Practice Advantage

In this episode, I sit down with eye care industry veteran Grant Larsen to discuss effective change. Successful businesses are easily able to adapt, change, and add new services/ products based on the needs of their customers. As a business owner and leader, it's imperative we recognize steps to success and lead them within the business.

Key Takeaways:

1. Change is difficult. Don’t think you have to do lead, drive change within your practice all by yourself.
2. The first step to any successful endeavor is understand your “why”. Why are you doing this? Why are you passionate about seeing it succeed?
3. Maintaining change isn’t easy either. Learn from the challenges, the “failures”, and why something may not have gone to plan. Adjust accordingly and stay accountable.
4. Have a scorecard for success. Manage against it. Recognition and reward is key to keeping your staff connected to your scorecard.
5. Leverage the connected knowledge of experts around you to accelerate success. Learn from mistakes made and successes had.
6. Getting started is key.

Other episodes mentioned in this episode:

Episode 48: The KPI's You Aren't Tracking with Bryan Hoban

Episode 24: Focus On Financials Part 2 with Bryan Hoban

Episode 23: Focus On Financials Part 1 with Bryan Hoban

In this episode, I sit down with culture catalyst Erin O'Malley to discuss the reasons we don't like difficult conversations and having to provide constructive feedback to friends, colleagues, and employees. 

Key Takeaways:

1. Many don't like having difficult conversations due to the effects it could have on the relationship. We play "What If?" games for the negative, yet we should really look at the positive "What If?" outcomes that could come from having the conversation.
2. Consider shifting away from the feedback sandwich - it can cause whiplash and leave your employee focusing either on the negative or the positive (and they miss the constructive). As Dr. Brené Brown puts it, "Clear is kind."
3. Erin's framework for difficult conversations:
   1. Intention - Sets our intention and guides the conversation
   2. Framing - Seeing the specific situation and behavior of the individual
   3. Impact - What's the impact the person's behavior is having on the business case
   4. Inputs - Ask questions and bring the other person in
   5. Invite - Invite them into the conversation and the solution
4. Feedback is a two way street. The inputs and pulling them in to the conversation, asking them how they feel or think about the challenge is really important. Be present.
5. As you frame the difficult conversation, avoid talking about subjective issues. Address the objective actions and behaviors head on.

What Erin is reading:

• Say What You Mean by Oren Sofer

In this final episode from the PECAA Annual Meeting in Nashville, VSP Vision's Shauna Harrington leads an interactive, audience participation course on attracting and keeping great employees in your practice.

Key Takeaways:

1. One bad apple spoils the whole bunch. People don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad leaders.
2. Having a handbook sets performance expectations that help facilitate productive people management
3. Focus on your own unique value proposition. This impacts your ability to source great talent.
4. How do you source great talent?
   1. Word of Mouth
   2. Indeed
   3. Other service industries
   4. Asking for referrals from employees
   5. Schools and training programs
5. Engagement in the job and Enablement to do the job are both super important to retain staff

Wish you were in Nashville for the PECAA Annual Meeting? Be sure to block your calendar for the 2024 meeting in Las Vegas April 29 - May 1, 2024!

In this episode from the PECAA Annual Meeting, Marketing4ECPs President Kevin Wilhelm shares strategies for building a practice brand your patients will love and pay more for. . 

1. A commodity is something purchased solely on price and convenience.
2. Brand loyal customers pay 20% more on average for the same product.
3. Be unique - own a single idea and be better at it than anyone else. 
4. Be memorable
5. Focus, Focus Focus

Wish you were in Nashville? Mark your calendar for next year's meeting in Las Vegas April 29th to May 1st, 2024!

Back for another episode of the Practice Advantage podcast, speaker, author, and inspirer Chris Tuff shares more on deeper, authentic connection, and the power it brings to a practice. 

1. 11% of employees are in the right job to match their personality profile. Investing more time how we're wired is important to impacting a practice's culture and talent. 
2. 3/5 out of employees would leave an employer without that ability to connect to leadership
3. Feedback is key to employee and culture success - praise-based and constructive/ developmental. 
4. Inspirational leadership is the most important leadership trait needed by millennials. 
5. Connection happens in the art of fly-by
6. Let culture thrive

Wish you were at the PECAA Annual Meeting? Be sure to mark your calendar for April 29-May 1, 2024 in Las Vegas, NV!

On this episode, I sit down with Teri Thurston, PECAA's Billing & Coding Advisor to discuss the biggest issues practices face with their billing and coding processes and how to fix them. 

Key Takeaways:

1. Start at the beginning - with insurance verification. Verifying the patient's insurance ahead of time informs the practice on how to best care for the patient and leverage those benefits before the patient steps foot in the practice. 
2. Evaluate the entire Revenue Cycle Management process. Determine the areas that need work and define those individual steps and processes in specific detail. Make sure they work for your individual business. These established processes also help when you have to replace or fill in for your billing specialist.
3. Under-coding and over-coding are significant problems. Take the time to learn what you can bill, how to determine the exam levels you provide, and the appropriate documentation. Don't miss out on billing for services you provided as they are also risky in an audit. Knowing the rules helps you sleep at night when it comes to an audit. 
4. Medical and vision insurance can cause challenges when the patient presents for a vision exam, yet has a medical problem. Leverage both within the rules and keep medical and vision separate when appropriate. Educate your patients up front and throughout their entire experience with the whole team.
5. Don't forget the processes after the patient is seen. Submit claims on time. Chase down denials and rejections as soon as possible. Track and manage your billing and coding KPI's. 

What Teri is reading:

• Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown

Do you want to build a great referral network with providers in your area to drive greater specialty care adoption and expand your patient base? 

Key Takeaways:

1. Evaluate the current realities of your referral networks
2. Determine the referrals you want and establish your referral policies and procedures
3. Reach out yourself to the providers in your area as much as you can
4. Don't be afraid to refer and seek referrals from other optometrists
5. Leave detailed information for the providers you're working to build referrals from
6. Send detailed communication to providers you both receive referrals from and from whom you are seeking referrals
7. Host doctor education nights to showcase what how you can serve their practices and their patient

Have you registered for the PECAA Annual Meeting?

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Sahil Dosaj, owner of Miller Optometry in Yucaipa, CA, to share his experience in buying another practice to scale his business. 

Key Takeaways:

1. The opportunity to scale can come along at any time. Be prepared and ready in your current practice location(s) to be able to say yes when the opportunity presents. 
2. Buying a practice means acquiring an established brand that has the opportunity to grow. It's important to recognize the value of the brand (good or bad) and leverage it or change it appropriately. 
3. Success in acquisition means having standardized processes strong enough that you implement them in the second business. Take into account what that location does well, but replicate the processes you have established. Be flexible enough to evolve and grow but replicate at the same time. 
4. Replication also involves the culture. Acquiring a business can mean acquiring great people and other times, it means people who won't get on board with the direction you're headed. Don't be afraid to let people go who aren't aligned with your mission, vision, and values.

What Sahil is reading:

• The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack
• Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty

Are you joining us for the PECAA Annual Meeting 4/20 to 4/22 in Nashville, TN?? If you don't want to miss out, learn more at https://www.pecaa.com/nationalmemberevents.

On this episode, we sit down with principal financial advisor and co-founder of Credentialed Wealth Advisors Clint Chedester to discuss the realities of today's economy and its impact on independent eye care professionals. 

Clint's Disclosure:

“We represent Credentialed Wealth Advisors, an SEC registered investment adviser.  The opinions expressed are solely our opinions and are not necessarily those of the podcast host or any advertisers or of Credentialed Wealth Advisors, LLC.  Our appearance does not constitute an offer to buy or sell securities and no investment process is free of risk.  No investment process we may discuss can be guaranteed to be profitable.  The investment opportunities discussed may not be suitable for all investors.  All data and references we cite are believed to be reliable.  Any opinions, news, research, analysis or prices discussed are general commentary and do not constitute investment advice.  Our comments cannot be construed as tax or legal advice.  Listeners are urged to contact their tax or legal advisor for any related questions.”

Key Takeaways:

1. One key economic metric to understand the health of the US consumer is the S&P Experian Consumer Credit Default Composite Index - the percentage of consumers behind or in default of consumer credit. Today it is 0.63% compared to over 5% at the height of the Great Recession in 2009.
2. Interest rates continue to rise to increase the cost of borrowing money, ultimately leading to lowered inflation. As small business owners, high interest rates indicate a much deeper need to be especially strategic about how new purchases will be used to drive growth in revenue. If cash flow is high, retaining cash in the business is valuable.
3. The US economy has been in decline for much of 2022 and a number of leading economic indicators show this. A few of these: the number of manufacturing hours worked, ISM Index of new orders, and consumer expectations. All are down and interestingly, the consumer expectation index as lower last year than at the worst part of the Great Recession. Consumer expectation is improving.
4. The US Labor Force Participation Rate indicator shows that we still have not replaced the jobs lost during the pandemic. Consumer demand is higher than it was prior to the pandemic with less workers in the labor force.

What Clint is reading:

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Want to recession proof your practice? Join PECAA at www.pecaamax.com!

In this episode, I sit down with PECAA's Optical Business Advisor, Kayla Groves, to discuss the biggest pitfalls that practices fall into with their optical. 

Key Takeaways

1. Pitfall #1: Overstocking of frames. Turn rate should be 3x on average in a practice. Frames that aren't turning at this rate shouldn't be stocked.
2. Pitfall #2: Capture rate isn't calculated or calculated poorly. Not having this data affects ability to make key decisions well within the optical.
3. Pitfall #3: Not maximizing reimbursement from insurance by taking wholesale and Frames Data and taking into consideration the type of optical they have: heavy managed vision care, budget, or luxury. 
4. Pitfall #4: Not actively managing the frame board and inventory, taking into consideration the practice goals, the practice business model, demographics, price assortment, and turn rate.
5. Pitfall #5: Not training all team members on the essentials of the optical.
6. Optical is still a significant opportunity for growth in private practice. The patients purchasing online and from e-commerce players are not ones who would purchase anyways from a practice. A large proportion of patients still want an in office experience.

What Kayla is reading:

• The Missing by Kiersten Modglin

Want to learn more about PECAA's Optical Management resources? Email us at [email protected].