AMA Wire

Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012

Practice News

Are insurers renting out your discounted payment rates?

An AMA webinar at 11 a.m. Eastern time Dec. 11 will explain how physicians can take a stand against insurers that improperly rent out their discounted rates. Register today.

Part of an ongoing series on managed care contracting, this webinar will show physicians how to identify contract language that could allow managed care organizations to rent their discounted payment rate to other payers. Participants also will learn about state laws that restrict such rentals and AMA tools that can help physicians counter this common practice.

Visit the AMA Practice Management Center to access resources that can help physicians negotiate fair contracts, navigate relationships with health insurers and ensure unauthorized rentals are not taking place.

Reclaim time for your practice; initiative can help

Taking back time physician practices lose to administrative tasks, such as making telephone calls to verify insurance eligibility and manual claims processing, can be a simple process with help from an AMA initiative.

Physicians and their staff can participate in the AMA's Rapid Process Improvement Initiative to make meaningful practice changes with a minimal time commitment. The initiative provides tools to easily assess the practice's workflows, identify areas of inefficiency and implement effective process improvements.

In the first step of the initiative, physicians take a practice assessment to evaluate four key areas: business operations, connectivity, collections and patient satisfaction. A guidance tool then pinpoints inefficiencies and offers simple steps that can save time and money while increasing patient satisfaction.

Designed to foster participation that does not significantly disrupt the practice's daily schedules, the initiative helps physicians implement each process change as quickly as possible. Get started today by watching a 10-minute webinar introduction.

Email the AMA Practice Management Center for additional information about this initiative.