FRANK H. LEONE, MBA, MPH “Keep your ear to the customer” is a central tenet of effective marketing. Awareness of how your services are used and valued can be especially important in a field like occupational medicine, where the people you treat are often not the ones who contract for those services. There are many ways to keep your ear to the customer, and there are many customer subgroups. “Customers” might include patients, employers, carriers/payors, …
Read MoreProtecting Yourself Against Medical Malpractice Claims, Part 2
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP In the December issue of JUCM, Dr. Shufeldt introduced a discussion on how to not be named in a malpractice suit by suggesting that providing excellent customer service, never saying “no” to a patient, and thorough documentation of the pertinent positives and negatives are viable techniques to reduce your malpractice exposure. Here, he continues the discussion with other precautions you can take.
Read MoreDeveloping Data: January, 2007
S Codes (S9088 and S9083) in Urgent Care
The urgent care practitioner may not live by coding alone, but proper reimbursement depends on it. To that end, Dr. David Stern, who is in great demand as a speaker and consultant on coding in urgent care, will offer answers to commonly asked questions in every issue of JUCM. In this issue, he delves into the sometimes confusing realm of the S codes. Q.What is an S code? A.S codes are a set of Healthcare …
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Managing Your Practice, Caring for Your Patients
Urgent message: The challenge of running a successful business can be daunting for any entrepreneur. It’s especially tough when your first priority is maintaining excellence as a clinician. The right approach to financial issues can help your business run smoothly—and profitably—while allowing you to focus on caring for patients. Ask an urgent care physician-owner what the biggest financial obstacle he or she faces is and the answer is likely to be “declining reimbursements.” But what …
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Managing Your Practice, Caring for Your Patients
Urgent message: The challenge of running a successful business can be daunting for any entrepreneur. It’s especially tough when your first priority is maintaining excellence as a clinician. The right approach to financial issues can help your business run smoothly—and profitably—while allowing you to focus on caring for patients. Kevin J. Ralofsky, MBA, Founder of MedCapital and Treasurer of the Urgent Care Association of America Ask an urgent care physician-owner what the biggest financial obstacle …
Read MoreOcc Med Programs Need Business Plans, Too
FRANK H. LEONE, MBA, MPH In all likelihood, you wouldn’t dream of opening a new urgent care clinic without first putting together a business plan. Doesn’t it make sense that key aspects of your overall business would benefit from the same careful planning? Data from the Urgent Care Association of America indicate that over 60% of urgent care companies offer at least some occupational medicine services; nearly 5% of locations offer occ med exclusively. Putting …
Read MoreProtecting Yourself Against Medical Malpractice Claims
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP We live and practice medicine in a litigious society. How, evolve into a patient whose ischemic bowel took two or three visits to correctly diagnose. For now, let’s focus on how urgent care providers can protect themselves when the odds are stacked against them. The first and most obvious answer is to not commit malpractice; more about that in a moment. The next most likely answer is for providers …
Read MoreDeveloping Data: December, 2006
Evaluation and Management: Coding Details
Q.Why is the (E/M) code important in urgent care? A.Because the majority of urgent care revenue is derived from E/M codes (mostly codes 99210-99215), accurate E/M coding is the most important coding variable in urgent care revenue. Inaccurate E/M coding is, also, the number-one reason that urgent care centers run into compliance issues with payors and regulatory agencies. Q.I see that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) lists two sets of guidelines, 1995 …
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