Self-Assessment Questions

This section provides a review. Mark each statement on the Answer Sheet according to the factual materials contained in this issue and the opinions of the authors.

Article One (pp. 293–300)

1. Which of the following government organizations exists to assist small businesses?

   • Agency for Healthcare Research

   • Department of Economic Development

   • The National Federation for Independent Business.

   • Small Business Administration

   • Small Business Development Center

2. What is an example of a fixed cost?

   • Payroll

   • Supplies

   • Rent

   • Cost of goods sold

   • Credit card fees

3. Which of the following is an example of a mixed cost?

   • Payroll

   • Credit card fees

   • Rent

   • Cost of goods sold

   • Property tax

4. Which of the following is an example of a variable cost?

   • Payroll

   • Supplies

   • Rent

   • Cost of goods sold

   • Property tax

5. Which of the following is the most common encounter to create a first impression for a medical clinic?

   • Walking in the clinic door

   • Calling the clinic to schedule an appointment

   • A greeting at the front desk

   • The cleanliness and design of the waiting area

   • Advertisements

   Article Two (pp. 301–315)

6. Which of the following is not a key driver of office productivity in a practice that dispenses hearing aids?

   • Office traffic/new patients

   • The ability to fit premium technology

   • Average selling price/gross margin

   • Conversion rates

7. According to the author, there are several categories of key performance indicators (KPIs), but the two most useful in an audiology practice are quality KPIs and

   • internal business process KPIs

   • employee KPIs

   • financial and operational KPIs

   • hearing aid KPIs

8. KPIs can be displayed in which of the following ways?

   • Executive dashboard

   • Line graphs with trend line

   • Bar graphs with trend line

   • All of the above

9. For a medically oriented practice that does a substantial amount of diagnostic testing, which of the following is a good benchmark for gross hearing aid revenue as a percentage of total gross revenue?

   • 90%

   • 70%

   • 50%

   • 30%

10. According to the article, which of the following outcome measure can be easily used as a quality KPI because it broadly measures outcome with few questions?

    • Client Oriented Scale of Improvement

    • APHAB

    • International Scale of Improvement for Hearing Aids

    • All of the above

    Article Three (pp. 316–324)

11. Using personal photographs, diplomas, and orderliness of the office space are design evidence of

    • interpersonal sensitivity

    • egalitarian presence

    • proxemics zones

    • monochromatic design

    • none of the above

12. Subliminal cues that may be used to facilitate mutual participation include all but

    • chairs at equal heights

    • shared computer screens

    • pink walls

    • dim lighting

    • small conversational grouping

13. Areas of patient-controlled space should include all except

    • entry door to reception area

    • the test booth

    • 1.5 feet around the waiting room chair

    • patient seating area to professional area entry

    • checkout desk

14. Practice-based evidence

    • is practice specific

    • is collected within a short period of time

    • is less rigorous than evidence-based design

    • means data can be collected through multiple and variable modes

    • all of the above

15. The “halo effect” refers to:

    • providers being very good at their job

    • bright lighting

    • round conversational grouping

    • happy employees effect on patient satisfaction

    • use of religious artwork in the decor

    Article Four (pp. 325–339)

16. What are the two primary avenues for reaching your target audience with your message?

    • Inside and outside marketing

    • Internal and external marketing

    • Static and active marketing

    • Targeted and shotgun marketing

17. Branding is

    • your business “why”—what you stand for

    • developed from your core values

    • a new logo for your business

    • A and B

    • A and C

18. The percentage of the return on investment

    • is calculated by number of calls received divided by cost of goods × 100

    • is calculated by total marketing dollars spent divided number of units sold × 100

    • is calculated by total net income from marketing dollars divided the total cost of marketing × 100

    • is not an important metric to calculate

19. It is recommended that outreach physician marketing efforts be conducted

    • monthly

    • quarterly

    • biannually

    • annually

    • whenever time permits

20. A metric used in tracking successful marketing efforts is called the

    • key perception indicator

    • key performance information

    • kept protection index

    • key performance indicator

    Article Five (pp. 340–347)

21. Due to recent legislation, which type of payment structure is becoming increasingly more common?

    • Fee-for-service

    • Balance-billing the patient

    • Pay-for-performance

    • Writing off what the insurance company deems beyond “reasonable and customary”

    • None of the above

22. According to managed care contracts, the “allowed amount” is

    • all the patient is responsible for paying, other than a copay (if it applies)

    • the amount the patient can be billed for—the difference of the allowed and billed amount as long as it is consistent with the practitione×s usual fee schedule

    • the amount the patient can be billed for—the difference of the allowed and billed amount regardless of the practitioner's fee schedule, allowing for patients to be billed an amount consistent with the complexity of the visit

    • greater than what is typically billed for the services of the audiologist

    • a term that is no longer used

23. The NPI

    • is an acronym for no payment indicated

    • is the 10-digit national provider identifier

    • is not required for Medicare providers

    • is an acronym for National Patient Index

    • is varies in the number of digits according to the practitioners pay-forperformance rating

24. The Merit-Based Incentive Program (MIPS) is designed to be a point system with a practitioner being able to earn up to

    • 100 points

    • 50 points

    • 1,000 points

    • 1 point for every patient seen

    • none of the above

25. The MIPS program will become effective in 2019; which type of practitioner will not be eligible to participate for the first 2 years?

    • Physician

    • Physician assistant

    • Audiologist

    • Nurse anesthetist

    • None of the above if the practitioner has an NPI

    Article Six (pp. 348–358)

26. Population demographic shifts and increase in hearing health care utilization trends suggest that the supply of audiologists is

    • robust, slightly exceeding future demand

    • equal to future demand

    • marginally lower than needed to meet future demand

    • significantly lower than needed to meet future demand

27. Use of assistants in medical professions is

    • very limited; audiology is unique in its adoption of assistants

    • rather rare; most disciplines confine care to the highest level providers to ensure quality

    • widespread; care extenders are used in most medical fields to increase efficiency

28. Which task is not recommended for assistants?

    • Attaching hearing aids to Noah programming systems

    • Conducting audiometric evaluations on patients with bilateral sensorineural loss

    • Completing hearing aid orientations with patients (care and use)

    • Device malfunction troubleshooting of walk-in patients

29. Which best describes regulation of audiology assistants in the United States?

    • There is variety across the states; some license them, some register them, some certify them, and other states have no regulation.

    • All states have some form of regulation of audiology assistants.

    • Since 2001, states have adopted the uniform standards as recommended by the joint American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and AAA task force. Some states use licensure, others registration, but the qualifications for assistants are now uniform.

    • The federal government, via the Food and Drug Administration hearing aid regulations, has promulgated rules that serve to ensure minimum qualifications of assistants in those states without licensure laws that govern assistants.

30. Which is the most accurate description of billing of audiologic evaluations (92557) to Medicare?

    • Testing must be personally provided by an audiologist or a physician.

    • Testing can be conducted by an assistant and billed to Medicare, so long as the professional component (test interpretation) is completed by either an audiologist or physician.

    • Testing can be conducted by an assistant and billed to Medicare, so long as the professional component (test interpretation) is completed by a physician.

    • Both the technical and professional components can be provided by an assistant, so long as the assistant is licensed in that state.

    Article Seven (pp. 359–368)

31. According to Kasewurm, the greatest opportunity that exists for audiologists is

    • Helping children to hear better

    • Providing a full range of diagnostic services to all age patients

    • Convincing more patients to take our advice to get help for their hearing loss

    • Offering aural rehab services to patients

32. The most common objections that audiologists hear from patients when presented with the recommendation to purchase hearing aids include all but which of the following

    • I want to think about this decision

    • My employer won't allow me to wear hearing aids

    • My loss isn't bad enough for hearing aids

    • Hearing aids cost too much

33. The goal of an effective pricing strategy should be to:

    • Match the price to that of your closest competitor

    • Charge the manufacturer's suggested retail price

    • Find a price that is midway between the highest price in your area and the lowest price in your area

    • bFind the price at which profit is maximized and demand is not affected

34. The pricing strategy of a business should incorporate which of the following factors:

    • Fixed and variable costs

    • Pricing of the competition

    • Company objectives

    • Target demographic and their willingness to pay

    • All of the above

35. Patient referral programs have been found to be effective in increasing the number of new patients coming into the practice but Kasewurm cautioned that an effective patient referral program must be

    • An intentional, well planned program

    • Connected with a specific incentive

    • Casual and not intimidating to patients

    • Executed by the Dr. and not by the staff

    Article Eight (pp. 369–378)

36. Unlike ____, ______ has remained primarily a private-practice driven occupation in 2016.

    • Pharmacy, optometry

    • Optometry, pharmacy

    • Dentistry, optometry

    • Optometry, dentistry

    • Dentistry, pharmacy

37. Between 2005 to 2013, the percentage of American Academy of Audiology members working as a “clinical staff audiologist”

    • declined from 81 to 74%

    • declined from 61 to 56%

    • increased from 54 to 59%

    • increased from 71 to 78%

    • remained roughly the same

38. According to MarkeTrak 9, what percentage of adults had their hearing “screened” during their last physical examination by a physician?

    • 7%

    • 14%

    • 19%

    • 23%

    • 31%

39. Which of the following is not a limitation on the hearing and balance screening benefit provided by the Medicare Part B in the “Welcome to Medicare” examination?

    • It must be administered by a physician.

    • It is limited to questionnaires only.

    • It is only available for the first six months after enrollment.

    • It has been available since 2005.

40. Which is not one of the 12 “forces” of technology identified by Kelly (2016)?

    • Screening

    • Becoming

    • Interacting

    • Remixing

    • Revising