Practice Management

These are challenging times for neurologists in private practice. To keep their doors open, many are having to make difficult financial decisions, including whether to stay with insurance carriers. Dropping a carrier can be painful. It is not an uncomplicated process, and frankly, it hurts to tell your patients that you can’t take their insurance…

The EMG report can be a quick rundown of electrical data. Or it can be an important tool for the neuromuscular specialist—a valuable resource for the referring physician, a path to treatment for the patient, and an excellent marketing tool for the specialists themselves. When referring physicians know a specialist will consistently provide thoughtful and…

At the 2017 meeting of the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine, the EMG was a common topic of discussion, as you might expect. But one particular session of interest focused on the EMG report and ways to improve its utility for the specialist, the referring physician, and in the end, the patient. A…

In most parts of this country there simply aren’t enough neurologists. Twenty states have, in fact, been identified as neurology deserts, according to data presented this year (2017) at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference. Jaime M. Hatcher-Martin, MD, PhD, a neurologist in Atlanta, says that out of the 159 counties in Georgia, there are only…

“Telehealth is not the future—it’s the present. If you aren’t using it now, you will be soon,” says neurologist Eric Anderson, MD, PhD, who practices telemedicine in more than 20 states and 80 hospitals in the U.S. Telestroke is the most ubiquitous example of telemedicine in use today, but catching up quickly are virtual office…

“Whether you realize it or not, information about your professional work is being accumulated online,” says Oregon neurologist Jeff Kraakevik, MD. “Your digital profile is your ‘footprint’ on the internet.” It is the sum total of all the posts (social media or articles) about you and your work ever put on the internet—by you or…

It can be tempting to compartmentalize the tasks required to run a neurology practice, so you can handle just one thing at a time. However, the reality is that medical, financial, marketing, and staffing efforts all overlap to varying extents. An example of this overlap is in managing EMG referrals to your practice. Conducting and…

We’ve addressed physician burnout multiple times here on Neurology Insights. It’s a concern for every neurologist—whether you have it or hope to avoid it. One idea for beating burnout is diversifying your practice by adding clinical trials. When you become a site for clinical trials you can add a second source of income to your…

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…

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…

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…

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…

It’s no secret that making a living as a neurologist has become a growing challenge in recent years. And even neurologists who are happy with their income enjoy a little variety in the form of intellectual challenge mixed into their work. If this describes you, legal consulting can be a lucrative addition to your medical…

It was a short 21 years ago, in 1996, that stroke care was transformed. That was the year the FDA approved tPA. The new medicine revolutionized the approach to treating acute ischemic stroke. But as Eric Anderson, MD, PhD, explained at the 2017 American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting, it was also the tipping point…

Remember the last time you went to the beach or the lake? Did you run and throw yourself into the water, or did you slowly wade in? Perhaps you are of the first type, and after hearing that 2017 is the year to start preparing for MACRA (Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015),…