Marie Stacks strives to lead teams through the challenge of change onward to the thrill of success. With a decade of experience in organizational change, project management and process improvement, she has provided corporate level companies with expertise on building ground level practices and filling gaps in processes to assist in long-term, sustainable growth. It takes unique skills to be able to lead through change, but when you succeed in doing so, the reward is always greater than the risk.
Marie is the founder and President of Boost Midwest – a national consulting firm that specializes in workflow optimization, project management and strategic operations. With a varied background in both small and corporate environments, Marie is able to bring a fresh perspective to the companies she serves.
Find out more about Marie and her team – boostmidwest.com
Reach out to Marie – marie@boostmidwest.com
Name: Marie Stacks, Founder and President
Company: Boost Midwest
URL: boostmidwest.com
Transcript of the Conversation
Jordan Smith
Hey, everybody, welcome to the iProv Made podcast where we help you run a more successful health care practice. I’m Jordan Smith, and as always joined by my co host, RJ Martino, what’s up, RJ?
RJ Martino
Hey, Jordan, how are you?
Jordan Smith
I’m doing good. I am super excited for a guest today, Marie Stacks with Boost Midwest.
RJ Martino
Listen, if you are in the business of healthcare, she rattles off some key performance indicators, just some things that I think you should keep on your wall, and you should be able to just instantly rattle off with these and she rattles off, you know, eight to 12 of these things. Like it’s nothing and you kind of Reel her back in and you talk about so if you’re listening to this, and you’re in the healthcare business, I want you to take note, make sure you can answer all of those KPIs. Mm hmm.
Jordan Smith
Absolutely. You know, sometimes we say, hey, if, if you’re, you know, if you’re in the healthcare business, and you’ve got this going on, this is the podcast for you, you need to reach with this one. I’m saying if you work in a healthcare practice at all, Marie’s a fit for you. Call her. Statement done. So without further ado, let’s hop into it. Marie Stacks with Boost Midwest.
RJ Martino
Well, welcome, everybody, our audience, I’m super excited to introduce a friend of ours Marie Stacks. Marie, welcome to the podcast.
Marie Stacks
Thanks, glad to be here.
Jordan Smith
There works out we’ve known Marie for a while, she’s had a ton of experience in the healthcare space. So I’m excited to not only bring her story to all the listeners out there, but also talk about Boost Midwest, which is the company that she’s been primarily focused on. For the past couple years, even though it’s been an organization that she’s been actively running for a long time while she was doing lots of other stuff that Marie always does. So welcome, Marie.
RJ Martino
Marie, I like to start off with you thinking about your most successful clients. So just think of a client who is your most and kind of describe what their life was before you started talking to them? And maybe what happened afterwards? So just kind of a before and after picture, if you can kind of describe that to our audience?
Marie Stacks
Absolutely. It’s great question. So I think for for me, my one of my favorite clients is actually a pretty simple example, in the sense that they were struggling with cash flow management, they have a lot of what we call pass through of deductibles and co pays not being collected at a time of service. So patients were coming in, they’re being seen, but then the money was walking out the door. And anybody in the health care billing space knows that collecting that money after they walk out the door is difficult. And so quite literally, the change was we came in, shared some best practices with them, sat down with their front office staff. And we changed one key phrase during that checkout process. And instead of saying, how, you know, would you like to pay today, we would say how would you like to pay today, that one simple change, increase their cash flow by $300,000. And which sounds crazy when you think one word, and it’s that much cash flow? That was an incredible before and after for me and one that to this day, I still love telling because it’s such an impact.
RJ Martino
What What an awesome, awesome story what you know, if you ever asked you kind of an elevator pitch on your organization, what is your How do you describe what you guys do? Yeah, so
Marie Stacks
we’re known for our client focused hands on project management approach. So we come in with clients in the operational side of their healthcare business, and we really focus on those actionable changes. So if you were to ask us what we do, we become a partner with our, with our clients, and really walk through that operational change that they need to go through with them. And we don’t leave until it’s done.
RJ Martino
Well, you know, when I hear a story, like you just don’t, when I hear the dollar amount that you just told, some of our listeners might think, Oh, well, it sounds like they’re only working with large practices, or the exact opposite. You know, I’m looking at a healthcare system. And I’m saying, Hey, you know, this is a onesie twosie thing. I’m really too big for some. So talk about the size of organizations you’re working with often.
Marie Stacks
Absolutely. So one of our smaller examples was a family practice that had you know, they had two doctors and that was their their practice. And then another example was in this was actually in a corporate space, we would work with full medical clinics, so full medical groups, and actually service all of their different clinics. So it ranges you know, the the workflows that you go through with patient check in and check out and billing processes and you know, revenue cycle management, there’s a lot of similarities no matter what your size is. So even the smallest changes can impact a practice at every level.
Jordan Smith
I love that concept. And you mentioned something that I don’t want to gloss over, which is that one simple change idea, you know, we always step in and RJ talks about the framework all the time, which is, you know, you always have to start off with a vision, what is, what’s the long term picture of success look like? What is the practice look like? Not only in two or three years, but 10 years? And what does that look like two or three years down the road? If you’re not on track to getting there, the very first thing that you need to do is step back and take ownership of the problem. And really triage what, what not only what the issue is, but are you just working right now to solve symptoms of a larger systemic issue that you’ve got in the organization, which is why I was so excited to have you and, and Boost Midwest on the program. Next is figuring out a way how do you track that progress? Right? Once you identify what the real problem is? How do you track if you’re actually making headway on solving that issue, then making sure that everybody on the team is engaged, right? The listeners out there, even the ones that are practice administrators, you’re not making those collection calls most of the time? How are you making sure that you’re engaging the entire team and getting them all thinking in the same direction, and then aligning them as far as what success really looks like, and not being scared to share what that picture of success is. But I love going back to what you said too stepping back from what we always consider a framework for success for a successful practice, is starting with that one simple thing. So I love that concept a lot just changing that one phrase. I mean, that’s that’s a we’ve got tons to talk about, but
RJ Martino
Well, I know, I think that it’s interesting that that was the change that produced that huge result, you know, in that example, or in other examples. Is that what you weren’t called into? And they said, Hey, we need you to help change our phrasing. We talked about symptoms, and we we hear symptoms all day. And it’s not the real problem, but it’s just some deeper problem. What are some of the symptoms, you hear that you think I think I can help with that?
Marie Stacks
You know, one of the big things we look at is your denial rate. So if you don’t need our help, it’s because your denial rate is zero to 10%. It’s tiny, it’s irrelevant, right. But there’s what we call actionable denials. And so that can be anything from demographic errors, you collected the wrong birthday, you corrected the wrong or collected the wrong gender. Or it could be, you know, complicated, more more complicated processes, like prior off denials, right. So depending on what your denials are, is how we can figure out what those actionable steps are. So we take an active approach at reducing those actionable denials. And that tends to be the number one place to start, right. Because if I’m losing money on the back end of my claims process, and this gets a little in the weeds on the lifecycle of the claim, really, and honestly, by the time I’m getting a response from insurance, I’m reducing my cash flow dramatically if I get a denial, because now I’ve got to have a team work that denial, there’s this whole AR back process that has to happen, if I can correct it on what we call the front end, when they’re collecting the information at the start, I can make my money so much more powerful. And so we look at those actionable denials first. And then if your denials are golden, then we’re going to start looking at things like payer mix, we’re going to look at, you know, your your CPT code mix, things like that. And we’ll really assess where are the actionable steps where we can improve your practice.
Jordan Smith
I love that, you know, there’s so many listeners out there that are saying, Hey, listen, from a practice perspective, I’m busier than ever, right? I’m, I’m on I’m on telemedicine calls, I’ve got people coming in, but I’m not making money. I’m not at least making more money than I was whenever it seemed like I was slower. So you can come in and help, you know, analyze, why that is, right. Is that kind of the first step step step those folks through kind of that first process and I know we’ve talked about your aim process. Yeah, RJ and I love though, so step through kind of operationally how you would how, what the beginning is for those people who are who are listening to this.
Marie Stacks
Of course, of course, so you know, healthcare is known for acronyms. So we are just the same. We have one ourselves, we use AIM as our acronym of choice, and that’s Analyze, Innovate and Manage. And so really, that process I was just talking about is our analyze step. We’re going to walk alongside And make sure that we understand what is your daily workflow. And that may be sitting down with your front office and saying, how are you collecting this information, we look at all of those different pieces and analyze truly what you’re doing. And then we sit down and we innovate. And this may be done, you know, in collaboration with a client. Like I said, we tend to be very partnership driven. So we may sit down with you and brainstorm together, hey, what are the changes that we could make here or there, but the biggest piece is we will come in and we’ll say, here’s what we’re seeing. Here are your options. Here’s our recommendations, let’s figure it out. And just like math, when we were back in school, there’s only one right answer. But there’s a million ways to get there, we want you to pick that that way that you want to get there. And then the magic sauce is in our manage phase, right, so we move into this management piece. And we say, let us walk alongside you to get there, you typically don’t call a firm to come help you or any kind of agency to come help you if you’ve got enough bandwidth on your team to do it. And so what we find is most folks need you need us to stay with them through that process to implement those steps to make sure that change actually goes into action. So that they can see that cashflow change, so they can see the improvements and that efficiency in their practice, come to life. And that that’s our magic sauce. And then we we step away at the point that they say we’re ready to transition to do this on our own. And we will support periodically, we get phone calls, and we kind of answer those on the fly. But we’re there until it’s done.
Jordan Smith
Well, I love that process. And you know, for those listeners out there that are doctors, listen, this isn’t reinventing the wheel, you do the same thing with your patients, right? You wouldn’t expect them to solve all your problems in a 10 minute phone call. So you know, Marie, stepping through that same process that you would with a patient, which is I’ve got to analyze what the what the issue is first, just because just because you have a sore throat, we can’t just solve that problem. That’s probably that’s probably symptomatic of a larger issue. So that’s that’s always that first step.
RJ Martino
But well, and you know, speaking on that, too, it is also a little different than practicing medicine, because what we all want, and we know we can we want a magic pill, we want someone to just throw a solution at us, us tell our team about it. And just it magically happened. And how many times is someone thrown a book at you you know, our audience, I’m talking to you How many times have has someone given you a book and said this will answer all of your problems. And unfortunately, our people are people, and it’s hard to implement real change, unless there’s people driving it. So usually what you have to do is you say I’m going to hire somebody that’s going to influence this change, I’m going to hire a new manager of x when a patient experience manager and it’s their job to influence change. But a lot of times we don’t have time, energy, the talents not there to implement. So I’m really surprised and intrigued to hear Marie that you guys help with that last part of manage. So just kind of one more just to make sure I heard it correctly, you guys are actually influencing a lot of the change that you talk about.
Marie Stacks
Absolutely. So having worked in a practice and help put together the workflow. I personally understand what it means to say you don’t have the bandwidth, your front office staff may also be answering the phone at the same time they’re checking in patients. I mean, how many times do we see that, and it’s just nature of the beast. In a perfect world, you’d have one person answering the phone, one person handling Checkout, and it would be very, you know, black and white of what their job is supposed to be. But we have to multitask, that’s life. And so what we find is that if I ask you to add one more thing to that plate, so that you can change all these things around you, the plates gonna fill up so much that it falls over right, and then you’ve got a mess to clean up on top of that. So instead, we come in, and we actually instead of handing you all this extra to put on top of a plate, we carry the plate. And hopefully we’re taking little things off of your team’s plate so that those processes are getting better. If you’re collecting the right information on the front end. From an insurance standpoint, your AR team isn’t working as many denials. So now that means they have more bandwidth to go and check on some of your front end claims processes. So it’s kind of this the circle, if you will, in the sense that if I can take a little bit over here and just shift it a little bit that that will turn a little bit better and you start to see that
RJ Martino
Yeah, ecosystem, exactly. ecosystem that’s, you know, serving others. So Jordan, I cut you off and I didn’t mean to cut you off. I just got so excited about that management piece of the AIM process that okay, y’all so i don’t know if i disrupted your your your thought or not.
Jordan Smith
No, no, that’s exactly where I was going. Which is Yeah, I mean a lot of it’s you know, go to. Go to any metropolitan area and throw a rock. And you’ll find lots of people who will tell you how many problems you have, in your practice, how many folks are actually going to, like Murray said, you know, step you through, okay, let’s, let’s, we’re gonna we’re gonna come in and help you implement these things. So you’re not on an island out here having to do that yourself. So, typically in that process, it sounds like a very hands on type of process, how involved are the doctors, or the practice owners involved in, in in your process?
Marie Stacks
We see them most involved in that decision making phase primarily. But then we also see them involved in the communication. And I think that goes just from a leadership perspective, you know, across the board communication is. And so where we see their engagement, the most is communicating. Why is the boost team there? Why did we bring them in? What do we hope to see as outcomes and how they, what their expectations are, right? So they’re communicating those pieces, they’re making sure their team is engaged. But then from there, we do a very, you know, we really, really try to make sure that the clients and those that are in that front office, and in the billing offices that we’re working with, that they truly understand, we’re not there to point out their problems, like you said, Jordan, anybody can come in and say what all your problems are. But quite honestly, your doors are still open, because you’re doing something right. You know, a practice wouldn’t exist if you weren’t doing something, right. So our goal is, quite frankly, to come in, figure out what it is you’re doing right, and let’s make that better, let’s make that stronger, and then handle the weaknesses along the way. And we have found that if we come in and say, Look, we’re here to share best practices with you, and we expect for you to give us a few of your own, so we can share it with others, then that goes so far. And so our physicians and our you know, board of directors that we work with, and our administrators that we work with come in and they help support that idea that we’re not there to poke holes in anything, we’re there to help make things stronger, you know, build on the strengths you already have in your practice.
Jordan Smith
I love that, that amplify those strengths, while while working on some of those weak points, I think are are super important. So for the listeners that are out there, what are what are kind of some determining factors that you use at Boost Midwest to figure out if the AIM Program is a fit for an organization said another way, kind of how do you determine if you can help somebody?
Marie Stacks
So generally, it’s mindset. And it’s also typically what your denials are. So their CEO 45. So anybody that works in the billing, we’re all doing exactly what I just said, those are contractual denials, they’re things that you can’t change. So if your denials aren’t actionable, if they’re things that you should expect for adjustments and things like that, you may not need us in that particular phase. And so instead, you may look at us and say, We want you to analyze other aspects of our business. But if you are struggling with even tracking, what are my denials, you know, what, what is my denial rate? How much money is being passed through at time of service due to lack of collecting co pays and deductibles? Things like that, even down to the simple stuff of is my statement really asking people to pay? Or am I giving them a free pass to put me off till next month, little little changes that you don’t realize add up, so folks that you know, just need that extra insight. And quite frankly, you’ve got too much going on already, because there’s so many things that change every single day in health care. Those are the folks that we seem to help the most.
Jordan Smith
Very nice. And for all types of practices, right? I know we’ve got some family practice listeners, we have dental folks, I know we’ve got surgeons and orthopedic, any type of practice. And if if, if those things are popping in your head, if that’s what’s keeping you up at night are dominates your your staff meetings, those are really good fits to reach out to you, right,
Marie Stacks
Absolutely. CPT codes change, denial codes do not.
RJ Martino
Marie, I want to go back to the thing I keep talking about, which is I’m so impressed with you guys actively managing and implementing the practices and the best practices that you guys see. And so I know, as an audience member, I’d be listening to this. And I’d say, that’s great. I love that my people are too taxed. Anyways, they’re great. I love them, but they can’t handle another project. I’d love to bring someone else in, but talk about procedurally. Procedurally, how do you guys integrate with an existing practice?
Marie Stacks
So it depends a little bit on how deep into the practice we need to help. So as with all things in life is a little bit variable. But as an example, we actually let’s say we’re working with a client on Pryor off, and we’re saying, hey, you’ve got a high rate of prior denials, we would actually step back and if we started in that again, using that same methodology, if we started in the analyze phase would say we’d like to go sit down and interview and talk to and just simply watch the person who’s currently going through that prior off process on your team, maybe your front office person, maybe one of your clinical nurses, it varies clinic to clinic. But what we would do is we we just simply document we’d ask questions, but we wouldn’t correct anything that we see at that point, then we step back and we say, Okay, let’s innovate on this. Let’s look at what needs to change. Why is there such a high rate of denials? Is there anything that is readily identifiable in that workflow that we can fix? Right? So again, finding the solution, but then we come to you as an administrator or provider and say, here’s what we’re saying, here’s our recommendations, this is where we’d like to go. And then you would help us decide, as we, you know, go through that process. And we transition into again, that manage phase. And we say, okay, let us go back, we’re going to sit with your team members again, and we’re going to say, here’s the steps that you took, here’s where we’d like you to see some changes, let’s test it. And we may try two or three different iterations of the same workflow. And it may be like I was mentioning, at the very beginning, a wording change, it could be a complete workflow change, it could be a technology change, whatever that is, we’re going to walk through it until it worked. And then the nice part is, hopefully, we’ll see the denial rates go down within a month, you typically are on a monthly cycle. So hopefully, we see that change almost instantly.
RJ Martino
So if your process stays the same, sometimes, there are practices out there that even with someone with your expertise, they don’t always see the success they want to can you talk about some distinguishing factor that makes some practices really successful? When you come in, and others that might not see the same kind of success? What are some things that you’d say, Hey, if you’re gonna hire even if it’s not Marie, and her team, are there, some best practices, you can say, hey, if you hire someone, here’s some, here’s some best practices for bringing us on.
Marie Stacks
Absolutely, I think anytime you’re bringing anyone in to give you advice, you’ve got to be transparent. And I mean, that in the sense that don’t, don’t try to sugarcoat anything, say it like it is, show the data like it is, don’t clean it up. We’re not investors, we’re there to make you better. And so I think if you can be as transparent as possible, and as open and dialogue as possible, even when it comes to, hey, I think that’s bogus, I don’t think that workflow is going to happen, you know, those things lead to so much value on the end of the process where, you know, when we transition it back and you keep running, you’re gonna continue to see that success, we don’t want to be the peak of your success. When we’re finished with our project, we want to just be the starting point of that incline. And so I think that’s, that’s what I would say, anytime you bring anyone in to give you advice, just be transparent and be open to dialogue, get uncomfortable, that should be kind of part of the process.
RJ Martino
I hope people hear that loud and clear, because it is so hard as business owners is that we want to shield everybody from the pain that we’re experiencing. You know, it’s again, it’s so funny that we practice medicine. And yet we tell patients, hey, we need to know everything to be able to diagnose, and then you bring in a consultant and we all want to sugarcoat everything. Want to shield our consultants from from, you know, the front desk people and why they’re really terrible at their job, from my perspective, but I’m going to tell you all the reasons why I’m going to keep them around. It’s just funny that we we expect different different from our patients than then from ourselves.
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
RJ Martino
It’s so funny.
Jordan Smith
Now, that’s a great point. And I don’t want to gloss over that at all, which is, you know, don’t don’t, you’re bringing in somebody like this for a reason, you know. So I love that statement. We’re not investors, we’re consultants. And the quicker we know all the all the problem areas, all the weak points, all the challenges in the organization, the quicker that you guys, Boost Midwest can work to define some processes and some structures to help solve those things. So I know a big question. Everybody always asked whenever they’re listening to this podcast is, so far, I’m on point. This is great. How do I call Marie? You know, but the big question always is, well, what’s what’s a pricing structure look like for something like this? So I know, Marie, there’s lots of different variables based on what you talked about, but so just talk about the concept of how even if there’s a practice out there that is thinking about hiring a consultant, whether it’s Boost Midwest or another group, what you know, what should they consider from a pricing point perspective?
Marie Stacks
So you know, I think, for our particular format, we are very project management driven in our pricing structure. So we will typically come in and provide you with a couple of different options based on how integrated into your practice you need us to be, you’re still going to get the ame methodology, you’re still going to get a very hands on approach, even if you took the lowest level. But generally speaking, we’re going to be there for at least six months. And that’s how long our smallest period of time is. And then you’re going to get access to the full team. So we typically do a blended rate, hourly rate, that we will turn into a monthly amount so that that way, you’re paying one flat rate for the life of the project.
Jordan Smith
Very cool. I love that. And yeah, I mean, six months, I mean, like, you know, like RJ said earlier, there are no silver bullets only led ones so so I love that line in the sand and say, Hey, we have to be here for a certain amount of time. So let’s talk about something else that I know is very important, especially once we get down to the Manage section of your aim progress, which is how do you track progress in a practice, you know, outcomes are important, but talk a little bit about kind of what those metrics are, and how to how to practices track what you guys are doing and the outcomes that they might see from them.
Marie Stacks
So it’s twofold. We we set project deliverables from the beginning, right, so depending on what you’ve brought us in for, there will be always project deliverables and milestones that we will track from a status standpoint, and just to ensure that we have value when we provide value to our clients. The other piece is, and this is something you should already be looking at in your practice. But you should have a dashboard each month that shows you your accounts receivable, your denial rate, your pastor, your over the counter collections, various different metrics. And when we come in, you should see a change in those within three to six months, typically, you know, the faster we’re able to integrate it, sooner you see that. And sometimes you’ve got that 90 day window if you’re heavily Medicare, and it’s gonna take a little longer, or any of that kind of thing. So typically, we’ve got those project milestones, and then you’ve also got your executive dashboard you should be looking at already.
Jordan Smith
I love that, especially this idea of a dashboard. So you mentioned a couple different kind of KPIs or key performance indicators. But can you dig into those? If there’s a practice that’s out there listening that? That says, Yeah, I’d love to at least start internally, even before I call a group, like Boost Midwest, what? What are some key performance indicators that you say, Man, you got to start tracking these things yesterday? What would you recommend practices look at?
Marie Stacks
So you’re going to want to look at a couple of things on both ends on the front end of a claim, you need to look at how long it takes to get that claim out the door. And so you want to look at time of data service to date of charge entry. So how long is that process? And the way to think about a lot of these KPIs is how long is it going to take to get paid. And then the other thing you want to look at, depending on your software that you use, you can look at the number of edits and rejects you get. And then you’ve got on the back end, you’ve got your days in AR. How long does it generally take to see the money come back from from insurance? How long does it take to come back from personal payers from patients directly? And then you’ve got your denial rate passed through those, you know, co pays and deductibles and things like that. So you’ve got a variety of different things. On top of the fact that you can look at, you know, what is your your cost per CPT, cost per RVU, things like that. And I know I’m using a lot of, of acronyms. So but but they’re there for a reason, generally, depending again on your software of choice for your billing and your claims processes, there’s already going to be some built in metrics in there. So that’s where I would start, if you’ve got a TN system, you know, that you’re already using, go get in there and see what canned reports already exist, and at least start there.
RJ Martino
Very cool. I’m always surprised, Marie, how many times we go into practices, and they’re not looking at any of these KPIs. When all of these things are things that they could generate, or have, and they all say the same thing, which is, yeah, I don’t know that right now. But I could get those things, but just not readily available. Is that a- Is that something you see in most practices? Or, you know,
Marie Stacks
I thought the structure of the practice, I totally can hear what you’re saying there. I mean, we there are many times where I’ve said and I hate to hear it, because you want to know like the back of your hand what the health of your practice is, I mean, just like you want to know the health of your patients. And and so I understand though why you might not A lot of that has to again, goes back to that bandwidth issue. If it’s not something that’s auto generating out of your system and lands in your email inbox, you’re probably not going to go look at it, you’re going to have to set a reminder for the second of every month, close your books and look at their reports. I mean, it has to be a habit that you build. But yes, unfortunately, there’s still a lot of clinics out there that don’t even know where to start on that. And so I think that’s, that’s something again, that when we leave, we want you to know, we want to educate you throughout the process. So that again, you are a stronger, healthier practice, the moment that we transition everything back over to you.
Jordan Smith
I love that. Well, and and now kind of segwaying into the last thing, before we get into kind of the final round of questions. And our process, we always talk about engaging your team. So we talked about the doctors being involved from a, you know, from a planning perspective, from a big picture decision making. But once you get integrated into a practice, what team members are crucial for you guys to be successful.
Marie Stacks
So really, every team member matters. And and the reason I say that, so I’m going to answer that question kind of twofold. The first is every team member matters in that everyone has to be willing to realize that they have value in that lifecycle of a claim process. You know, if I’m collecting the information, as you check in, and I get the wrong address, then when the billing team sends out your patient balance due at the end of the cycle, that’s not going to the right place. The flip side to that is leadership matters, too. And so you we can’t make any changes happen if, and I’ve seen this unfortunately, take place where we implement something new on the front end, everyone agreed to it while we were in the boardroom, but then it got to the back. And the doctor said, Well, where’s that duh-da duh-da daa and the whole process broke down? And so you’re back to square one, right? So everything matters, every team member matters, but leadership all being on the same page matters as much as that.
Jordan Smith
I’m gonna I’m gonna be honest with you. You just made my collarbone sweat a little bit. I listeners out there stop doing that, for God’s sakes, Jesus. All right.
Marie Stacks
I know. And I will say I preface that by saying there are times and I hate it. But there was a time where, you know, there was one particular medication that was an injectable that an insurance company quit reimbursing for. And I had to walk in and tell a provider, hey, they’re not reimbursing you for this anymore. And that’s a clinical decision. And that’s a decision that the doctor has to make at a different level. And so there there are times like that, where we’re going to say something, we’re going to give you that update, and you have to make a choice clinically. And it may not be the perfect choice financially. And that’s okay, as long as it’s the right choice for the patient in those types of scenarios. So, I will say there are times where the doctor should overrule. And so that does happen from time to time.
Jordan Smith
Yeah. Another question that I think’s important whenever, especially for groups that are thinking about bringing in an outside group, like Boost Midwest, to engage in the AIM Program and process that you talked about? What are some things that you kind of tell them? Or how do you guide them on getting buy in from the team. The reason I asked that question is sometimes I know from from, from our standpoint, with I probably one of our companies coming in from our marketing and leadership, consulting side, sometimes we have to be very cognizant that we’re not coming in there to replace somebody, or we’re not there because one person screwed up and they’re not doing their job well. So how do you tackle those things? And what advice would you give to folks out there that are listening, that are thinking about bringing in a consulting firm, but also getting buy in from the team that you’re not there to replace anybody’s job?
Marie Stacks
I think it goes back to that communication that we were talking about earlier, where you’ve got to come in and say, I’m here to highlight what you’re doing well and make it better. Yeah, we’re gonna handle a couple of the little things along the way. But you’re obviously doing something, right. You’ve got strong team members. And, you know, unfortunately, in some cases, you got to get a couple people off the bus, there’s going to be people that are a little bit hesitant to change, or quite frankly, they may be part of the broken process. And so there are tough conversations that we have to have like that. But I think as far as you know, getting started and getting momentum, and one of the things we actually have in our toolkit is what we call a best practices scorecard. So we’ll come in and we’ll actually analyze, hey, these are key breath best practices. These are phrases we expect you to say at certain process points. You know, again, another strange example how you ask someone for their address should be completely different than what you would expect, you know, generally say, Oh, are you still at the same address? Well, that’s a terrible way to ask that question. So if you hear that on Your front desk, please stop it. Because it should really say, can you please tell me your address? Or can you confirm that you’re still at? And of course, depending on HIPAA and privacy in your particular office, you have to be careful how you ask it. But you never want yes and no questions when it comes to collecting demographic. So that best practices scorecard has actually been fun in a couple of cases where we’ve been able to go in and say, Hey, you know what, right now you’re a 77%, let’s get you up to an A, let’s move you from a C to an A, it becomes this team mentality instantaneously, because we’re not harping on one particular workflow. We’re saying across the board, you guys are at a C, let’s get up to an a, you know, so it, it builds that camaraderie without, you know, hurting anyone’s feelings in the process?
Jordan Smith
Well, I love that because it also shows the impact that you guys are having, you know, and how you how you’re helping that practice stack up against what the industry best practices are. So going back to tracking progress up, that’s a great way to to show the impact that you guys are having in the practice as well.
Marie Stacks
Absolutely.
RJ Martino
Well, Marie, the last thing that we like to get into kind of we, we talk about it as the final round of questions, and it’s questions that we ask you kind of about your business, not so much about your your, your, your clients, but so much more about your business. And because just like our audience, we’re all trying to continue to build our businesses and grow. And so we’re going to ask you to kind of break down some of the recipes you have for success and talk about some of the ingredients that have helped you along the way. And so the first question I really like to ask is, if there was a magic reset button as it relates to starting your business, where you could just press it and start over? What systems would you go back and put into place sooner rather than later?
Marie Stacks
It’s a great question. I think for me, in particular, I live and die by my schedule. And I like consistency, probably why I landed in project management operations. But I also think that, you know, I personally would have blocked more time on my calendar to devote to just thinking about my business. It sounds so simple, but at the same time, it is so easy for me to let the clients that we work with take over my whole week. And then I’m left with Saturday, Sunday splitting it between family and actually thinking about Boost Midwest growth. Having doubled the company this past year, it is one of those things where I realized there is so much power behind what we’re doing, and so much value we can offer to so many people. But if I don’t take the time to see that value, I can’t share it, I can’t find the ways to really implement the things that we speak about every day, with our clients in my own business. So I think that’s, that’s a big piece of it. And then I think, oh go ahead, sorry.
RJ Martino
Well, Jordan and I talked about this all the time, we call it the important but not urgent. And the reality is most of the stuff that we work on, or, you know, most of the urgent stuff we’re working on is not important. And the important stuff that we should be working on is rarely urgent. And so you’ve got to block off time to work on important and not urgent stuff. Because that’s where the magic happens. You know, that is where you make the hard decisions within the company. And it It never crops up, you know, the, the the front desk girl that you know is problematic. It rarely is going to happen where you figure out a plan on fixing that. And sometimes it’s replacing it sometimes it’s putting around a pit plan, whatever it is, it doesn’t fix itself. But all the time we get distracted by the urgency of today our to do list today.
Jordan Smith
Well, and a business owner, you know, as a business owner, also, if you feel like I don’t know, it’s super important, but I know a lot of you guys out there that are listening is like Well, I’m not gonna schedule time to thank that’s, you know, I’m not doing anything. What’s that gonna cut? It’s it’s not only essential, but yeah, I mean, I would encourage everybody to do that. I think that’s a that’s a great tip, Marie.
Marie Stacks
Yeah. When I think one of the other things that I have made, that part of my habits is what I call my top six. So it kind of RJ plays into what you’re saying, you know, there’s those tasks that are important but not urgent, but I call it my top six every day I sit down and I say okay, these are the six things that are still on my to do list that I have to do today. And it puts a little bit of urgency behind it, but at the same time it allows me to make sure that I’m not letting a to do task sit there for months on end, which before I had top six, I did that a few times.
RJ Martino
You know it’s it’s funny because those top six are probably really easy to put off tomorrow if you want to, you know, because it’s just so easy to kick that can down the road. So what a What a great is just someone told us just the other day at a different podcast that and let’s assume that if there was that we can only get the six things done. If we only got the six things done, how much momentum would you have every day? How much would your business move? If you just did that every single day? Because there are multiple days. I mean, I’ll go weeks where I look up, and they’ll say, I don’t know what I got done. I just, I let the day get out of my control. And now my days are controlling me.
Marie Stacks
Yep. Yeah, it’s funny, too. I’ve gotten to where I actually will hit and this is so old school, but I handwrite my to do list still, because I love the satisfaction of looking back a month past and say, Oh, my gosh, look at what all I did. So there’s there’s value to that and celebrating those little things. I think, you know, with our clients, we celebrate all the time, every time something goes well. But you know, bringing that into my business has been part of my mission this year. So
RJ Martino
Very good. Well, I think that kicks, the next question I always ask, but I’ll repeat it just so but everybody hears, I think it’s an important question for us to ask, which is what’s one strategy that if a business owner and their teams could could consistently apply every single day would compound into big wins for them? And I think you nailed it with the idea of doing the big six. If you did that every single day. And you looked up and you said, Hey, all I got done was the six things, but I did it every single day, it would come down in the huge wins for the business.
Marie Stacks
Absolutely. And I think just having been any administrator chair, if you’re a clinic administrator, make sure you put by noon on there, because there’s going to be a fire today.
Jordan Smith
That’s a good point, too. Yeah, I love. Um, last question, let’s imagine that you are standing in front of a room of people. Just like you, whenever you were starting Boost Midwest, right? They’ve got those fears, they’re anxious about where the next checks gonna come from, if they actually can do this, you know how they’re going to lead a group of people and get them on board. From a core values, perspective and vision and all the things we usually talk about, from a, from a doubt perspective, and what are kind of three things that you would recommend to ensure that they would be successful? If there’s some people out there, they’re thinking about breaking off and doing their own thing? What are three things you would you would say, hey, just start here. And no matter what, you’ll start off on a pretty good footing.
Marie Stacks
If you’re thinking about starting your own business, then clearly you have a vision, write it down and follow it, it’s going to change, be ready, be ready for it to change in some format. I think the second thing I would say is build a team, you cannot do this alone, you know, there’s this new hashtag trend for solopreneur. I get it, you’re strong, you’re powerful, you’re knowledgeable, don’t do it alone. And that means bringing in people around you that are smarter than you quite frankly, and and and use that to your strengths. And then number three, don’t forget to celebrate, you know, it is so easy, like we’ve said to, to get into the quagmire of it all, and get just stuck in a rut and say, Oh my gosh, I’m doing the same thing in and out every day. But you are making progress, every tiny step counts. And you’re going to see that change in a big way when you look up two years from now. And make sure you pause and see that for the perspective that it is.
RJ Martino
Hmm, what a great Capstone thought to, to end the podcast on rate. I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed this. Just listen to you and your thoughts on how you look at just looking at the world in general. I love the way I love your perspective. So thank you for the time that you’ve spent with us. If our audience is interested in learning more about you getting in touch with you, can you tell them how to go about getting in touch with you? Yeah, so
Yeah you can find me on LinkedIn, Marie Stacks, one of the very few out there. And then you can also find us on social media at BoostMidwest, and you’re welcome to email me at marie@boostmidwest.com and I’d be happy to connect.
Jordan Smith
Oh, I love that. And I would encourage everybody that’s out there listening connect with Marie. She’s been a personal friend of not only the you know, RJ and I’s company, but also RJ and I personally and we always say the first conversation doesn’t cost anything if you’re thinking of something or or want to, you know, talk to her one of her people. She’s got a fantastic team underneath her. So if you’re interested and just finding out more even if you just got a question that that this conversation brought up. Whenever she she says yeah, feel free to reach out to me. She She means it. Please reach out to her and ask her those questions. She’s more than happy to to either help her get one of our team members to help you out to Marie, thank you so much. We appreciate this.
Marie Stacks
Thanks, RJ. Thanks, Jordan.
Jordan Smith
RJ that was a like Marie. I mean, I We, you know, we talked about the fact that we’re personal friends. But just the way that they think about the way they do things, the AIM Process, this concept of one small change the KPIs, all of it, I know that we were both looking at each other on the other end of the Zoom call smiling and shaking our heads, because these are all the things that that we talk about day in and day out, and that we believe in and that we know that works.
RJ Martino
Yes, she knows so many people are trying to sell another widget to physicians out there, that it’s hard to try to differentiate, who are just guys that are just selling a product throwin at a jet and trying to sell to the next doctor, and who are the ones that are really trying to influence big changes in the lives of these practice owners. And she just, we’ve known her, we’ve gotten tons of referrals about how great she is, too. And so it’s easy for us to stand here and say, but, I mean, I couldn’t recommend Marie more to all of our audience. You know, I’d love for you guys to talk to her. Tell her about your problems and just see if it’s something you can help because the other key differentiator is when someone says, hey, I understand I hear your problem, but I’m not the one to help you. This guy and that’s the kind of person Marie’s to she will connect you with the right type of people if she can’t help.
Jordan Smith
Yep, she’s put together a great team. So like I said Marie Stacks, find her on LinkedIn. boostmidwest.com. Also marie@boostmidwest.com if you’ve got any questions, like we always say the first conversation doesn’t cost anything. If you made it this far on the podcast. You’re not missing too much. Like Comment, Subscribe, share, that’s all we got left to this, then pick up the phone, or pull out your computer and send her a message and connect with her as soon as he can. As always, like, comment, share, subscribe. We’ve also got a YouTube channel, check that out. Let us know if there’s people like Marie that we should be talking to or that you want to hear from. We love getting recommendations from you guys. And as always, we’re just here to help you grow more profitable practice, RJ until next time.
RJ Martino
Thank you. See y’all later.