Practice management articles from TEXAS FAMILY PHYSICIAN
"The Documentation Challenge—Do You Pass The Test?" By Bradley K. Reiner
posted in Texas Family Physician Online Vol. 61 No. 2 | Spring 2010
"Case study: Five questions for improving your practice" By Bradley K. Reiner
posted in Texas Family Physician Online Vol. 61 No. 1 | Winter 2010
"How to get out of the office by 5:30 p.m. every day" By Melissa Gerdes, M.D.
posted in Texas Family Physician Online Vol. 61 No. 1 | Winter 2010
"Seven myths of practice management" By Bradley K. Reiner
posted in Texas Family Physician Online Vol. 60 No. 4 | Fall 2009
"EMR: Friend or foe?" By Bradley K. Reiner
posted in Texas Family Physician Online Vol. 60 No. 3 | Summer 2009
"Opening up your schedule: How to switch your practice to open-access scheduling" By Gail Jones
posted in Texas Family Physician Online Vol. 60 No. 2 | Spring 2009
"RECOVERY AUDIT CONTRACTORS: Are you ready for the RAC?" By Bradley K. Reiner
posted in Texas Family Physician Online Vol. 60 No. 1 | Winter 2009
"E-prescribing decoded" By Bradley K. Reiner
posted in Texas Family Physician Online Vol. 59 No. 4 | Fall 2008
"Look before you leap with medical billing services" By Bradley K. Reiner
posted in Texas Family Physician Online Vol. 59 No. 3 | Summer 2008
"How to find and retain great medical office staff" By Bradley K. Reiner
posted in Texas Family Physician Online Vol. 59 No. 2 | Spring 2009
Get answers to your practice management questions through TAFP partnership
TAFP has partnered with a practice management consultant, Bradley Reiner, to provide staff and members an experienced resource on practice management issues such as billing and coding, and managed care contract negotiation. Click here to read more about offered services.
Contact Bradley Reiner by phone, (512) 858-1570, or e-mail, breiner@austin.rr.com.
Vaccine purchasing through Atlantic Health Partners
TAFP has formed a partnership with vaccine purchasing program Atlantic Health Partners to save family physicians money when purchasing vaccines and advocate on behalf of family medicine practices among manufacturers and payers. There is no cost for TAFP members to enroll in the program and enrollment is voluntary.
Benefits of joining Atlantic’s program include:
- Favorable pricing for Sanofi Pasteur and Merck vaccines;
- Improved purchasing terms for a wide assortment of pediatric, adolescent, adult and travel vaccines;
- No fee to participate and voluntary enrollment;
- Access to reimbursement support; and
- Access to resources on billing, coding, pricing and inventory management.
How much will you save?
If your practice already purchases vaccines directly from Sanofi Pasteur and Merck, you will save between 3 percent and 35 percent, based on the specific vaccine, with a typical overall savings of 5 percent to 15 percent by purchasing through Atlantic. You’ll generally save more on pediatric and adolescent vaccines and less on newer vaccines such as Gardasil. In addition, Atlantic members can make smaller orders to manage inventory and cash flow and still receive the same low program prices.
If your practice purchases vaccines from a medical supply distributor, the savings are often as much as 50 percent, with an overall average of 25 percent to 35 percent.
Atlantic will support TAFP continuing medical education by donating 10 percent of the revenue from all TAFP member sales to TAFP and providing an additional $1,000 unrestricted educational grant to the TAFP Foundation for every 125 TAFP members registered.
Contact Cindy Berenson or Jeff Winokur at (800) 741-2044 or info@atlantichealthpartners.com for more information and details about how your practice can participate in this program.
Read more about the perks of the partnership in a January 2008 news story. Also, look for Atlantic’s ad in your TEXAS FAMILY PHYSICIAN magazine.
Other vaccine pricing and contract resources
AAFP and the American Academy of Pediatrics have put together some new resources to help in the fight for higher payment for vaccinations.
“The Business Case for Pricing New Vaccines” is a document detailing what physician costs insurers should consider when determining what they will pay for vaccinations.
“Model Contract Language for Vaccines” shows you what your managed care contracts should contain for proper reimbursement of vaccinations.
These documents are posted in AAFP’s Private Sector Advocacy pages in the “Contracting” section under “Health Plans.”
Billing Disclosures for SB 1731 compliance
Physicians must post notices in their offices or provide written documents to patients upon request on their billing policies, estimated costs, and discounts they provide to uninsured and indigent patients, due to a law passed during the 80th Legislative Session that went into effect Sept. 1, 2007. Physicians must also delineate whether any interest will be applied to billed charges not paid by a third-party payer and what procedures exist for handling patient complaints of these charges.
Another new law that went into effect Sept. 1 requires physicians billing for pathology services to disclose billing and contact information to health plans or patients. Physicians must either provide a health plan or third-party payer the name and address of the person or laboratory that performed the anatomic pathology service, and the amount the billing physician paid for the service, or must provide a patient an itemized statement of the services and net charges paid.
TMA has posted two sample documents that should help you comply with the new law. Check out the sample Charity Care and Billing the Patient policy documents from TMA’s Medical Office Policy and Procedure publication. Also view news articles from TAFP and TMA.
Coding and Billing
>> AAFP list of coding resources
>> Cindy Hughes, CPC | AAFP's Coding Contact for members, e-mail or call her at (800) 274-2237 ext. 4176
>> Family Practice Management describes CPT code changes for 2008
Family Practice Management
Family Practice Management, a journal published by the American Academy of Family Physicians six times a year, is loaded with great practice management info. Read the current issue or search past issues.
Find a consultant
AAFP can help you locate legal help or a practice management consultant in your area through their online consultant locator, FP Assist.
>> FP Assist
e-resources
Explore the American Academy of Family Physicians’ PDA downloads, which include a summary of recommendations for clinical preventive services tool, a point-of-care asthma tool, and ICD-9 coding tools.