News

 It takes years to build up a successful medical practice that is respected and valued by the community. It can also take time to find a qualified buyer at a satisfactory price. However, you can take several steps now to help provide a...

 In the wake of health care reform, you might find your practice inundated with new patients. With the extra workload, you might want to hire one or more physicians to help out. If so, and if these physicians intend to take an ownership share...

Studies show that only a handful of adults are visiting and using information from websites that rate physicians. For example, more than 80 percent of California-based adults say they use the Internet for health-related information, such as medical...

Nursing homes are potentially one of the most dangerous workplaces in the country. Nursing assistants in long-term care facilities have the highest incidence of assaults of all American workers, with one study showing that 27 percent of all...

Nursing homes and personal-care facilities present many health and safety risks for their employees. In fact, combined with patient violence against employees, the situation has become so serious that the Occupational Safety and Health...

Internal fraud can be devastating for a medical practice and it can be easier than you might think to steal in some offices. Fraud schemes may be prevented if the following steps had been implemented: Require separation of duties....

Medical malpractice insurance isn't just a requirement -- it's also a major practice expense. Selecting the terms of coverage is a complex, critical task, as is evaluating insurance carriers. In fact, the future of the practice and the reputation of...

The cost of medical malpractice continues to rise, according to the Aon/American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) Hospital and Physician Professional Liability 2013 Benchmark Analysis. This annual study helps health care providers...

Improved contact between physicians and their patients — known as "etiquette-based communications" — would improve the "inpatient experience" and could help a patient recover more quickly, a randomized trial found. Among suggested...

It turns out that keeping patients in the hospital for just one day longer can saves lives, lower costs and reduce readmissions. That's the conclusion of one study from the Columbia University Business School entitled "Should Hospitals Keep Their...

Nearly every physician has claims denied from time to time. Medicare, as a government program, has its own way of doing things. As you know, the process is different from insurance companies, which also have their own way of...

Early in the history of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), violations typically involved receiving a warning letter from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It was basically toothless and carried no...

The bane of every physician's practice is when payers deny claims. There are numerous reasons why payers deny claims, with the predominant reason being a paperwork error. Other reasons include misunderstanding on the part of the insurance company,...

If there's one thing that can harm the success of a medical practice, it's having patients spending too much time in the waiting room. Appointment scheduling is a critical function of a doctor's office, yet many practices schedule in a seemingly...

On a regular basis, most physicians have patients that refuse or forget to pay bills. Every business deals with this problem, but medical practices have their own unique set of problems with unpaid bills. First, you can't retrieve the...

Practicing medicine today is increasingly challenging, and the pace of change isn’t getting any slower. To stay viable, practices have to face the challenges head on and develop strategies to thrive in a value-based payment environment. The...

Last June, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) modified the Medicare Shared Savings Program to increase participation in accountable care organizations. In 2015, there were more than 400 accountable care organizations (ACOs)....

It’s full steam ahead in the Department of Health and Human Services’ effort to increase participation in accountable care organizations (ACOs) and use financial incentives and quality metrics to determine how providers are paid. Among...

Like many practices, yours may be facing lost productivity as a result of the learning curve or lack of preparedness for the conversion to ICD-10. Claim rejections or delays in payment in some cases may jeopardize healthy cash flow during these...

Just as every patient has numbers, whether blood pressure, cholesterol, pulse or white blood cell count, your practice does, too. And similar to your patients’ numbers, your numbers need to be in a healthy range. Any negative trends need to be...