Understanding The Clinical Supply KPI for Medical & Dental Providers

By: Carl Stoddard

Tracking your clinical supply costs is critical to running a successful medical or dental practice. Definitions are also important, so Intermountain Practice Partners defines clinical supplies as the total of clinical supplies plus lab fees plus DME / retail supplies plus business sales & use tax. Traditionally, the KPI (Key Performance Indicator) for clinical supplies is a percentage of collections which is computed by taking clinical supply costs divided by collections.

Though this KPI is acceptable if your production is in a steady state, and you are comparing yourself to yourself; it lacks the sophistication to compare yourself to others that have a different patient insurance mix. Therefore, those with better paying commercial insurance will have a lower percentage than say those that are more focused on Medicaid or Medicare. As such, Intermountain Practice Partners has determined that a better KPI is clinical supply costs per patient encounter. The main benefit is that if your payer rates change, this KPI will not be affected and you can truly see if your clinical supply costs are going up or down. If you want to better understand how to use this KPI in your medical or dental practice, please reach out to us at [email protected]

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