The art of using the “right” words and avoiding words that tend to harm one’s sales effort is undervalued. Consider these recommendations
Read MoreTest the Waters Before Signing an Employment Contract
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP It sounded like a great job. You saw the ad in the back of JUCM and contacted the person listed at the bottom. He seemed pleasant enough on the phone and the pay was what you thought was the market rate for the area. The next day, you drove over for the interview, which consisted of only four questions (the first being “If you were a tree…” and the …
Read MoreOccupational Medicine- June, 2007
Injection Procedures and E/M Codes
DAVID STERN, MD (Practice Velocity) Q.Can we bill an evaluation and management code along with the code for administration of an intravenous injection? A.Although it may seem obvious to expect reimbursement in these situations, Medicare waited until 2006 to begin reimbursing physicians for a separate E/M (99201- 99205, 99212-99215) when performed at the same time as IV drug administration. The Medicare Claims Processing Manual states, “Medicare will pay for medically necessary office/outpatient visits billed on …
Read MoreAddressing the Data Drought
Urgent message: The second UCA Benchmarking Survey takes one small step toward filling the information gap in urgent care medicine. Introduction: Although the practice of urgent care medicine is not a new phenomenon, there is a significant absence of reliable information about the industry. One first step toward filling that void was initiated last year when the Urgent Care Association’s Benchmarking Committee released the results of its first-ever benchmarking survey of UCA members and others …
Read MoreUsing Education as an Occupational Health Marketing Tool
As marketing initiatives become increasingly self-serving, it behooves an urgent care clinic to differentiate itself by “playing the education card.” Why Education? Many employer decision-makers are still strikingly naïve about the value of a well-integrated, proactive approach to their company’s health and safety activities. Educational information does not come off as self-serving and is perceived as a “kinder and gentler” form of marketing. In our information-saturated world, it is imperative to find a way to …
Read MoreVicarious Liability
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP It’s 8:15 on Sunday morning. This is the first morning you have actually been able to sleep in since you opened the urgent care center five months ago. Truth be told, you drank a glass (or two) of wine too many last night and are still feeling the effects this morning. However, you don’t care; you have the day off and you can slouch around till noon and no …
Read MoreDeveloping Data: June, 2007
UCA’s Survey Committee has conducted two annual member surveys, to date, designed to establish benchmarks in an industry for which data have been sorely lacking. Each month in Developing Data, we will share one or two tidbits from the second annual survey in an effort to help readers get a sense of what their peers are doing, and what kind of trends are developing as urgent care evolves. In this issue: If you’re planning to …
Read MoreAdditional Income from After-Hours Codes (99050, 99051, 99053)
DAVID STERN, MD (Practice Velocity) Q.A patient with a finger laceration walked into our urgent care center at 8:05 p.m., five minutes after our closing time. Rather than turn the patient away, our team decided to care for the patient. Three of our staff, including the physician, stayed for 50 minutes after our posted closing time. If we had not stayed after our scheduled closing time, the patient would have been forced to go to …
Read MoreOverview of a Malpractice Trial (and How to Survive)
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP It’s game day. The trial begins today and your fate will be decided by a jury of your “peers.” Never mind the fact that none of them are physicians, only three have been to college, and two did not even graduate from high school; in the eyes of the law, they are your peers and will be the ones to decide if your care met the standard of care. …
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