Physicians Practice - April 2008 - (Page 14)

LETTERS hard and missing my kids’ events at home and at school, so that advice doesn’t really help me. With overhead at 55 percent and write-offs from insurance another 23 to 25 percent, things are rapidly becoming untenable. I look forward to any concrete advice that you might have in upcoming articles. But for now, I have to say that you are merely pointing out the obvious with no real solutions. —Troy Bracker, MD Fremont, Neb. I loved what you wrote in your column “Your Future Is in Your Hands.” All I ever read is negativism toward family practice/primary care. 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.” I believe that there is something lacking in the physicians that come out of training and expect to make x amount of dollars and not worry about the business part of it. It’s always about the business part of it — in what other profession do you not have to worry about this? Then they get a job with Kaiser or another HMO and wonder why they have to work so hard. It’s because they now have to make proﬁt for the company and the only way the company makes a proﬁt is by making doctors produce more than they pay them, in order to cover the bloated overhead that the doctors have no control over. The ones that complain the most are usually the ones that have to support a lifestyle that they think they deserve simply because they have an MD behind their name. I have lots of ideas on how to ﬁx business issues. You’re absolutely correct in saying that you should not wait for politicians to come and ﬁx everything it’s not going to happen! I love what you wrote about each physician ﬁxing their own practice and shaping it based on what they enjoy and makes them happy. In the end, I think that’ll be the key. 14 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | APRIL 2008 The following institutions sponsor Physicians Practice in their geographic regions. Physicians Practice is mailed to practicing physicians within these geographic regions. Arlington Memorial Hospital www.arlingtonmemorial.org 817 548 6100 Battle Creek Health System www.bchealth.com 269 966 8000 Boulder Community Hospital www.bch.org 303 440 2273 Central Maine Medical Center www.cmmc.org 207 795 0111 Christiana Care Health System www.christianacare.org 302 733 5339 Community Hospital www.yourcommunityhospital.com 800 621 0926 Crozer-Keystone Health System www.crozer.org 800 CK HEALTH (254 3258) Desert Regional Medical Center www.desertmedctr.com 760 323 6511 ETMC Regional Healthcare System www.etmc.org 800 648 8141 Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian www.hoaghospital.org 949 764 HOAG (4624) Holy Cross Hospital www.holy-cross.com 954 351 7844 Huntington Hospital www.huntingtonhospital.com 626 397 5000 Indiana University Medical Group www.iumg.iu.edu 800 622 4989 Kingman Regional Medical Center www.azkrmc.com 877 757 2101 Lakeland HealthCare www.lakelandhealth.org 269 983 8300 Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network www.lvh.org 800 584 2040 Loma Linda University Medical Center www.lomalindahealth.org 877 LLUMC 4U (558 6248) Lourdes Health System www.lourdesnet.org 856 757 3500 Maimonides Medical Center www.maimonidesmed.org 718 283 8227 Medical University of South Carolina www.MUSChealth.com 800 922 5250 Memorial Hermann www.memorialhermann.org 713 222 CARE (2273) Mercy Medical Center www.mercynorthiowa.com 641 422 7000 Miami Children’s Hospital www.mch.com 305 666 6511 Munson Healthcare www.munsonhealthcare.org 800 468 6766 Northwestern Memorial Hospital www.nmh.org 866 899 7371 The Ohio State University Medical Center www.medicalcenter.osu.edu 800 293 5123 Oregon Health & Science University www.OHSUhealth.com or www.ohsu.edu 800 245 6478 Palomar Pomerado Health www.pph.org 800 628 2880 Piedmont Hospital www.piedmont.org 404 605 5000 Providence Alaska Medical Center www.providence.org/alaska 907 562 2211 Rochester General Hospital www.viahealth.org 585 922 LINK (5465) 877 922 5465 Rockford Health System www.rockfordhealthsystem.org 815 971 5000 Roswell Park Cancer Institute www.roswellpark.org 800 ROSWELL (767 9355) Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center www.saintalphonsus.org 866 480 3840 Saint Francis Medical Center www.sfmc.net 573 331 5877 Saint Joseph’s HospitalMinistry Healthcare, Marshﬁeld www.stjosephs-marshﬁeld.org 866 475 4467 Saint Mary’s Hospital www.stmh.org 203 709 6214 San Antonio Community Hospital www.sach.org 909 985 2811 Scott & White Hospital www.sw.org 254 724 2111 Seton Family of Hospitals www.seton.net 512 324 1000 Shands at the University of Florida www.shands.org 800 633 2122 Sparrow Health System www.sparrow.org 517 364 1000 St. Francis Health Center www.stfrancistopeka.org 785 295 8000 St. Luke’s Hospital www.stlukescr.org 319 369 7211 St. Luke’s Hospital in Chesterﬁeld www.stlukes-stl.com 314 434 1500 SUNY Upstate Medical University www.upstate.edu 800 544 1605 Swedish Medical Center www.swedish.org 800 SWEDISH 800 793 3474 UC Davis Health System www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu 800 4 UCDAVIS (482 3284) UMC Health System www.umchealthsystem.com 866 854 2643 UNC Hospitals and the UNC School of Medicine at Chapel Hill www.unchealthcare.org 800 862 6264 University of Mississippi Medical Center www.umc.edu 601 984 1000 University of Virginia Health System www.uvaphysiciandirect.com 800 552 3723 UT Medical Group, Inc. and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center www.utmedicalgroup.com 901 448 8334 Via Christi Wichita Health Network www.Via-Christi.org 316 268 6097 Washington Hospital Center www.whcenter.org 202 877 7000 Wyoming Medical Center www.wyomingmedicalcenter.com 307 577 2404 WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM http://www.arlingtonmemorial.org http://www.memorialhermann.org http://www.shands.org http://www.mercynorthiowa.com http://www.bchealth.com http://www.sparrow.org http://www.bch.org http://www.mch.com http://www.stfrancistopeka.org http://www.cmmc.org http://www.munsonhealthcare.org http://www.stlukescr.org http://www.christianacare.org http://www.nmh.org http://www.yourcommunityhospital.com http://www.medicalcenter.osu.edu http://www.stlukes-stl.com http://www.crozer.org http://www.OHSUhealth.com http://www.ohsu.edu http://www.upstate.edu http://www.desertmedctr.com http://www.pph.org http://www.swedish.org http://www.etmc.org http://www.piedmont.org http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu http://www.hoaghospital.org http://www.providence.org/alaska http://www.holy-cross.com http://www.umchealthsystem.com http://www.viahealth.org http://www.huntingtonhospital.com http://www.rockfordhealthsystem.org http://www.unchealthcare.org http://www.iumg.iu.edu http://www.roswellpark.org http://www.umc.edu http://www.azkrmc.com http://www.saintalphonsus.org http://www.lakelandhealth.org http://www.uvaphysiciandirect.com http://www.sfmc.net http://www.lvh.org http://www.stjosephs-marsheld.org http://www.utmedicalgroup.com http://www.lomalindahealth.org http://www.stmh.org http://www.Via-Christi.org http://www.lourdesnet.org http://www.sach.org http://www.maimonidesmed.org http://www.whcenter.org http://www.sw.org http://www.MUSChealth.com http://www.seton.net http://www.wyomingmedicalcenter.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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