As a practice manager in the medical industry, you face unique challenges – long hours, complex systems, time demands and the constant pressure to run a successful and profitable practice.
In this month’s blog, Wilson Pateras’ Medical Accountant details how outsourcing an accounting expert who understands the specific accounting and bookkeeping requirements of the medical industry ensures that your practice enjoys the benefits of having an expert on board, without drowning in administration and tax responsibilities.
Why is a well-structured accounts system so critical in a medical practice?
The team at Wilson Pateras work with many specialist and general medical practices. Through our years of experience in both of these professional environments, we find that practice managers struggle most with late and inaccurate financial data. With so much on their plates, practice managers simply don’t have time to be worrying about triple-checking their billings, administration and tax responsibilities. Practice mangers don’t need suppliers calling them chasing payment, they don’t need invoices flagged as overdue and they don’t need staff checking that their overtime hours have been processed correctly. A well-structured, outsourced accounting and bookkeeping firm takes all of this behind-the-scenes administration away from a practice manager, so that they can focus on what they do best – managing their medical practice!
How do a medical practice’s accounting and financial needs differ from other industry practices?
In the medical profession, structuring is the biggest differentiator. Medical practices operate on a service trust structure – a type of trust that is used to provide services to a professional practice such as accountancy, law, medicine or pharmacy. Where the medical profession differs from these other industries is that most medical practices have a multitude of doctors – specialists, partner doctors, consulting doctors and more – that are accountable to them. While these doctors may practice independently, they share resources, rooms, systems and staff. Each doctor’s unique billings, schedule and day-to-day performance must be collated and reconciled – resulting in what can be quite tedious calculations.
How can Wilson Pateras best support medical practices?
Wilson Pateras’ depth of understanding regarding the medical industry is what truly sets us apart. We understand the systems and software favored by medical practices – such as Genie Solutions Software and Zedmed and practice administration applications such as billing and scheduling systems. We’re also across all of the industry specific tax offsets and rebates – such as Medicare rebates, private health insurance rebates and more. We also understand how business owners would like their information presented. A particular strength of the Wilson Pateras team lies in our reporting and categorisation. We’re able to categorise practices by location (if a practice has multiple locations) or by doctor. This allows practice managers to receive reports that best represent how each location is operating and how each doctor is performing – providing the opportunity to allocate additional resources where necessary.
Whatever the priorities of your medical practice, Wilson Pateras are committed to making your day-to-day more efficient. Engaging Wilson Pateras’ professional team to assist you with your medical accounting and bookkeeping requirements allows you the time to focus on your patient flow, billings, locations, and more. Get in touch with us or learn more here.
