Physicians Practice Pearls®

Anonymous, electronic remarks can be hurtful to your pride and medical practice. Here are four ways to handle potentially detrimental online reviews.

Patient education programs can help physicians empower their patients to be a partner in their own care, and meet quality metric targets.

Patients come to a direct-pay practice for improved access to physicians. In order to deliver on that promise, a physician must have the right tools.

Well-deserved praise not only induces your staff to work harder, it can make patients happy, as well.

No matter how you choose to communicate - view every single message you deliver as a piece of formal correspondence that will live on in perpetuity.

Value-based reimbursement programs have arrived. Physicians can react with frustration or adjust their practices to meet the new metrics for payment.

Collecting from patients is vital to a practice's bottom line. But often, it is an inconsistent process, done poorly. Here's what you can do about it.

Do you spend more time sorting out staffing issues than you do delivering patient care? If so, you might want to consider a different management style.

Medicare's value-based modifier is a new fee schedule adjustment that will reward or penalize physicians for quality of care in 2015.

Group visits are an opportunity for busy practices to solve patient-demand problems, and to make sure patients get the care they need.

After converting to a direct-pay practice two years ago, this physician has learned a thing or two and is glad he made the change.

Busy physicians are frequently overwhelmed with competing obligations, both at home and work. You'll be happier if you develop a strategy for saying no.

Over the summer CMS added four new modifiers that will require a much greater degree of specification when coding surgical procedures.

It is not the presence of conflict that is critical; it is the ability to resolve it in a productive and healthy manner that matters most.

There is no time like the present to review your patient payment strategy. Here are 11 questions every practice should consider.

Rather than disparage walk-in clinics, make an effort to reach out and form a collaborative arrangement. Both your practice and patients could benefit.

Our experts at Physicians Practice Pearls have written on a wide variety of practice-management topics, but these eight columns stood out as the gems.

People are often oblivious to their irritating habits. Here are strategies for dealing with three types of irksome behavior.

We know patients feel frustration with their physicians on some level. But, surprisingly, it's not always about the long wait.

Let's face it, medicine is a business. If your new physician isn't productive, your practice will suffer. Here are some strategies to speed things up.

The promise of technology is to reduce work flow and to reap smoother operations. But are you using technology in your practice to its full advantage?

If you believe your practice is too small to warrant the attention of Recovery Audit Contractors, think again. Here are ways to prepare for scrutiny.

Holding staff accountable is crucial to your practice's success. Doing so will make sure that everyone is committed to both the practice and patients.

Tech demos often focus on standard features that don't tell the whole story. Take control by providing vendors with a list of the problems you want to solve.

Effective patient collections are becoming more critical to the financial health of your practice. Here are several strategies to help your practice get paid.

Patient portals aren’t just a cool marketing tool. In addition to helping a practice meet meaningful use, they are an important part of medical homes.

Reporting vaccine administration can be tricky. Practices should review most recent updates and be aware of differences between commercial and federal payers.

Employees who are "engaged" have greater commitment to the practice, and often go above and beyond their basic job descriptions.