Code Blue: America’s emergency care system

Is the crisis in emergency care threatening our ability to deal with trauma? In October 2006, the AAOS Bulletin reported on the growing crisis in emergency care, including the challenges facing orthopaedists who take call. A year later, it seems that little has changed, except for the intensity of the problem.

AAOS responds to DOJ-required disclosures

Mary Ann Porucznik

Academy calls for appropriate disclosure, educational context On Oct. 31, 2007, to comply with settlement agreements reached with the US Attorney of New Jersey (Department of Justice or DOJ), five major orthopaedic hip and knee implant manufacturers disclosed the names and certain financial information about the physicians with whom they have consulting or other relationships.

Cash controls: Better safe than sorry

Abigail Igarta, MBA

You did everything right. You dictated the visit and the surgery promptly, documented perfectly, coded accurately, and yet still you aren’t paid. Why? Perhaps the systems in your practice allow receipts to be short-circuited in a variety of ways, and payments for the work you do are not being reconciled and credited to you. Here’s a step-by-step process to assess the internal cash controls in your practice.

‘We was robbed!’

Marty Krawczyk

Protect your practice from occupational fraud At the Odd Couple Orthopaedic Group, I.M. Neat, MD, was reviewing accounts. He’d been handling them himself since the practice’s bookkeeper eloped three months earlier, and he was puzzled at how the bottom line had changed. He and his partner, U.R. Knott, MD, were seeing the same number and mix of patients. But for the past three months, their cash flow had been substantially higher. “We’ve been robbed,” he realized.

Better communication skills pay off

A.J. Yates Jr., MD

“Grateful” workshop participant appreciates downstream benefits Engagement. Empathy. Education. Enlistment. Academy members who participate in the AAOS Communication Skills Mentoring Program (CSMP) learn to implement these “four E’s” of communication, along with many other effective tools and techniques for improving patient-physician interactions. Through the leadership of CSMP Chair John R.