Medicine & Business

By committing various concerns of the shareholders to a written document, potential problems are anticipated and dealt with as designated in advance by the involved parties.

To determine if you need a new associate, focus on how many patient encounters your practice will need to break even, your workload and backlog, support costs of a new partner, recruiting expenses, compensation packages and other issues.

How physicians can avoid adverse credentialing decisions and what they can do if one is received.

The survivors will be the ones who run their practices like businesses, who negotiate the most lucrative contracts and who find the appropriate mix of patients to ensure an optimal use of resources.

Physician group ownership of practice offices has its share of potential pitfalls, i.e., costs (including increased exposure to liability), tax concerns and equity lock-up.

Regardless of whether a practice is a start-up or a break-away, a revolving line of credit that provides short-term flexibility and a long-term payback is the best way to go.

Formal benchmarking techniques offer a more structured approach to the establishment of business parameters and the review of financial progress against baseline values.

Many physicians are surprised to learn that they may make less money after factoring in the buy-in and that they have no additional security. Of course, that should not be the case.

Once general selection considerations are made, you will want to consider specific features and functions of a billing system from the various users’ perspectives.

The best performance of physician organizations will not be found in the new idea. It will be found through leadership within your organization that elects to use the information you have assembled.