All Medicare beneficiaries, have the right to choose their own doctors and other healthcare providers. But if you are a physician who has opted out of the Medicare program, there are a few things you should know. First of all, what does it mean to opt out of Medicare? Essentially, it means that a physician has chosen […]

As a plastic surgeon, it’s likely that you got into this field because you like to help people.  But, realistically, you can’t help every person that walks through your doors and still keep the lights on. To run a successful practice, you have to keep an eye on not only your moral mission, but the […]

The short answer? Yes. “Med” is in fact short for “Medical,” and therein lies your ability to bill insurance in a med spa. You might ask, “Why would I bother to bill insurance when I could just charge cash pay only and rake it in?” Our answer: Why play checkers when you should be playing […]

Our very own @KarenCorso wrote up a nice little cheat sheet we wanted to share. Here’s the long and the short of it…you can make some money without changing your clinical workflow if you do this the right way! The top 10 Tips/Requirements for billing without an MD present… PREAMBLE: Sure, you can monetize your […]

Covering “borderline” or “grey area” procedures is a constant struggle in plastic surgery billing. Certain insurance companies do certain things. Lines are blurred. Rules are changed. The landscape is ever-changing. Even if you can get something covered, who the heck knows what you’ll be paid…certainly not what you would charge self-pay right? Enter lipedema, a […]

THE ANSWER: How many patients who come to you for a “septoplasty” have zero desire for a positive aesthetic outcome?  Like they care 0% about how they look after surgery and are seeing you solely because their deviated septum has robbed them of their ability to breathe?   None.  They might say they don’t care, but […]

THE ANSWER: Almost all payers, including Medicare/Medicaid DO cover/WILL cover REMOVAL of implants placed for any reason w/ Bakers III+ and/or Rupture.  PAY ATTENTION HERE: they cover ONLY removal of implant/extracapsular material, perhaps capsulectomy/capsulotomy, and NOT revision/replacement UNLESS there’s a personal history of breast cancer or mastectomy for prophylaxis.   So…tell that patient we can […]

Raise your hand if you want to go to school for 15 years and then stand for 8 hours turning a stomach into a breast and get paid $500 per hour for your expertise? Are you familiar with microvascular anastomosis? Yeah, you gotta do that stuff too. Do you skeletonize vessels in your free time? […]

So, I got an email from a client, with a great question and thought I would share our reply! The Question: What the average insurance pay-out is for a small in office cyst or lipoma removal. Wondering if we should be submitting or billing cosmetically? The Answer: Good question. They are medically necessary procedures typically […]

Businesses need a solid accounting system and cash controls to succeed. While medical practices differ from traditional businesses in many ways, a practice with unbalanced books or without an eye on its books at all, will fail.

For many practice owners, accounting can be an enormous hassle. Generating financial reports and balancing books detracts time and money from medical services. Why should aging receivables and late payments prevent you from providing quality patient care?