Practice Management

Medicolegal issues in urology, discusses the impact of medical errors on the health care system and lists several goals designed to ensure your patients' safety.

Successfully orienting and retaining a new physician in your practice.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a report offering evidence that the recovery audit contractors (RACs) pilot program is successfully identifying improper payments. The findings will help the agency improve the program as it expands nationwide within 2 years, officials say.

For any practice, employee drug abuse can lead to a substantial decrease in productivity and an increase in accidents, both on and off the job.

The bottom line is that if the physician or other qualified provider, such as a physician assistant or a nurse practitioner, is not in the office when a service is provided, the service cannot be charged to Medicare

Another Medicare physicians' pay cut, this one an estimated 5.4%, is in the offing for 2009 as well as rule changes affecting the ability of urologists to provide diagnostic tests for their patients without running afoul of federal physician self-referral and anti-markup prohibitions.

In its 103rd installment, the AUA annual meeting introduced urologists to interesting research about relationships between urologic conditions and other significant health issues. The annual take-home messages are presented here.

The cumulative effect of annual efforts to slash Medicare payment rates, the resulting miniscule fee payment updates, and continuously increasing costs is taking its toll. What happens if Congress fails to come to the rescue and that 10.6% cut takes effect?

Physicians often fall short in patient interactions: asking questions, listening carefully, or observing. Often, this can affect their ability to solve clinical puzzles.

Some urology practices have the edge over their colleagues when it comes to getting paid for what they do.

I read that CMS changed the rules for 'incident to' services. Is this correct, and, if so, what changes have ccurred?

In an attempt to remedy the pressures associated with insurance claims reimbursement for physician services, the American Medical Association has launched the Cure for Claims campaign simultaneously with its first National Health Insurer Report Card on claims processing.

The American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities (AAAASF) has developed new procedural standards intended for ambulatory facilities performing procedures under sedation, which includes those performed by urologists.

Baby boomer urologists are reaching retirement age. This issue raises a number of questions and practical concerns about retirement, especially in group practices.

The first rule to implementing effective practice-building strategies is to carefully examine different approaches and do what you believe in and feel confident about doing. Most urology practices find their greatest success in building from the inside out. That means looking at what is working and taking it to the next level.

A new Medicare audit program set for national rollout will require you to learn the details of current rules, be aggressive in charging for all services according to the rules, and be prepared to pay back some money in the future for any overpayment.

Improving efficiency in the medical office is a major challenge because it often involves spending less time on individual tasks or learning to multitask.

The typical medical practice knows it is important to keep an eye on the accounts receivable, yet physicians are sometimes not sure how to analyze them.

With all the changes you face, it's easy to forget that focusing on the basics just might provide the results you want.

Poor communication skills are a frequently cited factor in a patient's decision to leave a practice or even pursue a malpractice claim against a physician.

Evaluate your existing contracts, re-negotiate them from a position of strength, decide which contracts to drop, and collect the out-of-network fee from your patients for those dropped contracts.

You know it's important to keep a pulse on the business performance of your practice, but how do you do it when time is never on your side?

Understanding the value of a new patient is your first step to building a stellar urology practice.

Currently there are several code choices when using the da Vinci system to perform a robotic radical prostatectomy.

These 30 best practices incorporate compelling evidence that, if implemented, effectively reduce the risk of harming a patient.

Urologists who own or who have an interest in ambulatory surgical centers perform more than three times as many stone surgeries as non-owners do.

Retention of staff in the medical office is emerging as a difficult challenge, and urology practices are no exception.

Safety is an unspoken yet fundamental expectation of almost all personal and business relationships.

As discussed in recent articles, conducting clinical research provides an opportunity to offer additional treatment options to patients and to add income to your bottom line.

Almost any medical practice is prone to ebbs and floods in cash flow. But when the decline in revenue becomes a downward spiral and you're strapped for cash, there is cause for major concern.