From the Editor
Managing Your Practice's Finances
The Bane and Boon of Your Practice
Did you go to medical school to learn how to juggle your accounts payables and receivables? Did you spend 10 years going to school to figure out how to set up workable collection procedures with your patients and clients? I didn't think so. Over the years, many doctors have considered managing the patient/client financial arrangements as a necessary evil to practicing medicine. Others, however, turned around their disdain for managing finances and recognized that their net profit can be positively effected by having proper financial policies in place along with workable billing and collection procedures.
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Discussing Finances with the Patient/Client
Strategies for Obtaining Payment
When discussing financial matters with a patient/client, always assume that the patient/client can afford the service or product. Do not be shy, embarrassed or apologetic when discussing these matters. You MUST let the patient/client know how much your services are going to cost. You should feel comfortable and be able to speak with conviction. If it is at all uncomfortable for you, have another staff member practice with you until you do feel comfortable.
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Streamlining Your Collections
Tips to Improve Your Performance
Patient/Client Billing
Those patients/clients who do not pay cash at the end of their appointment must be billed through the mail. Most offices receive a large portion of their monthly earnings in response to these billing statements. A person who receives a billing statement in the mail may or may not pay it fully or promptly, though. The Accounts Manager can increase the percentage of patients/clients who promptly pay their bills through the following:
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Extending Credit
Tips to Control Your Accounts Receivable
Following are some guidelines to assist you in determining to whom you wish to extend credit and how to go about collecting on those accounts.....
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Collecting Past Due Account
Working With Your Patients/Clients
Collecting on past due accounts is a function that the Accounts Manager will find herself having to do. Any contact with a patient/client, even under these circumstances, should be kept on a friendly, professional and dignified basis. This will promote respect for the office and its business practices.
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THE GOVERNMENT HELPS OUT ON NEW EQUIPMENT PURCHASES
Taking Advantage of the IRS Section 179 Write-Off
Written by Brad Beck, Vice President Bank of America Practice Solutions
What did you think the chances were that a banker would not start anything that is printed on paper without a disclaimer? Well if you took the safe bet you were right and here it is: I am not a CPA and therefore not certified to give tax advice. What you will read in this article are my thoughts based upon my experience in the equipment and practice finance industry. Any decisions you make about equipment purchase, and the tax benefits associated with those purchases, should be made only after careful consideration with your tax advisors. With that disclaimer out of the way, let me proceed with some information that may be helpful for you.
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Motivating Employees at Your Practice
By Dr. Amy Shroff, VMD
The success of any business depends on its employees. Figuring out what motivates them is the tricky part. Motivation, like employees, is highly individualized - what drives one person may not mean nearly as much to someone else. While some people excel with a pat on the back, others look for financial rewards and others still seek power or equity in a company.
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Search Engine Marketing for Doctors
Article 1 of 4 part series
By Lisa Thayer,
GoldfishNetwork.com
Surveys show that over 80% of internet users find new web sites by using search engines.
The question that seems to be on everyone's minds today is "How do I get my website top placement on the search engines?" If you have a website, you may have found other websites above yours when you have looked for your site in Google. In order to answer the previous question, I need to give you a little background on the way search engines work.
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Root Canals Just as Effective as Dental Implants
Dentists Emphasize Saving Natural Teeth and Patient-Specific Considerations
For patients torn between the best way to treat a compromised tooth, the choice just got clearer. A recent systematic review comparing two of the most common treatment options - root canals and dental implants - found virtually equal success, or survival rates, between both treatments. However, despite this similarity, it was concluded that the priority should always be to preserve the natural tooth before extracting and replacing with an implant. Root canal treatment saves more than 17 million teeth a year.
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Veterinary Advisory: Canine Influenza Virus
University of Florida researchers report that outbreaks of canine influenza virus, which causes an acute respiratory infection, have been identified in dogs in shelters, humane societies, boarding facilities and veterinary clinics in Florida, predominantly in Broward, Dade, Palm Beach and Duval counties.
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Employers Pay High Price for Vision Disorders
Uncorrected Vision Problems Contribute to Decreased Employee Performance
Vision disorders carry a hefty price tag for employers and result in a marked decrease in productivity costing businesses an estimated $8 billion annually, according to a new report released by the Vision Council of America (VCA). The Vision in Business report shows the staggering financial impact of vision problems on the economy, individual states and the workplace.
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Periodontal Diseases Are Blind to Age
Two studies suggest that periodontal diseases should be a concern to women of all ages
Two studies in a recent issue of the Journal of Periodontology (JOP) suggest that periodontal diseases are a threat to women of all ages due to hormonal fluctuations that occur at various stages of their lives. One study looked at 50 women who were between the ages of 20 to 35 with varying forms of periodontitis. The study found that women who currently were taking oral contraceptive pills had more gingival bleeding upon probing and deeper periodontal pockets (signs of periodontitis) than those who were not taking oral contraceptive pills.
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'Sentinels of the Sea' Featured in Documentary
They take on military assignments impossible for humans, and even robots, to perform. They are rewarded with fresh food, protection from predators and loving human contact. These unheralded, unknown, and often misunderstood marine mammals are saving countless lives during their underwater missions. Now, an edition of the Pentagon Channel's monthly documentary, Recon, offers a rare glimpse at the work of dolphins and sea lions who are acting as true "Sentinels of the Sea."
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'Twinkle after effect' can help retinal patients
detect vision loss quickly and cheaply
Scientists hope to make it available online
Scientists at Schepens Eye Research Institute have discovered a simple and inexpensive way for patients with retinal and other eye disease to keep track of changes in their vision loss. In a study published recently in PLoS One, they demonstrate that a compelling visual illusion known as the induced twinkle after-effect (TAE) can accurately identify the location and breadth of actual blind spots in people with retinal disease. The twinkle after-effect is a "twinkling" that people can see in a blind spot when they stare at a blank screen after staring at a noisy visual target such as a detuned television screen.
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Scientists Discover How Maternal Smoking
Can Cause Cleft Lip and Palate
Scientists supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), part of the National Institutes of Health, report that women who smoke during pregnancy and carry a fetus whose DNA lacks both copies of a gene involved in detoxifying cigarette smoke substantially increase their baby's chances of being born with a cleft lip and/or palate....
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Congress Moves Children's Vision Bill Forward
Legislation an Important Step Toward Addressing the Uninsured
For the first time, the U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation supported by the American Academy of Ophthalmology to combat undiagnosed and untreated vision problems in children....
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Cruel Deaths in Mexico a Result of...
Closing U.S. Horse Processing Plants
Efforts to shut down horse processing plants in the United States have led to increased abandonment and neglect of horses in this country and the inhumane death of horses in Mexico, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)...
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