the accrual accounting method is not the preferred solution.
• Proper bookkeeping for medical practices is essential to ensure accurate and organized financial records, comply with industry regulations, and make informed financial decisions.

With cash accounting, problems with accounts receivable can go unnoticed, as unpaid accounts stay off the books until your practice receives a payment. Accrual accounting helps your practice spot problems with accounts receivable more easily, as this approach counts each claim as income when you file it, regardless of how long it takes to be paid. Understanding medical accounting is essential for just about any job in the health services field. Collaborating with professionals specializing in accounting in health care ensures that medical practices stay up-to-date and make informed financial decisions. When considering the best way to handle bookkeeping for medical practices, it’s important to weigh the cost vs. benefit. Specifically, consider having a full-time employee who is properly trained and has the right equipment on-site.

Accounting for Medical Practices: 5 areas you can’t afford to ignore

While you’d probably prefer to focus on providing healthcare services to your patients, you can’t afford to ignore the business side of your operation. Staying on top of accounts receivable is crucial for maintaining a healthy cash flow in your practice. If patients aren’t paying you for your services, you won’t have enough cash to pay employees, cover other expenses, and take home profits.

• Ben Johnson can help you determine the best way for a medical practice to purchase equipment to limit tax liability.
• To sum up, Meru Accounting provides specialized accounting services that are designed expressly to meet the specific requirements of the medical sector.
• In some states, funds from such uncollected checks must be turned over to the state government because of unclaimed property laws.
• These courses will help you become skilled in medical accounting—skills that you can take with you as you pursue careers in health services as a multi-skilled medical assistant or a medical administrative assistant.
• Whether you’re just opening your doors or have been in practice for over 30 years with multiple locations, there’s always an opportunity for improvement with accounting for medical practices.
• Apply for financing, track your business cashflow, and more with a single lendio account.

Unfortunately, those seemingly small and insignificant back-office tasks need discussions time and again to make sure your practice runs smoothly. Thanks to medical software solutions, many of these tasks are easier to manage than ever before. Your patients count on you to provide care that will allow them to feel their very best. You also jump through more financial compliance and accounting hoops than most people realize.

Medical Office Policies & Procedures Information

Our use of the terms “our Firm,” “we,” “us” and similar terms denote the alternative practice structure of PKF O’Connor Davies LLP and PKF O’Connor Davies Advisory LLC. “PKF O’Connor Davies” is the brand name under which PKF O’Connor Davies LLP and PKF O’Connor Davies Advisory LLC provide professional services. Additionally, reviewing past P&L statements can also help identify trends in spending so future financial decisions and investments can be made with better accuracy. Investing in technology may save money in the long run but can also require large upfront investments. Meanwhile, investing in a partnership with a PPMC can reduce some upfront investment, as they already have trained staff and the necessary technology to handle medical bookkeeping needs.

Whether you’re just opening your doors or have been in practice for over 30 years with multiple locations, there’s always an opportunity for improvement with accounting for medical practices. There is a lot of documentation required when forming a medical practice, and the records grow as you conduct business. Your accounting advisors will need access to much of that financial paperwork, and it is up to you to set them up for success.