MGMA Specialty Solutions: Gastroenterology

Quote of note:
From the Gastroenterology Administration Assembly e-Group Members Only

"Children are welcome at our facility, but they must be accompanied by an adult at all times. The Joint Commission warned us a few years ago about children being left in the waiting room alone and being abducted. If an [adult patient] brings in three kids, they all go in the exam room. That soon changes the patient's [mind about] us babysitting while they are talking to the doctor. Make a policy and make it known to the patients; you will not have a problem, as it is for the safety of the children."

Inside Gastroenterology

What you reward, you get – and lots of it: If the practice’s compensation method rewards greater productivity with higher income, physicians will be spurred to increase their work week, lengthen their work day or just work harder.

It’s a photo finish for cost and revenues in gastroenterology: Although median total medical revenue barely surpassed median total operating costs for gastroenterology practices in 2007, the former has lagged significantly behind the latter for the last eight years.

Education

MGMA 2010 Annual Conference
Oct. 24-27, 2010

MGMA 2011 PEER Conference
March 2-5, 2011
PEER features an all-new, highly-participatory format that will empower you to discover new ways to tackle your most critical challenges. It promises to be an experience unlike any other conference you have attended.

Gastroenterology Resources

ASC Financial Performance Survey: 2009 Report Based on 2008 Data. A significant benchmarking tool for ASC administrators, MGMA's 2009 ASC Financial Performance Survey Report contains financial data on ASCs, including information about revenues, expenditures, patient volume, profitability, and much more.

Operating Policies & Procedures Manual for Medical Practices, 3rd edition. Natural disasters, declining reimbursement and more diverse patient populations have made the need for specialized medical practice policies and processes even greater.

HR Policies & Procedures Manual for Medical Practices, 4th edition. Human resource issues in the medical practice setting have a reputation for being more complex than the mainstream; thus, the need for specialized information has never been greater.

Electronic Health Records: Transforming Your Medical Practice, 2nd edition. While some electronic health record (EHR) implementations proceed on schedule with the team’s full participation and – seemingly – little effort, others flounder, stall, or struggle, experiencing only limited success or, in extreme cases, no success at all. What accounts for the difference?

Medical Fees in the US: 2010 Edition. This book includes everything you need to review your fees, set fees for new services, challenge low payments from third party payers and evaluate managed care contracts.

Data Sanity: A Quantum Leap to Unprecedented Results. Far too much emphasis has been placed on “tools, tools and more tools” (especially statistical techniques), resulting in rampant waste caused by poor everyday organizational use of data. This book offers a new way of thinking via a common organizational language based in process and understanding variation to motivate more productive daily conversations for everyone.

Integrated Delivery Systems: Ensuring Successful Physician-Hospital Partnerships. As medical groups, hospitals, and health systems position themselves for the new marketplace, they must be proactive in establishing new relationships and affiliations. Because the outcomes of health system integration vary widely, this book will help steer organizations toward a common purpose – in a way that is meaningful to providers, administrators, and health care leaders, and most of all, to patients.

See additional group practice management resources.

Advocacy

Congress and the Obama Administration will consider many proposals and policy options as they focus on health care reform. The MGMA Health Care Reform Resource Center provides access to the most up-to-date information on their efforts.