October 2009

Analyzing Your Practice's Costs
Managing the business side of a medical practice gets harder all the time. To ensure a successful practice, it’s critical to understand your practice’s cost structure. There are four basic cost categories: fixed expenses, variable expenses, direct expenses and indirect expenses. Read more...

Integrating Non-Physician Providers Into Your Practice
An increasing number of practices are bringing non-physician providers on board. Ideally, the addition of these physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) should help practices reduce patient backlogs by handling many noncritical cases. That, in turn, should improve patient satisfaction and allow physicians to focus on patients with complex medical issues. Achieving these goals will be more likely if the non-physician providers are successfully integrated into the practice. Successful integration depends on their acceptance by patients, other practice staff and senior physicians. Read more...

Valuation of a Medical Practice
Are we revisiting the '90s in terms of hospital/health system acquisition of physician practices? Or is the almost eminent national health care reform a contributing driver in the current national practice acquisitions? Either way, these sales/integration events are still governed by Stark Law, Anti-Kickback Statute and the IRS--all which require documentation of Fair Market Value. Read more...

Medical Briefs

RAC Myths Explained - We received a Special Bulletin from RAC Monitor we thought was important to share with you. They spoke with Commander Marie Casey, Deputy Directory of CMS Audit Division, about concerns that had recently been expressed by many providers concerning when, what or even if physician providers were going to be audited by RACs during the permanent program. Read more...

IRS Announces Pension Plan Limitations for 2010 - The Internal Revenue Service announced cost-of-living adjustments applicable to dollar limitations for pension plans and other items for tax year 2010. Read more...

Imaging Advocates Pull Off Major Healthcare Reform Coup - This article was published by DiagnosticImaging.com on October 19, and we wanted to pass it along to you. It begins, "The possibility that radiologists will score a major victory in healthcare reform legislation grew stronger this week with the endorsement of a proposal to link physicians' pay to the use of appropriateness criteria in the ordering of imaging studies." Read more...

Somerset Health Care Team News

Save the Date - December 3, 2009
Our next Health Care Roundtable will be Thursday, December 3, beginning at 11:30 a.m. Eastern. Allen Murphy of NextGen Healthcare will present "EHRs Today: How to Cost Justify, Implement and Earn ARRA Dollars." You can attend either in-person or via webinar. More details will be available soon, but early registration is now open.

The American College of Cardiology will be holding a conference in Washington D.C. on November 5 and 6 entitled "Evolving Models of Cardiovascular Practice: Surviving and Thriving in a Time of Change." Steve Diagostino, Mike McCaslin and Jim Hamilton will be presenting "What Are You Worth?" and will discuss various valuation methods, compensation issues and much more. They will also participate in panel discussions during the conference. For more information, please visit ACC online.

Michiana Rehabilitation Institute is now underway in Mishawaka, Indiana. It will be a 40-bed all private room inpatient facility and include indoor and outdoor therapeutic areas. The facility is scheduled to open Winter 2010. Somerset is providing entity formation, capital and financing sourcing and construction oversight and liaison services. To discuss Somerset's ASC/MOB development services, please contact Steve Dobias at 317-472-2190 or 800-469-7206. Visit our web site for additional ASC/MOB project information.

HDHPs and HSAs - We know that the federal government’s cap on the tax-free dollars one can contribute to HSAs is lower than many health plan deductibles. Therefore, to fully fund out-of-pocket liabilities, individuals would need to provide additional funds via post-tax dollars. We also know that many do not understand their responsibility with these plans and are not planning financially for their outlay of money. Partner that with uncertainty by providers on what to collect and when. Concerns range from assuring patients receive the best and most economic health care while assuring providers are able to collect the dollars due to them. This and much more is discussed in Part 2 of Cathy Weaver's article, "Managing Patients with High-Deductible Health Plans and Health Savings Accounts," was published in the September/October issue of The Journal of Medical Practice Management. Contact Cathy if you would like to discuss this topic.

Tell Us How We Are Doing and You May Win Pacers Tickets - If you are a Somerset client, please take our survey concerning the services we have provided to you by November 15, and you will be entered into our drawing for a pair of tickets to the Pacers vs. Dallas on Friday, November 27. Take survey now.

Health Care Commentaries is provided by Somerset’s Health Care Team for our clients and other interested persons upon request. Since technical information is presented in generalized fashion, no final conclusion on these topics should be made without further review. For additional information on the issues discussed, please contact a member of our Health Care Team. This document is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of avoiding tax penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer.