Practice Management: A Practical Guide to Starting and Running a Medical Office [Paperback]

Christian Rainer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1556053657 | ISBN-13: 978-1556053658 | Publication Date: April 2004 | Edition: 1

The book describes the steps to opening day. First, the basics, such as financing, rent, coding, hiring, contracting, records, malpractice insurance. Then, business strategies and more complex issues, such as money management and the influence of outside factors. A chapter deals with typical business encounters for the private practitioner. Finally buying a practice is discussed.

Editorial Reviews

Review

I believe this will provide outstanding instruction that is often neglected in many residency and medical school curricula. -- Kam Hunter MD

This is must reading for any physician who is preparing to enter the world of medicine outside residency. -- Walter A. Forred, MD

About the Author

Dr. Rainer studied medicine in Germany, London and epidemiology at UCLA. He completed his internal medicine residency at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix. He now works consulting on practice management issues and teaching practice management to residents. His consulting company is called Sunbelt International Consulting, sunbeltinternationalconsulting.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 170 pages
• Publisher: Wyndham Hall Press; 1 edition (April 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556053657
• ISBN-13: 978-1556053658
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,233,535 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Opinionated, Blunt, and Bold, October 3, 2004

By 

J. Flynn (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practice Management: A Practical Guide to Starting and Running a Medical Office (Paperback)

Residency is over, and now it's time to get a real job and get on with your career. This book offers lots of advice - sometimes brilliant, sometimes silly. But always blunt and easy to understand. The author does not waste a lot of words being "nuanced".

First, the brilliant advice: group practices are often in chaos because there is no ultimate boss; doctors who do not know how to benchmark business processes and read financial statements are asking for their office managers to rob them blind; cost control should permeate all aspects of your activity; and insurance companies will yank around those they can yank around.

The author offers countless "pearls of wisdom", and they reveal his bias and personality traits. The author is a micro-manager who suggests "do not hiring an office manager - just do it yourself"; and "you must make a habit of doing everybody's job, periodically". The author is is also an incredible tightwad: "My definition of a big expense is anything over $20!" The author does not mention quality of life issues - maybe being home for dinner at a reasonable hour by delegating menial tasks to others - he preaches total involvement in all matters of minutia.

The author also preaches "when in doubt, always go for a solo practice!" and he provides negotiating pearls of wisdom that virtually guarantee that no practice will ever, ever hire you (avoid non-compete clauses; insist that the insurance contracts be in your own name (and not in the name of the practice); you must be allowed to take your patients with you when you leave...

The truly bad advice comes from his definition of "computerized medical records" - he thinks that doctors should cut-and-paste simple templates in cheap word processing software. That may have been a solution back in Ronald Reagan's second term, but it is laughably inept in today's world of Electronic Health Records Software, Application Service Providers and tablet PCs. Also, his debt-averse nature implores doctors to shun home mortgages: "The one thing that will ruin you financially is your house." Either pay for it in cash, or "should you need to borrow, do not borrow more than 1-2x your annual after-taxes income." You can search near and far, but nobody else will give you that pearl of wisdom.

In summary, this book is a collection of good and bad advice. And the blunt, opinionated style that is responsible for the good advice is also the source of the bad advice.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just Okay, February 24, 2006

By 

Omer Yusaf MD (New Hartford,NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Practice Management: A Practical Guide to Starting and Running a Medical Office (Paperback)

Hi, I am a hospitalist and have been thinking of going into private practice hence the purchase of this book. Its an okay book. I was able to gather a sense of what to expect if i were to open up my practice say few months down the road. Having said that, certain aspects of the 'advice' i didnot agree to. The author is suggesting to do the following:
1. Be the MD running the practice (of course we are)
2. Be the boss of the practice (okay, if i am in solo practice)
3. Be the office manager (or try to be one)
4. Be the coder
5. Be the biller
6. Be the receptionist
7. Manage your own portfolio (financial/stock market etc).......Got the idea?

If i am a novice in the world of pvt.practice how do you expect me to be all of the above at the same time? especially initially.
I felt the book lacked all in all mature advice and it had too many open ended, general pearls of wisdom.
Would i suggest this to a peer? May be as your first book so that you can get a hang of things and to get a general idea but doubt you will find any solid advice.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars There are better books out there on this subject, June 1, 2006

By 

D Williams "www.southwestmedicals.com" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Practice Management: A Practical Guide to Starting and Running a Medical Office (Paperback)

I own an online medical supply and equipment business and am also a legal aid hotline attorney. I regularly deal with a number of physcian groups. While the author presented some good ideas, I have to say that overall this is not a very useful book. Yes, it is important to be on top of what is going on in your office but that does not mean you have to actually do everything yourself. Physicians do not learn anything about running a practice or office or managing support staff in medical school. Those duties as well as billing and coding are best left to those with training and experience in these complex areas. A good billing service can mean alot more fees collected. Hire good people and supervise them carefully, but don't be a micro-manager. The advice about computer software the books provides is outdated and inadequate for most practices. The author's suggestion to stick with a solo practice does not make sense for most physicians in today's competative market. Large groups have a competative advantage and have more leverage with insurance companies and hospitals. Plus, if you join a mult--specialty group, you have built in source of referrals. And I agree that the typos were quite distracting.