Healthcare is at the forefront of everybody’s minds these days; the news is filled with the slow progress of the proposed Healthcare Bill and whether it will actually make a difference or just cost us more money. In this testing and trying economy, with many businesses still feeling the pinch financially and not being adequately insured, bartering medical services is becoming increasingly popular. So, how can bartering be beneficial to doctors and others in the healthcare professions?
Bartering has long since been a highly effective means to trade out goods and services for other needed products and services, and although cash has made commerce much easier, when money is tight, smart business owners revert back to the age-old method of bartering. Throughout history there are many stories of doctors trading with other local merchants for things they need. Merchants Barter Exchange (MBE), as the only national company that insists on 100%-barter at the same cash price, is helping many medical establishments around the US save thousands of dollars during these tough economic times. Below are some examples of how a doctor’s practice can shave many hundreds of dollars each month from their bottom line expenses.
Often people overlook the hundreds of thousands of dollars a doctor has invested in their education, their equipment, and their offices before they even start to reap the rewards of all their hard work. A doctor’s office starts in the red and has to build into a profitable establishment over many years. The benefits of using MBE-barter for doctors are obvious, since they carry their standard overhead (rent, utilities, salaries, phone, etc., on top of their education bill!) anyway, no matter how many patients they have, the only variable to revenue and expense is the number of patients that they can see. For MBE to bring just one new patient that spends $2500 on medical fees a year, what does it actually cost the doctor? Their only additional cash outlay is the cost of the treatment (which, if it’s just an examination, is practically zero, and certainly less than 10%.) If there are additional cash expenses for procedures, in order to cover the large overhead, it is definitely less than 50% of the fees, and probably isn’t noticeable on the P&L.
On the other hand, if a doctor has three hours of empty appointments, how much revenue are they losing? In addition to that, unlike accepting health insurance, there are no delays or discounts in payment for services. What if, instead of paying cash for office cleaning, they used MBE-barter? If they traditionally paid $100 for the service, they could now get the very same quality service via MBE for $100 barter dollars (costing them only 10 - 50 cents on the dollar – their core cost – plus a 10% purchasing fee – another $10.) In this scenario they have saved a total of $80 - $40 in cash on one service that month.
Now let’s imagine they need their lab coats dry cleaned, and the cost is usually $200 per month. By bartering the service out, they would save $160 - $80. Perhaps they need new carpet, let’s add that to our scenario, say previously a $2500 cash outlay. Now they save another $1000 - $2000. Perhaps they need to do some advertising and would usually spend $4000, now they have saved $1600 - $3200. As you can see, it is easy to make quite considerable savings each and every month by joining and utilizing the easy barter payment system of Merchants Barter Exchange. Just on these few items alone, the doctor’s office saves thousands in cash by trading instead.
On top of the cash savings, which are important, let’s not forget the other major benefit: more patients. Since MBE ensures that they only bring new business to their members, this example could have introduced upwards of 5 – 10 new patients to that practice. Just imagine what additional cash customers that can create via word-of-mouth advertising. All in all, bartering is a very effective method for any doctor’s office of any size to make significant savings across the board and grow their practice. The best thing of all, MBE takes care of all the paperwork and tax reporting needed for the end of year. With MBE-barter already in place helping thousands of business owners, perhaps the government needs to slow down on their proposed next round of spending and actually look at all options available to improve the fantastic healthcare coverage we already have in America?
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