ACOG Practice Management Update

In response to the requests from many Fellows, ACOG is now offering this bi-monthly newsletter to members and their office staff. Articles will cover topics such as personnel management, practice cost control, electronic medical records, effective billing, and physician time management.

This first edition is being sent to all ACOG members in practice. You are encouraged to share this with your practice administrator and other office staff. They can sign up to receive this newsletter by clicking here or on the 'Join our mailing list' link in the left column. If you do not want to receive future editions, simply use the "unsubscribe" function at the end of the newsletter.

If you have questions or suggestions about the Practice Management Update, please direct them to James Scroggs, Director of Health Economics at ACOG, at jscroggs@acog.org.

Practice Managers Encouraged to Attend ACOG's Annual Meeting

For the first time in 2012, ACOG is making a special effort to encourage non-clinician practice managers or administrators to attend the Annual Clinical Meeting, May 5-9 in San Diego. A special registration category will allow access to the Welcome Reception, Exhibit Hall, Symposia Sessions, Opening Ceremonies, and the Presidential Inauguration. Managers are especially encouraged to register for two Postgraduate Courses on Saturday and Sunday, SA607, "Information Technology: Improving Patient Outcomes and Optimizing Practice Management," and SU606, "The Women's Health Office Practice of the Future: Information and Tools for Success." There is a reduced rate for persons who attend both courses, which are intended for both office staff and physicians. Read more...

Appointment Scheduling

No-Show Rates Lowest when Patients Called by Staff Member

A recent study suggests that patients may be more likely to show up for their appointments if they get a telephone call from the office -- a call from an actual person, not a machine.

"Connecting to a live person, they may feel more of a responsibility to show up," said Amay Parikh, MD, the lead author on a study in the June American Journal of Medicine. For three months in 2007, he and fellow researchers tracked no-shows at an outpatient multispecialty clinic, which has several locations in New Jersey. More...

Billing and Collections Preparation--Here Are the Steps to Take to Improve Front Desk Collections
The clue to improved front-desk collections is preparation. If your front desk does not collect from the patient, while at the practice, then your later results will be less revenue, weaker cash flow, coupled with more work. Here is how to maximize your results. Step 1.Two days in advance. Review the accounts receivable with the names of scheduled patients. Patients with still-outstanding balances should be given a reminder call that includes a reminder on the outstanding balance. Another option, if you prefer not leaving such messages, is to ask those patients to call, by name, a billing staff member, to confirm their appointment. More...
Don't Overlook "Hidden" Denials
Most billing staff understand the importance of tracking a practice's "denied" claims-those for which insurers refuse to pay a dime. But there are other "hidden denials" that you also should be monitoring to prevent a slower, less obvious revenue drain. A recent report, sampling more than five million claims and remits, found that about 7% were denied outright by payers. This is a traditional "denial" rate. In other words, payers didn't reimburse for any of the services on these claims. More...

Coding New 2012 CPT Codes: Effective January 1
The Current Procedural Terminology, Fourth Edition, (CPT-4) code set for 2012 includes several updates of interest to ob-gyns. New instructions and guidelines have also been added to the CPT-4 manual to help clarify coding in a variety of situations. This new guidance is in addition to new, revised and deleted CPT codes for 2012. These changes take effect January 1, 2012. Because of HIPAA requirements, insurers must accept new codes beginning January 1. The American Medical Association CPT Editorial Panel approved these changes for 2012. Click here for more information
2012 ACOG Coding Workshops
ACOG's popular coding workshops teach physicians and their staff about appropriate coding and billing practices. These workshops cover the use of the International Classification of Diseases Ninth Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) and the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) coding systems as they pertain to obstetrics and gynecology. Lake Buena Vista, FL-March 2-4, 2012 New Orleans, LA-March 9-11, 2012 San Diego, CA-May 10-12, 2012 Baltimore, MD-June 8-10, 2012 Memphis, TN-August 10-12, 2012 Chicago, IL-September 7-9, 2012 Las Vegas, NV-October 12-14, 2012 Atlanta, GA-November 9-11, 2012 For more information, or to register for a workshop, go to the ACOG web site at http://www.acog.org/Education_and_Events.aspx
Coding for NPs and PAs
When billing for your mid-levels, you want to know about the basic advantages and disadvantages of billing for Non-Physician Practitioners (NPPs) under their own Medicare billing numbers. The biggest advantage of allowing an NPP to bill under his/her own billing number is that you don't have to worry about incident-to guidelines, which limit how and where an NPP-patient encounter can take place. Under his or her own number, for example, an NPP can see a new patient, or a patient in the hospital. By contrast, billing under the physician's number requires direct personal supervision (that is, a physician must be in the office suite). NPPs also aren't allowed to see new patients if they bill incident-to under the physician's number. More....

Electronic Health Records

Mastering EHR after Rollout Is Key to Productivity Gains

Fear of lost productivity-as in seeing fewer patients-ranks as a major barrier to implementing an electronic health record (EHR) system, yet among healthcare groups that have mastered their use, productivity is far more likely to rise than fall, according to a new survey by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA).

The MGMA survey distinguishes between groups that have merely implemented an EHR system and those that have "optimized their use." Optimal use means accomplishments: exploiting all, not some, of the software tools available; reorganizing work routines around these tools; and connecting the EHR to other healthcare computer systems and digitized medical devices. More...

Personnel Management A Smart Reply: "I Don't Know, but I'll Find Out"
A common mistake many managers make-especially new managers-is to try to have all the answers all the time. Not to have an answer, they believe, hurts their credibility with employees. So it's not uncommon for these managers to fake a response or bluff their way through a discussion. It's exactly this kind of well-intentioned deception that dampens a reputation the most. It's OK to say, "I don't know, but I'll find out," if you don't have an answer at hand. Just be sure that you follow through on your word and get back to employees in a timely manner.
Six Rules for Managing Conflict
According to Terri Levine, president of Comprehensive Coaching U, there are six basic rules for managing conflict: Make sure you treat other staff members or patients calmly. "Calm' is a word I teach. The second word I teach is 'mutual respect,' even under pressure," Levine says. Keep people and their problems separate. If a person is being difficult, it doesn't mean he or she is a bad person. Its just behavior that is being manifested. Read more...

Financial Management

Payroll Processing Services

Some of the larger banks, including Citibank and Bank of America, offer low rates on payroll services to their business customers. For a 50-person company, Citibank charges $85 a month and Bank of America charges $96 for services that include direct deposit and electronic filing of federal and state taxes. (Some payroll providers charge up to $300 a month for these services.) If your bank doesn't offer payroll processing, try Intuit Online Payroll, which charges $112.50 a month for 50 employees.

Source: Inc.

Physician Compensation Physician Starting Salaries Report
The Merritt Hawkins' report, "2011 Review of Physician Recruiting Incentives," shows a list of the average incomes offered to the top 20 recruited specialties in 2010-2011, listed by decreasing income. The offers exclude production bonuses and benefits: Click here to view the full report

Marketing

Using Social Media

Jeff Livingston, M.D. an OB/GYN physician, was doing outreach to local high schools by giving presentations on pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and other pressing teenage health issues. But he worried he wasn't really making a connection with teens. After watching his daughter hold court on MySpace, the light went on.

"I realized that even though I had made it a mission to reach out to teenagers, I wasn't communicating with them in a way they were communicating with each other," says Livingston, a partner at five-provider MacArthur OB/GYN, Irving Texas. More...

Effective Management Techniques

Mastering the Fine Art of Follow-Up

Physicians and practice managers today face a complex environment because of the large number of priorities that must be balanced.

A lot of this depends on how well managers and the people they supervise communicate.

Employees aren't sure what the boss wants and are hesitant to inundate the boss with details. At the same time, the boss wants more information without having to ask or micromanage. More information....

Accountable Care

ACOs Lose Money First 3 Years

Most health systems adopting an accountable care organization model will lose money during the first three years, according to a report published March 24, 2011 on the New England Journal of Medicine Web site.

Authors of the report, from provider alliance VHA Inc., caution that their conclusions rest on analysis on a limited set of data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Physician Group Practice Demonstration Project, which was a primary model for the new Shared Savings program that Medicare will launch.