The American Alliance of Orthopedic Executives (AAOE) is an organization dedicated to providing advocacy for innovation and excellence in orthopedics, bridging connections between members and nonmembers of the organization, and becoming a global hub of knowledge and authority in the sector.

In line with that mission, the AAOE holds a yearly conference attended by hundreds of orthopaedic physicians, practice executives, practice managers, marketing and auxiliary office management leaders, as well as powerful speakers.

This year’s event included over 150 exhibitors including companies that represent new technologies and services. Select Ortho was proud to meet with many of the conference attendees and discuss our offerings.

AAOE Recap: Conference Keynote Speakers

The 2022 AAOE conference was filled with inspiring speakers who focused on the ever-changing circumstances in the healthcare field as well as economic shifts.

Off-Balance On Purpose

If you are wondering how to succeed in the current, challenging business climate while still maintaining a commitment to growing both personally and professionally, Off-Balance On Purpose was the session to be at.

Off-Balance On Purpose was written and performed by Dan Thurman, a renowned speaker who uses acrobatics, demonstration, and audience participation to drive home the idea that life (and by extension, work) can never truly be in balance — and it shouldn’t be.

Within this keynote session, Thurman demonstrated (with juggling, no less) how the majority of circumstances are out of your control, so balance is impossible. And rather than trying to control or compartmentalize each facet of your life, or blindly reacting to events, you can slow down and consider how each facet of your life can be combined to create your own reality.

Then, he demonstrated the benefits of leaning forward into uncertainty (while on a six-foot unicycle), specifically how leveraging changing circumstances — in healthcare and otherwise — can be leveraged to create opportunities for yourself and your business to move forward.

D.A.R.E. To Be Great!

Melvin Adams, despite being only 5’ 8”, became a two-time NCAA All-American champion and Harlem Globetrotter team captain. Throughout his journey, he faced everything from poverty to coaches dismissing his dreams. But despite these negative circumstances, he chose success and rose above his circumstances to get where he is today.

In D.A.R.E. To Be Great!, Adams used storytelling and comedy to engage the audience and share the ideas that helped him succeed. He taught the attendants how to:

  • Identify strategies to increase their current expectation levels
  • Discover strength when faced with adversity
  • Cultivate resiliency with a simple methodology: Decide, Aspire, Recognize, Expect

Everyday Improviser: Say Yes & Turn Obstacles into Opportunities

Many of us get stuck in our comfort zones, whether personally or professionally (or both) because we fear failure. We fear disruption, so we take fewer chances and regret it later.

In Everyday Improviser: Say Yes & Turn Obstacles into Opportunities, Judi Hollder, author of Fear is My Homeboy® and professional improviser, challenged audiences to identify their fears and embrace failure so that they don’t get stuck.

Within this interactive keynote, Hollder used the principles of improv to show individuals how to:

  • Feel more confident in making business decisions
  • Manage self-doubt and fear
  • Experience less emotional reaction in times of disruption

Release of 2022 Benchmarking Survey

Since 1997, the AAOE has collected data from orthopaedic practices both large and small from across the industry. The results are compiled into a yearly benchmarking report that practices may use to guide their financial decisions going forward.

The 2019 AAOE benchmarking survey insights focused specifically on revenue cycle management, overhead and expense ratios, and practice administrator compensation. 

These are some of the key findings from the survey, which contains data from over 300 participating practices and five years of trend data:

Revenue Cycle Management

Within revenue cycle management, evaluating the percentage of accounts receivable over 120 days old provides useful insight on issues such as timely collections, insurance claim denials, write-offs, coding, and filing.

Data taken from various practices have shown an increase in patient outstanding balances as compared to insurance outstanding balances. 

From this, as well as from advice given by top-performing orthopaedic practices, the benchmarking survey gives the following advice:

  • Create patient estimates before or at the time of their service so that you can increase pricing transparency and collect on some of their balance that day
  • Stay persistent when it comes to insurance claim denials
  • Keep your staff up-to-date about coding practices and celebrate them when they perform well

Overhead and Expense Ratios

There are several ways of calculating your practice’s overhead expenses and comparing them to industry benchmarks, but the AAOE benchmarking survey zeroed in on staff expense ratios (the ratio of staff overhead expenses to net collections). 

The benchmarking survey showed that practices had higher expense ratios for revenue-generating staff (physical therapists, occupational therapists, etc.) and clinical support staff (registered nurses, medical assistants, MRI technicians, etc.) Practices had lower non-staff expenses (medical, technology, marketing services, etc.) over the past four years and a higher expense ratio for outsourced services.

Investing in outsourced services allows practices to innovate and meet changing requirements, rather than investing in your own in-house resources, which has been proven to be an effective way of decreasing your net expenses.

Take Your Practice to the Next Level

The 2022 AAOE highlighted the importance of remaining on the cutting edge of technology, as well as the increased reliance on third-party service providers to meet orthopaedic practices’ needs. 

Select Ortho excels at DME, billing, compliance, and clinical patient service. Our team of experts aims to help you quickly increase your net collection rate and total profitability.