CokerConnection Newsletter – Volume 10, Number 1, March 2010

by kimshaw on March 7, 2010

Click here or visit http://cokergroup.com/newsletters/ for your CokerConnection Newsletter, Volume 10, Number 1, March 2010.  The following articles and highlights are featured:
  • Aligning Strategies and Financial Considerations, Part 1, by Max Reiboldt
  • Dust off that Compliance Plan Because FERA is Here, by Crystal Revees
  • Dilbert in Your Office – A True Story, by Kay Stanley
  • Coffee with Coker
  • Join an Audio Conference Sponsored by HealthLeaders Media
  • What Coker Group is doing this Month and Beyond

Important News

SGR 30 Day “Patch” Becomes Law
Tuesday evening, March 2, the Senate voted 78-19 to pass the Temporary Extension Act of 2010, H.R.4691, which had passed the House of Representatives last week. The President signed it into law shortly thereafter. This law extends current law forestalling for 30 days, through March 31, 2010, the SGR cut to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
 
The law also extends a number of other programs and appropriations. A summary of provisions is available here on the the website of the Library of Congress (www.thomas.gov).

{ 0 comments }

Coker News – February 5, 2010

by kimshaw on February 5, 2010

Coffee with Coker, a FREE monthly educational webinar designed to educate and empower. Hear directly from Coker consultants on healthcare trends affecting your organization as well as tools and tips to drive decision making and strategic planning. 
 
Whatever achievement you are moving toward, and however challenging the path to it may appear, our guidance and expertise assure you that nothing insurmountable lies between your organization and its goals.
 
Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Topic: Backups and Disaster Recovery for Your Practice Data:  What’s Your Plan?
Time:  11:30 AM – 12:30 PM ET
 
A lack of planning and commitment towards data backup and recovery procedures is a widespread issue facing medical practices.  Often, practices take the advice of the vendor selling the software with little investigation into best practices or the laws and regulations surrounding data archiving and integrity in the healthcare landscape.  This session offers practical guidance to help establish a plan for your practice to prevent future risk to your company.
 
After you participate in this session, you will be able to:
  • Identify ways in which medical practices can reduce the risk associated with data loss
  • Explain the negative impact that can result due to loss of data
  • Access your practice based on a disaster recovery checklist
 
Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:  http://cokergroup.com/coffee/
 
 
—————
 
Chicago Medical Society presents a Practice Management Lecture Series.  Join Coker Group’s Max Reiboldt as he addresses compensation strategies and strategies to protect your practice and in these tough economic times. Both presentations will be offered February 23 and 24, 2010, in Oak Brook and Chicago, IL, respectfully.  For more information or to register for this event, please visit: http://www.cmsdocs.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=474&Itemid=2
 
 
—————
 
 
Make dollars and sense of ARRA by attending Mississippi Hospital Association’s HITECH Summit, February 25-26 in Jackson, Mississippi. Coker Group’s Jeffery Daigrepont will be speaking at this year’s event on various topics geared to prepare you for big changes in healthcare, and specifically, how the adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHR) can transform healthcare and enhance financial performance. For more information or to register for this event, please visit: http://www.mhafoundation.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Uploads2010/brochureHITECHsummit.pdf
 
 
—————
 
 
We also invite you to participate in an Audio Conference titled Using RVUs for a Successful Physician Compensation Plan, sponsored by Greenbranch Publishing.
 
Date: Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Topic: Using RVUs for a Successful Physician Compensation Plan
Time:  1:00 – 2:30 PM ET
 
Designing a physician compensation plan for your practice in a time of economic challenges can be mind boggling. You must consider many factors and think about various options, in light of the unique qualities of your organization. In designing your plan, the Relative Value Unit (RVU) system can be a powerful and viable compensation model, when used appropriately. Work RVUs offer a methodology for various metric calculations required for successful cost allocation. In this session you will discover practical applications of RVUs and vital information about work RVUs. You will understand the benefits of considering RVUs, how to bring RVUs into play to compensate physicians, and how to assess productivity.

Participants in this session will learn to:

  • How to modify compensation plans.
  • How to assess productivity.
  • Define the differences between RVUs for private practices vs. hospital employment.
 
 
—————
 
 
Join Coker Group’s Max Reiboldt and York Hospital’s Robin LaBonte for an Audio Conference titled Physician Compensation in a Strained Economy, sponsored by HealthLeaders Media.  This presentation provides tremendous insight for utilizing RVUs to improve practice performance.
 
Date: Monday, 8, 2010
Speaker: Max Reiboldt, Robin LaBonte
Topic: Physician Compensation in a Strained Economy
Time:  1:00 – 2:00 PM ET
 
Physician compensation modeling in the best of economic times isn’t easy, but tackling this process during a strained economy adds another layer of difficulty for hospital leaders. Physician compensation is one area where leadership must get creative.
 
Join HealthLeaders Media for this 60 minute look at physician compensation plans including a case study of how York Hospital, which formed a Physician Compensation Committee and invited a lead physician from each specialty to participate. The result of this, and other measures, was a revised productivity model, improve alignment and outcomes and in some cases a drop in the RVU rate by upwards of 7%.

Participants in this session will learn to:

  • Quality-focused compensation structures based on more than income
  • Innovative approaches to alignment and compensation structures including “employment lite” and new “hybrid” alignment models
  • The latest in RVU modeling and the role of fair market value
 
 
—————
 
 
Max Reiboldt and Priscilla Moore author a white paper titled, Ancillary Opportunities in Cardiology: Considering the Options, exploring several areas of consideration during this time of uncertainty and legislation reform. This white paper is available online at: http://cokergroup.com/whitepapers/.
 
 
—————
 
 
Jeffery Daigrepont contributes to an article by HIMSS’s Healthcare IT News on the topic of avoiding risk in technology vendor selection and negotiations for meeting “meaningful use” requirements. To read the article, “Five healthcare IT decisions to avoid,” see yesterday’s posting online at http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/five-healthcare-it-decisions-avoid.
 

{ 0 comments }

Coker News – January 8, 2010

January 8, 2010

“Welcome to Medicare” Exam
CMS increased the work RVU assigned to the code that describes the Initial Preventive Physician Exam, also known as the “Welcome to Medicare” exam, since it must be furnished within a year of when a beneficiary enrolls in Part B to be covered. CMS increased the work RVU from 1.34 to 2.30. [...]

Read the full article →

Coker News – December 30, 2009

December 30, 2009

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is working with Congress, health care providers, and the beneficiary community to avoid disruption in the delivery of health care services and payment of claims for physicians, non-physician practitioners, and other providers of services paid under the Medicare physician fee schedule, beginning January 1, 2010. In this regard, [...]

Read the full article →

Coker News – December 22, 2009

December 22, 2009

Coffee with Coker, a FREE monthly educational webinar designed to educate and empower. Hear directly from Coker consultants on healthcare trends affecting your organization as well as tools and tips to drive decision making and strategic planning.  
 
Whatever achievement you’re moving toward, and however challenging the path to it may appear, our guidance and expertise assure you that [...]

Read the full article →

Coker News – December 4, 2009

December 4, 2009

Coffee with Coker, a FREE monthly educational webinar designed to educate and empower.  Hear directly from Coker consultants on healthcare trends affecting your organization as well as tools and tips to drive decision making and strategic planning. 
Whatever achievement you are moving toward, and however challenging the path to it may appear, our guidance and expertise assure [...]

Read the full article →

Major Coding Alert

November 19, 2009

By Jeannie Cagle, RN, CPC, Manager
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced they will no longer pay physicians for codes in the 99241-99245 (outpatient consultation) or 99251-99255 (inpatient consultation) series.  After years of education and clarification, they were finally fed up and eliminated payment for the codes altogether. The ruling is spelled out [...]

Read the full article →

Coffee with Coker

September 29, 2009

Join us for Coffee with Coker, a FREE monthly educational webinar designed to educate and empower.  Hear directly from our consultants on healthcare trends affecting your organization as well as tools and tips to drive decision making and strategic planning. 
Whatever achievement you’re moving toward, and however challenging the path to it may appear, our guidance [...]

Read the full article →

Reiboldt Comments on Dell, Perot Merger and Impact on HIT

September 24, 2009

Coker Capital Advisors’ Vice President, Mark Reiboldt, was quoted this week in an article by John Commins for HealthLeaders Media.  Click here to read the entire news item.

Read the full article →

Sharing Control in a Troubled Group

September 4, 2009

In an article for Physicians Practice magazine, award winning journalist Robert Lowes interviews David Shaw, Coker Group’s COO, on dealing with intergenerational differences in a medical group practice, particularly in regard to compensation plans.  The full article, “Sharing Control in a Troubled Group,” is available at http://www.physicianspractice.com/index/fuseaction/articles.details/articleID/1392/page/2.htm.
This article originally appeared in the September 2009 issue of [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries