Leslie Kane, MA: Hi, I'm Leslie Kane, Executive Editor of Medscape Business of Medicine. I am here at the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) annual conference in San Antonio, and I am speaking with Dr. Susan Turney, who is the President of the MGMA and a physician. Dr. Turney has a lot of knowledge and some pretty strong ideas about what physicians need to do to remain profitable and successful in the coming years. Dr. Turney, thanks so much for being with us today.
Susan Turney, MD: Thank you, Leslie.
Ms. Kane: Given everything that is happening in healthcare, do you feel that any practice can remain independent and profitable, or do you think there are some practices that just don't have a prayer?
Dr. Turney:The world of practice management is extremely complex. We have, in our membership, 13,600 groups that represent small, large, single-specialty, and multispecialty practices. When we look at what practices need to do, not just to survive, but to thrive in the future, much of what they need is the same. They need to have data to understand the business side of medicine. They need to have the information to tell them how they are performing, in terms of both physician performance and patient satisfaction.
