Practice finance: Learn financial essentials for career success
Dermatology is one of the most financially rewarding medical specialties, but dermatologists receive little training in how finance impacts their career. To maximize your professional potential, you should understand how practices generate revenue, how practice financial health impacts your compensation, and how to leverage that information to control your financial future.
The AAD offers resources to help you understand the essentials of practice finance. These include balance sheets and the impact of relative value units. We also help you understand how to maximize your own impact on revenue, to demonstrate your value to the practice. Finally, we help you navigate reimbursement, both with Medicare and with private payers.
Financial essentials every dermatologist should know
Every dermatologist should understand how practices make money, how those finances affect your pay, and how to use that information to make smart career and personal financial decisions. Our guide walks through the financial essentials every dermatologist should know and offers practical, actionable ways to build financial literacy and control your financial future.
Balance sheets
Understanding financial statements doesn’t have to be intimidating. Your practice’s balance sheet tells a clear story about its financial health: what you own, what you owe, and what’s left over. By reading our beginner’s guide to balance sheets, you’ll gain valuable insight into your ability to cover expenses, manage risks, and plan for future growth.
Relative value units
Relative Value Units (RVUs) are everywhere in medicine, and they are a major element in how dermatologist work is measured and compensated. Use our RVUs explained for dermatologists guide to make informed decisions about contracts, productivity, and career planning.
Demonstrate financial value for your practice
Every patient interaction, workflow improvement, and idea for growth can strengthen your practice’s success, allowing you to play a key role in driving both quality and revenue. Use our six tips on demonstrating financial value for your practice to play a key role in driving both quality and revenue.
Medicare physician payment
We also support dermatologists with Medicare and MIPS, the Merit-based Incentive Payment System. Each summer and fall, we analyze the government’s Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for the year ahead, publishing tables that show the impact on RVUs used by dermatologists.
Private payer resources
Dermatologists typically receive reimbursement from a variety of private payers, too. The AAD offers private payer resources to help you succeed, including in-depth guidance on what you should look out for in private payer contracts.
We also interview experts and leading dermatologists for their insights into private payers, with select titles below.
Negotiating fee schedules: This DermWorld feature on negotiating with private payers explains how you can demonstrate your value to argue for a higher fee schedule.
Appropriate coverage for serious skin conditions deemed cosmetic by payers: Hear from dermatologists about inconsistencies in classifying cosmetic versus medical care in dermatology and how they advocate for their patients.
Payer advocacy 101: An Academy advocacy expert describes how we work with members when they encounter payer issues, bringing together staff, dermatologists, our committees, and state societies.
Payer coverage policies: Our expert explains how the Academy solicits and delivers dermatologist feedback on payer policies, advocating for the specialty.
What the Academy is doing about burdensome private payer policies: Learn from a dermatologist about our advocacy with payers on issues such as modifier 25, E/M, and prior authorization.
Payer contracts redux: Our legal expert walks you through changes in the landscape of private payer contracts.
Private payer podcasts
Dialogues in Dermatology has you covered on private payers with key issues in negotiating payer contracts (MP3) and effective appeals to payer denials (MP3).
This content was created with the particular needs of early-career dermatologists in mind. See the rest of our Career Launch resources for young physicians.
