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Monthly Archives: June 2013

Timely article about billing for locum tenens

Physicians: are you planning a vacation this summer, and worrying about coverage?  Or, have you thought about bringing in extra help so you can take time off, but are worried about lost revenue? Hiring temporary physician help doesn't have to mean a deadweight loss of revenue for your practice.  This helpful article from Physicians Practice spotlights billing for locum tenens help that you pay on a per diem basis.  Take that much needed vacation! Get Revenue for Your Practice Even While on Vacation

By |2022-01-01T22:52:31-08:00June 21st, 2013|

Still not collecting at time of service? New AMA data shows what it can cost your practice

The AMA's National Health Insurer Report Card (NHIRC) for 2013 was released today.  In addition to illuminating data comparing the burdens/benefits of doing business with eight major US health plans, the report added a new metric that caught our attention: patient responsibility as percentage of allowed amount.  Among the eight major insurers studied, patient responsibility was more than 20% of the allowed amount for all but one.  Even Medicare now comes in at about 25% -- as shown on the NHIRC chart below: If you needed another reminder that your collections process is critical to your practice's profitability -- and getting more so every year -- here it is!  Patient responsibility payments are here to stay.  If your revenue cycle management processes don't include effective time-of-service collections, now's the time for improvement.  (And if you don't know where to start, we can help -- contact us for more information about consulting services.)  

By |2022-01-01T22:52:31-08:00June 19th, 2013|

Think your staff work only for money? Think again

If you haven’t read Dan Ariely’s entertaining, highly-readable and best-selling book Predictably Irrational, consider adding it to your summer reading list. Ariely, a cognitive psychologist at Duke, designed and conducted many experiments that illuminate some surprising reasons that guide behavior. Many of these experiments have relevance for the way that medical practice administrators manage their staff for greater productivity. Many of Ariely’s study participants are college students that are paid modestly for their efforts to complete routine tasks – i.e., their incomes are low enough that small increases should matter.  In one such experiment, the subjects were paid to identify and circle instances where the same letter appeared side-by-side on a page of text.  Test subjects were paid for each page on a descending scale - the most for the first page and less for each subsequent page - until they declined to continue.  Students were randomly assigned to groups that would have one of three variations on this basic theme: 1)      Subject wrote name on page, the examiner visually scanned the page and gave a verbal cue to acknowledge the work before placing the work on the pile of worksheets. 2)      Subject did not write name on page. Examiner simply placed the finished page on a pile without visually scanning or acknowledging. 3)      Subject did not write name on page. Examiner immediately placed finished worksheet into shredder. If participants cared solely for the compensation they received, the study results would indicate that all three groups ceased to work at approximately the same pay rate (remember the descending pay rate).  The study results showed that the group that had its work shredded immediately upon completion stopped working at almost twice the pay rate than the group that had its work cursorily acknowledged. The group that had its unnamed worked immediately placed on a pile? It stopped working at very nearly the same pay rate as the group that had its work shredded! These findings are consistent with what we find in our tour of medical practices across the country.  When we talk with practice staff members, we find that the

By |2022-01-01T22:52:31-08:00June 19th, 2013|

Good stress, bad stress and your medical practice

Stress can be both good and bad for your individual well-being: it can be that extra shot of adrenaline that helps you give a great presentation or win a race, or it can be the unhelpful, grinding pressure that can undermine your mental and physical health. Organizations also collectively experience different types of stress -- the good kind that enhances performance, and the bad kind that insidiously undermines it. Start-up teams understand the good kind of stress.  The pressure to perform is intense when you're putting your career on the line to create something that previously didn't exist.  But, when you're working without a net, all progress is exhilarating, and the pursuit of a singular, world-changing vision is an intense bonding experience for team members. Leadership expert Jim Collins coined the term BHAG ('bee-hag')  -- 'Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal' -- for the type of driving mission that allows some organizations to thrive -- and excel far beyond expectations -- under exceptional stress. Established medical practices, unfortunately, often experience the detrimental kind of organizational stress -- the kind that undermines performance and becomes contagious throughout the practice team.  And, far too often, this stress is self-inflicted -- caused by organizational decisions and policies that make the fast-paced management of a practice harder than it needs to be. A key culprit: unnecessary variability in processes and policies.  When a practice aims for flexibility in all ways this can severely and needlessly tax the systems that keep patients flowing through to their doctors.  Does your practice allow rules like payment terms or cancellation fees to apply on a case-by-case basis?  When staff have to seek out a physician to decide how to handle simple administrative issues, patients are kept waiting, the schedule falls behind, the operation experiences more stress, and productivity suffers. Does your practice allow every doctor to set his own policies for basics like scheduling, patient reminders, past-due collections or standard fees?  Failure to standardize -- and enforce -- practice policies makes everything much harder (and more costly) than it has to be. Practices may aim for maximum flexibility because they

By |2022-01-01T22:52:31-08:00June 17th, 2013|

Getting anything out of webinars? HBR tip can help

We give a lot of webinars, and we watch a lot, too!  It can be so tempting to do other things while the webinar 'plays in the background' -- but, then you pop your head up and realize you missed one of the more valuable tidbits.  You also realize that you're neither attending the presentation nor really doing a great job on your other work.  A bit of a lose-lose, as opposed to the multi-tasking you were aiming for. One of the best things about the internet is that so many great people are sharing their knowledge with the world -- often for free or at a fraction of the cost of a conference.  But, the information loses its value if you don't fully engage with the material. Today's Harvard Business Review tip discusses this very problem -- with a few great tips to get more out of any webinar.  Really, it all comes down to taking it seriously -- just as you would any presentation you weren't able to watch while writing emails or wearing your pajamas. By the way, the HBR tips focus on turning a webinar into an event -- inviting colleagues, distributing notes, etc.  But, if you're not able to do that, we have another tip for you:  Watch the recorded version of webinars that contain really important data -- either on a weekend or after the workday (i.e., at a time when you can put other things aside). Here's the link to the HBR tip.

By |2022-01-01T22:52:31-08:00June 14th, 2013|
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