The decision to bring in a new physician creates a slight upheaval at your practice. But even as your doctors enjoy the reduced work burden a new physician brings, and as patients decide whether they've taken a shine to the new doctor, it's the office manager who assumes the most responsibility for bringing the new addition up to speed.

Your practice's waiting room acts as the doorway between the big outside world and the small, intimate examination rooms where physicians often reveal life-changing information. The waiting room therefore, can be a conduit for the escape of protected health information (PHI)-which means you must enforce security measures to protect your facility and the privacy of the patients you treat. Compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is as important in the waiting room as anywhere in your practice.

Effective Jan. 31, 2005, however, if you can show "good cause" for submitting a late claim to Medicare, CMS will not charge the standard late penalty (10% of the claim amount) for claims submitted more than one year after the service date for the procedure.

Historically, healthcare professionals or the organizations they belong to, maintain patients' medical records-intended to be confidential documentation of the health complaints, evaluations, assessments, and treatments for each patient. Traditionally, each healthcare provider maintains separate records, usually on paper.

Twenty-percent of Americans (approximately 60 million people) live in areas of the country classified as "rural", yet, only 10% of doctors live and practice in those areas. Couple those numbers with a demonstrated difficulty winning new converts to the mission of rural medicine, and the risk is high for a healthcare emergency in the heartland.