How to unlock new revenue streams for your private practice (free worksheets)

Running a private practice these days feels like walking a financial tightrope. You’re juggling rising operational costs and complex insurance models while also trying to attract new patients and provide better-than-ever care.

Many practice owners are so consumed by the day-to-day operations that they barely have time to consider growing their revenue. However, diversification isn’t just about increasing profits — it’s about building a more resilient and sustainable practice. 

Tebra’s Private Practice Benchmarking 2024 Report found that 28% of practices have explored additional revenue streams through ancillary services, with impressive results. In fact, 34% of practice owners say they’ve added more than $100,000 in annual revenue by doing so, while others saw more modest but still meaningful gains.

In this guide, we’ll explore how you can realistically find new revenue lines and diversify your practice’s income streams. You’ll also be able to access spreadsheet templates and worksheets to help you assess your potential medical ancillary services, analyze your revenue potential, and plot your growth. 

Revenue diversification isn’t about just increasing profits — it’s about building a more resilient and sustainable practice that can serve patients for decades.

The revenue potential depends on your practice’s specialty. While some practices generate 6-figure returns, about 30% observe more modest gains of up to $10,000 annually. It comes down to the type of services you offer and how well they align with what your patients need.

For instance, primary care practices favor lab and ECG services because of their focus on preventive care. Meanwhile, mental health practices choose specialized services like addiction medicine to better serve their patient population. If you’re not exploring ancillary services relevant to your specialty, you’re probably leaving revenue on the table.

The good news is that implementation isn’t as challenging as you might think. Tebra’s research shows that 70% of practices find the process “easy to do,” and 51% saw a revenue increase within the first 90 days. This means that practice owners and operational leaders who prioritize diversification can realize tangible financial benefits quickly, while also enhancing their long-term sustainability.

However, adding these services without proper planning can lead to implementation challenges, unrealized revenue potential, and unnecessary stress on practice operations. Practices that take the time to plan the process thoroughly tend to get better results, since they’re better positioned to capture the right opportunities and give themselves a competitive advantage.

Now that you know how your medical practice can benefit from adding more revenue lines, let’s explore how you can approach doing so.

Before you choose a medical ancillary service, you need to validate demand. If you don’t, you’ll waste time and resources exploring a revenue stream to which your patients might not respond.

Start by talking to your patients. Our survey found that 68% of practice owners spoke to their patients to understand what they’d like and how these services would benefit them.

But the key is in matching these services to your specialty and patient demographics. For instance, primary care practices focus on diagnostics and preventive services because these align with their core offerings. While 68% of these practices started with lab services, 45% started with ECG services.

Mental health practices follow a different pattern. They started with addiction medicine (34%), lab services (20%), and nutritional counseling (12%). Notably, 56% of mental health practices currently offer no ancillary services, indicating that there’s an opportunity to differentiate yourself if that’s your specialty.

Tip: Survey your patients and ask about the services for which they tend to go elsewhere. In addition, evaluate the services for which you make the most referrals.

When you evaluate potential services, ask yourself:

Those who start small and with a high-demand service tend to experience better and faster results.

Once you’ve narrowed down which service to add to your practice, it’s time to chart a path forward. In our survey, only 31% of practices report developing a formal business plan before launching a new service. That’s a considerable risk, since without planning before launch, you’ll likely struggle to gather meaningful performance data afterwards.

Why does this matter? To understand what succeeds and what doesn’t, you need concrete data and established benchmarks. A structured implementation plan doesn’t just facilitate a smooth launch, but also creates a framework for ongoing evaluation and optimization.

When you’re planning how to launch your new service, start by creating a detailed financial analysis alongside your operational assessment. Consider these essential questions:

The complexity of your implementation plan should align with the service type you decide to add. For example, adding ECG services might involve relatively simple and inexpensive changes like setting up a monitor in existing patient rooms, with qualified nurses handling the process. In contrast, implementing laboratory services requires dedicated space, specialized staff, and significantly more time and capital for setup.

By developing a detailed implementation plan for your specific service, you create not only a roadmap for launch but also a foundation for measuring success and making data-driven adjustments as you grow.

Your financial infrastructure demands careful consideration. It can mean the difference between immediate profitability and costly delays. Surprisingly, only 39% of practices contact insurance carriers about reimbursements before adding new services. If you skip this step, you may pass on too many additional costs to your patients or even have to absorb them from your practice’s budget.

Introducing new services inevitably complicates your billing process, irrespective of whether you manage billing in-house or through a partner. Before launching any new service, address these essential financial questions:

Currently, 69% of practices verify insurance coverage for new services before implementation. If you add new services without verifying them, patients may face unexpected financial burdens, potentially compromising both care quality and satisfaction.

Also, only 69% of practices collect payment at the time of service, and 39% maintain strong financial policies to maximize reimbursements. To fully understand and capitalize on the revenue impact of your new services, develop a strategy for collecting payments.

This planning phase is also critical for addressing compliance requirements. Surprisingly, only 41% of practices review compliance and legal requirements during planning — a significant risk that can lead to reputation harm and financial liabilities. Before implementation, create a comprehensive compliance checklist that includes:

Consider consulting with a healthcare compliance specialist, particularly if you’re adding laboratory, imaging, or other highly regulated services. Remember that compliance isn’t a one-time effort — establish quarterly reviews to stay current with changing regulations.

Once you’ve set up your plan, implement a pilot program within your practice. Surprisingly, only 62% of practices ensure their new services fit smoothly with existing operational workflows and daily schedules.

A well-designed pilot program helps you identify and address bottlenecks before proceeding with the full-scale implementation. The scope of your pilot will naturally vary based on your service type and practice specialty.

For your pilot, consider starting with a small pool of 10 to 20 patients to gather meaningful feedback without overwhelming your system. For instance, if you’re launching an ECG service, initially offer it to a limited patient group. Ask them about their experience — from evaluation to billing — and use these insights to refine your implementation.

Simultaneously, evaluate the service from an operational perspective. Monitor these key metrics:

Use these key metrics as benchmarks to continuously refine your program before expanding it practice-wide.

Now, it’s time to officially introduce your service to the market. You don’t have to spend a lot for your marketing to be effective. In fact, our survey shows that 52% of practices spend under $5,000 on marketing annually. Success depends more on strategy than spend.

A critical insight from our research shows that 35% of practices identify poor online presence as driving up patient acquisition costs. On the flip side, maintaining a strong and positive online reputation, particularly through patient reviews, can help you gain more patients. In fact, 64% of practices report bringing in up to 50 new patients from positive reviews alone.

Despite this potential, only 35% of these practices regularly ask for reviews — a missed opportunity for growth. Being proactive about marketing strategies like this becomes even more essential when you’ve invested resources into developing new revenue streams.

Consider these effective approaches:

The real magic happens when you qualify how your new service impacts your practice’s bottom line. Ideally, implement a dedicated revenue analytics solution to get a clear picture. Even with manual tracking, monitor metrics like:

The timeline for seeing results is encouraging. Tebra found that 28% of practices observed revenue growth within just 59 days, while an impressive 88% saw an increase within 6 months.

Beyond revenue, monitor patient acquisition. Our research shows that 40% of practices attract up to 25 new patients with their added services, while 18% report between 50 and 100 new patients. Some practices have even attracted more than 250 new patients after introducing targeted services.

Sustained success comes from continuous performance monitoring and refinement. By regularly assessing performance metrics and making data-driven adjustments, you can transform your new service into a significant long-term revenue driver for your practice.

While exceptional patient care remains your primary goal, you’re also running a business. Unless and until you capture the right opportunities to grow your practice in terms of reputation and revenue, you might find it hard to sustain it in the long term.

Your true competitive advantage lies in your ability to remain agile while maintaining an unwavering focus on patient needs. By deeply understanding what your patients require — both in terms of care quality and convenience — you can develop your practice with genuine purpose and direction.

If you’re ready to improve your practice’s financial health, check out Tebra’s Revenue RX workbook to take the first step towards sustainable growth from new ancillary services.