Excellent Patient Care

Aaron,

I would like to speak to you about opening a clinic. I have specific questions and didn't want to type up your blog. Please feel free to contact me at the above email.

Julie Atkeison, ACNP

Congratulations to all of you on opening your clinics.  I have had mine for just over 2 years.  I am now averaging 85-90 visits per week, so don't worry, it will come.  It is very hard at first.  We know we have a great service to offer and if patients just knew about it they would flood in.  and in time, they do.  word of mouth is your best advertisement.  this takes time but creates loyal patients.  We are turning a profit for at least the last 9 months and I am finally paying myself what I deserve.  Keep at it, it is worth it.  kristy

Gary, Most other NP's I know work part time at another location while trying to start up their own practice.  I probably would have benefited by doing that, but just jumped in with both feet instead.  Since my clinic is a walk-in clinic that also stresses the convenience of using the clinic, I wanted to be open as much as possible and not close so I could work another job.  I also couldn't yet afford another practitioner, so I had to work all the hours.  After 4 months of 58 hours/week, I did cut down the clinic hours to about 46/week so I wouldn't  burn out.  

Aaron; I share your sentiments; it feels great when you're busy and the days when you're not sure if anyone knows your 'clinic is out there' are really the tough ones for me! Before starting this clinic up I worked in this community for 10 years, both in private practice and at our local clinic for the indigent. There I learned how many people in our county are uninsured. While the indigent clinic sees those with Medicaid and at or below poverty level, there were no resources for people above the poverty level. Many of them default to the urgent care center or ER and neglect preventive health care. That's the niche I hope to serve.  

Gary; Congratulations on becoming an NP. Your plans to get a few years of experience under your belt before opening your own clinic are on target. Having a good relationship with your supervising MD is also very important.

If you have any plans to travel to the mountains, please stop in to my clinic. I'd love to show you around. There are more details than you can imagine to get anything 'health' or 'medical' related started, but none that seemed specific to NC.

I am a new grad and am just starting in the process of finding my first job. I know I will need at least 2 years of practice under a experienced NP or MD, before I am even ready to start looking at starting my own practice. With that being said my goal is to be in my own practice in about 4 years. I like Ms Mc Dowill want to serve the self pay population and do a fee for service only practice. I am planning on workinging for salary as a moonlighter when my practice first goes online to help supplement my income. did any of you also work part time as you were building your practice? Also Ms. Mc Dowell what types of challenges did you face in starting your practice in NC?

At first I considered taking just self pay patients.  However I couldn't find enough of a patient population to make the practice profitable.  So yes, I take most insurances.  Some insurances require a consulting physician, so I pay a local MD about $250 a month to consult.  (I call him 1-2 x per month is all), but it is worth it so I can bill some of the larger insurances.  I don't do my own billing.  I pay Alpine Billing 7.5% of what money I am paid.  I should probably learn to do my own billing, but have instead focused my attention on getting the clinic up and going.   I did talk to my billing company however, and they said that although I have to charge the same to everyone (insurance or not) to make payment fair, I can offer coupons.  So on my website a patient can print a coupon and be seen for quite a discount, making it affordable for everyone.  Good luck with your new practice.  Don't ever get discouraged, it takes awhile.  Sometimes you have to ride the waves.  On somedays I am so busy that it's exciting.  On other days I wonder if anyone even knows my clinic is out there.  My hardest days are the slow ones, but I never give up.  Check out my website www.paceclinic.com to see other things I am doing and please give me feedback of what you think.  Have fun, I wish you the best.

Aaron Hartle

Pace Clinic

Aaron; do you take insurance? If so, how do you do your billing? I've heard from other NP practices that they outsource their billing to a 3rd party.

I've just opened my own independent clinic and elected to work on a fee for service basis. My goal is to serve adults who are un- or under-insured by charging affordable fees and keeping my overhead low.