The Family Practitioner's Survival Guide to the Business of Medicine

by Katz, Robert W.

• ISBN13: 9780834211520
• ISBN10: 0834211521
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-05-01
• Publisher: Wolters Kluwer Law & Business

Summary

This guidebook addresses the three major financial centers in every physician's life--the medical practice, The pension plan, and personal finances. Listing cases and examples, The author addresses these three interrelated financial centers in a two-phase process: how to conduct practice management review and then how to use this process to establish an ongoing system for successful total financial management. Plus, The second edition has new material on capitation, integrated delivery systems, mergers & acquisitions and practice valuation, pensions, and dealing with managed care companies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix	(2)
Foreword	xi	(4)
Introduction	xv
Chapter 1 The Health Care System of the Future	1	(4)
Lesson 1-1: Integrated Delivery Systems	1	(1)
Lesson 1-2: Pressure To Accept Capitation	2	(1)
Lesson 1-3: More Pressure To Truly Reduce Health Care Costs	2	(1)
Lesson 1-4: The Business of Health Care	3	(1)
Lesson 1-5: Summary	3	(2)
Chapter 2 The Financial Statements Short Course	5	(28)
Lesson 2-1: Absolutely, Positively the Most Important Management Tool	5	(3)
Lesson 2-2: Good Suits and Financial Statement Must Be Tailor Made	8	(8)
Lesson 2-3: If They're Not on Time and Accurate, Throw `Em Back	16	(2)
Lesson 2-4: Numbers Hardly Ever Lie	18	(8)
Lesson 2-5: Find the Bad News, or It Will Surely Find You	26	(2)
Lesson 2-6: Sometimes You Need a Scalpel and Sometimes an Axe	28	(3)
Lesson 2-7: Financial Statements in a Nutshell	31	(2)
Chapter 3 The Fee-Setting Short Course	33	(14)
Lesson 3-1: Physicians Can Talk about Sex Easier Than They Can Talk about Fees	33	(2)
Lesson 3-2: A Blind Person Should Always Know Where He or She Is Standing	35	(3)
Lesson 3-3: RBRVS by the Same People Who Brought You the IRS	38	(4)
Lesson 3-4: Managing Managed Care	42	(4)
Lesson 3-5: Fee Setting in a Nutshell	46	(1)
Chapter 4 The Capitation Short Course	47	(4)
Chapter 5 The Accounts Receivable Short Course	51	(10)
Lesson 5-1: Until It's Cash, It's Only Paper	51	(1)
Lesson 5-2: You Can Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later, Maybe	51	(9)
Lesson 5-3: Accounts Receivable in a Nutshell	60	(1)
Chapter 6 The Short Course on Competition	61	(10)
Lesson 6-1: What You and a Mercedes Benz Have in Common	61	(3)
Lesson 6-2: You Already Have the Best Marketing People in the World Working for You	64	(4)
Lesson 6-3: Tastefully Spreading the Word	68	(2)
Lesson 6-4: Marketing in a Nutshell	70	(1)
Chapter 7 The Staff Management Short Course	71	(22)
Lesson 7-1: No Physician Is an Island	71	(3)
Lesson 7-2: If You Think Competent People Are Expensive, Try Hiring Incompetents	74	(6)
Lesson 7-3: A Word About the Bad Egg	80	(1)
Lesson 7-4: Won't Somebody Tell Me How I'm Doing?	81	(6)
Lesson 7-5: "There, Under That Pile of Dust. Isn't That Our Policies and Procedures Manual"?	87	(1)
Lesson 7-6: Looking for the Leader	88	(3)
Lesson 7-7: Staff Management in a Nutshell	91	(2)
Chapter 8 The Short Course on Advisors	93	(16)
Lesson 8-1: Beware of the Firm Handshake and the Big Smile	93	(3)
Lesson 8-2: It's All the Same to Me; I'm Paid by the Hour	96	(7)
Lesson 8-3: I'm on Commission, and I Love You	103	(4)
Lesson 8-4: Advisors in a Nutshell	107	(2)
Chapter 9 The Retirement Short Course	109	(24)
Lesson 9-1: I Hope You're Not Depending on Social Security	109	(2)
Lesson 9-2: So, How Much is Enough?	111	(1)
Lesson 9-3: How To Get There from Here	112	(3)
Lesson 9-4: The Best Retirement Plans for Medical Practices	115	(6)
Lesson 9-5: Retirement in a Nutshell	121	(12)
Chapter 10 The Short Course on Personal Finances	133	(22)
Lesson 10-1: What Exactly Are We Trying To Accomplish?	133	(2)
Lesson 10-2: The Physician's Biggest Personal Financial Mistake	135	(2)
Lesson 10-3: The Ten Commandments of Investing	137	(2)
Lesson 10-4: Risky Business	139	(6)
Lesson 10-5: The High Cost of Higher Education	145	(4)
Lesson 10-6: Out of Residency and into the Fire	149	(6)
Chapter 11 Lagniappe	155	(6)
Lesson 11-1: Computerize	155	(3)
Lesson 11-2: To Incorporate or Not To Incorporate	158	(1)
Lesson 11-3: Sources	159	(1)
Lesson 11-4: The Medical Practice Management Truths	160	(1)
Epilogue Monopoly	161	(2)
Postscript	163	(2)
Index	165