MEDA 112

Chapter 2: Medical Practice ManagementChapter 3: Employees in Ambulatory Care

Objectives

• Medical Office ManagementDifferentiate among the various types of medical practice management.Define managed care and its impact on health care in general.Identify and define the different types of general liability and be able to distinguish between it and medical liability.

• Employees in Ambulatory CareState the definitions of licensure, registrationIdentify the three ways an RN can be educated then all take the same NCLEX.Distinguish among CMA, PS, NP and MLT, MT

Vignette: How did this happen?• It is 9 p.m. Thursday and you are sitting at your desk in the Midway

medical Clinic. Everyone else has gone home. Your work is not done yet; you sit back to reflect on the past 30 years. You started here as a Medical Assistant when it was a two-physician partnership. The practice grew and many changes were made. Soon there were five physicians, multiple staff and specialists, and a corporation had been formed. Because of your tenure and willingness to expand your education and responsibilities, you became the office manager. You love this job and your bosses. You are continually frustrated by the fact that you have so little time to do what you really enjoy as an office manager. Now you find yourself managing the practice and all the finances for the physicians and staff. It is more than a full-time job for you to keep track of all the insurance organizations and contracts including PPOs, federal and state reimbursement programs. As manager you want to make sure that your employers and the clinic’s clients are well served.

Group Activity

• Divide into groups (Sole Proprietor, Partnerships, Professional Service Corporations, Group Practices

• Name group reporter• Each group define their type of medical practice

management• Identify 3 major advantages and 3 major

disadvantages of their type of management• Report to class• 15 minute discussion period, 5 minute oral report

Managed Care

• Organization acts as intermediary between patient and physician

• Methods of payment• Advantages of managed

care• HMO’s• PPO’s

General Liability

• Business License• Building• Automobile• Fire, theft, and burglary• Employee safety• Bonding

Vignette

• A patient is referred to a consultant for diagnosis. The consultant’s receptionist secretary obtains the patient information, including the referring physician’s name. The receptionist secretary is not familiar with this doctor’s name, looks it up in the telephone directory, and cannot locate any information on the doctor. She comments to the patient, “I cannot find your doctor’s name in the directory. He must not be licensed to practice”. When the patient is examined by the consultant, the consultant makes some derogatory comments about the referring physician.

• The patient later tells his primary physician what the receptionist secretary and the consultant said.

Employees in Ambulatory Care

• Qualifications of personnel depends on type of practice

• Specialized offices may have specialized personnel

• Credentials regulated by training/formal education

CredentialsLicensure: strongest form of regulation; mandatory/issued by each state to practice

Registration: listed in registry; level of education requirement

Certification: most common form of regulation; granted by particular organization; voluntary

HealthCare Assistant Law

• Washington Health Care Assistant

• Regulations differ state-to-state

Homework

• Compare and contrast the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Medical Assistants Association (AAMA) Codes of Ethics. Be specific. Limit response to 1-typed page. See Appendices in back of textbook (pages 241-2420 for copies of codes. Make sure to document your sources. Worth 10 points. Homework is due Monday at the beginning of class.