Mistakes I’ve Made in Private Practice

I’ve really enjoyed my journey thus far as a small business owner; I think I was lucky to have done a lot of things correctly, but there are also some things I’d do differently looking back on it. I’ll share some of them with you so that you can try to avoid them starting your own practice.

Taking notes on every phone call. “If you don’t write it down, it didn’t happen” doesn’t only apply to client interactions. This is something I thought I did well until I realized the depths of the health insurance industry and the number of phone calls I had to make to get even simple things done. Simply grabbing a notepad and jotting down some major points during a call proved inadequate when I needed to revisit those notes months later and found out the hard way that I wasn’t quite organized enough. Even taking notes in a Doc wasn’t good enough because of the sheer amount of information that many calls to insurance companies require.

Many companies have different phone numbers for different departments, sometimes mental health is in it’s own Behavioral Health Dept. or other times it’s under Medical, different reps give different information at different times, policies and procedures change without notice, and it’s always nice to have a call reference # when you’re trying to explain something that was talked about 3 months ago. It was also maddening to have an automated system drop me because I couldn’t verify a client’s ID # and DOB fast enough (websites time out after being on hold for 30+ min!), so I started taking note of that information before even dialing. Things quickly became difficult to sort through, and I found myself wishing there was consistent information from a pervious situation when I encountered another, similar scenario.

So here’s the things that I include on my call log spreadsheet now, for every single phone call: Date, Phone #, Name (of who I’m calling), Client’s name that the call pertains to, Client insurance ID, Client birthday, Purpose of the call, Name of rep(s) that I speak to, Call reference #, Call notes/outcomes, and Next steps. One spreadsheet to rule them all, one place with all the info for every insurance and other business call.

Staying consistent across platforms. Professionalism is important for your image as a small business. If you appear chaotic and disorganized, you may turn off some potential clients. If you have a neat, consistent presentation online, you’ll possibly beat out some competition. This spans many different areas, from your wording and tone on various platforms, to building brand recognition with images and logos, to the intake documents you send to clients, and there are many more examples. Templates are your best friend wherever you can use them: standardizing forms, writing letters on letterhead, creating templates for emails and documentation, etc, are all going to save time and, ultimately, money.

Some other things I did for consistency: I organized myself on a new Canva account for all-things-Forward Thinking. I created a logo, wrote down the 6-digit hex #s for all of my brand’s colors, utilized the same fonts across my website and anywhere else I had the power to change them, and used the same photos and logos for my profile. Every time I strayed from these practices, it was a mistake. If I changed something in one place and not others, I regretted it down the line when I may have come off as less professional than I’d like to.

Also, different referral platforms like Psychology Today, Mental Health Match, and others may all have different requirements for your website bio, but it’s helpful to write a full biography once and then utilize pieces of it to add to every website rather than re-writing it every time. Not only does this keep you consistent, but it helps save you extra work. I like keeping all of the things I write about the business in a single document, so any time I sign up for a new platform or need to answer questions about my company, it’s easy to find in 1 place.

Not reading enough. I was really excited to start my business and my eagerness may have caused me to skip some learning steps. I had already started a business in the past, so I knew about registering with the state, getting a PO Box, applying for a type 2 NPI, updating my CAQH, creating a website and social media, and some pieces of marketing. But I wasn’t quite prepared for some of the hardest and most important parts of running a therapy practice: getting paid. If the rest of this article hasn’t gotten this point across already, dealing with the complex labyrinth that is the American healthcare system is a bear. People’s entire careers are medical billing and coding. I learned some lessons through a lot of trial and error, and there’s still a lot I don’t know. If I were to start this over with everything I know today, I would have invested a bit more time up font, reading or possibly even taking an online course, to learn more of the ins-and-outs of the billing system. It would have saved me some frustration and headaches and probably gotten money in my pocket sooner.

Another area that I sometimes fail to read up on enough: the news. Being a part of the healthcare industry, therapists are impacted quite a bit by federal, state, and local legislation. “I didn’t know” doesn’t fly when you’re the boss, so it’s prudent to stay abreast on current trends in politics and finance that can have serious implications for day-to-day business operations. Most recently, I learned that New Jersey made some changes to the way that they enforce employee vs. independent contractor rules, and that impacted the whole structure of my organization. I could have been subject to fines if I didn’t educate myself and make appropriate changes.

In general, I found myself not making enough time to read all the articles I wanted to, so I also started listening to podcasts in the mornings while I get ready—it was a real game-changer and has made it much easier to keep my finger on the country’s pulse.

These are just some of the hiccups I’ve encountered along my private practice journey. Hopefully, if you’re starting your own practice, you’ll start off a bit more organized, consistent, and well-read (at least about insurance and current events). I hope that my hard-learned lessons can make your path a bit smoother, and I’m also here to help out anyone who is getting started in their own practice. There’s such a need for mental health practitioners today, and I don’t view other practices as competition—we all have our unique strengths that we bring to the table, and there are clients out there who need us all and more. So reach out to me at any time and I’ll help out however I can!