Lori Atkinson is a Consultant
Focusing on
Contract Negotiations with Health Plans
She is currently available for hire
Negotiating insurance contracts is probably the most time-consuming, labor-intensive and difficult responsibility for private practice owners and administrators. But it’s critical to profitable operations and the success of your practice.
Many physicians hire consultants because they lack the time to talk to payers themselves and they don’t have someone in their practice who is equipped to advocate for the practice in a negotiation meeting (i.e., someone who has experience dissecting legal documents and is naturally persuasive, engaging, and well-spoken).
To make sure the negotiation works in your favor, you must prove your value to your payers, have confidence in navigating contract language, and prepare yourself to talk numbers.
My role as a consultant is to help you navigate all aspects of this maze and to ensure your organization achieves positive financial results with better contracts, while allowing you to focus on your practice and the patients you are caring for.
My Value-Add Approach
Market Analysis
Analyze where you stand in the market and what leverage you have going into contract negotiations.
Strategy Development
Establish contracting goals and negotiating strategies per payer.
Risk Management
Identify language that puts your practice at risk.
Negotiations
Implement negotiation strategies that increase your reimbursement rates, remove unwanted language, and ease administrative burdens.
Regulatory Updates
Proactively evaluate the impact of CMS updates and state regulation updates.
Contract Management
Summarize your current contracts so you can quickly review the key terms of all contracted payers.
Identify the expiration or renewal dates of your payer contracts and how far in advance you must submit rate increase requests or language modifications.