CMS soon will require ACOs to take downside risk.   Forget participating in shared-savings. If your expenditures are less than your comparative benchmarks, you’re are going to have to pay—out of your own pocket.   And it will happen.   I sat across the table from a few of my partners as they had to write a check to our insurance partner. They spent more money than they took in. Being financially “at-risk” for their...

Amputations below the waist are associated with additional compensation under Medicare Advantage.   Amputations above the waist are not.   Don’t ask why, that’s just the way it is.   Prosthetic leg—you get additional payments to offset the cost.   Prosthetic arm—not so much.   However, phantom limb syndrome with pain (G54.6) or without pain (G54.7) carries significant additional compensation no matter where the limb is amputated.   Ask your patient about it.   They...

I blog daily to give my “tribe” a single high-value tip every day that will help them do better for themselves—and by their patients.   A recent encounter with a new client led me to the tactic I’m going to share today.   I tried to always ask my new patients how they found me.   The answers were varied and often illuminating.  Online, a referral, one even told me I had the same name,...