Practice Management

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…

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…

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. 

No doubt about it, being a doctor can be stressful, and if you are not careful that stress can lead to “burnout.” In fact, neurologists may be the most burned out among doctors, according to some research. “Burnout” is a much bigger problem than simply feeling tired and stressed out. Literally, when a fire burns…

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…

The use of telemedicine in neurology practice has been on the horizon for a while, but the novel coronavirus has accelerated the need to incorporate it. Here are some resources to get your teleneurology practice up and running.

Medicare reimbursements are down, making it necessary for neurologists to see more patients to maintain their income levels. Add to that the requirements of electronic health records and paperwork of varying sources, and it seems like a cruel joke. You have to work more each year just to keep from falling behind. Could physician assistants…

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…

The ethics discussion turned to informed consent at the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) annual conference last week. After the Shinal v. Toms case heard in 2017 by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, what once seemed clear is now in question. The discussion was led by Segun Toyin Dawodu, MD, JD, and focused…

Dr. Tait Shanafelt has been studying healthcare worker burnout for nearly two decades. How is the novel coronavirus pandemic impacting the societal shifts and emotional stressors seen in today’s neurology practice?