With competing practices offering excellent patient care or using the newest technology, it can be hard to stand out in today’s world. It has become less about the specific eye care a person receives and about the whole experience with your practice from start to finish.
As a private practice, there are often limited resources available to provide patient care, stay informed of new rules and regulations, file for payment, hire and train staff, and more. That’s why it’s essential to find ways of maximizing your time, which is where an MSO can help. With the assistance of a larger administrative team at your fingertips, you can do what you started out to do—take care of people.
A management services organization (MSO) partners with your practice to ensure you’re as productive and profitable as you can be.
What is an MSO?
An MSO is short for “management services organization” – a business organization that steps in and provides assistance in various aspects of your practice. They don’t necessarily offer the practice’s services directly, but they are knowledgeable and able to help develop infrastructure and policies to enable smooth and profitable operations.
US Eye is not an MSO of simply knowledgeable people. The organization is founded and led by David W. Shoemaker, MD, and a team of physicians and other medical professionals. So, when working with US Eye, you’re getting assistance from a team with first-hand knowledge of the eye care industry.
5 Ways an MSO Assists Your Practice
Like any business, each MSO will have certain ways of doing things or specific specialties. But as a rule, there are five main ways you can expect an MSO to assist your practice.
Patient Experience
Patient experience includes everything from booking an appointment to understanding the prescribed medications or treatment after the appointment. An MSO can assist with all these things.
By helping improve the patient’s experience, the MSO is helping ensure you retain lifelong patients who trust your practice will provide them with a positive and caring experience.
Patient Management
Many people who visit your practice will have some form of insurance plan. To ensure eligibility and enrollment, a lot of data exchange takes place. If your practice has a large team that can take care of this, that’s great—however, this is not often the case.
MSOs have experienced administrative staff who can take care of this function and ensure that your practice’s records are accurate and auditable.
Patient Organization
When your practice deals with many patients, efficiency and security is key. It can be difficult to organize patient flow, records, intake software, and billing without an adequate IT infrastructure in place. An MSO can assist in building this infrastructure and managing patient information for you.
Reporting and Insurance
The required infrastructure for a high volume of claims is expensive, and many small practices cannot easily do it themselves.
MSOs keep up-to-date processing infrastructure with experienced staff to assist in managing the claims. They will also educate your practice’s staff in accurate reporting and correcting any errors.
Administrative Management
There are various rules and laws to follow that vary slightly state-by-state. An MSO employs experienced professionals that can help ensure your practice is always in good standing with current legislation.
Team Management and Recruiting
Finding good staff can be very difficult. A lot of effort goes into deciding what type of person you’re looking for. And if you need someone quickly, a lot of time and energy goes into the recruitment process.
MSOs can assist you in managing your team. Whether you need to figure out a better way to structure your practice or need assistance with recruiting new team members, MSOs have experienced staff to take care of these tasks.
Why You Should Use an MSO
All the services and ways an MSO can help your business boil down to one common denominator. They exist to help your practice experience growth. Partnering with an MSO should free you from running a business to instead focusing on providing exceptional patient care.
Evaluating an MSO
As you’re seeking an MSO partner, it’s essential to ask questions to ensure you’re considering an organization that supports your goals. Before you sign any agreement with an MSO, make sure you understand precisely what they bring to the table and how it will help your practice thrive.
Find Out How an MSO Can Benefit You
Are there ways that an MSO can help your practice, or do you have more questions? Contact us today and let our team show you how we can get you back to caring about the most important thing—your patients.
