What was the most difficult decision you made in the past year?

MGMA Connexion, Jul 2004

Business and Clinical Operations

What members are talking about

"Adding a second congenital (pediatrie) heart surgeon to our eight-surgeon group. After a long, hard look at the workload numbers and trends, and serious discussions with our incumbent congenital heart surgeon, the group decided to move forward on this initiative. Part of the decision process involved three months of negotiations with the local hospital where we perform the majority of our congenital heart surgeries to reach an agreement for them to financially support this endeavor. Then, it was simply a matter of recruiting the right surgeon for the position."

Ronald L. Evans, FACMPE, FACHE, MGMA member and executive director, South Texas Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgery Associates, San Antonio, revans@heartlungsa.com

"My most difficult challenge came when I was renegotiating our employee health benefit coverage. The insurance broker is a good friend of several of the physicians in our group but had not been representing the group's best interest. I had to convince the doctors that things needed to change. Switching our broker and employee coverage meant saving tens of thousands of dollars in employee benefit cost. In the end, we kept the broker, the friendships and worked out a new, improved coverage contract while saving a lot of money in the process."

Alien L Goree, CMPE, MGMA member and CEO, Missouri Cardiovascular Specialists, Columbia, alleng@moheartcenter.com

"My biggest decision was moving to Texas from Florida. I was with a six-physician cardiology group in Florida and was moving up to a 13-doctor group practice. I was coming into unknown territory with few or no processes in place. I had to implement policies and procedures, and we went through a state of flux in this process. We have overcome a lot, and that has given me a feeling of accomplishment."

Lydia M. Horn, MGMA member and director of business operations, Texas Regional Heart Center PA, Piano, lhorn@heartdocs.org

"Dealing with personnel clashes - some people in the office were not getting along. I had to reclassify one job description into two and have the individuals report to different supervisors."

Gloria Villarreal, MGMA member and administrator, Cardiovascular Medicine & Coronary Interventions, Redwood City, Calif., gloriavillarreal@aol.com