Recently, Chip and I saw a question posted on the SOAPM listserve that addressed this notion of when is it the right time to bring on a physician. We thought it was a great discussion topic so we decided to dedicate an entire episode surrounding some of things one ought to consider when bringing on a new doc. To give you a heads up, below you'll find part of the email that was submitted to the listserve. I recently interviewed a potential MD … [Read more...]
#12 How Do You Know When To Hire Your Next Physician? [Pediatric Practice Management MediaCast]
June 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Are You Being Intentional In Your Medical Practice?
June 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Like many of us, I was gaining weight year after year. And of course, every couple of months or so I'd have plans to eat less and exercise more. I'll just start making better choices; I'll also bring food from home instead of eating out for lunch everyday; Oh, and I can also start walking in the evenings with the dog. These were all these things that I kept on telling myself and others. Of course, you all know what happened. I never stuck to … [Read more...]
How to Prepare For ICD-10 The Right Way
April 10, 2013 By 2 Comments
If you've done any reading about ICD-10, you know that this transition will be a monumental task. Fundamentally speaking, ICD-10 is a paradigm shift. It is designed to completely transform medical documentation. And since documentation is a lot of what doctors do, inevitably these changes will impact our day-to-day practice. In a recent AMA publication, the authors concluded that the two biggest challenges with implementing ICD-10 will be … [Read more...]
How Many Billers Should A Medical Practice Employ?
April 3, 2013 By 8 Comments
We've talked about in-house billing vs outside billing before. I even teamed up with my friend Chip Hart and devoted a full podcast to the topic. But we've never talked about billing staff ratios. How many billing staff should we have? How do we know if we are understaffed or overstaff? Should we calculate the ratio based on charges and collections or should we base it on physician count? Dr. Suzanne Berman, one of the many outstanding … [Read more...]
#7 Key Metrics We Should Use to Gauge the Financial Health of Our Medical Practice [Practice Management VideoCast]
March 27, 2013 By 2 Comments
In his 20 plus years in practice management, Chip has advised thousands of medical practices. So it occurred to me, why don't I ask Chip how he assesses a practice? In other words, when he is preparing to counsel a practice, what reports, data sets or financial instruments he uses to identify whether or not the practice is a financially healthy practice. You don't want to miss this episode because Chip share with us some of the key … [Read more...]
How To Start A Credit Card Program On File In Your Medical Practice
March 2, 2013 By 1 Comment
My friends over at the ManageMyPractice.com blog are putting together another webinar that I think you all should attend. Mary Pat writes: We had such a great response to our Credit Card on File Webinars that we are running another session. If you are still curious about the credit card program on file that I go on and on about, but don't know how to make it work, how to store credit cards safely or how to tell patients about this new … [Read more...]
#5: Company or Practice Culture [Practice Management VideoCast]
February 27, 2013 By 1 Comment
Chip and I finally got our act together and recorded another video cast. This time, we talk about company culture. There is so much to say about company culture. Chip and I only focused on few items of course. I mostly talked about what are some of the efforts I've been employing in an effort to not only strengthen our company culture, but also grow it. I share some of the tools I used un order to accomplish this. Chip shares some of … [Read more...]
Keeping Credit Cards On File Is The Only Option
February 6, 2013 By 1 Comment
If you've read this blog long enough, and you've heard me speak at conferences, you know I'm a huge proponent of practices implementing a credit card on file policy. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm referring to the practice of asking patients to leave a credit card on file (with the practice) to cover balances that the health insurance companies deem patient responsibility. Much like a car rental company or a hotel requires a … [Read more...]
Want to Learn How to Implement a Credit Card Program in Your Medical Office? Here’s How
January 26, 2013 By 1 Comment
One of the best decisions our practice has ever made, has been requiring parents to leave a credit card on file. We've done this since 2009 and it has really worked well for us. The most obvious advantage is that this policy reduces your practice’s account receivables. I also like the policy because it shifts the risk of not getting paid to another party, namely the credit card company – which is a far better entity to handle … [Read more...]
I'm a practice administrator at a Pediatric office located in the western suburbs of Chicago. I write mostly about running a small business that happens to be a medical practice.
