Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/1144894
Teaming Up to Launch a Medical Practice L I F E D O E S N ' T H AV E a comprehensive guide for some things. Think: getting married and understanding teenagers. Starting a medical practice can easily be added to that list, but experts say assembling the right team for the endeavor makes the process less mistake-prone and, over time, saves money. "The biggest advice I can give is, think about who are going to be your advisers," David J. Zetter, Lead Consultant at Zetter Healthcare Management Consultants and a member of the National Society of Certified Healthcare Business Consultants, says in a Business News Daily article. "Yes, you will spend more money [initially], but if you do it smart, you will set yourself up for success and spend less in the wrong." Key players for the startup and the long term should include a CPA, investment adviser, financial planner, business attor- ney, insurance agent and business coach, Paul Inselman, a physician and the founder of Creative Coaching medical marketing, suggests in the article. n — Steve Barrett Telemedicine Use Linked to Practice Size THE C OS T S IN VOLV ED in telemedicine may be limiting its implementation by small physician practices, authors of a recent Health Affairs study hypothesize. Scientists in the AMA's Division of Economic and Health Policy Research found that slightly more than 15 percent of physicians work in practices that incorporate telemedicine technologies for patient interactions. However, there was wide variation in telemedicine usage by practice size. Among practices with one to four physicians, usage was 8.2 percent, compared with 26.5 percent in practices with at least 50 physicians. That suggests "the financial burden of implementing [telemedicine] may b e a co n t i n u i n g b a r r i e r fo r s m a l l practices," the authors write. By specialty, radiologists had the highest telemedicine usage at 39.5 per- cent, compared with only 6.1 percent for allergists and immunologists. The data for the study came from th e A MA's 2016 P h ysicia n P ra ctice Benchmark Survey. n — Steve Barrett A Systematic Approach to the Revenue Cycle T H E T H I N G T O R E M E M B E R about revenue cycle management, according to Nalin Jain, Delivery Director of Advisory Services for CTG Health Solutions, is that it's just that: a cycle. Ensuring payment of claims means paying attention to every part of the process, Jain explains in an article on RevCycleIntelligence.com. Losses can occur anywhere along the way, he says, and providers who success- fully navigate the path to reimbursement scrutinize several touch points: + Early steps, such as preregistration and preauthorization + The care process itself + Clinical documentation and coding compliance + Collections, follow-up and other aspects of billing + Denial management, fee schedules and related administrative services "When you compartmentalize your practice or your hospital across these five areas," Jain adds, "you're able to address within each of these components what is working and not working, what are the industry standards, where are your peers compared to where you are, and what you need to do to get to the next stage and then beyond that." n — Steve Barrett 1 4❱❱❱❱❱ B U S I N E S S O F M E D I C I N E