Understanding your obligations surrounding employee taxes is crucial for operating a successful business, whether you're an employer or an aspiring entrepreneur.  In this episode, we explore the four primary types of employee taxes:  • Federal and State income tax Withheld by employer Employer responsible for submitting • FICA Funds Social Security and Medicare Employer responsibility is 7.65% • FUTA Federal unemployment tax Paid by employer to fund state unemployment programs • State Unemployment tax Based on employer payroll And number of unemployment claims As an employe ..read more

Owning a private medical practice is a journey. Initially, you're focused on how to get the practice up and running. The next phase is how to best run the practice. Over time, you transition to how to grow and leverage the practice. And, at some point, you will want to leave the practice that you started.  Having a roadmap definitely makes the journey easier. That's where having a business plan helps. One of the key considerations, from the start, needs to be "what does my exit look like."  Now I totally understand that this may be difficult to envision but many of your decisions wi ..read more

In this episode, I'll outline the key steps you need to develop your practice's strategic plan for the new year. The first step: doing a review of the past year. For this you will need a few things: 2022 Profit and Loss statement 2021 Profit and Loss statement (so you can look at the year-over-year changes) Year end billing reports To develop this year's strategic plan we need to do a post-mortem on the prior year. We need to figure out what went right and what we can improve. Examples of what we're looking for: Did you meet your 2022 goals? Did your revenue grow?  How's your volume ..read more

When I started my medical practice I quickly learned that there's much more to accounting than quickbooks.  My CPA firm, with its extensive healthcare experience, has served a phenomenal business advisors. In this episode of The Private Medical Practice Academy,  Jeremy Klibert CPA and I discuss some of the pressing questions that private practice physicians have. Are you wondering what the right structure is for your medical practice?  Do you know the difference between cash and accrual based accounting?  Are you trying to figure out whether you should buy or lease equipm ..read more

You want to offer a service to a patient but you aren’t sure that Medicare will reimburse you. Is there something you can do to increase the chances of getting paid? The answer is an advanced beneficiary notice of non-coverage (ABN).  You use an ABN when you are offering a service that is usually reimbursed by Medicare but may not be reimbursed by Medicare in this particular case.  Voluntary use of an ABN When you know, in advance, that the service is not covered by Medicare you voluntarily use an ABN to notify the patient.  The ABN puts the patient on notice that they are finan ..read more

Today I had a great chat with Dr. John Lin about how to think about choosing to be In-Network vs. Out-of-Network. We all know that dealing with health insurance companies can be very frustrating. But reimbursement rates are only a part of what makes dealing with these companies a headache. Trying to decide whether it makes sense for you and your practice to be In-Network or Out-of-Network has to be an informed calculation rather than an emotional decision.  Here are some of the topics we hit on: What is the demographics of your practice? Can you "afford" to lose that patient population ..read more

You’re a Medicare provider. And you know that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) runs Medicare. But did you know that CMS is just the umbrella organization? The actual administration is done by a Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC.)   What is a MAC?  A MAC is a private health care insurer that’s been awarded a geographic jurisdiction to process claims for Medicare Fee-For-Service beneficiaries.   CMS relies on the network of MACs to serve as the primary operational contact between the Medicare Fee-For-Services program and providers enrolled in the program ..read more

When you run a private practice, you become acutely aware of what supplies you need, think about where to procure them, and worry about prices.  To start with, make a list of supplies that you everything you need:  drugs, syringes, gloves, paper for your exam table, cleaning supplies and more. Include how often you are using these supplies because we’ll need this info to figure out the quantities you need to order.  You’ll want to develop an inventory system will help you track how often you use each item and when you need to reorder.  Before I talk about where to buy supp ..read more

There are two over-arching reasons for you to stay on time: patient satisfaction and to de-stress you.  I'll be the first to admit that staying on time can be a challenge. Here are some strategies that can help keep you on schedule.  Get to clinic before your first scheduled patient. Preferably you get to clinic early. If you show up at 8 am, your first patient is at 8am and then you first need put out whatever this morning’s fire is, you start the day off behind and you will be all day long.  The other advantage to getting in early is to huddle with  your MA so that you h ..read more

Recently, one of the members of The Private Medical Practice Academy told me that one of their biggest concerns about private practice is the number of after-hour patient phone calls. In order to reduce the volume of after-hour phone calls, you need to have a policy that implements these strategies. There will always be after-hour calls. Many of these are non-urgent calls related to issues that can be easily addressed during regular office hours.  The key is to implement strategies that help reduce after-hour call volume without sacrificing patient care.  1. Set up your phone system ..read more