You did it. You survived 2019, which was a tough (but interesting) year, earning a number of “worst year ever for” titles--Worst Year on Record for Data Breaches, Worst Year of the Decade for Job Cuts, Worst Year Ever for Hospital Overcrowding, and the list goes on. Luckily for us, the ultimate title of “Worst Year in Human History to Be Alive” actually belongs to the year 536 CE, and for a number of horrible reasons that we won’t go into detail about in this blog article.

Thanksgiving is upon us once more… and you probably have no idea how much danger we are all in.

Physician burnout is turning out to be one of those problems that never seems to go away. According to the Physicians Foundation’s 2018 Survey of America’s Physicians, medical professionals across the country continue to suffer the negative emotional and psychological effects of issues such as low morale, high pessimism (especially regarding the future of healthcare) and job dissatisfaction. Nearly 78 percent of physicians surveyed declared feelings of burnout “sometimes/often/always.” Unfortunately, many of America’s healthcare providers are overextended, overworked and struggling to maintain compliance while bogged down by an ever-increasing amount of required paperwork.

Halloween is just around the corner, and October started out with some pretty scary stuff. 2019 has already been a particularly terrifying year when it comes to ransomware attacks. Depending on how long you have been following this blog, you may recall the so-called “Ransomware Explosion” of 2016. At that time, five healthcare organizations were hit by ransomware attacks in a single month and the FBI reported a record 321 attacks in a period of only nine months, totaling $57 million in ransom payments.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services (CMS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) jointly released the official ICD-10 code changes for fiscal year (FY) 2020. This is the fourth such update to occur since ICD-10 was first officially implemented in the U.S. back in October of 2015. These code changes will go into immediate effect as of Tuesday, October 1, 2019. However, it is important to note that any claims with earlier service dates (on or before September 30, 2019) must continue to use the codes from FY2019.

In today's consumer-driven healthcare marketplace, specialty practices must do more than just treat patients. By promoting practice expertise in the community, setting yourself apart from competitors and clearly articulating how well you meet customer needs, you can create a marketing strategy that allows your practice to reach new heights.

When specialty practices expand their operations, they often run into challenges as they work to capture market share, bring in new physicians and increase revenue. The most successful organizations do some upfront planning as part of their expansion strategies to anticipate and address possible hiccups. Here are three tactics to keep in mind during planning to sidestep common growing pains.

As highlighted in our previous blog, bringing innovation that constantly seeks to be more effective while holding patients at the center of the care experience is a key factor in a successful practice; something that Nextech user, Colorado Retina Associates has been able to achieve. Although the idea of transforming your practice into a forward-thinking, high-achieving entity may seem daunting, these goals are closer than you may realize. Here are a few ways you can apply some of Colorado Retina’s philosophy and passion to take your practice to the next level.