5 WAYS TO SPRING CLEAN YOUR PRIVATE PRACTICE
By PREFERRED Therapy Providers
Spring cleaning tips to refresh your business
Spring is traditionally a time for renewal. It’s also the perfect time to refresh your healthcare business by giving it a boost with some spring cleaning. Here are 5 spring cleaning tips for your private practice:

1.Review office operations

Are your office operations running as efficiently as possible? Are there any areas that could be improved or automated? Take the time to step back and observe how your office operates, and see if there are places for improvement. Even revising one or two processes can make a difference in time and revenue.

2.Update your business plan

If it’s been awhile since you’ve updated or even looked at your business plan, spring is the perfect time to review and revise it if needed. Business goals and objectives change. Especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, you may find that certain areas of your business plan may need a tweak or two. Spend some time taking a look back at the last year – what worked well, what needs improvement and what should be eliminated. For example, did you add telehealth to your service offerings? Was is successful enough to incorporate it into your future business plans? Did you add a new type of service such as trigger point therapy? Are you targeting new types of patients? Any changes and future goals should be included in an updated business plan.

3.Refresh your waiting room

Has it been a while since you’ve refreshed your patient waiting area? Even a fresh coat of paint and new pictures on the walls can make a difference! Take a close look at furnishings to make sure that seating is clean, free of rips and stains, and side tables are decluttered. Clean the floors and carpeting. Wash windows and doors. Dust the ceiling fans and lights. You want to be sure that patients feel comfortable when they arrive for their appointments. First impressions are lasting impressions.
HIPAA BREACHES:
TIMES YOU CAN BE HELD LIABLE FOR A BUSINESS ASSOCIATE'S HIPAA BREACH
By Rose J. Willis, JD
At some point, all healthcare providers need to engage third parties to perform activities or functions on their behalf. In so doing, providers need to ensure those third parties maintain confidentiality of information learned in the course of their services. Providers must be even more vigilant when those third parties have access to certain patient information.
Providers who are considered covered entities under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) are required to properly protect an individual’s health information in compliance with the requirements set forth in the HIPAA Privacy, Security, Breach Notification and Enforcement Rules (the HIPAA Rules).

Specifically, the Privacy Rule allows such access to and disclosure of protected health information (PHI) by third parties, defined as business associates, only if the provider obtains satisfactory assurances in writing from the business associate that it will:
  • use the PHI only for the purpose for which it was engaged by the provider,
  • safeguard the information from misuse and
  • help the provider comply with some of its duties under the Privacy Rule.

The provider, and in certain situations its business associate, have direct liability under HIPAA, meaning that should either party breach certain aspects of the HIPAA Rules, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) may bring an enforcement action directly against that party. Recently, the OCR issued a fact sheet that specifically identifies the only situations where a business associate has direct liability under HIPAA.

Those 10 situations are:
LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM COLLEGE BASKETBALL
By Kevin Eikenberry
While you might not be a fan of basketball or college basketball specifically, presumably you are a fan of developing your leadership skills. As a fan of both, in watching this year’s NCAA Basketball Tournament, I see several valuable and highly transferable leadership lessons from college basketball. And don’t worry, while I am using the games as a jumping off point, this is written for the fans of leadership development, not fans of Bulldogs, Bears, or Boilermakers.

There are many leadership lessons you can learn from even casually watching college basketball. I’ve selected a few that I think are especially valuable for you to apply in your leadership life and for your development. Each of these is on display even if you only watch for a few minutes.
PREFERRED Therapy Providers is one of the largest therapist-focused networks in the US. We manage contracts for health insurance companies, HMOs, ACOs, PPOs, self-insured employers, third-party administrators, workers’ compensation carriers, auto insurance carriers, and specialty networks locally, regionally, and nationally. As a network provider, you can simplify your administrative burden and strengthen your contract portfolio. 

Contact us to learn more about how you can join the PREFERRED Therapy Providers network.