The Private Practice Success Podcast

22. 5 Reporting Habits for Abundant Referrals

• Gerda Muller • Episode 22

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In this episode of the Private Practice Success Podcast, Gerda dives into the often-overlooked yet vital topic of reporting habits and their direct impact on generating abundant referrals. Drawing from her years of experience as a group private practice owner, Gerda shares practical insights and actionable strategies to help you elevate your reporting practices and strengthen relationships with referrers.

In this Episode, you will learn (amongst others):

  • The five key reporting habits that lead to consistent referrals.
  • How timely and clear communication builds trust with referrers.
  • The importance of understanding referrer preferences for effective reporting.
  • How to provide context and actionable recommendations in your reports.
  • Why reporting is an integral part of clinical work and business success.

Who This Episode Is For:

  • Practice owners looking to enhance their clinical quality control whilst simultaneously improving referral streams.
  • Allied health professionals wanting to improve their reporting habits.
  • Clinicians aiming to build stronger relationships with referrers.

As always, Gerda shares her personal experiences and practical advice to help you streamline your reporting process and stand out as a preferred provider. Don’t miss this episode if you’re ready to make reporting a powerful tool for your practice growth.

Special Bonus:

Download Gerda's GP Report Template for use with adult clients.  Copy and paste this straight into your practice management software to make report-writing a breeze. 

Connect with Private Practice Success & Gerda here:

Well, hello there, brilliant private practice owner. My name is Gerda Muller and you are listening to the Private Practice Success Podcast. And this is episode number 22. 

Today, I'm going to share with you my five reporting habits for abundant referrals. Now, you might be thinking - “Gerda, I thought this was a business of private practice podcasts, and now you want to talk about reporting?” Yeah, I do want to talk about reporting. Because I've been doing this thing called private practice for so long now, and I can tell you without a doubt that there is a direct link between your reporting habits - and therefore also - the reporting habits of your clinicians if you have a group private practice, and the number of referrals that you will be receiving from third parties.

Now for the purpose of today, I'm going to talk specifically about reporting habits as it refers to Medicare reporting. Now, that being said, you can transfer your learnings from today's episode into any other type of third party reporting that you do as well. The only one where I think it won't really be transferable, is when you are doing NDIS reporting.

NDIS requires a whole different type of reporting. It is a completely different beast. If you are listening to this and you are predominantly an NDIS practice - don't switch off, don't go to another episode or another podcast - I'm just going to do my job here as a business consultant and say - I would strongly encourage you to start opening up different referral streams into your practice. Right now, I would not be encouraging any business to be solely reliant on NDIS referrals and NDIS work -  for a variety of reasons. 

If you have been thinking about potentially doing Medicare work, potentially doing private work -  work other than NDIS - then you want to continue listening. It's actually pretty simple to start generating  different referral streams into your business. We've all heard the saying that you shouldn't be putting all your eggs in one basket. And I'm sorry to say, but if you've got all your eggs in an NDIS basket - I would be really concerned. But that's a topic for another day.  If you are interested in me talking about that, be sure to let me know, as I am always open to getting your suggestions for podcast episodes and hence topics. 

Strategic Partnerships: Working Together for Client Care

To clarify, the reporting habits are directly related to your Medicare clients. Now, that being said, you can also use this with DVA - that is the Department of Veteran Affairs clients. I would also use these reporting habits with private clients (clients that aren't even using Medicare) as well as with EAP clients - clients referred through an Employment Assistance Program.

What I tend to do when people come through privately or via an EAP is have a chat with them during the initial consultation about the importance of having a GP (i.e. general practitioner) in their world. I would explain the important role a GP plays in terms of being their primary care provider.

I have found that a lot of times when people come in privately or via an EAP, that they actually do qualify for a mental health care plan, and at some point I might want to encourage them to go back to their doctor and get a formal assessment, a formal review -  and to see whether they can access that. Even if they choose not to do so, I just strongly believe that each of us needs a GP in our life. That person that you can go to when you get sick, when you are unwell -  they are your primary point of contact. 

I have the utmost respect for GPs. I do not envy their job, let's just say that. They must be such clever people. They need to know everything - not only everything from a physical presentation perspective, in terms of solving our physical health issues and understanding medical conditions - they are also the ones that need to navigate this world of Medicare, admin, and all the paperwork. So I really want to give them that respect that they deserve for the role that they play. And therefore, if you are an individual, they are a really important person in your world because you never know what you're going to need. You might get sick all of a sudden and you might need to see a number of specialists.

By having a GP with whom you've built up a trusted relationship, it's going to make that whole process so much easier, which is why I always encourage people to develop a relationship with a GP of their choice. 

If they tell me that they've got no idea who to go and see, I would generally recommend them to go and see one of the practice angels that we work with at my practice. I will do a referral letter and I will give it to the client saying, “When you go in, give this to your doctor so that they can have that information. That way they know that you're working with me and that we've referred you to their surgery.”  

The other important aspect of this is the fact that I have done -  I wonder if it's hundreds?. It's probably hundreds.  I'm sure it's hundreds! I've probably done hundreds of GP meet and greets over the years since my group private practice has been in existence. I did my first GP meet and greet back in 2007. Even today, it is an integral part of our marketing strategy within my practice, because it's really more than just marketing. 

Staying into contact with your referring GPs is about nurturing those relationships. So at my practice, for example, part of our marketing strategy is to do two GP meet and greets every month for 10 months of the year. We don't do January and we don't do December. We go and visit one of our practice angels a month, which is an existing GP practice or surgery that refers to us, and we have got surgeries that have been referring to us since I started the practice back in 2007. 

I can tell you the reason why they keep on referring - it’s these reporting habits that I'm going to mention to you. But also the fact that we've not gone in and just done one meet and greet. We go back to them. We build a relationship. We nurture that relationship. We work together. We are really in strategic partnership with one another when it comes to looking after the mental health of our mutual clients, and patients in the case of the GP.  

We also do one new surgery. That is if there's a new surgery that we haven't been to. If there is nobody new that we want to go see, sometimes we might look at non GP type of organisations that we might want to connect with, or we'll just do two practice angels in the month. But that is our ongoing process there, just as another side note.  But let's get into the reporting habits.

Five Reporting Habits for Abundant Referrals

The reason I was talking about the GP meet and greets was the fact that I have had many conversations with GPs - and throughout that time, the number one complaint that GPs would have about working with psychologists, particularly because I would ask them this question:

Being a psychologist (and psychology practice owner,) when I do that GP meet and greet, I would always ask them, “Tell me, what is your biggest bugbear in dealing with psychologists?” They would give you a bit of a chuckle and then they would normally say, “The lack of communication. The lack of communication from them. It is just the worst.”

And you know what? That has remained the number one complaint that GPs give me about working with psychologists, all these years. And when I delve into it - because I always delve into it - I ask them, “What do you mean lack of communication?” And they say, “Sometimes it's just non-existent. We just didn't hear back from them. They never write back. And a lot of times they do write back,but  it's been six months since the client concluded sessions. I've seen them four times since then, and only now do I get this conclusion report from the psychologist. It's a waste of my time looking at it now because I don’t need it now. I needed it two weeks after they concluded.”  It's about timely communication. 

So let's look at these five reporting habits for abundant referrals. Needless to say, based on what I've just said -  you and therefore your entire clinical team needs to be engaging in timely communication with the GPs - that is the referring third party, even if it's not a GP.

Reporting Habit #1: Timely Reporting

So what is timely communication? I would say two weeks. Especially if the client is coming back. If a client has completed six sessions and you’re writing back to the GP while sending the patient back to get a new referral, all of that should happen in a two week period.

And it's your job to educate the client as to how that works. You need to tell the client, “Today was our sixth session. We've just had a clinical review together here of your progress, so this is what happens next -  I will be writing to Dr. Smith and I anticipate that report to go off within the next 48 hours. However, please know that I will get reception to send you a text message to confirm when that has happened. What I need you to do in the meantime is to book an appointment. Depending on who your GP is, it might be easy to get in, but some GPs these days have got a really long wait list, so I want you to call as soon as you can get that appointment in. But be very mindful that I don't want you to have an appointment if you've not heard from us here to confirm that your report has been sent.  The  doctor will want to see that report in order for him or her to give you a new referral -  in order for you to continue accessing your Medicare rebates.”

And then I would still make sure that the client has a next appointment booked, which will be in two weeks time. So it's really about educating the client as to how this process works. I never, never, ever want a client to show up for a new referral with a GP, and my report isn't there. That’s embarrassing. That is me having dropped the ball, and I don't like dropping the ball. How can a GP do that reassessment - and I'm not talking about a full mental health review - but they still need to talk to the client. They need to ask the client, “How have you been going? Is this working for you? Do you want a referral to keep on seeing this person?”

They need the report. This is where we come in. This is how you become a preferred provider of psychological services - by making the GP's life easy. And I'm going to keep on harping on about that throughout these five reporting habits. But this one is with regards to the timing. 

So let's say the client actually concluded sessions. So you've done everything and they're good to go. Maybe there is not this urgency for them to get a new referral in order to have ongoing continuity of care, but it's still important for that client to go back and see their GP right? So in that instance, I want all my clinicians to be writing a conclusion report -  or to use a more medical term that the GPs use - a discharge report within four weeks.

Again, we're going to educate the client - “This is what happens next. We're going to send this report. I will endeavor to have it out within the next seven days. You need to make an appointment with your doctor. Reception will let you know once that report has been sent out.” We are consistently coaching the client through the process. I'm all about people being really empowered when it comes to navigating the system, around looking after their mental health. There's nothing more annoying for the GP when a patient shows up and they don't have our paperwork. 

It's also annoying for the client to show up to a GP and the GP says, “Well, I can’t give you a new referral because your psych hasn't sent me their report. So you're going to have to tell me everything that you did.”  It's like, no, we want to be helpful, right? We want to add value. That is how you become - and I've said it already -  that preferred service provider. So that is the timeliness aspect. 

Reporting Habit #2: Know Your GP's Preferences

When you look at the actual report that you're going to send, you really want to consider what does the GP want in that report? I can speak to 10 psychologists and five will probably tell me they like to do short and succinct reports, and five will tell me I really take my time and I'm very detailed, because I like to deliver great service. It's like, what's the correct one to do, right? 

I would recommend, and this is reporting habit number two, that you actually consider your GP's preferences. Now you might be thinking, “Oh my golly Gerda, I've got like 50 clients on my caseload, that is like potentially 50 GPs. I don't know what their preferences are?”  And that's fair enough. You would find it hard to do that with all the GP that refer to you. 

However, you need to most certainly do this for your practice angels. For every one full time equivalent clinician that's on your team, that clinician probably needs five practice angels in order to continue having a full caseload.

Even if that clinician's dropout and retention rates are shit in the short term, those GPs will keep on referring (although you don't want that to be the case right)  because they will eventually stop referring. Dropouts and retention rates are a topic of discussion for another day, but five practice angels per one full time clinician.

So your clinician really needs to know their five practice angels, which are the doctors that refer them the most clients. What are their reporting requirements? Does my practice angel like a long versus a short report? Do they like quantitative versus qualitative information? Do they like to see milestone timing versus event timing? What do they prefer? 

Then when I'm writing reports for my practice angels, I make sure that I structure the report in that way. I must say given how many reports I've written over the years, I have really been able to develop an amazing template that we still use at my practice to this day, which ticks the boxes for 99.9 percent of GPs that we work with. 

So having that template is really, really good. But over time, even if you use that template, you get to know what the preferences are of your practice angels -  especially if you do GP meet and greets with your practice angels. Especially if you are a very collaborative clinician where you actually pick up the freaking phone and you talk to the GPs,( i.e. talk to the other people as part of the system looking after the client that you are looking after). Those things just become part of those conversations. 

So that was number two, knowing your GP's preferences for reporting. 

Reporting Habit #3: Always Provide Context

Going a bit more into the actual report, something that is really critical to have in that report is the following word: “Context.”

And I'm going to say it three times. You know how they say, like when you buy a house, the most important thing is - location, location, location. Well, when it comes to reporting back to a GP, the most important thing is - context, context, context. Never assume that the GP remembers everything. Their life is busy. They've got lots of patients on their caseload, probably 10 times the amount of clients that we look after they've got patients. 

What I've also come to learn is that very often if a client sees a GP in a group surgery, sometimes that GP isn't there. The GP might be on holidays, the GP might be off sick, all that type of stuff. If they go in, they might be seen by another GP at the practice, so it's really important for you when you're writing your report to put it in context. And again, this can be really short and sweet. It can be as simple as you address it to, let's say Dr. Smith, where you say - 

“Thank you for the referral.”  Let's call our patient or client, Mary, in this instance. Thank you for referring Mary to The Psych Professionals as part of the Medicare Better Access Initiative. So I'm telling them who's the patient. Where the patient was referred, and under what referral type. Mary has completed five treatment sessions on this date. Please find herewith the details of the psychological treatment provided, and outcomes achieved. 

So now the GP knows how many sessions that person had, when the last appointment was, how long it has been since then, and under what referral type this was. Make sure that you have context, always, within your reports. 

Reporting Habit #4: Include Recommendations

Still staying within the report, reporting habit number four is to always include a Client Recommendation in your report. And you do this even if the client is being discharged from your care. I guess it makes sense to do it if you've done five sessions under Medicare and you're going to ask for a referral for another five. Maybe you do six and you ask for another four. 

You must most certainly have a Recommendation Section that has that heading. So, under that heading, I normally call it Further Recommendations. I might say something to the effect of,  “Despite the significant improvements already made, it would be premature to cease treatment at this stage. Currently, the following treatment goals still remain.”

Then I normally list one to a maximum of three treatment goals that I want to continue working on in the next set of four or five appointments. I'm very specific - this is what we're going to work on, then we're going to work on this, then we're going to work on that. 

Because if I'm asking a GP to give a client of mine another referral, I want them to know what it's for. I'm not going to just go -I want a new referral, and you're just going to trust that I'm going to use it for what is right. No. I'm very mindful that at any point in time, me or that GP can be audited by Medicare, so I want to make sure that I've documented and I've put in writing what I'm going to be working on. 

That also gives the GP that peace of mind that, “You know what, this patient of mine is in good hands.” This psychologist has already thought about the next stage. And look, they have actually specified specific things that they're going to work on. Here's the client sitting in front of me. The client is happy with it. We are just ticking all the boxes here. And again we are making the GP's life easy.  The GP doesn't have to tell me what to do in the ongoing sessions. They just go, “Yeah, continue as is.”  Done. 

And as I said, that is for when I want another referral for a client. But even if the client doesn't need a referral, I will put in a Further Recommendations section. This might be as simple as saying:

“We are now concluding sessions, but I would really appreciate it if you can continue checking in with this person for another three to six months to make sure that they are still traveling along well. If you notice anything that you feel may need additional support for the patient, please feel free to let me know.”

Just something nice and relevant telling them to check in with this person in three months. Because we know that sometimes relapse happens, even if we have done really good relapse prevention, depending of course on the patient - everybody's a bit different. 

My point is tell them what they do now - now that this patient of theirs has stopped therapy. What happens now? Can you see how I want to always be helpful? I want to always be adding value.  I want the GP to know that when they work with me and hence my team and hence my practice, when they work with The Psych Professionals -  they can always expect this quality of care. 

Reporting Habit #5: Specify What Happens Next

And then last but not least, reporting habit number five. And I've just alluded to that, but I'm going to be a bit more specific now. And that is where I want to tell the GP exactly what they need to do next. So yes, we have our Further Recommendation section, but I always include a small Conclusion Section, and that could be as simple as saying:

“Mary has shown a commitment to the treatment process by regularly attending and actively participating during her sessions. Following consultation with Mary, it is recommended that she receive a new referral to access an additional five sessions of psychological treatment under Medicare, focusing on the issues listed under Further Recommendations.”

So in this instance, I'm telling the GP exactly what to do next. We've just spoken about Further Recommendations, if you agree, the next step is to do a new referral. So again, I'm making the GP's job as easy as possible. I'm telling him or her exactly what I need, and hence what their patient needs. It  just speeds up the whole process.  Ultimately I see my job as making it as easy as possible for my clients to access ongoing psychological care. Those are my five reporting habits for abundant referrals. 

Embedding Reporting Habits that Stick

I would strongly encourage you to consider which of these can you already say, “I've got that covered.” Maybe there's four, maybe there's all five of them. I would encourage you to really consider which of these are you already doing and doing really well, and identify if there is one that maybe you just haven't thought of - or maybe you were doing it, but somehow you've dropped the ball. It's perfectly fine.

But let's say you are going, “I do all of those five things, Gerda.” Well done.  I still need you to ask yourself - if you are a group practice owner - does your clinical team do this? And I don't want you to assume, I want you to check okay. We both know that assumptions, you know what they say, makes an ass out of me and you. Never assume in business. It will just come back to bite you in the ass.  I want you to check. 

You can check by doing a file audit. You can check as part of your clinical supervision. You can check as part of a performance review meeting. But you need to freaking check. Don't assume. And I would actually encourage you, even if you think and you've checked and your team is doing this well, I would even encourage you to make this a topic of maybe a team meeting.

Share this with them. Talk to them about it. Talk to them about what do they see as important reporting habits. What are they already doing that they think is working really well?. Get them to share. Make this a really great clinical discussion about our responsibility as clinicians to clearly communicate with our referrers. 

If you actually do a deep dive into complaints against clinicians that are investigated by APRA - majority of complaints are as a result of a lack of communication - where case notes weren't done properly, there wasn't proper reporting and all of that type of stuff. 

Long story short, the communication and paperwork that happens in your business are incredibly important. It's so important for our clinicians to really get that the paperwork, admin, and the reporting is not separate from the clinical work. It is one in the same thing. Very often they go, “No, I need to focus on the face to face work.” Yeah, I love that - that's what we trained for. But our paperwork is equally important. Those two things are interlinked. They are not independent of one another. 

There are a lot of skills that clinicians can learn to do really well at a high standard without taking too much time, by using stuff like templates. By being very clear in what should be in there and what you don't need in there, right?  The bottom line really to me is that reporting habits equals abundant referrals.  And yes, reporting habits is a clinical task, but it has significant implications on the business. 

For me in my practice, and even to this day, the work that I do at The Psych Professionals as a practice owner, and the work that I do within Private Practice Success Australia - where I do business consulting, coaching, and mentoring to other allied health practice owners, just like yourself - I am always motivated to over deliver to the exaggerated expectations of my clients, and my referrers in the case of my group private practice.  

I don't over promise and I never want to under deliver. But I want to over deliver to their exaggerated expectations. So I would promise you're getting A. They expect A. But I don't want to give them A. I want to give them A, plus B, plus C, plus D, E, F, and all of the letters in the alphabet. That is, when you over deliver to the exaggerated expectations of the people that you work with.

My Gift to You: The GP Reporting Template

I would also love to overdeliver to the exaggerated expectations of you, my fabulous podcast listener,  I'm going to make available to you for free, that GP reporting template that I mentioned earlier. This is the template we use for our adult clients specifically, and you can use this template for the mid treatment review or as a conclusion - AKA discharge report. 

All you need to do is go and find the link in the show notes and download the report template. You can copy and paste it straight into your diary management software. And there you go. Just follow the prompts. It is so super easy and take it for me, it is going to shave a lot of minutes off of your report writing time.

Okay, I hope that was helpful. Thank you so very much for tuning in. And as always, remember that I am here to help you build a practice you can't stop smiling about  🙂

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Gerda Muller

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