Austin Stone
As a practice manager in the ever-changing field of Ophthalmology, I am excited to be apart of a community of support. I have been in the industry since 2017 with a focus on Revenue Cycle and Practice improvement. I have managed multi-specialty clinics and surgery centers down to single-provider practices looking to grow. I look to bring my passion and knowledge to this community to help your practice grow into everything you want it to
October 22 8 min read
Refractions are such a large part of our industry and seem to be undervalued and misunderstood in many scenarios. As many refractions that providers perform during the year, I often receive twice as many questions. We find that questions about refractions come from both the patients but also your staff. First, as a practice, you must define the importance of this routine test and the impact it has on the care you provide. Once the clinic (...) Read more
December 22 8 min read
When you hear MIPS, do you get a slight twinge in your stomach? I know I do; it can be a daunting task to monitor performance for an entire year that will directly impact your financial compensation. If you are not familiar with MIPS, it is a Merit-based Incentive Payment System that Medicare has established for healthcare providers. Medicare has set a standard of care for several areas in each specialty. Based on data in your EMR system, provide (...) Read more
December 28 8 min read
Do you know the beauty of being mostly digital in the healthcare field? It is access to unlimited data points created each day. Although this data can be daunting or make no sense, we can put it to good use if you have a direction you are looking to move your clinic. It is more important now more than ever to understand the most efficient way to run your clinic without damaging patient satisfaction. In the face of COVID-19, we've revamped (...) Read more
March 17 8 min read
Is office conflict a major point of contention in your role? One of our key leadership roles is managing multiple personalities that come to work each day. Sometimes it is a simple miscommunication, and other times we are looking at serious issues with major consequences. If you are in a smaller practice like me, you may not have access to an HR representative, and that can be stressful when trying to deal with conflict professionally and legally (...) Read more
April 01 8 min read
Is the practice you are working at being purchased? Have you been through an acquisition or purchase before? If not, it can be very intimidating and cause enormous stress for you and your staff. A lot of practices are merging or selling due to the constant changes in Medicare rules and the reimbursement from payers. This is a trying time in healthcare. These changes may be scary, but a lot of times they are necessary. Pre-COVID, I would su (...) Read more
July 21 8 min read
In 2014 when the HIPAA laws went into effect, one major component was the need for practices to hold electronic medical records and no longer hold paper charts. The impact this policy had on small doctor's offices was tremendous. Although that was not very long ago, the programs have come a long way. You may be working on out-of-date or clunky programs. If you feel like this is you, it is time for a change! Shopping for a new EMR can seem like a (...) Read more
August 20 8 min read
Have you ever wondered what KPIs mean and why so many fortune 500 companies talk about them and the importance of tracking them? KPI stands for Key Performance Indicators. KPIs help you measure and identify business trends that are important to the health of your business. Setting KPIs in each aspect of your practice will help measure success and where you want to go. In healthcare, multiple areas can be measured using KPIs. Looking at out (...) Read more
March 04 8 min read
Are you looking to expand your practice? Looking to obtain new patients or maybe to increase your presence in surgeries? Co-Management is a fantastic way for Ophthalmologists to do this. The concept of co-management is where an Ophthalmologist and Optometrist partner up to create a full-circle care plan for a patient. Optometrists cannot address medical diagnoses like Cataracts; they need to refer the patient to another specialist. When op (...) Read more