Know Your Bottom Line.

Young physicians about to enter practice tend to go to work for established organizations so they will not have to learn the details of running a private practice. Many of them think that working for someone else means they don't have to be concerned about billing and collections, hiring and sometimes firing employees, and paying bills.

I thought that too when I was young. In fact, one of the reasons I chose medicine as a career was that I saw my father, who owned a small business, succumb to a heart attack in his store from constant worrying about his income. I reasoned that if I pursued a career in medicine, I would never have to worry about the daily receipts.

But when I returned to private practice a year and a half ago after being a hospital employee for 13 years, I realized how wrong I was. My partner and I encountered many problems after we opened the doors of our new practice, from hiring--and then firing--two business managers who didn't know how to do billing for a private office to cutting through red tape to get a provider number so insurance companies could start paying us.

Based on my humbling experience, I have some very important advice to give all young physicians and even older physicians who have spent most of their professional careers working for another physician or any medical organization. It is urgent that you learn the business aspect of your medical practice, even if you are not the one responsible for running it.

There are two reasons for this. First, it is important that you understand the receipts and collections process used at your practice so you'll know if you are being treated fairly by your employer. It is entirely possible that you may find, after analyzing your production and collection ...