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What would happen to your patients if you could no longer practice medicine? Will your practice continue after you retire? What will happen to your staff or your colleagues? Every business owner and professional, no matter how passionate about a career, will eventually leave. Planned and unplanned life events such as retirement, death, physical or cognitive disabilities — or maybe a career change to teaching or writing — can trigger your departure from medicine. Developing an exit strategy will help you make business decisions that lead to a well-planned exit while also preparing for unforeseen circumstances.

Balancing personal and family time with your responsibilities as a physician may be one of your biggest challenges, especially if you are a self-employed physician in a solo or small practice since time off can mean no income for you and your staff. If you have wrestled with striking a balance between running your practice and having time for yourself and your family, there’s hope. Hiring a locum tenens during your absence may provide a solution that will allow you to take time off work to re-energize both body and mind and return to work with a renewed focus and sense of purpose without a negative financial impact.

The benefits of using social media in a medical practice are becoming increasingly clear, which makes the pressure to get involved even greater. As medical practices become more sophisticated at using social media for knowledge sharing, marketing, and other forms of communication, those who fail to participate will fall behind. These social media tips for medical practices can help you get started.

In 2017, sexual harassment claims dominated news coverage and social media forums. Claims of sexual misconduct and harassment have certainly clouded — if not ended — the careers of once powerful and publicly respected celebrities, and the #MeToo movement has encouraged and empowered many ordinary people to come forward with their stories of being harassed and treated inappropriately. The healthcare field is not immune to claims of sexual harassment.

A common scenario in email security breaches is seen when a billing service sends a bill to an incorrect email address. In most practice arrangements, a third-party billing company will have signed a business associate agreement. According to HIPAA, business associates must inform covered entities when they discover a security breach; however, HHS gives covered entities and business associates flexibility in defining, in the business associate agreements, how and when a business associate should notify the covered entity of a potential breach.¹ Consider the following case. (Please note that the following case focuses on the clinic’s responsibility to analyze the risk and perform the breach notification, even though the breach was caused by a business entity.)