It’s estimated that costs for patients with asthma exceed $56 billion. Doctor’s visits, emergency care, medicine, and lost wages are just some of the financial burdens patients face. However, despite the fact that patient costs are going up, doctors are not benefitting from increased revenues.
According to Medscape’s 2020 Physician Wage Report, the physicians surveyed reported that their practices have experienced a 55% decrease in revenue and a 60% decrease in patient volume during 2020. This decrease in revenues has caused 9% of private practices to temporarily close, and many hospitals and physician groups have made the difficult decision to implement pay cuts, furloughs, or layoffs.
While the top concern for most physicians right now is caring for their patients and maintaining their own health, doctors still have to consider the bottom line. By reducing costs for themselves and their patients, a physician can actually increase net profit for their practice.
3 Strategies for Lowering Your Asthma Patients’ Healthcare Costs
It’s been reported that 30% of doctor visits involve cost conversations. Healthcare costs are obviously a priority for patients. However, cutting the cost of patient care does not necessarily have to lead to less revenue for the physician. Here are three strategies for cutting patient costs and increasing doctor revenues at the same time.
1. Offer Telehealth Options
Remote monitoring and patient coaching can help allergists and pulmonologists support better health outcomes for patients. It also helps overcome time constraints and provides an ongoing revenue stream. At the same time, improved efficiencies reduce administrative costs and allow a physician to monitor more patients in the same amount of time without sacrificing the quality of care.
2. Switch to a Lower-Cost Diagnostic
A new wave of economical and easy-to-use devices are unlocking healthcare information. It’s no longer necessary to go to the doctor to monitor asthma symptoms. Portable monitoring devices empower people to take control of their chronic disease and conditions. For example, patients with asthma can track their FEV1% with Aluna. A companion app and game make the task fun, and the data can be remotely viewed by doctors for better treatment.
3. Provide Free Samples/Equipment
Passing along pharmaceutical samples to your patients can help ease the financial burden for them. When you give them a remote monitoring device like Aluna, you are helping them save on diagnostic equipment, and you are potentially reducing their number of office visits.
Once the asthma patient is set up with the Aluna device, doctors can remotely monitor their patients’ lung health can submit their charges to insurance companies using RPM codes for setup, treatment, and the time spent monitoring the data. In addition to the RPM codes, physicians can submit additional charges for chronic care management. CCM codes can be billed concurrently with RPM codes but non-complex CCM and complex CCM codes cannot be billed concurrently.
In Conclusion
Patients and providers need to work towards the common goal of reducing costs. Physicians can do their part by embracing new technologies and exploring options like remote monitoring and telehealth that may lay outside of the established healthcare model.
If you would like more information about Aluna or how Aluna can help you reduce costs for your patients while providing you with a consistent revenue stream, Reach out to speak with a representative and find out more.
