Practice Management

By Amy Rogers, MD There is nothing worse than a day at the office that starts out promising but races out of control before you even realize what happened. It frustrates patients, crushes staff morale, and keeps you from providing care the way you want. Unexpected disruptions often happen as a matter of course in…

Constantine Moschonas loves being a neurologist. ”Sometimes I feel guilty, though,” he recently told his colleagues at the 2017 meeting of the American Association of Neurology. “Because I feel like I’m getting more from my patients than they are getting from me.” No, Moschonas is not some doe-eyed new grad; he’s the director of Four…

“I was resistant at first,” says New York neurologist Heidi Schwarz, M.D., when her clinic introduced a patient portal to the practice workflow. “I have my phone and my emails, and I didn’t want another system to have to interact with. But I have found that the patient portal is a lifeline. I can continue…

As you think about your practice in 2020, you may be considering how to maximize your Medicare payments through the Merit Based Incentive System, known as MIPS. Most physiatrists will report under MIPS, which has a direct impact on future Medicare payments, according to Dr. Mark Huang and Robert Jasak. The program is updated annually,…

By Amy Rogers, MD A medical office is a living, breathing animal. Lassoing it into a productive machine that efficiently cares for patients, while keeping a tight rein on administration, can feel like you are actually trying to tame a wild horse. But there are steps you can take that will help squeeze every bit…

Raise your hand if these points hit a little too close to home: You see more patients per day to earn as much as—or even less than—you did just a few years ago. You spend additional time at work to manage EMRs, or your patients complain that you are staring at a screen during their…

The job of physician has always been challenging. “You are dealing with life and death and an ever-changing body of knowledge,” says Heidi Schwarz, MD, a neurologist and co-chair of the American Academy of Neurology’s Burnout Work Group. “That’s been the same for years and years. What’s been added is the frustration of another layer…

“It used to be that medical records were just about remembering treatments and what the patients said, and passing along info to colleagues. Today it is about so much more,” says Isabelle Bibet-Kalinyak, a healthcare attorney from Ohio. “Medical records are now a major source of risk and compliance traps.” Bibet-Kalinyak spoke at the most…

You are not a completely unsavvy employer: You know you need to have a holiday party, celebrate Secretary’s day, and make small talk now and again. But is that all it takes to keep your employees happy and your office running smoothly? The happiness of your staff matters a great deal—and not just in terms…

In a perfect world, there should be a simple formula for neurology practice—see patients, get paid. But anyone who has spent a day on the job knows the real world formula is far more complex. Things like MACRA, MIPS, Meaningful Use, APMs and a slew of other acronyms are rightfully getting a lot of attention…

Harvard has an MD/MBA program. So do Johns Hopkins, Columbia, and at least 62 other schools in the United States. Twenty-five years ago there were less than ten. This leaves no doubt that the landscape of medicine has changed. To run a successful practice today, David Evans, MBA, the CEO of Texas Neurology says,“You really…

How one doctor and his team overcame EHR issues and greater-than-three-month patient wait times as well as efficiency challenges: empty rooms and medical assistants waiting for their next assignment. 

When Medicare slashed reimbursement for nerve conduction studies in 2013, it hurt a lot of neurology practices. Some private practices had to close their doors because they had nothing to fall back on. KCA Neurology in Franklin, Tennessee was not one them. Yes, says owner Dr. Gretchen Campbell, “It hit us hard too.” But today…

You can’t run and there is nowhere left to hide—MACRA is coming. If you are like many in the neurology community who feel as though Medicare’s new regulations are going to eat you alive, you can take heart: The Axon Registry® is here to save you. The Axon Registry was built specifically for neurologists to…

Neurologist Sarah Mulukutla, MD, MPH, says her path to integrative neurology began with a search to cure her own debilitating headaches. “When I was 25 years old, I developed chronic migraine, seemingly out of nowhere.” Her tests were all negative and she says, “the physicians I went to said everything seemed alright.” But there she…