Clinician's Roundtable

Guest: Robert M. Blumm, PA-C Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA Guest Bob Blumm, MA, PA-C, DFAAPA, discusses how surgical physician assistants are contributing to the quality of care in hospitals throughout the country. In addition, Mr. Blumm outlines the training and credentials of surgical physician assistants.

Guest: Emily Hill, PA Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA The economic benefits of utilizing a physician assistant depend upon properly coding and billing the services performed by these providers. Emily Hill explains to host Lisa D'Andrea the most common coding mistakes made by practitioners when billing for services rendered by mid-level providers such as physician assistants. Ms. Hill provides suggestions to improve billing accuracy and to increase reimbursement for the practice.

Host: Lisa Dandrea Lenell, PA-C, MPAS, MBA Guest: Emily Hill, PA Guest Emily Hill explains how to properly code the services performed by your physician assistant under the physician to obtain full reimbursement. After listening to this show, you will understand the rules and be able to maximize reimbursement for the services rendered by your physician assistant.

Guest: Richard Ricker, RpH, MBA Host: Larry Kaskel, MD A new pharmacy robot at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois, is designed to eliminate life-threatening human medication errors. Richard Ricker, administrative director of the pharmacy department at Loyola University Medical Center explains how the prescription filling-robot dispenses as many as 600 doses of medications each hour with an innovative system to safeguard against human errors. The robot, trademark-named PillPick, is manufactured by Swisslog Healthcare Solutions and is the first such system to be used in a Midwestern hospital.

Guest: Emile Allen, MD Host: Larry Kaskel, MD Dr. Emile Allen, an urologist and founder of Practice Pearls, discusses the disabling injury he suffered while practicing medicine, and how his experience as a patient gave rise to his new career. Practice Pearls is a website that provides doctors strategies to improve and grow their practice. Dr. Allen informs host Dr. Larry Kaskel about other information available on the website, including advice to reduce one's malpractice exposure and risk of employee and partnership litigation.

Guest: Jeffrey N. Hausfeld, MD, MBA Host: Larry Kaskel, MD Is there more cash in your practice than you know? Dr. Jeffrey Hausefeld, associate clinical professor of surgery at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and managing director of FMS Financial Solutions, shares with host Dr. Larry Kaskel, practical tips on how to find more cash in your practice. Learn to negotiate payment terms and drug return policies with suppliers. Consider implementing an inventory tracking system. Purchase supplies through a buying group. Negotiate bank rates and consider purchasing an automated teller machine. These tips alone can save a practice thousands of dollars a year.

Guest: Jeffrey N. Hausfeld, MD, MBA Host: Larry Kaskel, MD Is it time to send reinforcements after your delinquent patients? Dr. Jeffrey Hausfeld, associate clinical professor of surgery at George Washington University School of Health Sciences and managing director of FMS Financial Solutions, tells us how to make debt collections more manageable. Find out how to collect more efficiently, and learn if your practice would be better off outsourcing. Are your practice strategies in line with the collection company? Dr. Larry Kaskel hosts.

Guest: Kevin Ault, MD Host: Cathleen Margolin, PhD Excessive alcohol and tobacco use are obvious risk factors for throat cancer, yet new research is revealing that the human papillomavirus (HPV) is also a significant risk factor for the disease. HPV, in fact, is partly responsible for the continuing rise in the incidence of throat cancer over recent years. Dr. Kevin Ault, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Emory Univerysity School of Medicine and one of the clinical investigators for the HPV vaccine, joins host Dr. Cathleen Margolin for a discussion about the link between HPV and throat cancer.

Guest: Sanford Baim, MD Host: Lee Freedman, MD Dr. Baim discusses how to apply the FRAX model in clinical practice. How does the FRAX score combine with local assessments of cost-effectiveness and clinical judgment in order to give guidance on how and when to treat patients with bone loss? Why might a 45 year old with a T-score of -2.5 not need treatment but a 70 year old with a T-score of -1.4 best be treated aggressively?

Guest: Sanford Baim, MD Host: Lee Freedman, MD Dr. Sanford Baim discusses the assessment of patients for bone loss. He emphasizes why relying on bone density data is inadequate to truly treat our patients properly, and provides details on a new approach to assessing the absolute risk of fracture, called the FRAX model. Dr. Lee Freedman hosts.