HC Group provides responses to ophthalmologists' common business questions

"I just hired a new ophthalmologist. Can I bill his services under my name until I get him credentialed with the health plans?"

You may have asked your attorney the very same question about your own practice. That's what Mark E. Kropiewnicki, Esq, LLM, and Sandra E.D. McGraw, Esq, MBA, of The Health Care Group, Plymouth Meeting, PA, were hoping. Kropiewnicki and McGraw led a discussion entitled "Top 10 Things Ophthalmologists Ask Us" during the American Society of Ophthalmic Administrators symposium and congress.

"We'll be working at the office and get a call out of the blue: 'What about this?' or 'What about that?' Things that can crop up a practice. I sat down and started writing out questions. By the time I finished, I had 10 and Sandy had 10, and the partners threw in a few more. Sandy whittled it down to 10," said Kropiewnicki.

Topics included compensation, benefits, compliance issues, practice management, buying into a practice, restrictive covenants, locum tenens status, and general business protocol.