By Reed Tinsley   A lot can change in a practice over the course of a few years—the group’s culture can shift, its financial standing may improve or decline, it may lose or gain physicians—and a practice may be setting itself up for financial or legal troubles if it doesn’t keep its buy-sell agreement up-to-date to reflect these changes.   Buy-sell agreements are the cornerstone of most private physician practices because they establish a process...

By Reed Tinsley   As the year winds to a close, it’s time to start thinking of any last-minute strategies that might benefit you. While there was no new tax legislation of note this year, the ramifications of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) are still around and will be for years, absent any new legislation to unwind its provisions. Probably one of the most important areas of year-end tax planning is...

By Reed Tinsley   It’s easy to blame your staff for unproductive meetings, but the reality is that your leadership role makes you accountable for using your meeting time wisely. If you don’t capture the attention of your staff during the first 10 minutes of a meeting, they’ll lose interest or become disengaged, and you’ll accomplish little. Anyone who manages people needs to understand that meetings are critical to any organization. A bad meeting, in...

BY Reed Tinsley   You’ve run the analysis and know that not only do you need to hire a physician (or specialist, staff member, etc.), but you have the resources to support the addition. You’ve presented your findings to your partners, and they’re all on board. You’ve done your prep work, and you’re ready to dive into the recruiting process.   The following is a sampling of the recruitment tools my clients have used in...

By Reed Tinsley   It’s hard to believe that about 18 months have passed since President Trump signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA)—the largest major tax reform in over three decades. As the IRS continues to release guidance on the new law, we discover tax planning opportunities that could put more cash in your pocket. Some of these opportunities may apply to you, some to family members, and others to your...

By Reed Tinsley, CPA, CVA, CFP, CHBC   Tax reform has had a significant impact on the tax deductions you can now claim for business entertainment and meals.  The new tax law also eliminated business deductions for entertainment. As a result, no deduction is allowed with respect to: (1) an activity generally considered to be entertainment, amusement or recreation; (2) membership dues with respect to any club organized for business, pleasure, recreation or other social purposes; or...

By Reed Tinsley, CPA, CVA, CFP, CHBC   One of the most frequent comments I hear once the identity of an embezzler is confirmed is that he or she is “the last person I could imagine stealing.” Their surprise is understandable. We all have preconceptions about how criminals look, dress, speak, and act. Our mental image of the criminal is shaped by what we see on the news, TV dramas and by direct observation in...

By Reed Tinsley, CPA, CVA, CFP, CHBC Focus on these hotspots to reduce audit risk. Even if your physician practice puts the strongest policies in place to prevent compliance missteps, a payer audit is always possible. If your practice performs regular self-audits, however, it could reduce anxiety about auditors at your door. Self-audits are one of the most important tasks for practices. Performing self-audits can also help you uncover the reasons behind revenue losses, claim...

By Reed Tinsley, CPA, CVA, CFP, CHBC Get the most out of patient input by offering feedback options via several methods. Every medical practice wants to know how to serve their patients better, and many use the patient satisfaction survey to see how they’re doing. Though the pencil-and-paper (or digital) patient satisfaction survey is the tried-and-true method, it should only be one way in which you gauge patient satisfaction. My experience with standard patient surveys...

By Reed Tinsley, CPA, CVA, CFP, CHBC Too many practices simply accept every available managed-care plan on the premise that something always beats nothing. Don’t be one of them. Your billing system probably contains some of the tools needed to truly evaluate the value a managed care contract can bring to your practice. Use the information from your billing system and a payer-performance table to evaluate whether a managed care contract is truly worth your...