Improve Patient Collections Third party and patient collections are the lifeblood of any physician medical practice. Most customers and patients of your physician medical practice do the right thing and offer payment for the goods and services they’ve received. Unfortunately, there are always some who put you off or fail to pay altogether. If your accounts receivables are getting too high, perhaps it’s time for a hard look at your
April Edition of the Physician Advocate We are heading into Spring with hope and looking forward to BBQ and spending time with family and friends. Be sure to check out the April edition of the Physician Advocate. We cover it all, from answering a question about owning your medical office, to the downsides of doing commercial real estate yourself and a warning about office staff as malpractice targets. Read the
Physician Disability Income Insurance A patient who cannot imagine becoming truly sick cannot commit to preventative measures. Unfortunately, the very same lack of imagination is all too common in the financial arena as well—and can affect even the most prudent investors. Have you, for example, taken steps to protect yourself (and your family) in case of a sudden disability that prevents you from working? Even if you’re young and careful,
Spending Habits and Retirement Planning The traditional approach to retirement planning assumes that retirees will maintain their pre-retirement standard of living as they transition into retirement, and then sustain that lifestyle throughout retirement. But a growing base of research that analyzes the actual spending habits of retirees, reveals a different story. In reality, retirees tend to experience a slow but steady decline in real spending throughout retirement. Spending decreases slowly
Where are Your Physician Practice Receivables? Do you know how much outstanding accounts receivable you have in your 0-30 day, 30-60 day, 60-90 day, 90-120 day and 120-plus day categories? You should know this off of the top of your head on a daily basis. Knowing will allow you to spot problems, quickly. Why is knowing so important you ask? Because, your businesses cash flow depends upon it. The ideal
Practice Administrator Performance Review Criteria In my consulting practice, I am sometimes asked to assist in developing performance criteria for use in evaluating the position of clinic/office Administrator/Manager. In most cases we can all agree on the practice financial benchmarks that must be achieved. However, there needs to be other more subjective standards and criteria to consider when evaluating performance. Practices are learning the hard way that focusing only on
Phone Etiquette for Medical Practice Patient Satisfaction The gateway to your medical office isn’t the front door. It’s your voice on the phone, because most people initially dial in. For example, if you come across on the phone as hurried, that’s how people might think the practice is. Here are a few phone etiquette tactics to help your practice come across as helpful, caring, friendly and efficient. In other words, to
HIPAA Enforcement The following are key ten enforcement issues that the OCR continues to encounter through its enforcement of HIPAA. You need to be aware of these. Impermissible Disclosures HIPAA’s Privacy Rule prohibits covered entities and business associates from disclosing PHI except as permitted or required under HIPAA. Impermissible disclosures identified by OCR all center on the need for authorization, and include: Covered entities permitting news media to film individuals
Vendor HIPAA Breach Periodically we are asked questions about Business Associates and how to handle a vendor HIPAA breach. Recently, we were asked the following question: Under HIPAA concerning Business Associates, if you don’t have a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with a vendor and they generate a breach, are you required to be notified by the vendor of the breach and terminate the relationship immediately? Below is the response we
Revisiting HIPAA Compliance In the two decades since its original passage, HIPAA compliance (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) hasn’t gotten any easier. Enacted with the primary goal of protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of healthcare information, HIPAA presents daunting administrative, technological and financial burdens for health care organizations. The burdens are only becoming more acute as those organizations grapple with a shifting health care economy and, in
March 25th Edition of the Physician Advocate The past few weeks have been difficult for all of Texas. We are with our clients, family and friends in wishing full recovery for everyone from the devastating winter storm! We are hopeful that Spring will be more normal. In our March Newsletter we cover Think your Uncollectibles are Useless?, United States: Is It A Good Time To Buy A Practice? Consider These
Physician Practice Uncollectibles Think your physician practice uncollectibles are only good to look at on an aging report? Well maybe not. Instead of just considering them to be dead accounts, try viewing them as teaching tools. By carefully examining these accounts, you can discover where you went wrong and why you haven’t been able to collect on them. Examining these accounts with regard to your collections process can show you