Practice Management

Urologists should watch early adopters of MVPs to know what to expect.

“[The ability of] remote patient monitoring to provide targeted clinical information to physicians and elevate critical information for review and earlier intervention is enhancing patient communication and care delivery,” said Jim Brown, MD.

"Increasing regulation, excess bureaucracy, decreasing autonomy, declining reimbursement, and increased administrative burdens are all increasing the risk of burnout," says Andrew M. Harris, MD.

Telemedicine risks can be managed by staying informed and educated.

"Another benefit of owning an HSA is that you may keep your HSA open and continue to enjoy tax-free growth and tax-free withdrawals even if you are no longer eligible to make contributions," writes Jeff Witz, CFP.

Prior authorizations are a paperwork burden that takes up physicians’ and staff time while delaying care for patients, according to 93% of doctors surveyed by the AMA.

"If I had to boil down the advice, I would say that the most important thing that I did not know, that I've learned over time, is that you have to be prepared," says Stephanie Dukhovny, MD.

Patient communication is key when implementing new policy.

Based on 5- and 10-year study periods, physicians with single or multiple paid medical malpractice claims “were shown to have a greatly elevated risk of having additional paid claims during a future period,” the authors wrote.

"We will add this question to the continuing saga and changing world of CPT coding," write Jonathan Rubenstein, MD, and Mark Painter.

One factor is whether dissection was performed for staging or for therapeutic purposes.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, investigated whether ascribing racial differences in health to genetics or culture rather than social conditions is associated with race-based practice.

“Lack of budget, remotely shared personal data between patients and hospital systems, and outdated software all point to avenues for hackers to infiltrate and gain access to health-related sensitive data,” the report stated.

"I gave a summary of what we have developed in our program in Houston at Baylor College of Medicine using what we designated as a resident wellness curriculum," said Jennifer M. Taylor, MD, MPH.

"It’s hard for me to believe urology’s the most stressful job, although it’s very stressful," says Aaron Bayne, MD.

Key benefit to expansion of telehealth lies in expanded access.

Nearly three-fourths of physicians doing contract work reported experiencing little to no burnout.

"The interesting thing that's come out of the research that Dr. Lebares has done is that burnout can be countered by mindfulness," said Jennifer M. Taylor, MD, MPH.

“These are add-on codes that need to be added on to the evaluation and management service that's done on that patient on that day,” says Jonathan Rubenstein, MD.

Research has shown that follow-up text messages are more effective than telephone calls at reducing hospital readmissions or emergency department visits following hospital discharge.

“In medicine, we're not taught the business of medicine, but the day that you become faculty at an institution or private practice, you learn that it is a business, but yet nowhere in our training are we taught that,” says Michelle Pearlman, MD.

Researchers compared survey responses from patients who had in-person visits and those who used telehealth consultations at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

"When you plan to retire determines how long you must save for and how long investment returns can compound," writes Jeff Witz, CFP.

“Although people will look back and say, how in the world do urology and gastroenterology fit in with each other? They have everything to do with each other because we focus on the foundation,” says Michelle Pearlman, MD.

"I think it's important to realize we're not one-dimensional, that even if we have our day job as urologists, a lot of these things affect us," says Diana Londoño, MD.

Industry expert provides in-depth advice.

“Effective January 1, 2023, anyone who performs a laparoscopic simple prostatectomy should be using CPT code 55867 to report that procedure,” says Jonathan Rubenstein, MD.

“What's more concerning is we're seeing an increase in advanced or late-stage diagnosis, which I've seen in my practice as well,” says Derek J. Lomas, MD, PharmD.

"What came out of that meeting was looking at wellness and burnout as a preventative thing," says Diana Londoño, MD.

The study considered 4 dimensions of the workplace: equal access, work-life balance, freedom from gender bias, and supportive leadership.