As the year draws to a close, it is vital to pay close attention to your practice’s revenue cycle to maintain an operational and financially healthy business. Operational aspects should be a top priority, with careful monitoring as they relate to efficiency in receivables and denials management. Healthcare revenue cycle management is the strategy that…
The transition from pediatric to adult care can be a rocky one. For many rheumatology patients, any problems in the move can cause gaps in care. To address this issue, the ACR joined the American College of Physicians’ (ACP) Pediatric to Adult Care Transitions Initiative. The Initiative is a project spearheaded by the ACP’s Council…
Many reasons exist to strive for high patient satisfaction, including those related to maintaining certification requirements, risk management, reimbursement and simply having a competitive practice, but the most important one is that by achieving high patient satisfaction, you will find that your patients will be more motivated and more engaged in their individual care, says…
In any practice, the physician owner and/or administrators are in charge of overseeing the responsibilities associated with human resources management. This includes employment and labor laws, government compliance issues, employee-related costs and the ever-present threat of employee litigation. The central components of human resources management include staffing the practice; staying current with the legal environment;…
CPT: 99213, 89060 ICD-10: M10.072 Coding Rationale This is an established outpatient visit. The encounter is coded as 99213 because it included: History—Expanded problem-focused history. The history of present illness was brief, the review of systems was extended and the past medical and social history was documented. Examination—Detailed. There were seven organ systems examined. This…
A 55-year-old female patient returns to the office with complaints of gout pain. She is complaining of swelling and a burning pain in her left toe. She has been taking an over-the-counter NSAID to treat the pain, but this has done little to alleviate it. This is her second flare this year. The patient denies…
In Part 2 of how to thrive as a new manager, our experts expand on how age can affect the transition to management, what it’s like to join a new practice as a manager and how to take charge with grace…
The transition from employee to manager in a rheumatology practice can be daunting. But according to experts, setting clear roles and responsibilities and cultivating professional relationships with your employees ultimately help make you and the practice successful…
Case A 17-year-old girl returns to the rheumatology clinic for scheduled follow-up for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). She is accompanied by her mother and father. She has a history of autoimmune cytopenias and Class III lupus nephritis. She has responded well to treatment with mycophenolate mofetil and hydroxychloroquine and was successfully weaned off of prednisone…
After extensive research and careful deliberation, you have finally made the exciting but daunting decision to purchase a healthcare practice. You know that in the next couple of months you are going to need to examine the practice from a different perspective—one of a future owner. You also recognize that in order to facilitate the…