7 tips to get your practice ready for the New Year

The calendar may flip on Jan. 1, but for medical practices, the New Year rarely arrives as a clean slate. It shows up as a stack of small changes — a Medicare rule update here, an ICD-10 refresh there, a telehealth policy tweak that suddenly affects who can supervise what and when. Add in the “quiet” deadlines that don’t make headlines (W-2s, OSHA posting requirements, annual policy updates) and the reality that your staff is already stretched thin after the holidays, and January can feel less like a fresh start and more like a stress test.

The good news: getting ready doesn’t require an overhaul. A few deliberate moves in late December and early January can prevent avoidable claim denials, reduce compliance risk and make workflows smoother when patient demand spikes. Start with the payer and reporting rules that touch revenue, including the 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule updates from CMS, then work outward to coding accuracy, telehealth guardrails and cybersecurity basics.

From there, it’s about tightening the practical stuff: making sure staff can find the latest ICD-10 guidance, updating the policies people actually use, and putting key admin deadlines on the calendar before they become last-minute emergencies. Here are seven tips that can help your practice start the year organized, compliant and better positioned to keep patients and revenue moving in the right direction.