On January 20th of this year, Joe Biden was sworn in as the United States of America’s 46th president. Like any new leader of a country, this change in the White House meant many different things for various people, businesses, and entire industries.

The new administration is a tremendous shift from the previous one, changing the nation’s landscape across the board.

No more are these changes evident than in healthcare. Biden and his administration’s approach - even at first glance - is a totally different beast than former President Trump’s. With that said, how will this impact private practices across the US?

This blog will explore the above question and then delve into urology practices, specifically.

Reimbursement is always a hot topic in urologic care, especially with regards to specific procedures. While individual payors may vary with regards to what they pay for specific evaluation and management (E&M) and procedures (CPT codes), almost all reimbursement is ultimately driven by what rates Medicare will pay and/or how many Relative Value Units (RVU’s) Medicare will assign to a specific E&M or CPT code. This post will review reimbursement trends for urodynamics in 2020 (UDS).

I am entrepreneur, so I see the business world primarily through an entrepreneur’s eyes.  My role as CEO of BHN takes me inside many large hospitals and clinics.  I am always amazed at how capital intensive these operations are.  They have a device or machine for everything, and all the people with the right skills to operate the equipment as well.  As an entrepreneur, this just does not make sense to me.  As entrepreneur I've learned to look at capital as a very precious resource.   For hospitals, it certainly makes sense to have certain devices/equipment present for critical care needs (i.e. a defibrillator), but for other assets it does not make sense.  It would seem more logical and cost effective to share some of these capital-intensive resources with other locations or even other hospitals. 

I have the benefit (and sometimes curse) of having an engineering degree and a finance degree. Due to this background I tend to analyze everything.  In dealing with clinics and hospitals of all sizes, I see numerous purchase decisions being made.  Sometimes the purchase decision is related to direct purchase of medical equipment, and sometimes it's related to a rent rather than buy decision.