Creating and maintaining an employee manual is a vital management responsibility; it can also be one of the most frustrating tasks to confront. In this article, we provide you with 10 guidelines, policies, and issues to cover in your employee manual. Use this information as needed to protect your physician, employee, and practice.

Topics: medical office, medical office manager topics, administrative burdens

With high turnover and staff burnout sweeping the healthcare industry, medical practices have sped up and expanded their recruiting efforts, hoping to secure the right team for the long term. If you’re a medical office manager that’s caught in this hiring whirlwind, you’ll want to follow these best practices to ensure you’re not only attracting motivated candidates but also selecting the most qualified, patient-focused members for your team.

Topics: medical office, medical office manager topics, medical practice issues, medical office staff, staff recruiting, personnel management

By now, every medical practice leader in the nation has completed the "school of hard knocks" apprenticeship in Crisis Management, compliments of COVID-19. Hopefully, most have made it through unscathed and learned a lot in the process. Now that the pandemic waves appear to be subsiding, some medical office managers may be wondering whether to relax protocols and get back to pre-pandemic normalcy, stay on course, or prepare for new possible threats. The answers will present themselves in due time. 

Topics: medical office compliance, workplace violence, emergency preparedness, Opioid Addiction, medical office leadership, personnel management, Practice safety

Here at PMI, we receive a lot of questions from prospective students about the Certified Medical Office Manager course and exam. They want to know things like how much experience and knowledge is needed to begin the course and tips on how to study for and pass the exam. So, we asked PMI faculty member, Linda D’Spain, to address some common questions about the certification course. 

Topics: Practice management, CMOM, PMI Certification, medical office certification, Certified Medical Office Manager

Whether you are new to Practice Management Institute, a certified professional, enrolled in, or inquired about medical office training, you have probably interacted with Kathleen Riexinger at some point. She has worked with PMI for two decades and recently received a well-deserved promotion to Director of Student Experience. She chose the new title, said PMI President/CEO David T. Womack, and it fits her to a tee.

Topics: Practice management, medical office manager topics, medical practice issues, medical office staff, administrative burdens, medical office leadership, medicare compliance

Consumer healthcare spending continues to rise, not surprisingly due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic. National health spending projections for 2021-23 will continue to inch upward 5.4 percent per year, according to research compiled by the National Health Expenditures Accounts (NHE). Insurers have tightened the reins shifting more financial burden to their members. And with inflation, furloughs, unpaid family leave, and mounting medical and prescription costs, it's no surprise that family budgets are stretched thin.

Topics: Practice debt, medical practice issues, medical billing, patient billing, patient collections

Need to hire someone who can hit the ground running fast?  Hiring a new team member should not be a rushed decision. Consider these steps to draw in the right people, and ultimately choose the right candidate. Taking steps to find the right fit for your medical office team is going to save you a lot of effort in the long run.

Topics: Practice management, medical office certification, Certified Medical Office Manager, cmom certification, staff recruiting

The average listener retains only about 50 percent of a conversation. After 48 hours, retention drops to about 25 percent. Everyone working in a healthcare setting, listen up! Poor listening skills can result in relaying incorrect information to a provider or erroneously transcribing information into a patient file. These errors impact the quality of patient care and may even lead to accusations of fraud.

Topics: medical office manager topics, medical office leadership

A provider’s workload is never ending. Time is always ticking, and there never seems to be enough of it in the day. With regular patient visits, mounds of paperwork, administrative meetings, and countless other demands, it’s no wonder that patients are kept waiting. This is why provider time management is an essential skill for the medical office manager. Improving a provider’s time management can have beneficial results including a decrease in stress, an increase in productivity, and much happier patients.

Topics: Practice management, time management, medical office manager topics

The last few years have caused many of us to delay our plans on professional development and turn our attention to other things to help get us through. With a new year around the corner, it's time to reset and refocus on your career.

Topics: CMOM, PMI Certification, cmom certification

Ready to level up your leadership skills in medical office management? Check out these three courses developed for new/aspiring practice managers who need to quickly build a foundation for effective leadership. They are also excellent precursor training for the Certified Medical Office Manager training course and certification exam. 

Topics: cmom certification, medical office training, CMOM training courses

If you work with provider claims in a medical office, then you have probably heard the phrase, “If it isn’t documented, it wasn’t done.” But a 2020 Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) report found that more than 70 percent of claims submitted for payment were paid improperly, meaning something was incomplete or missing from the documentation submitted with a claim.

Topics: carrier contract guidelines, medical billing, Medicare fraud, medicare compliance, patient billing

How would you characterize the success of your medical office? A steady flow of patients is one benchmark. What about your team; do your providers take an active role in practice management? Are your clinical and administrative teams showing up with purpose? How about financial health? It is an ongoing struggle in every practice, and we've found two CMOMs on a mission to help you improve it.

Topics: Practice management, Practice cash flow, medical practice issues, financial management

Working in healthcare, a range of illnesses and injuries walk through your medical practice doors. Serious and emergent situations may arise, depending on your specialty, and protocols are in place to refer to local emergency facilities. When it comes to your staff's safety, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires all employers to prepare and maintain records that document serious occupational injuries and illnesses using the OSHA 300 Log.

 

Topics: Practice management, medical office manager topics, medical office compliance, osha, Practice safety

In 2018, LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky identified soft skills as the biggest skills gap in the U.S. Further research has shown that gaps in soft skills exist across all roles and nearly all functions. Healthcare careers are almost always in demand with far more jobs than qualified candidates in many markets.

Topics: medical office, medical office staff, staff recruiting, medical office training