Billing & Collections: Playing Hardball
Collecting from patients is one of your hardest jobs. Some practices, in frustration, are turning to tough tactics like charging interest and even taking patients to court. Here’s a look at what works best, and what’s not worth the trouble.

Coding: Your Top Coding Concerns Solved
Tips from our biweekly e-mail newsletter. This issue: Using time to code for office visits; Who, what, when, where, and why?

Editor’s Note: D-I-Y Career Repair
Robert Posner and Herbert Parris have never met, but they have a lot in common. Both internists, each became frustrated with the “third-party tango” and decided to break out of the mold. Read how they rejuvenated their practices with a little creativity and a lot of moxie.

Management: When It’s Time to Change
Change is hard. People don’t like it. If you’ve ever tried to convince a reluctant staff too content with “the old way” to try something new, you understand the size of the challenge. Allow our primer to help you clear the path to transformation.

Physicians Practice Pearls: Outsource Your Pain
If staff is overloaded, it may be time to consider outsourcing some of their tasks. Here’s a look at the options.

Start It Up: Finance — Mastering the Numbers Game
In this, the second of our six-part series on launching a new practice from scratch, expert Laurie Hyland Robertson explains how to develop a reasonable budget for the early years. Don’t even think about opening your own shop until you’ve read this.

Technology: Do You Know Where Your Data Is?
We’re all for steering your practice onto the information superhighway, but not without buckling up first. Keeping your practice’s sensitive files (and your patients’ secrets) safe from prying eyes may seem daunting, but we can get you there in five easy steps.

The Administrator’s Desk: Recruiting for Patient Satisfaction
Look for attitude, and not just skills and experience, when recruiting a new staffer.

The Bigger Picture: Medicare Decision Time
Congress has made empty threats to cut Medicare payments before. But this time the risk seems more real — and the cuts are planned for July 1. What to do?

The Great Practice Makeover: Taking Care of Business Associates
After their entire staff left town in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a Louisiana endocrinologist and his office manager/wife want to make sure the new employees stay happy. We can’t keep hurricanes away. But staff retention? We can handle that.

The Law: Trial Lawyers Tell All
You already know why some patients want to sue: because they suspect, fairly or not, that you made a mistake — and that you don’t really care about them. But what do plaintiffs’ lawyers look for to determine if a case is worth bankrolling? We got ’em to spill their secrets.

The Tech Doctor: Are Your Discarded PCs Really Clean?
Before you turn over your old computer to your nephew, sister-in-law, or church group, make sure there isn’t private information still lurking inside. It’s not as simple as hitting the delete button.