Physicians Practice - April 2008 - (Page 12)

LETTERS “In the world of supply and demand, there still remains an overabundance of demand for good bread-and-butter primary care. I have more work than I can handle. It’s a pretty good business model when you have to say, ‘I gotta stop seeing new patients.’” THE GLASS HALF-FULL LIABILITY REFORM REFUTED I read your column “A Tale of Two Solutions” (Editor’s Note, January 2008) with interest, as I am a physician who left Pennsylvania after establishing a very successful orthopedic surgery practice and working there for 13 years. The reason I left was the uncontrolled professional liability crisis. My last year in practice there was 2003, and I served as the President of the Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Society. We worked diligently for meaningful reform for years, and when I saw that it was not going to occur, I left for California — the state that had the courage to cap the pain-andsuffering and attorney fees many years ago and has had stability in insurance rates. The key feature of MICRA (the Medical Injury Compensation and Reform Act) is the inclusion of every healthcare setting — hospitals, nursing homes, clinics — and every healthcare provider — nurses, therapists, technicians — not just physicians. It was not Ed Rendell’s idea to use part of the state’s cigarette-tax revenue to subsidize physician’s MCare premiums. That idea came from the Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Society and was initially met with total resistance from the governor. Please know that Ed Rendell was a Philadelphia trial lawyer and has no interest in ever supporting a cap on pain-and-suffering awards as it would cut into attorney fees. The problem has not gone away for physicians in Pennsylvania as there are still billions of dollars of unfunded liability in the MCare fund that all physicians are required to pay into. What the governor and Pennsylvania legislators have failed to realize is that it will still be difﬁcult to retain and recruit physicians when they are forced to pay into a fund they had no say in creating. Although some reforms have been passed, what essentially has occurred is a cost shift onto taxpayers. You are correct — Texas and California have proven that caps work. The citizens of Pennsylvania are the ultimate losers in this battle as they have lost many physicians and will feel that loss for years to come. —Paul Burton, DO Redlands, Calif. OUR MISSION Helping physicians manage their practices more efﬁciently, leading to improved patient care. P U B L I S H I N G S TA F F VICE PRESIDENT & GROUP PUBLISHER Ken Karpay kkarpay@physicianspractice.com GENERAL MANAGER Katherine Hermann khermann@physicianspractice.com EDITORIAL EXECUTIVE EDITOR Bob Keaveney bkeaveney@physicianspractice.com SENIOR EDITOR, PRACTICE MANAGEMENT Pamela L. Moore, PhD pmoore@physicianspractice.com MANAGING EDITOR Abigail Beckel abeckel@physicianspractice.com SENIOR EDITOR, PROJECTS Laurie Hyland Robertson lchrobertson@physicianspractice.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Barbara A. Gabriel, MA bgabriel@physicianspractice.com MANAGING EDITOR, PROJECTS Alyson Siclare asiclare@physicianspractice.com SENIOR WRITER Shirley Grace, MA sgrace@physicianspractice.com EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Erica Lukenich elukenich@physicianspractice.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS NOT AN EASY FIX I read with interest your column “Your Future Is in Your Hands” (The Bigger Picture) in the February 2008 issue. You make an excellent point that many physicians, especially in primary care, are dispirited. That observation is easy to come by — I see it in the doctor’s lounge in the hospital every day. I appreciate your suggestion to “DIY,” but real-world solutions to many of the problems facing primarycare physicians are not that easy to come by. We brought in a practice consultant to see how we could lower expenses and see more proﬁt, and after a couple thousand dollars, his advice? “See more patients a day, and stay open evening hours.” Well, I am no business expert, but that is an answer even I could have come up with! Increased volume ﬁxes a myriad of problems, but the trouble with that is, I am already working Robert Anthony, Judy Capko, Jonathan McCallister, Betsy Nicoletti, Nancy Reading, Shelly K. Schwartz PROJECT MANAGER Amanda Norbury TECHNOLOGY ANALYST Alka Chander DESIGN GROUP CREATIVE DIRECTOR Nancy Bitteker ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Bill Ellis H O S P I TA L S T R AT E G I E S DIRECTOR, HOSPITAL STRATEGIES Steve Gottshall sgottshall@physicianspractice.com 773 880 8484 HOSPITAL RELATIONS STRATEGIST Shelley Schoenfeld sschoenfeld@physicianspractice.com 732 393 9696 HOSPITAL RELATIONS STRATEGIST Lori Brenner lbrenner@physicianspractice.com 715 384 6711 HOSPITAL RELATIONS STRATEGIST Tom Reavis tom.reavis@cmpmedica.com 602 790 2652 B U S I N E S S A D V E R T I S I N G S T R AT E G I E S DIRECTOR, BUSINESS ADVERTISING STRATEGIES, WEST Eric Temple-Morris etemple@physicianspractice.com 503 203 1060 BUSINESS ADVERTISING STRATEGIST, EAST Pamela Peterson ppeterson@physicianspractice.com 973 228 1226 BUSINESS ADVERTISING STRATEGIST, MIDWEST, SOUTH Seth Geller sgeller@physicianspractice.com 443 543 5131 BUSINESS ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Samantha Williamson samantha.williamson@cmpmedica.com 503 203 1059 PHARMACEUTICAL ADVERTISING SALES Jill Bresnick 203 662 6533 JBresnick@cmp.com BUSINESS SERVICES VICE PRESIDENT/RESEARCH, MARKETING AND CIRCULATION Beatrix Eriksen SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER, B2B STRATEGIES Amy Tubman MARKETING MANAGER, HOSPITAL STRATEGIES Monique Grifﬁn TRADESHOW AND EVENTS MARKETING MANAGER Kristin Pichon CLIENT RELATIONS MANAGER Lindsay Moe CLIENT RELATIONS SPECIALIST Beth Zacharias GROUP DIRECTOR OF MANUFACTURING AND PRODUCTION Steve Sanborn GROUP PRODUCTION MANAGER Carlos Yanez PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Naddya Chavez BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR Ann Marie Patrick CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING SALES Valley Forge Publishing Group 800 983 7737 HEADQUARTERS: 5523 Research Park Drive, Suite 220 Baltimore, Maryland 21228 Phone: 443 543 5100; Toll Free: 800 781 2211 Fax: 443 543 5170; E-mail: info@physicianspractice.com Web: www.PhysiciansPractice.com FOR SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES FOR PHYSICIANS PRACTICE: Contact Robert Strobolakos at 203 662 6553 or rstrobolakos@cmp.com PHYSICIANS PRACTICE® (ISSN 1072-2912), published by CMP Healthcare Media LLC, is distributed to more than 280,000 U.S. physicians. Copyright © 2008 by CMP Healthcare Media LLC. Single copies $10; annual subscription $56. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Send address changes to: Physicians Practice, c/o CMPMedica, 330 Boston Post Road, Darien, CT 06820; or send by email to wdingle@cmp.com. 12 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | APRIL 2008 WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM http://www.PhysiciansPractice.com http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Physicians Practice - April 2008

Physicians Practice - April 2008 Contents The Bigger Picture: Medicare Decision Time Letters Physicians Practice Pearls: Outsource Your Pain Noteworthy Cover Story: Trial Lawyers Tell All Management: When It’s Time to Change Ask the Experts Technology: Do You Know Where Your Data Is? The Tech Doctor: Are Your Discarded PCs Really Clean? Billing & Collections: Playing Hardball The Administrator's Desk: Recruiting for Patient Satisfaction Start It Up: Finance - Mastering the Numbers Game Coding The Great Practice Makeover: Taking Care of Business Associates Classifieds Advertiser Index

Physicians Practice - April 2008

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