Lawyers aren't just hired guns that protect your practice from a malpractice lawsuit. They can also help expand your services beyond the traditional offerings, adding revenue streams that can more than make up for the price of attorney fees. "We have found a healthcare lawyer is most helpful in expanding supplementary services," says Simon Cornelissen, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at Orthopedic Care Specialists in North Easton, MA.

Pharmaceutical sales representatives are regularly in the presence of physician practices. Some offices claim representatives step over the boundaries of professionalism, causing disruptions with the frontdesk staff, roaming the halls, and sticking around longer than they're wanted. But there are other offices that never run into these problems. This is because office management and physicians have established arrangements with the representatives.

The key to creating a valuable and successful work environment, where employees' ideas are heard, on-the-job training is provided, and group interaction is encouraged, stems from teamwork. This is the concept used by the six-person administrative team at Radiological Associates of Sacramento (CA) Medical Group, Inc. (RAS). The group was voted one of the top leadership teams in healthcare for this year's "The company doesn't have a high turnover rate, people are happy on the job, patients are growing in all areas of the company," says Fred Gaschen, MBA, executive vice president of RAS.

No provider is exempt from following the compliance guidelines of Medicare and the other third-party payers they bill. In most instances, coding compliance guidelines are not strictly adhered to because providers and office personnel are not well educated about the billing rules. However, providers are legally responsible for knowing the compliance guidelines of each payer. Missteps in adhering to compliance guidelines occur in many ways. For example, Dr. Smith billed a code 99232, daily medical care, level 2, for his elderly patient Mrs. Brown. After his billing person billed the charge to Medicare, the office received a denial stating that the patient was not an inpatient.

Physicians stretched for time and worried about their practice's finances may overlook their scheduling model, but the system and schedulers play a critical role on the practice's frontline. A scheduling model that meets the needs of the particular practice coupled with staff member's knowledge, empathy, and communication skills is vital. The decision of whether to establish a centralized or decentralized scheduling model is more than customer service.

Physicians are often burdened with regular tasks and overbooked schedules, which leaves them isolated from one another. And when they do get away from the office and focus on their social life, a typical calendar may include networking conferences, seminars, or even a round of golf. But what physicians often want to do-and don't always get the opportunity to try-is to mentor those beginning their careers in medicine or offer their expertise to practicing doctors, new and experienced, who want the latest, most accurate information. Social networking sites from startup companies such as Tiromed and Sermo were formed to serve the healthcare industry as an open, online forum to discuss areas related to physicians' interests.