Getting to the heart of patient complaints is not always easy and many times the physician doesn’t even know that a patient has complained about something because the staff may not consider what they said to be a “big deal” or they may have just thought that the patient was in a bad mood. At times patients may say a negative thing about their visit or treatment, but then laugh and make a joke about it. Remember the age old saying “the truth is said in jest”? All staff members need to be eyes and ears for the physicians they work for and not take negative statements, no matter how lightly they are said, something to be brushed under the carpet. When a patient says something negative something is not right with the patient and we need to figure out what we can do about understanding how they are feeling and then set things right.

Most insurance companies require recredentialing every 2 years.  This is not only a time consuming job but it’s boring.   It seems they all have their own form to fill out which in some cases have been 8 pages long.  While some accept the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH) application, others don’t participate. Thus, the staff must complete the forms.  Or do they?

The First Amendment of our beloved Constitution gives all the citizens the right to free speech.  When this right was first exercised by those in possession of printing presses, the opinion of one person was able to be quickly (relatively) disseminated to curious minds across the country.  The result of this combination was disastrous for some and emancipating for others.

Often times we look for that "one" tool to help us get organized, stay organized and dramatically help us improve our personal and professional life. Whether you embrace technology, or you're more of a pen and paper type of person,  by combining the use of these tools you can stay organized and get things done.

“Off-label use” is a term that applies to any clinical use of an FDA approved medication or device that is not in accordance with labeling approved by the FDA.  While the off-label use of medications is both legal and very common (one study showed off-label use of medications in the primary care setting was as high as 20% and in some settings the majority of use was off-label), it is a violation of federal law for a manufacturer to advertise the use of a medication or device for any purpose not approved by the FDA.

Collecting money is often a trying and difficult experience for the office staff.  Many doctors are also comfortable discussing fees with their patients. Ultimately money must be collected for the practice to be viable. Here are some tips to try to maximize over-the-counter collections in the office.

When I began providing consulting services for medical practices, I fully expected that doctors who needed my services would be the ones who were struggling.  Instead, what I encountered were successful doctors who had already built good practices and were seeking to create great practices. 

There's nothing more frustrating than receiving a claim denial. This can be very embarrassing to even the most seasoned biller. Receiving a denied claim is essentially a negative experience but if addressed properly can be a very valuable tool for your office.

I am often asked by doctors “How can I get a great office staff/team and keep them?  How do I know the right person to hire?  How much do I pay them?  How do I train them? Etc...  To try to answer these questions in one article is not possible so this is the first article in a series on “The Building of a Collaborative Team.”

Have you every played the party game of “telephone,” the game in which a message is whispered from person to person until it reaches the final recipient who recites it out loud?  The message that is heard at the end of this sequence rarely resembles the original.  This simple game teaches us early on that the more “handoffs” that take place in a communications process, the more likely a miscommunication is to occur. 

Now that you have chosen the candidate that you want to bring onto your office team, you want to make sure that things get started on the right foot.  Bringing a new hire on board can not only be exciting, but also very scary for everyone involved.  You as the doctor have the most to be concerned about.  Hiring the wrong person can be devastating to your practice. 

Goal setting can be a challenge. If it were not, we all would be continually achieving them and I wouldn't be writing this article. It can be overwhelming just thinking about all of the things you need and want to do and you don't know how you can complete them all. We think of goals we would like to achieve and become defeated before we begin trying to achieve them.

Think about your ride to work in the morning, whether it is in a car or on public transportation. For one moment think about how your trip would be with no laws in existence. How is your trip going now? Chaotic probably sums it up. We need to follow rules to protect ourselves and those around us. That is what a policy manual will do in your office.

When 2009 rolled around I think we all knew that we would be facing some interesting issues with our patients when it came to out-of-pocket situations. We all can relate to the fear-factor of the economic times we are in, for some of us it is more real than others, but none the less it is real.