Where Making Money and Making a Difference Come Together

Today is the day Blue Cross Blue Shield cuts my reimbursement rates by 11%. Yesterday I got another “FYI” (yes, that is the official name *smirk*) from Blue Cross telling me that they will no longer reimburse out of network providers directly and “are working to encourage our members to use in-network providers to contain [...]

I just heard from a colleague that she is signing off of all managed care panels effective September 1. She says she can’t grow a practice with her reimbursement rates declining and is ready to go with a managed care free practice. While I applaud her biz savvy-ness for knowing that she needs to change [...]

I learn so much from reading blogs and today Chris Brogan’s gave me lots to think about. Today he talked about Relationships and Currency. And while he talks about how relationships grow big businesses, I want to examine how they are imperative in building health care businesses, small or large. Therapists and health care professionals [...]

You know I love marketing and I sing the praises of how marketing will bring your clients! and money! and free time you never knew you had! All true. There also seem to be about 100 other people out there also telling you how to market your practice. I know some of these folks personally [...]

Health care is changing at lighting speed. If you don’t know this, or worse, don’t accept it you’re doomed. No. Really. It’s change or close shop. Whether you like it or not, health care reform is going to change the way we practice from now on. Many physicians are choosing to work for large group [...]

I just spend an hour reading a professional association list serve and now I feel like I need a stiff drink (or a large ice cream sundae–pick your poison). I’ve talked about the reimbursement cuts we are facing here in Massachusetts. For some psychologists they are a  massive income slash. We’re looking at 12-28% cuts. [...]

Psychotherapists often feel the “holy grail” of practice success is a caseload full of people who are willing to pay their full fee out of pocket. This would be ideal, since we wouldn’t need to hassle with insurance companies and could make more money, getting paid at time of service, rather than waiting for reimbursement, [...]

Health care professionals are starting to feel the sting of health care reform and the weak economy.   I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, more people will be insured and you will get paid less.  Yesterday, I read an interview with the CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield who said, we are [...]

I love summer camp.  Lake swimming, boat rowing, craft building, doing things you’ve never done before (rope climbing, canoe tipping, wearing 100 Silly Bandz at one time). Summer camp is fun, helps kids tackle new challenges and learn new things. We mental  health care professionals need a Social Media Summer Camp. Why? We need to [...]

If you’re a health care professional, chances are you know a bit about social media, possibly feel compelled to use it sometimes and you might actually be participating in the Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Blog revolution. But there can be real problems in using social media in the health care context. Whether you are in private practice or work [...]