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Delve into the depths of healthcare with the Physician Transformation Institute Blog. Read, reflect, and find inspiration in our stories. Don't miss out on our upcoming events — a chance to connect, learn, and be part of the transformative journey in medicine. 

The Real Reasons Why Doctors Are Burnt Out

dr. cheng ruan Mar 28, 2022

During the pandemic, doctors have realized that they offer almost no influence to public health.

There are other stakeholders involved in the decision making process and each stakeholder has their own interests. The patients, the government, the insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies all have different agendas. This leaves doctors feeling powerless and frustrated.

This frustration is compounded by the fact that social media influencers now have more influence over public health than doctors do. This is because people are more likely to trust someone with a large following on social media than they are to trust a doctor.

Doctors on social media often give conflicting advice, which...

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Biggest Fears for Doctors Speaking in Public

dr. cheng ruan Mar 20, 2022

***CME link at the bottom of the blog***

For many doctors, public speaking is one of the most daunting tasks they can face. After all, when you're speaking in front of a group, you're responsible for conveying important information that could potentially help save lives.

However, public speaking was never taught in medical school or residency. This is something that is a missing link to medicine, esepcially with the newly popularized group visits (shared medical visits) I covered Integrative Practice Builder.

It's no wonder, then, that so many doctors have fears about public speaking. Here are some of the most common ones:

1. Fear of embarrassing themselves

Doctors are used to being the...

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Why Doctors Selling Their Practice Usually Get Ripped Off

dr. cheng ruan Mar 17, 2022
**CME Link for reflecting on this post available at the end of this post**

The best time to consult with exit strategy advisors is actually before you start your business. The second best time is now.

When doctors in private practice sell their business to a larger corporation, they often lose out on potential profits. Larger corporations often know that private practice doctors are not prepared for an exit strategy, and take advantage of this by offering a lower price for the practice. This can be very detrimental to the doctor, who may have worked hard for many years to build up their business. Ideally, the preparation for an exit strategy should start at least 2 years prior to target...

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Where Brain-Based Tech Companies Can Help Doctors Thrive in 2022

**CME available at the end of this blog**

"Apple recently announced a 28% profit margin. Google, 27%. Amazon, 10%. Meanwhile healthcare services profit margins across the entire industry in 2021 were just 4%." - Forbes Article

Well this is incredibly disturbing.

Healthcare is already expensive enough, but a 4% margin is not only bad news for doctors, but also terrible news for patients. Traditional medical practice will undoubtedly be swallowed up by larger businesses. This is what the average US private practice doctor is going through right now. It doesn't have to be that way, though.

Many technological firms have solutions to provide small and medium-sized doctor-owned or operated...

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New 2022 Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) CPT codes Can Be Effectively Used By Doctors

dr. cheng ruan Feb 25, 2022
**CME Link for reflecting on this post available at the end of this post**

How physician practices can take advantage of the New 2022 Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) CPT codes.

NOTE: this is different from Remote Patient Monitoring which I cover later in this blog.

Remote therapeutic monitoring is a brand new service description that doctors in private practices (especially those in integrative medicine practices) can use to help their patients make the necessary lifestyle changes to improve their health.

This service can be used to track patients’ progress and identify any potential problems early on. In addition, remote therapeutic monitoring can also help doctors provide...

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Why All Medical Practices Need A Dynamic Employee Handbook to Scale.

dr. cheng ruan Feb 16, 2022
**CME Link for reflecting on this post available at the end of this post**

Two huge problems plaguing medical practices

are high employee training costs and poor company culture, and they make scaling up much more challenging.

Training new employees is one of the most expensive parts about scaling up, but if you train your team well, then your medical practice will start to build momentum.

It's often hard to train new hires to do things the right way because there are so many rules and complexities involved in operations.

It's difficult to educate medical assistants, for example, because their skills and knowledge vary from one to the next. Most medical practices solely use senior...

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3 Myths Preventing Integrative, Functional, and Lifestyle Medicine Doctors From Accepting Medical Insurance

dr. cheng ruan Feb 14, 2022

**CME Link for reflecting on this post available at the end of this post**

Why do I think doctors should really take patients with medical insurance when doing integrative health? So, let's talk about some old urban legends that used to be true but are no longer valid.

Myth 1: "I don't get paid for my work. I don't get paid enough for the time I spend with patients."

That used to be true until very recently when the AMA CPT panel made some major changes- the biggest changes ever since the early 90s. It used to be that a lot of doctors view the charting process like a waste of time. Which inevitably takes time away from their patients. Because of their new criteria for E&M codes and...

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Doctors: Top 20 Signs Innovation is Toxic To Your Own Practice

dr. cheng ruan Feb 13, 2022

**CME Link for reflecting on this post available at the end of this post**

Innovation can be bad for your medical practice, espeically if you are moving too quickly, it can cause issues within your practice in regards to communication and development opportunities.

There are a number of warning signs that can help you identify whether or not innovation is toxic to your own medical practice.

1. You may be moving too quickly for your team to keep up.

Your team is constantly complaining that they need more resources, time or training/development opportunities to keep up with the changes you are making and it is taking away from patient care.

2. Ineffective communication- your team is...

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How Health Coaches Can Be Reimbursed by Medical Insurance

dr. cheng ruan Feb 12, 2022

As the new health coaching taxonomy took effect in April of 2021, health coaches began receiving reimbursements for services under the same codes used for psychological assessments and other behavioral health services.

This allowed doctors to bill insurance in their private practice for assessments by health coaches rather than using billing codes for their other allied health providers like psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers or counselors.

Let's break down how this occured.

The AMA's creation of behavioral health CPT codes went into effect on 01/01/2020 which included behavioral assessment and intervetion as part of its scope. The origin of these CPT codes were from previous...

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Top 10 Reasons Doctors Are Burnt Out and What To Do About It

dr. cheng ruan Feb 02, 2022
Scroll to bottom to claim CME

Doctors are some of the most burnt out professionals in the world. According to a study by Medscape, 54% of doctors reported feeling burnt out in 2016. This is up from 45% in 2012. I can't imagine what the numbers are now during the global pandemic.

There are many reasons for this, and it's important to address them before they cause more doctors to leave the profession altogether. In this blog post, we will discuss the top 10 reasons doctors get burnt out and what we can do about it!

 

Reason #01: Too Much Paperwork

 

One of the main reasons doctors get burnt out is because of all the paperwork we have to do. This includes filling out charts,...

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