Until recently, the weakest link in my “HIPAA security” chain was my mobile phone. Like many of you, I now keep my calendar on my phone, and I was worried about what would happen if my phone were stolen. I have an application that allows me to log-in to my computer and remotely wipe everything off the phone, and of course I enabled a password lock to even use the phone, but I was still worried. Why? Because my phone, like many, uses a micro-card called an SD card that is easy to remove and be read on a computer, any computer. And, that is where all of the calendar and contact data is stored. [click to continue…]

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Of course, they may have broken it in the first place, but who ever knows, in these situations? All I know is that a new member wrote to say they had signed up, and now couldn’t log in. She was just getting a blank screen with a header. Errrgh! [click to continue…]

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It’s not often that a post on this blog would also be one I’d post to my practice blog, but this one gets “double duty”. Sometimes, while we’re focused on how to work more, and how to work smarter, we also need to focus on what our true goals are.

I picked up a book from 2006 (that’s right, before the financial “meltdown”) called “The Number” by Lee Eisenberg. It was largely about how people tend not to plan properly for retirement, or about their finances in general. Very interesting, by the way, to see some of his points about excessive personal debt and related things, in light of what’s happened in our economy since the book was written.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a description of an exercise that I have used for many years in my practice. [click to continue…]

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In our last post, I mentioned Casey Truffo’s 4 marketing personality types with a link to an article describing them briefly, and a mention of her book “Be a Wealthy Therapist” which describes them more fully.

The 4 types are Introvert, Extrovert, Techno Lover, and Creative. Whatever type or types fit you best, there are marketing tasks that will feel comfortable that you can start doing immediately. I really believe that 90% of success is just “showing up”. So what marketing tasks have you decided are worth your time and commitment? [click to continue…]

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Even though we may all be therapists or other sorts of helping professionals, we all have different sorts of personalities. The type of marketing you do is going to be heavily influenced by your personality type. Casey Truffo, therapist and practice coach extrordinaire, has come up with 4 “marketing personality types”. Take a look at her article, or go a little further and read her book “Be a Wealthy Therapist”, to determine what your main marketing personality type is. If more than one fits, don’t worry; it just means more comfortable options for you. [click to continue…]

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Doing your marketing is a lot like starting on a new exercise or eating plan. We’re always thinking about the goals, when it makes more sense to focus on the process.

What does this mean? It means determining what behaviors you need to do to achieve your goal, and then setting up a way to make sure you do those behaviors. [click to continue…]

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In previous posts I’ve written about the HIPAA HITECH regulations that basically require anyone who has experienced a computer breach that involves loss of Personal Health Information (PHI) to notify those affected. For a private practitioner, a truly horrifying part of the regulation is that if the breach involves over 500 individuals, then a press release must be issued. [click to continue…]

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If you are in private practice and deal in any way with insurance, you have probably registered for your National Provider Identification number by now.

I recently read a post somewhere that said that many therapists had mistakenly included their social security number, federal employer number, or other private information in this registration. [click to continue…]

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Do you know all you should about the ethics of Twitter, Facebook, and yes, blogging, as it involves therapists? I don’t, but I’m learning. I’m in the middle of an online course by Drs. Keely Kolmes and Ofer Zur, and I’m really enjoying it. [click to continue…]

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