Orthopedics Medical Practice Management Tools

Total medical revenue for orthopedic practices (per FTE physician)

From the Orthopedic Practice Assembly eGroup

Quote of Note
In response to a question about what measures participants in the Physician Quality Report Initiative are tracking: "We chose measurements that could be used for the majority of my docs and could be recorded passively in the office by the EMR. We are tracking smoking use and medication review (also goes along with [the] e-prescribing initiative) for some of our docs. We are tracking the two osteoporosis measurements for other docs. We had looked at the perioperative antibiotics measurements. There are restrictions on which surgical codes are included in the measurement. Not all my docs could be included, plus we would have needed to actively look at notes to record the measures in our EMR."

Hot Topics

Coding
In-house pharmacies
Flex schedules and holiday pay

OPA Executive Committee

Inside Orthopedics

Orthopedics group to assign overhead individually

Few orthopedists fly solo or in tandem

Successful orthopedic groups rely on NPPs

Hospital-owned practices pay starting specialists more than physician-owned practices

Medical group-practice cost increases outpace revenues

Physician Assistants in an Orthopaedic Practice Changing from a Collections-Based Compensation to RVU Based System

Development of a Joint Venture Surgery Center With a Local Hospital

Creating a Continuing Education Program For Certified Medical Assistants

Separating a Multispecialty Into Single-Specialty Practices For the Purpose of Developing an Ambulatory Surgery Center

Education

March 18-19, seminar: Roadmap to a Better Performing Practice. Take a hard look at emerging models and technologies that work in other industries expert Frank Cohen, MPA and Six Sigma Black Belt, who will introduce you to process-improvement models based on Lean and Six Sigma.

March 18-19, seminar: Building, Leading and Maximizing Team Performance . Building and sustaining a high-performing cohesive work environment while maintaining constructive employee work relationships can be a significant ongoing challenge. This seminar focuses on developing a manager’s ability to build one-on one work relationships with employees, develop team-building efforts, and manage employee performance.

March 20-21, seminar: Achieving Efficient Practice Operations. Learn how to improve and differentiate your practice with operational changes that exceed the expectations of your patients, physicians and staff members.

May 5-6, seminar: Mastering Your EHR Implementation . If you are planning to implement an electronic health record (EHR) in your practice but don’t know how to get started, this seminar is for you.

May 6, seminar: Health system integration continues to grow as a model of care delivery. Accordingly, so do the challenges of successfully managing these complex systems. Register for "IDS – Real World Challenges. Real World Solutions," in Chicago.

May 7-8, seminar: Transforming Your Practice through Pay-for-Performance . This seminar will set the stage for your practice so you can participate in and profit from emerging reimbursement strategies.

May 16-18: MGMA 2010 Financial Management and Payer Contracting Conference. Get answers to answers for all of your financial management, revenue cycle and contracting dilemmas.

Oct. 24-27, MGMA 2010 Annual Conference . Reflect. Retool. Rebuild in the Big Easy.

Orthopedics Resources

MGMA survey participation pays - big! Participate in the Orthopedic Cost Survey today.

Cost Survey for Orthopedic Practices. 2009 Report Based on 2008 Data.

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, second 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

MGMA Healthcare Reform Resource Center