Medicare scam alert

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently notified physicians of a phone/fax scam in which perpetrators attempt to obtain the physician’s account information. The perpetrators pose as the Medicare carrier or Medicare Administrative Contractor and fax the physician’s office. The fax instructs physician staff to respond to a questionnaire to provide an account information update within 48 hours to prevent a gap in Medicare payments.

AAOS aims to improve quality of practice life

Steven E. Fisher, MBA; Howard Mevis

Board workshop focuses on practice management issues Continuing his pledge to “improve the quality of practice life” for AAOS members, Joseph D. Zuckerman, MD, led a workshop on practice management issues for the AAOS Board of Directors in May. The workshop focused on the current environment for orthopaedic practices and the steps AAOS could take to support members in practice management. How are you doing?

Offsetting the other expenses of a medical liability case

Thomas J. Grogan, MD

A new type of insurance helps replace lost revenue and other costs Dealing with a medical liability claim is a financial burden, if not a nightmare for physicians, regardless of the outcome. Insurance certainly helps financially, but currently it only pays the lawyers and the plaintiffs. Responding to a medical liability claim, however, can have several other financial consequences. You can’t treat patients when you’re giving a deposition or sitting in the courtroom.

Marketing your practice via the Internet

Ira H. Kirschenbaum, MD

How Internet marketing can help your practice—and what it can’t do Despite the Internet’s ubiquitous presence in our lives, opportunities for marketing medical services on the Internet are actually quite limited. In a practice-related context, Internet marketing is the strategic use of Web sites to accomplish specific goals, such as educating patients, advertising your practice, selling specific services, or advancing the careers of certain surgeons in a group.

How long must we wait?

Kevin G. Shea, MD; Kevin Scanlan, JD; Charles Mehlman, DO, MPH

By Kevin G. Shea, MD; Kevin Scanlan, JD; and Charles Mehlman, DO, MPH The impact of interstate variability of the statute of limitations for medical liability Medical liability continues to be a major issue for patients, physicians, and healthcare providers in the United States. Any attempt at healthcare reform should consider the impact that medical liability has upon healthcare access and costs.

Are you an “old coot” or a “young whippersnapper”?

George V. Russell Jr., MD

Generational differences have workforce implications Clashes amongst different generations is nothing new. Parents and children fight the battles daily in households everywhere. It’s a part of growing up. As children grow into adulthood and find jobs, the battles may begin anew—not at home, but in the workplace. In an orthopaedic practice, the generational differences may be apparent not only among the physicians, but also between physician and staff members.

Psst! Have I got a deal for you!

Stephen J. Immelt, JD

Physician-owned medical device companies are enforcement nightmares The current financial crisis reminds us that investment opportunities that seem too good to be true inevitably end badly. The proliferation of physician-owned companies (POCs) as intermediaries in the medical device supply chain seems destined to teach that same hard lesson.

Alternative dispute resolution in medical liability cases

Thomas E. Greer, JD

Avoiding a trial through arbitration or mediation Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) involves alternatives to jury trials as a means of resolving legal disputes arising out of allegations of medical professional negligence. The two primary alternatives to jury trials in the medical liability arena are mediation and arbitration. Why use ADR?

Check your schedule for an audit time bomb

Mary LeGrand, RN, MA, CCS-P, CPC; M. Bradford Henley, MD, MBA

Correctly code postoperative visits outside the global period Did you know that the way your practice schedules postoperative visits (CPT 99024) can represent an audit risk? CPT code 99024 is described as “Postoperative follow-up visit, normally included in the surgical package, to indicate that an evaluation and management service was performed during a postoperative period for a reason(s) related to the original procedure.”

The challenges of country living

Peter Pollack

Rural orthopaedists have a measurable impact “I spent 20 years in a city environment, and I just love being in a small town with relatively low crime and no traffic,” says James W. Barber, MD, describing some of the benefits of being an orthopaedic surgeon in a rural area. “I’m close to work, and I really like being in a wide-open, rural area.” Dr. Barber runs a small, solo orthopaedic practice in Douglas, Ga.—a town of about 16,000 people in the southern half of the state.