privatepractice.md

Place Holding Post while PP.MD website gets revamped.

RichBMD — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:58:19 +0000

As you can see, PrivatePractice.MD is undergoing a major change in it’s design to better reflect the change in the PrivatePractice.MD mission mentioned earlier. Stay tuned for more great new articles, features, and functionality. Please leave comments and suggestions to help us deliver the information you are most interested in about private medical practices in the United States.

Introducing Michelle Mudge-Riley, DO

RichBMD — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:36:02 +0000

Introducing PrivatePractice.MD Podcast host, Dr. Michelle Mudge-Riley.

Our First Episode and Introduction to the Podcast!

RichBMD — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:58:40 +0000

Dr. Berning and Dr. Mudge-Riley discuss the purpose and goals of the PrivatePractice.MD podcast.

Just Say Yes! (to Private Practice)

Dr. David Kopacz — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:21:29 +0000

By David Kopacz, MD
“My first word of advice is this, say yes. In fact, say yes as often as you can. Saying yes brings new things. Saying yes is how things grow. Saying yes leads to new experiences, and new experiences will lead to knowledge and wisdom. Yes is for young people, and an attitude of yes is how you will be able to go forward in these uncertain times,” (President of the University of Connecticut, Michael Hogan’s 2009 commencement address, quoted in “How a New Jobless Era will Transform America, by Don Peck, The Atlantic Monthly, March 2010, p. 48).

Doctors are a pretty conservative bunch. We get to where we are by saying no to many things that are a lot more immediately enjoyable than studying biochemistry. It can and has been said that doctors are a risk-averse group. Why then would any physician in their right mind say “yes” to private practice when there are no financial guarantees, no colleagues, maybe even no employees, no 401(k), no one paying your malpractice insurance, maybe you have some patients, but maybe you don’t even have that!

Why on earth would you say yes to private practice?
Well, for me, it felt like a necessity, and I suppose many adventures start out that way.

Changing the PrivatePractice.MD Mission

Dr. Rich Berning — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:27:50 +0000

The focus of the discussion on PrivatePractice.MD is changing from this point forward. When I first thought about starting a website for doctors in private practice, I planned to develop a team of medical practice experts to teach all of the doctor members useful facts and impart general business knowledge that most doctors don’t get taught in their long education.

Medical practice experts will still be part of this goal, and many of the upcoming podcasts will feature these experts. But I realize that there are many fine brick and mortar and internet resources for medical practice management information available to physicians.

Paying An Annual Fee to Keep Your Doctor

Fran Glucroft — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:04:47 +0000

I recently was informed by one of my clients that he is being “courted” by a company that helps doctors trim their practices to 400-600 patients. These patients will be invited to stay with the practice by paying an annual fee to have better and more access to their doctor by having less wait time for an appointment, longer appointments, and the doctor’s cell phone number or other personal information to use for communication.

I am not sure how I feel about this new niche being carved out on the business side medicine. I am told that it is not the same as a doctor creating a boutique practice, one in which insurance is not accepted. The company courting my client is currently reviewing various aspects of the practice not the least of which are the demographic, insurance and age factors. Through use of marketing tools as well as I guess some quantitative and qualitative analysis, the company will decide which patients should be invited to stay with the practice for an annual fee (I have heard these fees to be between $1500 and $2000 payable over four installments).

As a billing service, I will not lose this client because insurance will still be billed. The annual fee is a private contract between doctor and patient. I will make less money probably because my earnings are based on the doctor’s receipts and he will see less patients every week This is NOT why I am unsure how I feel about this relatively new idea.

My concern is for the 1400-1600 patients in his practice who will not be asked to “rejoin” the practice. Where will they go to find another primary care physician who isn’t already overloaded? Where will the patients who have no insurance go (as I don’t think they have an additional $1500 to pay for an annual fee?) Where will patients who have a Medicaid plan go as fewer and fewer doctors are participating in those plans?

So you can see why I am conflicted. For the 400-600 patients who will have more access to the doctor, this could be a way to decrease what sometimes is a stressful experience. And for the doctor who can and will spend more time with each patient there will also be a decrease in stress on all aspects of the practice. But my conflict continues.