The Smart Medical Practice

Although medical practices can’t plan for every eventuality, there are things they can do to weather a crisis. The first priority: take a page from the Boy Scouts and be prepared. This is the first of two posts that look at planning for disasters; this one tackles acts of nature like floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards,

William Maruca of HIPAA, HITECH & HIT  knows what it means for both patients and health care providers to keep records safe. In this interview, Maruca discusses patient confidentiality, keeping records safe and private, and trends in the medical billing industry. In what ways do electronic health records present a risk to patient confidentiality? Electronic

Sometimes it helps to get a fresh perspective – especially when tackling the challenges of managing medical practices that are experiencing major transitions. Cue someone like Laurie Morgan, senior consultant and partner at Capko & Morgan, who didn’t start her career in health care. Prior to joining Capko & Morgan (then Capko & Company) in

Electronic health records (EHR) have been a topic of discussion in the medical world ever since the HIPAA laws made EHRs mandatory. Initially, both medical practices and patients were leery of the new electronic records system because they simply did not trust that information being out on the Internet. But ever since secure cloud-based EHR

It’s no secret that patient care can be tricky business, especially if you’re trying to turn a profit. When you think about it, a medical practice not only has to contend with patients of varying ages, backgrounds, and conditions, but it also has to provide affordable customer service to people who are already hurting. In

For a medical practice to run smoothly and be profitable, it needs strong management. But there is a big difference between a strong manager who is effective and a strong manager who alienates the rest of the staff. A good practice manager understands the challenges their practice faces and works to meet those challenges head

For any business to thrive, revenue management is a critical element. Running a medical practice is no different. Unfortunately, due to the hectic schedules and stress of running such a personal service company, it can be easy to either miss opportunities to gain new revenue or even put processes in place that can hinder the

While it’s certainly true that you got into the medical field in order to make a difference in the health and wellbeing of people’s lives, it’s also true that you expect to turn a profit from your passion. In fact, as a medical professional, it’s likely that you realize that the costs associated with acquiring

For a small practice, the idea of introducing data measurements to improve profitability may not seem like an affordable idea. But if your practice can make more money by engaging in data management, then the end result would seem to justify the added expense. Economics experts always say that the profitability is in the numbers

Every successful business needs to focus on customer satisfaction in order to thrive, but when you run a medical practice, the line between customer and patient can become blurred. In a traditional business, such as a hardware store, a restaurant, or an IT services provider, customers are, in a sense, customers, and therefore, they need