One Reason Not to be in Solo Private Practice

We had a nice little coding seminar recently by some firm, telling us what the correct and incorrect ways to bill are. Sure all people need a little training in this. Not uncommonly, physicians enter the world after residency not having had any exposure to billing and all of its dirty workings. In the fields of ophthalmology and optometry in particular, we have our very own set of codes, the eye codes. No other specialty, except dentistry, has their own codes.

At any rate, it was three or four hours of lecture basically covering the required minimums for different billing codes. As if I'm going to remember every little detail. As if I'm going to recall later which modifier applied to which type of procedure within a predefined time period after a minor versus major procedure. That's too many variables to manage. That is why we have a billing department, and a darn good one. The reality is, I don't want to perform a small exercise in economics after every patient I've doctored. I'm not a business man - I'm a doctor. And while some are excellent at both, I for one don't wish to be superb at business. I want to make the job for our coders easier by doing the right thing on the front end, but I will be far from perfect at it.

At least in academics you have a good billing support team. In private practice, you may have a few good billers if you're in a large group practice. If you're solo, you may have a business manager, but you still have to manage that person. This is perhaps one of the big reasons academics appeals to me - good support. If I'm to make any money, I need help doing it.