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Running a Private Medical Practice
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Every note, newest first

All notes

Everything filed across the six drawers, in the order it was written. Each note also lives in its drawer, alongside the rest of its subject.

Notes 17

  • September 17, 2026 · Keeping people

    Turnover Cost, Calculated Roughly

    A retention argument made in adjectives loses to a budget made in figures. Most of what a departure cost is already recorded in the building, filed under other names.

  • September 13, 2026 · Getting paid

    The Contracts Nobody Has Read Since Signing

    A participation agreement signed years ago is still setting the rate and still running on its original terms, in most practices from a folder nobody has opened since.

  • September 10, 2026 · Moving the day

    Cycle Time Broken Into Segments

    A single arrival-to-departure figure reports that the day ran long. Split at the handoffs, the same data says which wait grew and who is in a position to change it.

  • September 6, 2026 · Staying independent

    Reading the Monthly Financials Next to Your Accountant

    An accountant's statement is accurate about what happened and quiet about why. The reasons are events in the building, and events do not post to a ledger.

  • September 3, 2026 · Running the systems

    The Productivity Dip After Go-Live

    Every practice that changes systems takes a hit for months afterwards. That trough is one of the more knowable parts of an implementation, and one of the least often written down before it arrives.

  • August 30, 2026 · Staying out of trouble

    Documentation and the Claim Describe the Same Visit, or They Do Not

    A claim asserts what happened at a visit. The note is the evidence for that assertion, and the two documents get written at different moments by people with different purposes.

  • August 27, 2026 · Keeping people

    Wage Compression and What People Stay For Instead

    Hiring at today's rate while existing pay moves on a budget cycle is what does the compressing. What a smaller practice offers instead only counts if providing it costs something.

  • August 23, 2026 · Getting paid

    The Credentialing Start Date Is the One You Control

    Payer review takes as long as it takes. What a practice decides is when the file goes out, whether it is complete when it does, and who watches it after that.

  • August 20, 2026 · Getting paid

    The Authorization Matrix Scheduling Can Actually Use

    A prior authorization policy establishes that the practice has a process. The person booking an appointment is asking something narrower, and asking it faster.

  • August 20, 2026 · Moving the day

    No-Shows Respond to Booking Distance

    The no-show rate gets discussed as a fact about patients. Most of what moves it was decided by the schedule, weeks before anybody failed to arrive.

  • August 16, 2026 · Keeping people

    The First Four Weeks Decide Whether Someone Stays

    Someone who leaves after two years leaves for a legible reason. Someone who leaves in the first few months usually leaves for one nobody wrote down.

  • August 16, 2026 · Getting paid

    Sorting Denials by Where They Were Born, Not by Code

    Denial codes tell you what the payer said. Point of origin tells you what to change. Those are different questions, and only one has an action attached.

  • August 12, 2026 · Keeping people

    Cross-Training Shows Up in Your Clean Claim Rate

    Most practices cross-train so someone can cover an absence. The larger benefit shows up somewhere stranger: in how many claims leave the building correctly the first time.

  • August 8, 2026 · Moving the day

    What Third-Next-Available Actually Tells You

    A full schedule and a schedule patients can reach are different things. The first open slot cannot tell them apart. The third one usually can.

  • August 4, 2026 · Staying out of trouble

    What a Risk Assessment Is Actually For

    The common pattern is a risk assessment completed once, filed, and never opened again. That produces a document. It does not produce the thing the document was standing in for.

  • July 31, 2026 · Running the systems

    The EHR Configuration Nobody Has Revisited

    Templates, order sets and result routing were configured once, under time pressure, by whoever was available. Most practices have never gone back.

  • July 27, 2026 · Staying independent

    Overhead as One Number Hides Everything Useful

    A single overhead percentage is the most-quoted number in practice finance and one of the least actionable. Split by category it starts to say something.

Or browse by drawer

  • Getting paid
  • Keeping people
  • Moving the day
  • Staying out of trouble
  • Running the systems
  • Staying independent

Before you act on any of this

This is general information about practice operations. It is not legal, medical, billing, tax, or compliance advice, and it is not a substitute for professional counsel. Reading it creates no professional relationship.

Rules differ by state, by payer, by specialty, and by plan, and they change often. Do your own research and check anything here against current regulations, your own payer contracts, and your attorney, coding professional, or compliance advisor. Decisions about your practice, your staff, and your patients remain yours.

Running a Private Medical Practice

Plain explanations of the operational work behind an independent practice or clinic. Specialty-agnostic, written by Marina Davar, a working practice manager.

The drawers
  • Getting paid
  • Keeping people
  • Moving the day
  • Staying out of trouble
  • Running the systems
  • Staying independent
Elsewhere
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General information about practice operations. Not legal, medical, billing, tax, or compliance advice, and not a substitute for professional counsel. Rules vary by state, payer, and specialty and change often. Verify anything before you act on it and consult your own advisors.

© 2026 Marina Davar Cincinnati, Ohio