Trust is the name of the physician communication game. And one of the best ways for practice administrators and marketers to cultivate trusting relationships with their physicians is via face-to-face discussions

Patients are experiencing sticker shock when confronted with paying the new Medicare deductible, several of your peers tell Part B News. CMS raised the deductible to $155 this year, a 14.8% increase from $135 in 2009 (PBN 1/4/10). Thirty-five percent of your peers say more patients have had trouble paying the deductible this year compared to last year, according to an unscientific Part B News survey.

Marc D. Halley, MBA, president and CEO of Westerville, OH–based Halley Consulting Group, LLC, says several ¬factors—many of which are beyond physicians’ control—are threatening the financial viability of small, independent practices. “My personal opinion is that we are going to see an increase in the consolidation,” Halley says.

You're seeing sharp cuts to common cardiology services this year (PBN 11/16/09) thanks to several new rules in the final fee schedule, and the American College of Cardiology (ACC) decided to stem the damage by suing HHS over a CMS decision to use a new dataset to determine Medicare payments. But the lawsuit has been tossed out on a technicality, Part B News has learned. 

Marc D. Halley, MBA, president and CEO of Westerville, OH–based Halley Consulting Group, LLC, says several ¬factors—many of which are beyond physicians’ control—are threatening the financial viability of small, independent practices. “My personal opinion is that we are going to see an increase in the consolidation,” Halley says.

Bank on Congress acting to stop Medicare payments from falling by 21.3% on March 1, but whether that action will come in the form of a temporary payment "patch" or a permanent "fix" remains a guessing game, experts tell Part B News.

The physician shortage has put increasing pressure on hospitals and practices to ratchet up their recruitment offerings, including sign-on bonuses, income guarantees, generous salaries, and housing assistance.

You and your peers are letting cash drain from your pockets by incorrectly billing prolonged services, which were denied between 20% and 33% of the time in 2008, according to a Part B News analysis of the latest CMS claims data. Practices are billing prolonged services more often, and carriers believe they're getting it wrong more often, with denial rates rising from 2006 to 2008, the data shows.

On most occasions, safety officers encounter an innocent mistake or a onetime offense that is easily correctable. On other occasions, persistent or especially hardheaded employees will demonstrate consistent noncompliance because of inconvenience, or simply out of sheer stubbornness.

With less than 22 days until the 21.3% cut to your Medicare payments is set to take effect, stakeholder groups led by the AMA mounted a high-profile campaign to permanently resolve the problem. Experts earlier predicted that 2010 would be the year for a permanent "fix" to the sustainable growth rate formula (SGR, PBN 1/4/10) that's responsible for setting the cuts.