Medicine & Business

Hospitals and medical practices wanting to raise the quality of care, improve patient safety, deal with sentinel events and address negative outcomes quickly and efficiently are outsourcing their peer reviews to IROs routinely.

A survey of nearly 100 medical group leaders now shows growing concern about retaining the valuable physicians they have worked so hard to recruit, train and integrate into their practices.

The license agreement is the backbone of the relationship between the practice and the vendor. As with any other contract, some terms will be negotiable and some terms are non-negotiable. It is therefore essential to understand the impact of the license’s language on this relationship.

With the advent of consumer-directed health plans, diligent payment collection management is even more important as patients will be assuming more financial responsibility for their health care expenses.

The biggest thing that has changed in the valuation of medical practices world has been the intangible/goodwill element of practices.

These people are physician colleagues, but play very specific roles in the hospital setting, often exercising authority over your patients, while controlling assets and resources you may want access to.

The employment agreement is a key document that needs to be drafted with care, as any of these provisions can cost the practice considerable money.

The ability to maximize the use of staff time and optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of the billing department relies upon a complete and coordinated cycle in the collection process.

The IRS position regarding the tax implications to tax-exempt hospitals created uncertainty and slowed the number of joint ventures with physician groups. That is, until a recent IRS ruling which is widely viewed as providing more flexibility in structuring joint venture arrangements of this type.

Physician practices must be vigilant to assure that only patients entitled to a discount are receiving the negotiated fee. Otherwise, your practice will be extending a discount to individuals and payors who should be paying your billed charges in full.