LAS VEGAS — In today’s healthcare landscape, many pain management clinicians in private practice are feeling the financial pinch of increasing overhead expenses and reimbursement cuts.
To complicate matters, many are simultaneously navigating uncertainties associated with the Affordable Care Act, the upcoming transition to the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10), and new state medical board rules and state laws regarding pain management.
Providing ancillary services can help private pain management practitioners stay solvent during these times of transition, according to Orlando G. Florete Jr, MD, medical director at the Florida Institute of Medical Research and the Institute of Pain Management. He discussed ways that practice owners can implement such services to boost revenue while maintaining compliance with state and federal laws.
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“Pain management providers in private practice often do not use ancillary services efficiently due to a lack of business savvy and overreliance on office managers who may be more operational in their thought processes,” said Dr. Florete.
Types of Pain Management Ancillary Services
Types of ancillary services that Dr. Florete reviewed include high-complexity drug testing, medication dispensing, and physical therapy.
Beyond being an opportunity to boost revenue, providing onsite high-complexity drug testing with radioimmunoassay, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GCMS), or high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is good clinical practice, according to Dr. Florete.