Physician's Practice - November 2008 - (Page 46)

FINANCE Not only that, it’s often just not worth it, says Apostol. “When you try to add an ancillary service, some of the insurance companies start restricting your ability to offer them in-house,” he says. Because of this, he explains, “so many of the ancillary services you potentially could do extra offerings into your normal scope for the beneﬁt of both yourselves and your patients. But that’s the key word for success: scope. Straying too far from your core competencies can hurt your bottom line. Other gut-wrenching changes may be easier to fantasize about than large chunk of the partners — about four in 10 — are not happy with their situations (see “Do You Like Being A Partner in Your Practice?” on the previous page). Consider also that more than three-fourths of all respondents — half of whom are partners — say they plan to keep on schlepping to work ad nauseam; only 7.63% plan to make some radical changes. And although it’s a small slice, get this: According to our survey, more physicians reported they’re actually planning to close (5.57 percent) rather than pursue some alternative way to practice medicine (join a larger group: 4.82 percent; be acquired by a hospital: 2.69 percent; start your own practice: 2.56 percent). You — and only you — have the power to increase your own job satisfaction, if you can move beyond the defeated lethargy afﬂicting many physicians because of the currently untenable healthcare model. Takes guts, but think of all the inner glory awaiting you. So perhaps it’s time to take some chances, even if many of the issues plaguing primary care today are as difﬁcult for you to control as the whims of a headstrong hurricane. Hone in on and nurture what you can change and help feed the sprout of optimism evidenced by our survey. It’s your collective resolve and subsequent actions that can shift trends and evoke change to make the profession you love everything you want it to be. More than threefourths of all respondents — half of whom are partners — say they plan to keep on schlepping to work ad nauseam; only 7.63% plan to make some radical changes. ARE YOU SERIOUS? are not ﬁnancially feasible to do; some are even in the negative. So why bother?” This is not to say that ancillary services have no place in a primarycare practice; certainly many of you have successfully incorporated such implement, for legitimate reasons. Norton has considered going to a cash-only practice model, “but I don’t think that would be accepted in my community of 100,000 — yet,” he says. Who knows when or if he will decide to make this radical shift in providing patient care? Maybe soon, maybe never. As for Medicare, Norton’s stance is regretful, resolute, and increasingly common. “You can’t pay the bills if your payer mix includes a large percentage of Medicare or Medicaid,” he says. Any more cuts, and he’s outta there. BE ALL YOU CAN BE READ MORE ABOUT IT! •See more charts and data from this year’s Physician Compensation Survey on PhysiciansPractice.com. • •For more in-depth information about the possible pitfalls of adding services beyond your normal scope, type “Adding Ancillaries: Bucking the Practice” into the Search Articles box on our homepage, at PhysiciansPractice.com. •Read more about physician supply and demand projections on HHS’s Health Resources and Administration Web site, www.hrsa.gov/healthworkforce. Click on the link “Physician Supply and Demand: Projections to 2020 (October 2006).” Does Norton have all the answers to what ails primary-care physicians? Certainly not for everyone. But for Norton himself? Absolutely. Kudos to him, Marsh, and all physicians who devote thought to how they want to practice and then put those thoughts into action. Too many of today’s physicians seem caught in the goo of inertia. Case in point: Roughly speaking, half of our survey respondents (46.21 percent) are partners in their practices, with the rest employed (53.79%). However, a disturbingly Shirley Grace is an associate editor at Physicians Practice. She can be reached at sgrace@physicianspractice.com. 46 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | NOVEMBER 2008 WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM http://www.PhysiciansPractice.com http://www.PhysiciansPractice.com http://www.hrsa.gov/healthworkforce http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Physician's Practice - November 2008

Physician's Practice - November 2008 Contents Death of Solo Practice Just a Myth Letters HSAy What? Noteworthy Finding Lost Revenue: The Search for Billing and Coding Gold Getting More: Our Annual Physician Compensation Survey ’Tis the Season to be Neutral Ask the Experts Evaluating Paperless Labs HR in a Box? The Guide Coding Third-Party Audits on the Rise Branding the Cash-Only Practice Intra-Office Tug-of-Wars Stickin‘ Up For Yourself Classifieds Advertiser Index

Physician's Practice - November 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.