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How Much Should Physicians Make?

Posted on: Tuesday, 10 April 2007, 09:00 CDT

Practice managers and physicians alike have long struggled with expense allocation and provider compensation. How to fairly allocate expenses and compensate physicians for services rendered is an increasingly complex and time-intensive undertaking. Sherry Elliott, Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Operations for the Department of Radiology at the Virginia Commonwealth University, and Leslie Fox, Product Manager of PracticeSense™, PortBlue Corporation's medical practice optimization solution, are available to comment on various approaches to this growing problem -- and the benefits and drawbacks of each.

WHAT Physician compensation is often a point of contention among providers. Many practices still allocate expenses based upon revenue dollars, a system that does not fairly reflect direct and overhead costs. Experts agree that the most equitable way to divide up revenues and expenses is with relative value units (RVUs), but few, if any, practice managers have a system for analyzing and reporting on RVUs.

WHEN Leslie Fox and Sherry Elliott are available immediately to discuss:

-- Equitable compensation plans that consider providers' workloads, productivity, expenses and service to the community.

-- How to accurately account for the income from and costs of various procedures

-- Using RVUs to fairly account for physician productivity and compensation

-- Issues around developing a robust financial picture of a practice, in order to make sound decisions for future growth

WHO Sherry Elliott is Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Operations for the Department of Radiology at the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. She has been a Board Member at Large of the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) for four years. The MGMA is widely considered to be the leading professional association for the medical practice management. Elliott holds an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University.

"With multiple providers, specialties and procedures, it's absolutely critical that practice managers have the proper tools to help them allocate expenses and income fairly." -- Sherry Elliott

Leslie Fox is Product Manager for PracticeSense (www.practicesense.com) at PortBlue Corporation. In this capacity, Fox has worked on a number of healthcare-related applications for use in physician practices, ambulatory surgical centers, and hospitals, including facility and practice benchmarking, investment feasibility studies, and various financial analysis tools. Fox holds a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a master's degree in aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology.

"Financial success in the medical field isn't assured. Physicians are trained to treat patients, not necessarily to run a complex business. To continue servicing patients, providers need to find ways to make their practices profitable and financially stable. The good news is that new technology can help make that happen, without shifting focus away from patient care." -- Leslie Fox

HOW To schedule an interview with Sherry Elliott or Leslie Fox, contact: Barbara L'Heureux, Edge Communications, Inc. 781/272-3350, barbaralh@comcast.net

Source: Business Wire

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