Business Planning for Starting an SLP Private Practice

SLP Private Practice Business Planning Becoming a Medicare Certified Speech-Language Pathologist in Private Practice may be your first step in beginning to operate your clinical practice as a solo practitioner. For professionals who have always worked under someone else’s employment umbrella, this new career opportunity requires learning enough about business administration to select and interface with your accountant, attorney, real estate agent, advertising agency and practice manager. You will need to develop your formal, written business plan, analyze and manage your finances, write and implement your clinical and compliance policies and procedures, establish quality assurance and utilization review programs, market your clinical services and then collect and retain the money you earn.

Many of the speech-language pathologists who want to begin providing their private practice services to Medicare patients have never worked as solo practitioners nor have they had any coursework or hands-on experience in establishing and managing a clinical practice. Working successfully with third-party payers to meet their requirements for reimbursement can be described as cumbersome at best and finally risky if the slightest, albeit innocent, errors are made.

Bloomingdale Consulting Group provides comprehensive mentoring to prepare and assist each of our clients in becoming a Medicare Certified Speech-Language Pathologist in Private Practice (SLPPP) and then being there for our clients to ensure that they have all of the knowledge and tools necessary to operate that practice as a successful revenue-generating business.

We can tell you what you need to do, we can show you how to do it, and we will even do the majority of the preparation, paperwork and business administration for you.

We will guide you in reaching out to the referral sources that are able to direct communicatively handicapped Medicare patients to private practitioners.

We will teach you how to generate the documentation required for reimbursement and how to develop the clinical and compliance policies and procedures necessary to avoid, and vital to prevail in, a Medicare audit. It would be a shame to invest your dollars and devote long hours into becoming a private practitioner only to find out too late that you’re ultimately not making any money or, worse, breaking a law or violating a third-party payer requirement that could result in your having to return reimbursement that you’ve already received (and spent).

We will help you to understand the legal and payer requirements of evaluating and treating Medicare patients in your home office, in office space that you sublet from other rehab professionals, in a timeshare office that you rent on an hourly basis or in your own private office. Once you select your practice environment(s), we will help you to make informed decisions about rental agreements and leases.

We will (a) help you to decide whether to do your own billing, collecting and generation of the necessary third-party payer documentation, (b) assist you in hiring and training your own clerical employee, or (c) guide you in selecting a competent billing service.

You are already fully prepared to evaluate and treat communicatively handicapped patients. Bloomingdale Consulting Group wants to enable you to spend your time doing what you do best and to rely on us to deal with the business and bureaucratic issues faced by a Medicare Certified Speech-Language Pathologist in Private Practice.

Bloomingdale Consulting Group will guide you, teach you, assist you, coach you, or do it for you. It’s all up to you.

Establish your private practice as a legal business entity.
Determine where you will provide your speech-language pathology services.
Negotiate office rental/lease agreements.
Determine how much space and what types of equipment you will need.
Develop a budget, analyze your costs and breakeven point, and discuss financial statements with your accountant.
Correctly document your clinical work to meet the requirements of third-partypayers including Medicare.
Write clinical and compliance policies and procedures for your practice.
Develop and comply with your quality assurance and utilization review programs
Respond to denials and prevail in the appeals process with Medicare and other third-party payers.
Create and execute your marketing plan.
Maximize your chances of collecting and retaining all of the money you earn.