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      Chris Harrop

      About Chris Harrop

      Chris Harrop is a Senior Editor on MGMA's Training and Development team, helping turn data complexity, the steady flow of news headlines and frontline feedback into practical tools and advice for medical group leaders. He previously led MGMA's publications as Senior Editorial Manager, managing MGMA Connection magazine, the MGMA Insights newsletter, and MGMA Stat, and MGMA summary data reports. Before joining MGMA, he was a journalist and newsroom leader in many Denver-area news organizations.
      Content by Chris Harrop
      Formats:
      MGMA Stat - January 27, 2026 poll
      Automation, process fixes top list of cost-cutting moves for medical practices in 2026
      MGMA Stat poll - January 20, 2026 - AI governance and formal policies
      AI governance in medical group practices: Rules for the humans in the loop 
      MGMA Stat - January 13, 2026 poll - 10% of medical groups had remote/hybrid incidents in the past 12 months that required remediation
      Remote and hybrid work in medical practices: Making the right tradeoffs
      MGMA Stat - January 6, 2026 poll - 48% of medical group leaders say denials/appeals are their biggest revenue cycle leak.
      Detecting and fixing leaks across the revenue cycle 
      MGMA Stat - December 30, 2025 - Transparency in Coverage (TiC) data
      Using TiC negotiated-rate data to negotiate smarter payer contracts
      Concierge
      Snapshot: Reactions and responses to the growth in concierge and direct primary care
      Joint Ventures
      Valuation and strategy insights for healthcare joint ventures
      MGMA Stat poll - December 9, 2025
      Patient access priorities for 2026: Tackling wait times, phones, no-shows and more
      MGMA Stat poll - December 2, 2025
      Stress check at year’s end for a better, more manageable 2026 
      Mission, Vision, Values
      Putting mission, vision, and values to work as a practice administrator
      MGMA Stat poll - November 18, 2025 - 36% medical practice leaders say they never disconnect from emails or calls when they take time off.
      Out of office but not out of reach: Why practice leaders need a real break
      MGMA Stat - November 11, 2025: Your org's APP-to-MD ratio in 2025
      APP utilization and how care team redesign continues into 2026
      MGMA Stat - November 4, 2025 poll - 65% of medical groups report credentialing and reappointment provider files are on time.
      Confronting credentialing, reappointment crunch time in your medical practice
      MGMA Stat poll - October 28, 2025 - 37% of medical groups report workforce is their biggest area of new investment in their 2026 budgets.
      Where medical groups are putting new dollars in 2026 budgets
      MGMA Stat poll - October 21, 2025 - 66% of medical groups report patient balance collection is about the same or better in 2025 versus last year.
      Patient balance collection: What’s moving the numbers and how to get ahead
      MGMA Stat - October 14, 2025 - 48% of medical groups report worse operating margins per FTE today than last year.
      Does your margin have breathing room? Insights from MGMA DataDive benchmarks
      MGMA Stat - October 7, 2025 poll: 30% of medical group leaders say staff morale is better today than a year ago.
      Medical practice staff morale mostly steady: How leaders are aiming for better 
      MGMA Stat poll - September 30, 2025
      Document, schedule, communicate: Where ambulatory care has added or expanded AI in 2025 
      'Good Data Yields Good Decisions': Honoring David N. Gans, 2025 MGMA Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
      MGMA Stat - September 23, 2025 poll
      Who’s buying, who’s selling: The shifting map of ambulatory and outpatient care heading into 2026 
      Jon R. Ewing
      “Find common ground, then get to work” — TMGMA’s Jon R. Ewing on advocacy that moves policy
      MGMA Stat - September 9, 2025 - 64% of medical groups are budgeting 1% to 3% average base pay increases for staff in 2026.
      Budgeting competitive, sustainable 2026 staff pay for your medical practice
      MGMA Stat poll - August 26, 2025
      Most medical practice leaders' personal development goals are about people 
      RCM Conveyor Belt of Claims
      Beyond days in A/R: Building RCM reporting around human effort
      MGMA Stat poll - August 19, 2025: Your practice leadership's top priority?
      5 big challenges for medical practices (and why they all tie back to staffing)
      MGMA Stat poll, August 12, 2025: 60% of medical groups report patient no-shows about the same in 2025 vs. 2024.
      Patient no-shows in 2025: What’s changing and what to do about it
      MGMA Stat: August 5, 2025 - 71% of medical groups use some form of AI for patient visits
      Most practices use some form of AI, but is it actually reducing staff workloads?
      July 29, 2025 MGMA Stat poll: 71% of medical groups have less than 1 in 4 patients use digital tools to schedule appointments.
      Meeting the competitive pressure on patient digital self-scheduling
      MGMA Stat July 22, 2025: Telehealth volume trends
      Bridging strategic uncertainty as the “telehealth cliff” looms
      Beyond dashboards
      Beyond dashboards: Predictive models that actually improve patient experience
      Building the future from within: Creating career development pathways in healthcare teams
      Building the future from within: Creating career development pathways in healthcare teams
      Confronting cost pressures in your medical practice: Short- and long-term strategies
      Opportunities to improve new-patient appointment wait times in your medical practice
      How to hit the moving target of encounter volume for your medical practice
      The race for more revenue in medical groups: What’s your gameplan?
      Medical practice operating costs are still rising in 2025 — here’s how to control them
      ESOPs
      Preserving independence and building wealth via an ESOP
      Can staff turnover continue to be tamed in medical practices into 2026?
      Why medical assistants are still tougher to hire today than nurses, coders and other medical practice staff
      Do you have dedicated resources for physician compensation decisions?
      Sizing up the market for AI chatbots, virtual assistants in medical practices in 2025
      Health data for AI
      Health data for developing AI: Navigating privacy laws
      Conversational AI bot
      Conversational AI for addressing claim denials
      AI
      Lessons from the largest rollout of ambient AI in healthcare to date
      Scheduling
      Streamlining scheduling workflows to improve appointment capacity with physician engagement and technology
      Building clinical integration that effectively supports alternative payment models
      Healthcare analytics
      Cultivating clarity: Building data analytics from seeds to measurable success
      Best practices for physician job satisfaction and engagement surveys
      Kathryn Ayers Wickenhauser
      The future of secure health communication
      Lanced Reid, CEO of Telcion
      MFA, AI and beyond: What are your next steps in securing your practice’s systems?
      HIMSS 2025 (Photo courtesy of HIMSS25)
      Are you leading your AI or is AI leading you?
      Ransomware
      Breaking the ransomware attack chain and accelerating incident response
      About 7 in 10 medical practices saw physicians, APPs meet or exceed productivity goals in 2024
      Your practice’s referral management may only be as good as the EHR you’re using
      MGMA Stat results - January 14, 2025 - AI tools are the top tech priority for medical group practice leaders in 2025.
      AI tools supplant EHR usability as medical practice leaders’ top tech priority in 2025
      Time management tops list of medical group leaders’ personal development goals
      Pace of AI adoption in medical groups quickens in 2024
      A bar graph illustrating the planned budget increases for different medical practice staff roles in 2025. The graph highlights median percentage increases for roles such as front desk staff, medical assistants, nurse practitioners, and other advanced practice providers.
      Budgeting medical practice staff cost-of-living, merit increases for 2025
      Sept. 3, 2024 MGMA Stat results
      Physician burnout still a major factor even as unexpected turnover eases
      Patient no-shows still an issue despite more automated reminders
      Telehealth’s trajectory: Staying power, but is there growth?
      MGMA Stat - August 13, 2024 - 18% of practices use AI or advanced analytics to help with their value-based care arrangements
      AI, advanced analytics not part of most medical groups’ value-based care toolkit
      Optimizing physician enterprise performance in the shift to value
      Malpractice premium costs creep up as medical practices work to curb expenses
      Despite years of upheaval, many medical practices go without formal succession plans for leadership
      MGMA Stat poll, July 23, 2024: 23% of medical groups will add more remote or hybrid roles throughout 2024.
      Remote and hybrid work are here to stay, but does healthcare have room to grow?
      Innovative solutions when you can’t hire a medical assistant in your practice
      Drug supplies, IT expenses are fastest-growing costs for medical practices outside of staffing
      Evolving strategies to improve nurse hiring in medical groups
      MGMA Stat poll for May 14, 2024: 25% of medical groups expect value-based contracts to increase this year.
      Steady embrace of value-based contracts from medical groups
      Staffing, patient demand hurdles remain for several medical groups: Assessing visit volumes in 2024
      Averting crisis with a well-documented plan for EHR, RCM downtime
      Half of medical groups tie physician compensation to quality measures in 2024
      Investing in time management to make space to address stress, burnout
      2024 MGMA Summit - New leader
      A roadmap to success for new medical practice leaders
      MGMA Stat - March 5, 2024 - 60% of medical groups report claim denials are higher in 2024 versus this time last year.
      Strategic improvements in your RCM to reduce your practice’s claim denials
      MGMA Stat poll results for February 27, 2024: 62% of medical groups automate 40% or less of their revenue cycle operations.
      Steps toward revenue cycle automation vary across medical groups
      MGMA Stat results - February 20, 2024
      Revenue, recruiting and patients: 3 key areas of outsourcing, automation for medical groups in 2024
      Only about one medical group leader in four (24%) reports that their organization has formal health equity goals.
      In pursuit of health equity, efforts sometimes lack formal goal setting
      60% of medical groups say they will use the same level of contract/locums work in 2024 as they did in 2023.
      Contract, locum tenens work spending holding steady for medical groups into 2024
      30% of medical group leaders say innovation will define AI in healthcare in 2024.
      Innovation, convenience, data security and more: 8 things to watch in 2024 on healthcare AI
      MGMA Stat: January 9, 2024 - 38% of medical groups report more COVID-related sick leave this winter versus last year.
      Latest COVID-19 surge not as bad as Omicron for healthcare staffing, but masks are back for some
      MGMA Stat - 41% of medical group leaders say finance/RCM will be their biggest project in 2024.
      Finance, staffing projects top medical group leaders’ list of 2024 resolutions
      MGMA Stat - December 19, 2023 - Patient Data Collection
      Social determinants of health are a driving force behind medical groups’ new data collection efforts
      MGMA Stat - Use of Scribes
      Plenty of room to grow for medical groups in adoption, expansion of scribes, AI
      Patient access remains a challenge as medical groups recover from staffing shortages
      80% of medical group leaders say use of AI will become an essential skill for them.
      Most medical practice leaders agree that AI is the future — but is the future now?
      Staying vigilant against physician burnout: Is progress being made?
      AI-generated illustration of doctors
      Carving out space between employed and independent: Professional service agreements in today’s physician market
      MGMA Stat
      Even medical groups that improved support staff hiring still struggle post-Great Resignation
      MGMA Stat
      Higher costs persist for medical groups even as inflation's growth slows
      Healthcare’s Goldilocks moment on remote work: Medical groups settle into their "just right”
      Shifting strategies to improve medical assistant recruitment and retention
      Nurse recruitment and hiring after The Great Resignation still a major challenge
      Putting post-COVID telehealth predictions to the test
      As healthcare staffing woes linger, reduced capacity remains the biggest roadblock to productivity
      Advanced practice providers remain key features of medical practice redesign
      Physician shortages forcing medical group leaders to be more flexible in their staffing models
      Medical groups moving cautiously as powerful generative AI tools emerge
      Phone systems, contact centers in focus for medical groups to engage patients, fill appointments
      Further Down the Road to Recovery: The 2022 MGMA Stat Year in Review and 2023 Predictions
      No one-size-fits-all approach to mask rules heading into a third COVID autumn
      Healthcare in 2023: Staffing is still the biggest challenge for practices as financial worries grow
      Patient no-shows pose concern amid medical practice staffing challenges, consumer price hikes
      MGMA Stat July 2022 poll
      Omicron BA.4, BA.5 surge causes spike in sick leave, as some practices revisit COVID-19 policies
      Inflation, rising expenses for drugs, supplies, IT and facilities strain medical practice finances
      The 10 most common employee benefit improvements for medical practices in 2022
      Physician compensation benchmarks to navigate the transition from volume to value
      MGMA Stat
      Which principles of medical practice management are top priorities for new managers in 2022?
      Back to normal: Medical practices’ visit volumes are rising in 2022, but so are costs
      MGMA Stat poll April 2022
      On or off? Medical groups face renewed mask policy questions after judge nixes CDC transit mandate
      Image coming soon
      In a tight market for talent, medical groups are raising wages to sustain their workforce
      MGMA Stat on nonphysician roles that are hard to recruit
      Medical assistants remain elusive for practices navigating a staffing crisis
      Pandemic turbulence easing on medical groups’ payer mix
      How medical practices are handling COVID-19 mask policies amid new CDC guidelines
      Cyberattacks, ransomware still a growing threat for medical practices
      Are incivility and pandemic denial from unruly patients the new normal?
      Omicron’s holiday surge causes a perfect storm for medical practices
      Wage war: Medical practices battling with industries for workers amid tight labor market
      Medical supply costs still high amid COVID-19 spikes — will Omicron add to supply chain disruptions?
      For medical practices, staying productive amid COVID-19 recovery hinges on staffing, systems and more
      How to talk to employees about COVID-19 vaccine requirements: HIPAA, religious exemptions and more
      Workarounds for worker shortages: 8 strategies for pandemic staffing issues in medical practices
      Shifts in federal focus on healthcare fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic
      As hospitals are overwhelmed, which medical practices were immune to the summer COVID-19 Delta spike?
      Vaccine requirements for healthcare workers gain traction to defeat COVID-19’s Delta surge
      After a year of pandemic tumult, medical practices consider bonuses to attract top talent
      MAs MIA? The COVID-19 pandemic made hiring medical assistants harder than ever
      Sizing up your telehealth services
      Market for medical group physician hiring strong after a turbulent 2020
      Podcast
      Medical Practice Excellence: What sets MGMA Better Performers above the rest?
      COVID
      Applying the biggest lessons of COVID-19 to medical practice challenges in 2021
      Staff mental health
      Addressing and supporting mental health concerns of medical staff during COVID-19
      Fear remains a factor: Safety cited as top reason for patients deferring care amid the COVID-19 pandemic
      COVID
      8 keys to prepare your practice for the next wave of COVID-19
      COVID-19 took significant toll on medical practices’ ancillary services
      Safety, unpredictable volumes and fear pose challenges for reopening medical practices amid COVID-19
      Executive Session: Building new safety measures into a medical practice’s “new normal”
      Staying afloat as patient volumes and revenues decline during COVID-19
      Medical practices innovate care delivery, increase telehealth access amid COVID-19
      Unmeasured factors: Revisiting the gender gap in physician salaries
      Picking up the threads: Simplifying clinical administration of multiple value-based contracts
      Executive Session: Tim Coan on independent physicians bucking the trend of hospital employment
      Time warp: The lingering legacy of fax in medical practices
      New Orleans - Kinfolk Band
      Shared challenges spurring solutions: A look back at MGMA19 | The Annual Conference
      Value judgments: Considerations and pitfalls in medical directorship and call valuations
      Who are you? An evolving landscape for job applicant background checks and drug screens
      Key considerations for practice administrators in clinical trial research
      Handling crisis
      Do you need insurance for an active shooter incident?
      Opioids
      Protection in purpose: Legal considerations in prescribing and documenting opioid therapies
      LGBTQ healthcare
      Pride in care delivery: Bridging equity gaps for LGBTQ patients
      MGMA19 Session Spotlight: Tools to tackle the value-based disruption of healthcare
      Podcast
      “Change is a scary word” — Owen Dahl on successful practice transitions, process improvement
      Patient-generated health data: Bridging the device-EHR divide
      Are you marketing your practice to Gen Z patients?
      A doctor reading papers in front of a laptop
      The ties that bind: Considerations for employed and shareholder physician agreements
      Image coming soon
      Speech odyssey: Language technology innovations in the EHR
      Searching for social prescribing: A.I. and digital tools for social determinants of health
      Synergistic leadership: The imperative for clinical integration
      Image coming soon
      Change management for CIOs: How health IT leaders manage an M&A move
      Insider: Timothy Smith on busting myths about physician compensation valuation and data
      Insider: Justin Chamblee on physician compensation planning
      A hand holding a wooden block with icons on it
      Social determinants of health in an ACO for better population health
      Image coming soon
      Time to upgrade: Practical approaches to medical technology capital planning
      As flu season hits hard, how do your staff report they will be out?
      Using MEAT to think in ink
      Structure for success: 10 lessons from a group’s PCMH transformation
      Road rage: Where we go after the "this is our lane" social firestorm
      A new day for the Yale Way
      Starting a telehealth program in your practice: Know the steps
      Test of time: Harvard study reveals how CEOs spend their days, on and off work
      Image coming soon
      Using MAs to coordinate care boosts patient volume, quality metrics for internal med group
      Touchpoints in the transformation of healthcare in America
      Fighting the opioid epidemic through policies, best practices and technology
      Mel Robbins on creating motivation out of anxiety
      10 ways medical practices lose revenue (and what to do about them)
      A customer culture is good for everyone
      Care for caregivers: Proactive efforts to prevent physician, medical student and nurse suicide
      Know the law when managing claim denials for better appeals
      Is your practice prepared for front office success?
      What to watch for when negotiating payer contracts in 2018
      Doctor with patient
      The extra mile: Social risk factors and patient-centered care
      Tragedy at home takes precedence for 2017 Harwick Award winner
      MGMA Stat poll: 83% of practice leaders have tightened opioid prescription protocols
      Keeping stress in check for medical practice staff around the holidays
      Word cloud with terms related to workplace culture such as trust, communication, teamwork, and leadership
      Hitting the culture reset button for your medical practice
      Better understanding of patient experiences a key factor in improving retention
      MGMA Stat
      MGMA Stat poll: Practice leaders say no-shows, availability are their top appointment challenges
      Just over a quarter of practices perform patient risk adjustment coding
      Legal
      Nurse’s arrest highlights need for proper procedures for handling requests from law enforcement
      Linked in: How Blockchain figures into the future of health IT
      Keys to inspired leadership: Making the time for innovation, emotional intelligence, critical thinking and accountability
      Image coming soon
      UnityPoint Health invests in administrators’ professional development with Practice Management Academy
      Image coming soon
      Medical practice leaders say prior authorization requirements continue to rise
      A doctor reading papers in front of a laptop
      The road to risk-based contracting
      Putting the compensation pieces together in a value-based world
      Image coming soon
      Aligning medical practice market strategy via systems thinking and fast food
      Healthcare’s invisible leaders: Group practice administrators, creating clarity in chaos 
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