Live Call July 28, 2026

School Year Start and End Dates

The group discussed the different start and end dates for the school year across different regions. Charu mentioned that school in Texas starts later, around August 19th, and ends before Memorial Day. Florence noted that schools in New York start and end much later, with public schools ending as late as June 26th. The conversation also touched on year-round schooling in places like Arizona, which Charu found appealing for travel opportunities.

Florence's Six-Month Reflection Session

Jennie led a reflection session marking Florence's six-month anniversary with the company, during which Florence shared how understanding the business's financial metrics and costs has transformed her approach to managing the practice. Florence explained that she now better allocates expenses and staff resources, having realized she doesn't need additional front desk staff but could benefit from expanding virtual assistant services for calls and document management. She described implementing a new system where VAs review and categorize referrals from the EHR, with the goal of capturing and addressing all incoming patient referrals more effectively.

Patient Information Management in Athena

The team discussed challenges with managing patient information in Athena, particularly around tracking referrals and patient encounters. Charu explained that information disappears unless saved as charts, and demonstrated how to use reports to identify active versus inactive patients, revealing a significant number of patients waiting for insurance approval. The group agreed to implement a process where they will call patients multiple times and document outreach attempts, while also informing referring doctors about unsuccessful contact attempts to maintain communication channels.

Practice Operations and Growth Strategies

The group discussed strategies for managing practice operations and growth over the past six months. Florence shared her approach to implementing bonus structures for staff and balancing patient volume with quality care, while Charu expressed concerns about reaching profitability and the need to hire additional staff. Jennie advised Charu on scheduling efficiency, recommending she establish dedicated administrative time and better organize patient slots to maximize productivity. Vineka reported progress in delegating tasks to staff and improving billing processes, including successful resolution of payer code issues that were causing payment delays.

Schedule Management and Efficiency Concerns

Vineka expressed concerns about filling her schedule due to legal requirements, evaluator needs, and administrative tasks that require her direct attention. She explained that maintaining some empty slots allows her to handle crucial tasks like prior authorizations, insurance denials, and patient selection, as she focuses on accepting patients who will provide better ROI. Jennie acknowledged Vineka's approach to operational efficiency and noted that clinic management is an ongoing process that continually evolves.

Group Meeting Structure Proposal

Jennie proposed a new structure for the group meetings, suggesting individual one-on-one strategic sessions followed by two group meetings per month from September to March, with August designated as a break. The group discussed continuing their business development discussions, with Florence expressing enthusiasm about moving forward and Vineka noting she needs to address current burdens before focusing fully on business development. Jennie requested that all members complete surveys to help assess progress against business pillars including financial clarity, service line profitability, and operational efficiency.

Partnership Transition Stalling Issues

Jennie discussed her struggle to transition to half-time clinical status in January, as her partnership has refused to vote on the proposal after seven weeks. She explained that after 20 years in full-time partnership, she wants to reduce her workload and pursue other impact opportunities, while maintaining her $20K monthly passive revenue from APCM (Advanced Primary Care Management). Jennie noted that she needs six out of eight partner votes to approve the transition, and she is considering legal action due to the partnership's stalling tactics and attempts to delay the decision until August.

Chronic Care Management Billing Guidance

Jennie led a discussion about billing for chronic care management (CCM) and advanced primary care management (APCM) programs, explaining that specialists can perform CCM while primary care providers can do APCM, with different qualifying conditions and billing requirements. The group discussed challenges with billing for phone calls with family members and patients, with Jennie recommending that providers track non-face-to-face time spent on complex patients and enroll eligible patients in CCM to capture billing for this work. Jennie advised the team to start using Athena's CCM module to document and bill for the time spent coordinating care for patients with multiple chronic conditions, noting that Medicare covers these codes while commercial insurance may not.