Billing & Collections

Your employees are facing a raft of new bread-and-butter economic problems. Here’s how you can help, without breaking your bank.

You’ve been the backbone of your practice for years, but your compensation hasn’t changed much. Do you have to move out to move up?

So you think you can run an insurance company better than the current establishment? What if you actually could own an insurance company? Is it just a crazy pipe dream…?

Medicare has been scrutinizing your practice for more than a year through its P-4-P program. But how is the program performing for you? We put Uncle Sam on our exam table.

Family physician Brian Forrest on how his cash-only practice works for him and his patients.

Practice partnerships can be like families - and sometimes, family members fight. But when partners know how to fight fair, disagreements between them shouldn’t spell doom for your practice.

Have you ever wondered what price tag a valuation professional would put on your practice? The answer often depends on who’s asking - and why.

The government’s experiment with private Medicare Advantage plans has been an expensive failure. Except, that is, for the companies raking in the dough.

Payers love judging your performance, but who’s watching theirs? Now in its third year, PayerView is the only data-based method of analyzing payer performance and ranking payers against one another - and we have it exclusively for you. Who’s been good this year? Who’s been naughty? You can check our list as often as you’d like.

Dispensing corporate cell phones may be a given in your practice, but don’t fall into a money trap.

Overtime pay is expensive. Here’s how to keep it under control.

Paying too much for liability insurance? Join the club. While premiums have stabilized in most areas, and are starting to decline in some, rates are still staggeringly high. But there are things you can do to lower your premiums right now. Here’s our guide for getting the best deal out there.

More physicians are demanding part-time and flex-time arrangements, but these can wreak havoc on your call and patient schedules, and your compensation system. Here’s how to keep everyone happy.

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?

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.

You know that some payers pay better than others, but do you know how to increase your practice’s proportion of patients with better-paying insurers? Here are our strategies for improving your payer mix.

Here’s the right way to develop your annual budget.

Mervin Low, MD, explains how a little-known type of trust can keep more of your money where it belongs - with your heirs - after you’re gone.

Find out with our Second Annual Physician Compensation Survey. With help from the physician recruiting firm Merritt, Hawkins, we offer data you can use to judge your own compensation against your peers.

Hand surgeon Robert Tucker on why his early-retirement plan worked for him - and how it could work for you.

It’s easier than you think to monitor key provisions of multiple contracts and to act accordingly.

Sending your kids to college will cost even more than you think. Here are some novel strategies we bet you haven’t heard before.

Are you using your brother-in-law Larry to handle all your practice’s accounting? Big mistake - unless Larry happens to have a good understanding of the peculiarities of healthcare economics and can do more than fill out tax forms. Your practice is your livelihood. You need a pro.

Try these simple techniques for reducing your heirs’ estate tax obligations.

Is your practice poor enough to keep creditors at bay? It should be.

Another selection from our weekly e-mail newsletter. This issue: dealing with deadbeat patients.

Have you been thinking of forming a “general partnership?” Do yourself a favor: think again.

Exploding the life insurance myth.

The government is offering to cover up to half the cost for something you need. Who are you to say no?

In our last issue, we gave you the basics on raising money for new projects and equipment purchases. But what if your plans are more ambitious? For big projects, you might need to get creative.