Perspective on patient payment.

Concerns over patient collections, a common cause of distress for practice administrators, can be attributed to an increase in high-deductible health plans, according to MGMA's Practice ctives on Patient Payments research.

Medical practice today. What members have to say. Rising operating costs + declining reimbursement + EHR implementation = your top challenges.

We invited you to share your thoughts on the practice and career challenges that confront you today. You responded emphatically to our questionnaire, and two issues--maintaining physician compensation as reimbursement declines, and operating costs that are escalating faster than revenues--essentially tied for first place. The threat of further cuts in Medicare reimbursement makes these dilemmas even more acute. Another issue--implementing an electronic health record (EHR)--ranked third as a hot topic. See the poll data and read the comments and complaints, insights and observations in this special feature all about you and your profession.

Are you ready for disaster? Pandemic flu, monster hurricanes, bioterrorism--how to prepare your practice for the unthinkable.

Unthinkable disasters are no longer unthinkable. Yet almost half of medical group practices--43 percent--lack a formal emergency plan. If that doesn't get your attention, this might: 82 percent of surveyed medical group practices believe that emergency preparation is the administrator's job. Here's how to get started.

Delayed and denied.

There's no doubt that administrative complexity comes with a high financial cost. What isn't so clear is the human cost to your patients, which puts the issue in perspective like nothing else can. MGMA asked members in an online questionnaire to describe how administrative complexity affects their practices' patients. Their responses most often detailed processes that create unnecessary hurdles to appropriate care.

Do the right thing.

Medical practice administrators face as many or more ethical dilemmas than the physicians they work with. The gray zone is wide, and close calls can have unintended consequences. The duty to deliver margins while balancing a medical organization's mission is challenging--and perilous. Ethical principles offer a moral touchstone, but whose principles? Where does guidance lie?

The hereafter. Why IT security matters to your practice even after the HIPAA Security Rule deadline.

The days when taking care of security meant locking filing cabinets and installing a reliable burglar alarm are long gone. But just what is the role of a practice's administrator to ensure that its information technology is secure? This article helps administrators answer that question.

Extreme make-over: group practice edition.

Without culture change, there is little hope of enduring improvement in organizational performance. That's why the Mayo Clinic has launched a grassroots initiative to integrate innovation into employees' daily work. The first step is to diagnose your current culture, then ask what it means to change. As an administrative leader, you may be among the few people-if not the only person-in your organization in the position to diagnose your culture and determine action steps to transform it.

Quality quagmire. Why systems and processes are important to your practice but often ignored.

The overuse, underuse and misuse of medical procedures in our nation is staggering. The Institute of Medicine, in two seminal reports, has brought to public attention the crisis in quality that afflicts the American medical system. Until recently, the movement toward quality has focused on hospitals, but now medical practices are joining in. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Medical Group Management Association Center for Research, individual medical groups and others are pushing for studies of health care quality in the ambulatory setting and for solutions that keep patients safer.

Stepping stones. Assess, learn, certify and excel on your pathway to professional development.

Here's a guided tour of the process of pursuing professional development in medical practice management--and achieving measurable success. Peers describe what they did to broaden their knowledge and work toward certification in the field. They describe the many resources available to members of the Medical Group Management Association and its certification body, the American College of Medical Practice Executives.

The cost of administrative complexity. Administrative intricacies add no value to health care--but the costs keep stacking up.

New MGMA research reports that a 10-physician practice spends almost a quarter of a million dollars a year on unnecessary administrative complexity. MGMA urges public debate on administrative simplification and for industry stakeholders to spread the word. To provide a road map, we outline six basic areas to simplify and describe how a less complicated payment system might operate.