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Doctor, are you constantly asking your staff to show you the money, read on.

A doctor not only treats patients for their various physical needs but runs a business at the same time. Doctors have large overhead expenses. They pay rent, salaries, utilities, medical supplies and many other expenses. They also have to maintain their own private family home and family expenses.

Have you noticed that single practice doctors are now mostly in the past. Multiple doctors networking together is now what is expected. This cuts down on some of the overhead.

Since HMO's and other insurance plans have taken over medical insurance for most people, the medical doctor also has to change. For instance, remember the days when you actually had ten(10) minutes with the doctor. Now you may only have five (5)minutes.

The reason is money. HMO's and other insurance companies have cut the reimbursement to doctors. The doctor has to make up the difference in revenue by seeing patients in volume.

Many older doctors are now retiring thanks to HMO's and other insurance plans. The doctors are confused and angry with the change in medical care. When they went to medical school, it did not include fighting with insurance companies for medical care for their patients.

Doctors do ever wonder why your office is not bringing in as much revenue as it should? Read on.

I worked in several doctors offices over the years and I have been a patient in many. As a patient, I always observe the receptionist. I watch the interchange between the receptionist and the patients as they come up to the window to check in. Is the receptionist courteous and polite to the patient?

RECEPTIONISTS RESPONSIBILITIES:

(1) Be aware of money owed by the patient from a previous visit.

(2) Collect co pays.

(3) Make sure the patient has given you the correct insurance information. Call the insurance company and find out if the deductible has been met for the year or if there is a co pay owed.

(4) If a cash patient make sure you collect the money before the patient leaves the office.

If an arrangement has been made between the office and the patient to pay part now and part later, make sure the patient is well aware of this before they vanish forever into the sunset.

(5) Make a copy of the front and back of the insurance card.

(6) If the patient needs a referral or authorization make sure it is in the chart ahead of time. Going back and trying to get a retro leads to more paperwork and an angry patient.

(7) Make sure you have the patients correct address.

(8) Answers the phone and makes appointments.

RECEPTIONISTS multitask constantly though out the day. They have an important job. They are the spokesperson for the doctor. When a patient checks in or out of the office is when the money is collected from the patient. It can easily be missed.

MEDICAL INSURANCE BILLING:

(1) Send the claim form out correctly the first time to the medical insurance company. Take the time to check it over and make sure all information has been keyed into the computer correctly.

(2) If a mistake was made and you receive and Explanation of Benefits (EOB) back requesting medical records or whatever is needed to get the claim paid, do it immediately. This will cut down on the number of angry patient calls to you.

Billers you may not like the piles of denied Explanation of Benefits you receive back from the insurance companies but they are pure gold for getting the claim paid. The balance is usually the patients responsibility.

THE DOCTORS RESPONSIBILITY:

Sometimes, the workload is so heavy the biller gets stressed and frustrated and feels trapped. When this happens maybe, another person is needed to divide the workload.

The doctor needs to take a good look at how smoothly the office is running. How efficient is the receptionist in multitasking and collecting the money.

The doctors today need to be well informed on medical insurance and the various plans. This way the doctor can treat their patients according to what their medical plan will allow.

If during the doctors visit the patient needs an unexpected procedure etc., the procedure should be authorized with the insurance company before the procedure is performed. By treating the patient before the authorization is obtained, the doctor may not get paid for the procedure.

The explanation of benefits (EOB) from the insurance company will be denied for the reason. Not a covered benefit or no prior authorization.

The doctor must take a more active role in the running of the office and be aware of all the medical billing nightmares that pop up and why they happen.

DOCTOR - FIND THE HIDDEN MONEY SITTING IN YOUR COMPUTER:

Many times there are claims ready to be paid by the insurance company, the insurance biller must be trained to handle problem accounts.

The easiest way to find the hidden money is to run a print out of all your open accounts.

(l) Have they been followed up?

(2) Look at all the Explanation of Benefits denials that are probably stacked on a desk. This is a very good way to get a handle on what is actually happening to your money!

(3) Sometimes, all it takes is an appeal by phone or by letter to start communication once again with the insurance company.

These are some suggestions to look at in finding hidden money. This entire article can start revenue flying into your office.

Sometimes, all it takes is a kind word, a hand shake while saying, "good job" to your staff to motivate them into zoom mode and get the job done!

Today doctors and patients are trapped in escalating medical costs. What do we do about it? How can we change this?

WHEN THE MEDICAL INSURANCE SYSTEM DOESN'T WORK:

We start with the local, state and on to federal government.

EVERYBODY NEEDS MEDICAL CARE! I will repeat. EVERYBODY NEEDS MEDICAL CARE! Did you hear me in Washington. If the system doesn't work. CHANGE IT!

Please let me hear from you on this article or any of my other articles.

If you have a question on your medical bill when you have insurance check out my article listed below:

Horrifying Medical Bills With Insurance! Fight Back!

If you don't have medical insurance check out my article listed below:

When I Don't Have Medical Insurance! What Do I Do?

Everybody is entitled to medical care. Do you hear that Washington. If the system we have doesn't work. Change It!

Copyright 2006 Linda Meckler

I have worked in many doctors offices and what I have written is my observations. I have now become a published author of my first book "Ghost Kids Trilogy" a first of its kind adventure. Love, Family Values, and Charity burst off the pages. This is 3 books in 1 book. For ages 8-14 to adult.(Book 1) Ghost Kids: 2 real children and 2 Ghost Kids team up to get the Ghost Kids back to their parents. (Book 2) Blue Vase Mystery: Uncle Charlie the villain of the book is trapped in a magical blue vase. He wants out of the vase. In return he will tell the children where Pirates' Treasure is buried in their house. (Book 3) Pirates' Treasure-the hunt- Go on a treasure hunt with the children.

Check my website http://www.lmeckler.com My email lmecky@tns.net ISBN0-7414-2273-5. http://www.amazon.com or Infinity Publishing or http://www.buybooksontheweb.com With an order of 5 books = 40% discount. With an order of 20 book free shipping and handling.

50 years ago asbestos was hailed by many as a miracle product, they said nearly anything could be made from this mineral. It is used as additive to reinforce mortar and plastics. Asbestos fibers can also be separated into fine threads that do not conduct electricity and are unaffected by heat or chemicals.

In the 1970's, following the discoveries of the health dangers of asbestos dust inhalation, the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission prohibited the use of asbestos in several products that could liberate asbestos fibers into the environment during use.

Asbestos can cause dangerous diseases that call Mesothelioma cancer. These fibers lodge themselves in the lining of the lung and infected mesothelium tissue. Asbestos can trigger tumors growth between 30 to 40 years after they are inhaled.

When asbestos fibers enter the body, by either breathing in the tiny asbestos fibers or by swallowing them, they can cause healthy cells to mutate into cancer. Asbestos may also cause coughing, lung damage, and shortness of breath in the short period for inhaled this.

According to one survey, one out of seven general public who came into contact with asbestos may develop any of the poles a part types of asbestos-related cancer, including mesothelioma.

Today it is understood that anyone working with or near asbestos has an increased risk of developing mesothelioma, so there are strictly controlled limits of exposure in the work place. But since the dormancy period of mesothelioma can often be 30 or 40 years, there are millions of workers who are at risk because of their exposure in the decades before the safety controls were put in place.

Dwi Madik is a Webmaster of Mesothelioma Cancer Information site. That brings you Free Mesothelioma Cancer Articles for you who wants to discover all information about this disease.

Carpet cleaning overall is a job that is best left to professional cleaning companies. They have proper equipment, chemicals and the training to get the job done. Some people just insist on doing everything themselves though. If you are one of those people this article will give you some tips to help you get the job done right.

The first thing you need to do is prep the carpet correctly. This is the most important and most overlooked step but prep is everything. Move us much furniture out of the way as possible. Do a few rooms at a time. Do not try to do too much with a rental machine as you will end up rushing and doing a poor job. Vacuum the carpet thoroughly and slowly to get as much dry soil out as possible. Vacuum in all directions. Dry soil is much easier to remove than the mud you will get if you spray water on the dirt.

Now that you have the carpet vacuumed you are ready to apply your prespray. Most machines say to add the shampoo to the tank but this just forces you to rinse the carpet with a shampoo leaving a massive amount of residue behind. Instead get a clean pump up sprayer and spray the shampoo or cleaner on the carpet. Let it dwell for 5 to 10 minutes. Now fill the machine with plain water and extract the prespray from the carpet. Be thorough making several cleaning passes followed by a few extra drying passes to remove as much moisture as possible.

The last step is to dry the carpet as quickly as possible. Turn on ceiling fans and use portable fans if you have them. If it is a nice day you can open the doors and windows to allow for good ventilation. If it is a humid or rainy day you shouldn't even be cleaning the carpet.

That's all there is to it. Now you just need to wait for the carpet to completely dry before putting it back to use and before putting the furniture back. Never place furniture on damp carpet and be careful of the slip hazard of wet carpet. Good luck.

Learn about Corona carpet cleaning or cleaners at the authors website on local carpet care in Corona.

Thinking back over the seventeen years I spent teaching Physical Education and coaching various sports, one thing stands out to me as I read more and more about the obesity epidemic thats stalking our nations kids today. During those years I noticed that kids who could perform pull ups were never overweight. And kids who were overweight could never perform pull ups. Now I know you dont have to be a gym teacher in order to see that. Its common knowledge. Its so common in fact that I think weve overlooked it as an incredibly simple solution to childhood obesity. Let me explain.

Every Gym Teacher Knows What Im Talking About

From this simple observation that at least every other gym teacher in the nation will recognize, I drew the following conclusion. Start young (i.e. grades k, 1, and 2) before theyve had a chance to gain much excess weight, and teach them to be able to perform at least one pull up. Then teach them that as long as they maintain the ability to perform at least one pull up, they can never be much overweight. Furthermore, the more pull ups they can do, the leaner and stronger theyll be, naturally.

Now Hold Your Horses

But hold your horses here, you say. I can hear it all now. How am I going to teach my students to do pull ups when 90% of them completely despise the exercise, and whenever possible, they avoid the pull up bar like the plague? This not the military or a police academy where you can force the participants to do pull ups. This is a school. How can I teach kids to do something that theyd never practice? And even if they wanted to practice (which they dont), most of my students cant do pull ups, so they couldnt practice even if they wanted to.

So How Do You Teach Kids To Love Doing Pull Ups

These are of course good questions and I wouldnt be writing this article if I wasnt pretty sure that I had a good, quick, and practical answer in hand. So here goes. The solution to the problem is to use a height adjustable pull up bar which you can create inexpensively by hanging a chain (one inch links) solidly from a height of ten feet (picture it attached to a basketball backboard), so it reaches down to approximately three feet from the floor. This will accommodate the required height adjustment for all kids.

Now using a snap hook and a center mounted pull up bar, you can attach the bar to the chain at any height you choose. You can raise and lower the bar at one inch increments, which will allow every student in your class to find a level where they can perform at least eight LEG ASSISTED PULL UPS. That is to say you can find a level where every student succeeds in front of their peers. Failure is not part of this program.

Students Inch Their Way To Success

The strategy is to allow students to work out two to three times per week and increase their repetitions from eight to nine, ten, eleven, and twelve reps. When they can do twelve repetitions at a particular height, you move the bar up one inch and begin the whole eight to twelve rep routine all over again. What youll witness is kids inching their way up the chain over time, until eventually they run out of leg assistance. At that point theyll have learned to do real live pull ups, a feat that most of em could never do before you took the time to teach them how.

Emphasizing Self Competition

Its important to emphasize self competition over competition with other students. Every student is different, and they will start at various starting points and finish at various times. But the key ingredient is that each student makes visible progress regularly. Its important they see that they are better this week than last week, better this month than last month, which means that if they persist, they will reach the goal of being able to physically pull their own weight.

Some Will Need To Make Adjustments

Now in order to reach this end goal, some kids will have to adjust their nutritional intake and lose a little weight. Others may want to add some calorie burning aerobic work to accomplish a similar goal. And still others may want to experiment with the time of day they when work out, or the amount of sleep they get at night. Regardless, encourage them to do whatever they need to do (short of anabolic steroids) to get their chin up to the bar without needing of leg assistance. Interestingly enough, you will find that the kids will make those adjustments naturally, on their own because when its presented right, public success is built into the program right from the get go. And as successes are piled on top of successes in very thin slices, they add up to big successes, and the feeling that they can try something a little bit harder in front of the other kids and still expect to succeed will become more and more prevalent and resilient with each new workout.

Self Confidence Will Win The Day

Before you know it, the self esteem and self confidence that comes from succeeding in public will be visible in the way the student approaches all kinds of new tasks, from the pull up bar to memorizing their multiplication tables. When that yes I can attitude is firmly in place and has permeated every pore, you the gym teacher will have done much more than giving them a functional tool with which to avoid obesity for the rest of their lifewhich in itself is no small feat today. You will also have given those students an inner strength that will carry them through school, through the workplace, through the ups and downs of modern day family life. You will effectively give them the green light that will help them battle their way through the challenges that life inevitably offers, and the persistence to come out the other side with a smile on their face and a cup half full instead of half empty. And if you do, you will be the best teacher these kids will ever know. Not too bad for teaching kids to do pull ups, wouldnt you agree?

Beginning of Side Bar

What Should The Gym Teachers Goal Be?

I suggest that you find a starting place for every member of your class at the beginning of the school year. Youll discover right off the bat that some will be able to do regular pull ups, while others will need to use the leg assisted technique to learn how. With this thought in mind, the gym teachers goal in my view should be to monitor the percentage of kids who can do regular pull ups, and to make sure that percentage is always going up. For example if ten percent of your class can do real live pull ups at the beginning of the year, it would be great if fifteen could do it by semester time, and twenty percent by the end of the school yearalthough you may do much better than that. In short, the closer we get to having all students vaccinated against obesity by maintaining the ability to physically pull their own weight, the closer we will be to winning the war on obesity.

End of Side Bar

Rick Osbourne is a Chicago based writer who currently serves as Executive Director of Operation Pull Your Own Weight, an informational web site that's dedicated to naturally immunizing kids against obesity for a lifetime without pills, shots, or special diets. If you're interested in childhood and obesity, then check out http://www.pullyourownweight.net any time. Osbourne is also a public speaker, and hes recently published an e-book entitled Operation Pull Your Own Weight: A Radically Simple Solution to Childhood Obesity (http://booksonboard.com/index.php?BODY=viewbook&BOOK=139219) that provides practical minded parents and educators with a simple, functional, affordable, and infinitely measurable antidote to childhood obesity.

Buy a filing cabinet. A big one. That's my advice for aspiring direct mail copywriters, creative directors at direct mail agencies, and marketing managers who want to improve their direct mail results as quickly as possible.

The quickest way to master the craft of direct mail copywriting and design is to learn from others. So you'll need a cabinet with two drawers, minimum.

Across the label on the top drawer, write: SAMPLES.
Across the label on the bottom drawer, write: RESEARCH.

Now you're set.

From this day forward, keep every piece of direct mail you receive that's relevant to what you sell, how you sell or to whom you sell. Keep postcards, self-mailers, letters, entire packages, dimensional mailers. Keep them all.

Now create some hanging files in the top drawer, and file the direct mail you receive, using a system that makes sense to you. You could file by type of mailer (see above). You could file by industry (financial services, insurance, telecommunications). You could file by component (envelopes, letters, reply devices, coupons, vouchers, premiums).

Now, whenever you're hunting for a creative way to tweak your envelope teaser, craft a compelling offer or get the most out of the limited real estate on a self-mailer, turn to your sample drawer and look for ideas.

Now boot up your web browser and visit the websites of all the trade publications that deal with direct marketing, direct mail and your industry or niche. Subscribe to their print trade publications and their email newsletters. You'll find a list of these trade publications listed at www.sharpecopy.com/links.html

Now create some hanging files in your bottom drawer and label them using a system that makes sense to you. Into these files place every article that deals with direct mail marketing, so use a system that's logical and easy to remember. Save time by creating a new folder only when you have an article to put in it. My drawer looks like this:

Branding
Buckslips
Catalogs
Databases
Design
Dimensional mailers
Email marketing
Envelopes
Freemiums
Guarantees
Headlines
Insert media
Involvement devices
Lead generation
Lists
Mathematics of direct mail
Newsletters
Offers
Personalization
Postage
Postcards
Premiums
Printing
Privacy
Response devices
Results
Self-mailers
Strategy and planning
Testimonials
Testing
Variable data imaging
Vendors
Vouchers
Websites and landing pages
White papers

Buying a filing cabinet did more for my direct mail copywriting business than anything else. Those two drawers forced me to think critically about every direct mail piece that landed through my mailbox and every article I read on the topic. That filing cabinet changed the way I look at direct mail, changed the way I read trade publications.

That filing cabinet also helped me retain what I learned about direct mail, literally. And if you're 47 years old and losing your hair, and if you spend your evenings running after a three-year-old and a five-year-old, and if you're the breadwinner in the home, and if your day planner is full, then you appreciate any tool that helps you remember what you learn (so you can use that knowledge to boost your direct mail results).

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About the author
Alan Sharpe is a direct mail copywriter who helps business owners and marketing managers generate leads, close sales and retain customers using direct mail and email marketing. Learn more about his creative direct mail writing services and sign up for free weekly tips like this at www.sharpecopy.com.

2007 Sharpe Copy Inc. You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the "About the author" message).