A Guide to Enhancing Bariatric Surgery Revenue Streams 

Surgeon reviewing practice finances and identifying strategies to enhance bariatric surgery revenue.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to enhance existing bariatric surgical revenue streams and identify new potential sources of income.

Acquiring new bariatric surgery patients is one strategy to enhance revenue, but there are others. A clearly defined revenue strategy helps you streamline your practice and maximize revenue. 

Keep reading to uncover innovative strategies to help your practice thrive.

Key Takeaways

  • Improving the efficiency of the front office and back-office workflows can boost revenue.
  • Reducing waste from unnecessary expenses can significantly improve profit margins.
  • Identifying new opportunities for potential new partnerships may create passive streams of revenue.

How to Enhance Bariatric Surgery Revenue Streams

As the health care landscape continues to shift, you may be missing opportunities to enhance revenue streams within your practice. The first area to examine is within existing revenue streams. Focus on creating more efficiency within your practice with these simple strategies: 

1. Optimize Front Office Workflows

The productivity of your front office staff can have a dramatic impact on your bottom line. By implementing clear workflows and establishing streamlined systems, you can spend more time on revenue-generating activities and minimize time drains. 

Optimize these front-of-the-house workflows to enhance revenue:

  • Scheduling: Are you seeing the maximum number of patients per day?
  • Payment: Do you offer multiple payment options for patients? Do you have a cash pay surgery option?
  • Office hours: Do your office hours accommodate patients who have non-traditional work schedules?
  • Surgery hours: Could you expand the number of hours you spend in surgery?
  • Workflow: Is your office designed to maximize workflow efficiency? 
  • Waiting list: Do you have a waiting list to minimize disruptions in workflow when a patient no-shows or cancels at the last minute? 

2. Reduce Waste

Medical supply management is one of the easiest ways to minimize waste. By some estimates, proper surgical supply planning could save nearly $1,800 per surgery, or $28 million annually. Regularly over- or under-ordering supplies adds up quickly. A thorough review of your supply management process may reveal that you need to upgrade technology or switch to a new supplier.

Similarly, you may also be able to reduce overhead waste by purchasing your office building. Compared to renting, this could produce significant cost-savings in the longer term, especially if you practice in a growing geographical area.

3. Revamp Your Marketing Plan

If your objective is to attract and retain patients, you must be visible online. Your marketing plan should specifically outline a strategy for reaching potential new patients, and your website plays an integral role. If your website has a high bounce rate, for example, patients may not be finding what they are looking for easily. 

Include these key marketing elements on your website:

  • Ensure that your phone number is clickable from a mobile device.
  • Include a simple contact form so patients can schedule a first call or visit easily.
  • Display your office address prominently on your home page.
  • Include photos and bios of your team to establish early rapport.
Example of a bariatric surgery website’s contact us page
Image Source httpswwwgsbwccomcontact us

4. Streamline Back Office Systems 

Once you’ve optimized your front office workflows, you can focus on streamlining back-office systems. 

  • Coding: Are your visits and procedures coded to maximize reimbursement? Do you need to hire a new coding team? Do you regularly review your denials to better understand how your coding team is performing? 
  • Payor Mix: Is your payor mix optimized? Is it possible to transition to a cash-only concierge model? 
  • Technology: Is your claims management software effective? Do you have an effective patient enablement platform? Is there integration with payment tracking and credentialing software? 
  • Contract Management: Is it time to renegotiate contracts with insurance plans? Would dropping the lowest reimbursing contract boost your revenue? 
  • Billing: Is your billing and collections team optimized? How do you manage denials?
  • Bundled Payments: Do you offer bundled payments

How to Create New Bariatric Surgery Revenue Streams 

Learning how to recognize potential new sources of revenue can dramatically improve your bottom line. Creating new revenue streams may be easier than you think.

Here are some examples: 

1. Participate in Affiliate Programs

Partnering with companies that sell products related to your specialty may be a viable revenue source. With the growth of content marketing, medical professionals may be able to generate additional revenue from online sources. 

For example, most post-surgical bariatric patients will need to take certain supplements and undergo routine testing indefinitely. Surgeons could consider establishing partnerships with companies who provide related products and services. 

While regulations associated with the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and Civil Monetary Penalties Law may limit the scope and structure of affiliate relationships, it may be a viable stream of passive revenue for physicians.

2.Industry Thought Leadership     

To demonstrate industry thought leadership, bariatric surgeons may also consider speaking at conferences and workshops.

While the speaking honorariums may not be significant, getting in front of a room of other related healthcare professionals could generate new referrals and opportunities.

3. Publish Your Knowledge

Health care providers with specialized medical knowledge can also publish books, manuals, workbooks, and other educational resources to generate recurring revenue through royalties. If writing isn’t in your wheelhouse, you may still be able to hire a ghostwriter who can translate your ideas and knowledge into a written format. 

While book royalties may be a minimal source of revenue, publishing establishes authority. For this reason, books may be a good marketing tool for physicians. Plus, having a book for sale on Amazon could boost the Google rankings for your website.

4. Hire Ancillary Staff

Non-physician extenders (NPEs), such as physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and other related medical professionals may provide additional revenue. For example, some office visits are only billable when a physician is physically present. By some estimates, these ancillary services have a profit margin of 50% to 70%.

Hiring adjunct physicians to manage injections, x-rays, or other specialty procedures would enable your practice to continue generating revenue while you’re in surgery. NPEs could reduce revenue loss and improve operational efficiency within your practice.

5. Form Partnerships

Technology partnerships, such as leasing medical equipment to other physicians or hospitals, could translate to additional revenue. Be sure to consult with an attorney before changing your business model, though. Medical practices are highly regulated, and you’ll need to be sure you understand what is legally permitted and what is not.

Enhance Bariatric Surgery Revenue with Wellbe

To increase revenue, bariatric surgeons must bolster existing revenue streams while simultaneously exploring potential new sources of revenue. 

As regulations within the healthcare industry continue to evolve, physicians must also stay current with best practices to maintain compliance with professional ethics and anti-kickback statutes.

If you need to improve your strategy for enhancing bariatric surgery revenue streams, Wellbe can help.

Boost your revenue streams with time-saving digital patient enablement technologies by contacting us today to learn more about our bariatric surgery support services.