Practice Matters: New Workshop Will Provide Insights into Practice Management at the 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting

How can rheumatology practices thrive amid a challenging, constantly changing financial and regulatory environment? On Saturday, Nov. 9, at the 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Practice Matters: Navigate a Path to Success!, a practical workshop, will provide some answers to this question. The workshop offers guidance on how to manage rising practice costs, use new technologies, set and track important business metrics, and identify and address areas of vulnerability in your rheumatology practice. The workshop’s goal is to help rheumatologists achieve high benchmarks for quality and patient-centered care, as well as build a strong foundation for success in years to come.

This full-day workshop features top healthcare consultants, attorneys, payers and providers who will share best practices and explain current regulatory and business management concepts in detail. They will also provide practical, strategic advice that rheumatologists and practice managers can apply right away.

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Starting at 8 a.m., the workshop kicks off with a keynote address, Master the Principles to Ensure Your Healthcare Practice’s Survival: Pearls for the Rheumatology Practice, from healthcare business consultant Owen Dahl, MBA. He will carefully explain new strategies for capturing patient data throughout the continuum of care, and then show audience members how to better capture data and improve its analysis to achieve more effective clinical processes.

Next, Mr. Dahl will discuss strategies for leveraging your practice’s quality performance to demonstrate value and negotiate more favorable payer contracts. He will share new tools and tips for identifying key targets for practice success and quality improvement, as well as how rheumatology practices can become more profitable.

Additionally, Mr. Dahl will lead a detailed session on Key Performance Indicators: The Clinical Signs of the Health of Your Practice. What are clinical signs of your practice’s operational or financial health, and how can you identify and address early warning signs? Mr. Dahl will provide a timeline for how often to review and evaluate your practice’s business metrics, share tools to help you identify early signs that indicate your practice may have a poor prognosis and offer tips to put your practice back on a path to good fiscal and operational health.

After these informative discussions, the workshop will explore how to implement cost- and time-saving technologies in patient care during Telehealth in Rheumatology Practice. Attorney Jesse Overbay, JD, will walk through the pros and cons of telemedicine for rheumatology practices, which will include a review of the rules, regulations and guidelines. He will share useful tips to develop and implement the necessary disclosure statements and licensure to provide telemedicine. Additionally, Mr. Overbay will address how to follow the rules of remote patient consultation and treatment via telemedicine both within your state and across state lines.

The workshop includes a Practice Management Roundtable discussion with consultant Carla Parris. During the roundtable, Ms. Parris will share some of the hottest tools and online resources for rheumatology practices to improve these key areas of business success. The audience members will also be able to discuss and share current practices for collections, staff recruitment, hiring, insurance appeals and practice improvement.

Rheumatologists who offer infusion services will enjoy the Nuts and Bolts Operational Issues of an Infusion Clinic led by Mr. Overbay, which will identify key risk areas that infusion clinics encounter, the pros and cons of running an independent infusion clinic and how shifting reimbursement methodologies are driving the current trend toward independent infusion clinics. He will explain the Stark law and how it relates to independent infusion clinics, or how it may affect rheumatologists planning to launch one.

Confused by Medicare’s Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) program? The workshop includes a session led by consultant Sean Weiss, CMCO, CPMA, of Doctors Management, who explains this key payer program. Mr. Weiss will review areas of vulnerability for rheumatology practices that may elicit a TPE request and how staff should respond to one.

This informative workshop wraps up the day of practical education with A New View on Incident-to Billing, also led by Mr. Weiss. The discussion will offer rheumatologists and practice managers proven strategies to master incident-to billing and minimize insurance denials. He will discuss what direct supervision can mean for day-to-day practice, detail the new incident-to coding and billing guidelines and discuss individual state guidelines to help rheumatology practices reduce denials.

Both rheumatologists and practice managers will greatly benefit from, and enjoy, this stimulating workshop. Attendees will walk away armed with strategies and tools to implement right away to improve their practices’ long-term success and ensure high-quality patient care.