Rheumatology Practice Management
Subscribe to Rheumatology Practice Management

Stay up to date with rheumatology news & updates by subscribing to receive the free RPM print publications or e‑Newsletters.

RPM e-Newsletter
RPM print publication

AUA Practice Managers’ Network a Resource for Urology Practices

As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, managers and administrators of urology practices have a constant they can rely on. For 14 years, the Practice Managers’ Network (PMN), a resource offered through the American Uro­logical Association (AUA), has offered support to management teams across its spectrum of membership.

Rick Rutherford, Director of Practice Management for the AUA, started the AUA PMN when he was asked by the association to help provide services to practices of 1 or 2 urologists. From there, PMN’s listserv was born, among other services for urologists, practice managers, clinic chief executive officers, and others who need to keep up with the constant changes to the business side of urology.

“People who subscribe to the PMN can send questions to the listserv 24 hours a day, and they can also provide responses to other people’s questions,” said Mr Rutherford. “Just some of the things that have been discussed lately are how people do their accounting and payroll—whether they use a CPA [certified public accountant], and someone external or internal.…We prohibit users from discussing their actual fees, for antitrust reasons, but beyond that, they share a lot of information: everything from where the cheapest place to buy medical supplies might be to where to get prostate cancer drugs when they’re in short supply.”

Richard A. Schoor, MD, PC, an independent urologist in Smith­town, NY, and the author of “The In­depend­ent Urologist” blog, credits the listserv as being a valuable source for practice management information for urologists.

“I opened my practice in 2006 and didn’t find out about the listserv until 2007. And there were lots of mistakes I wouldn’t have made if I’d known about the listserv to start with,” Dr Schoor told Urology Practice Management. “There are hundreds of decisions that need to be made in starting a urology clinic, and it would have gone a lot smoother if I had been on the listserv from day one. Once I got on the listserv, everything’s gone smoothly.”

Mr Rutherford and his staff also send out the PMN E-News every month to subscribers, providing a summary of the news that urologists can use. For example, the March 2014 edition alerted urologists to the deadlines for registering for the AUA’s coding seminars and the opportunity to participate in the AUA Quality Registry. There was also a regular feature, the ICD-10 Coding Challenge, providing support as practices at that time prepared for an expected transition to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10. Mr Rutherford introduced this in January 2014 as an adjunct to the online ICD-10 basic training that the AUA launch­ed in 2013.

Members also have access to the AUA Policy & Advocacy Brief, a newsletter that comes out via e-mail twice monthly. A recent edition focused on ICD-10, and other topics covered range from sustainable growth rate (SGR) reform to features of the Affordable Care Act.

In addition, the AUA’s Coding Hotline is staffed by professional coders who help urologists to ascribe codes to complicated surgical procedures, or provide assistance when a claim has been denied because of improper coding.

Janet F. Bernstein, Practice Man­ager, New York Urological Associates PC, New York, also attests to the positive impact of the features of membership in PMN.

“I don’t know how anyone practicing medicine today can keep up with all the regulatory changes without a partner. For our practice, it is the AUA Practice Management Network,” Ms Bernstein wrote in an e-mail to Urology Practice Manage­ment. “We relied on the network for understanding CMS [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services]’s requirements for PQRS [Physician Quality Reporting System], Mean­ingful Use, ICD-10, CPT [Current Procedural Terminology] coding issues—just to mention a few issues. This is in addition to their ongoing educational symposiums for practice management.”

Mr Rutherford and colleagues are also available to provide other forms of support, such as an audit service in which they review and report on coding errors from the previous few months; the cost is determined by the number of providers reviewed. Other educational offerings and support include webinars as well as the AUA’s annual meeting, which will be held in Orlando, FL, May 16 to 21, 2014. A Practice Man­agement Conference is scheduled for the first 2 days of the meeting and will include topics covering Meaningful Use 2, maximizing billing data, and establishing an effective patient portal.

For more information on PMN, visit www.auanet.org/resources/pmn-practice-managers-network-pmn.cfm. For more information on the upcoming AUA annual meeting, visit www.aua2014.org.

Related Items