On Monday, January 31^st, Federal Judge Roger Vinson, declared the Healthcare Reform Bill unconstitutional, setting up a path for the new law to be heard by the US Supreme Court.  It may take weeks or months until the final decision on the Healthcare Reform Bill is reached.  In the meantime, we should discuss real healthcare reform that can benefit patients and doctors while saving money throughout the whole system.  There are several areas where healthcare reform can be achieved that actually make sense.

If you accept Medicare payments in your practice then you have undoubtedly had Medicare claims denied for payment.  Often there appears to be no logical reason for denial of payment (and I would argue there is no logical reason for the denial).  I have had Medicare payments denied for payment, my office resubmitted the claim without a single change and had the claim paid.  The initial denial seems to occur only to cut Medicare payments, knowing that a certain percentage of doctors or recipients will not appeal the denial, thus saving the Medicare system money.  A cynic may conclude that the initial denial ensures job security for the claims administrators, but I’m SURE that’s not the case.

I came across an editorial that was published in the November 11, 2010 issue of USA Today concerning the number of patients who die every year due to medical ‘adverse events’. They cited a recent report from the Department of Health and Human Services which estimated that 180,000 patients die every year from ‘adverse events’ in the healthcare field. While this number is extremely alarming, I fear that it is actually a low number, based on the reluctance of doctors to report ‘adverse events’ due to the liability involved.

How do you define a successful practice?  Everyone will answer this question differently, and they will all be right, for them. But, no matter what your definition of a successful practice, there are several criteria that must be met in order for you to obtain the success that you want to achieve.  Integrating any or all of these processes into your life will improve you overall success.

On Monday, January 31st, Federal Judge Roger Vinson, declared the Healthcare Reform Bill unconstitutional, setting up a path for the new law to be heard by the US Supreme Court.  It may take weeks or months until the final decision on the Healthcare Reform Bill is reached.  In the meantime, we should discuss real healthcare reform that can benefit patients and doctors while saving money throughout the whole system.  There are several areas where healthcare reform can be achieved that actually make sense.