June 2008
Seven Steps to Profit from Adding New
Ancillary Services
Steve Dobias of
Somerset and Rob Kurtz of Becker's ASC Review recently published an article
that details seven steps to follow to determine whether the addition of an
ancillary service is right for your medical practice and how to ensure the
ancillary service gives you a strong return on your investment. Jeff
Boomershine contributed a sample proforma that is featured in the story for adding a high-field MRI to a practice with
three hypothetical volume scenarios.
Read more...
Employing Physicians? Organizational Structure is a
Multimillion Dollar Decision: A Case for Centralized Management
When employing physicians, organizational design is critical. The successful
premise of structure should be that organizational form should follow the
functional needs of managing the employed physician enterprise. One needs to
go no further than the private group practice environment to identify
successes in organizational design and performance.
Read more...
IRS Increases Optional Standard Mileage Rates for Second Half of 2008
In recognition of increasing gasoline prices, the IRS has announced an increase in the optional standard mileage rates for the second half of 2008. The standard mileage rate for business miles driven from July 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008, will be 58.5 cents per mile, an increase of eight cents over the rate for the first half of the year. The standard mileage rate for medical and moving expenses has been increased to 27 cents per mile from 19 cents per mile. The standard mileage rate for charitable purposes, however, remains unchanged at 14 cents per mile.
Evaluating an EMR
Success in migrating your
practice to an electronic medical records (EMR) system will depend on the
architecture of the system you select and the implementation choices you
make. Besides cost, here are key features to examine before you commit to a
new system.
Read more...
Creating
an Employee Handbook
A smoothly operating
medical practice depends on employees who know their responsibilities.
Putting together a short and simple handbook that's customized to your
practice can help your office function cohesively and cooperatively.
Read more...
NPI - IRS Data Match Initiative
In an effort to ensure that the
data submitted to the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES)
for organization health care providers is accurate, CMS initiated an NPPES -
IRS data match to ensure that the legal business name and employer
identification number in NPPES are consistent
with IRS data.
Read more...
Somerset Health Care Team News
We are pleased to announce that
Jeff Boomershine has been promoted to the position of Principal in the
Somerset Health Care Team. Jeff's specialty areas include Radiation
Oncology, Diagnostic & Interventional Radiology, Orthopaedics and Ambulatory
Surgery Centers. Jeff's experience includes physician practice management;
operations management including new facility design, construction, financing
and start-up; new venture feasibility analysis; physician group and facility
negotiations; Stark and other health care regulatory issues;
physician-hospital and multispecialty joint ventures; physician practice
merger, spin off and valuation issues; compensation plan analysis and
design; physician employment agreements including buy/sell provisions; and
information technology issues such as practice management systems,
electronic medical records and radiology PACS systems.
Click here for Jeff's full biography and contact information.
Strategic
Planning. At the recent
American
Association of Orthopaedic Executives conference, Mike McCaslin and
Steve Dobias
presented a half-day Strategic Planning course.
Click here
for a short video from the presentation. For more information about Somerset's strategic
planning services, please contact
Mike
or
Steve via the email links provided or via telephone at 317-472-2200 or 800-469-7206.
(To play the video, you may need to
upgrade or install
Adobe Flash Player--it
is a free software.)
American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology 50th Annual Meeting. This conference is being held in Boston, MA from September 21 to 25. If you are attending, please stop by to speak with Jeff Boomershine and David Wolfe at Booth 1129.
Annual MGMA Conference. Cathy Weaver will be speaking at the annual Medical Group Management Association conference in San Diego, CA. Her presentation will be on October 21, and the topic is "High Deductible Health Plans and Health Savings Accounts: How to Understand and Manage These Emerging Products That Have Patients and Providers Mutually-Mystified."
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.
Somerset CPAs, P.C.
3925 River Crossing Parkway, Third Floor
Indianapolis, Indiana 46240
317.472.2200 • 800.469.7206 • FAX 317.208.1200
http://healthcare.somersetcpas.com