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More hospitals today are competing for patients using retail strategies, such as offering flat-rate, easy-to-compare bundled pricing, finds a new PwC report. As a result, physicians with high fees may find themselves shut out of hospital contracts. And that means less patient volume and less revenue.

Most medical practices welcome the major federal holidays and the opportunity for the entire staff to take a day off. A day when the doors are locked, however, is also a day that generates no income for the practice. It begs the question: Should the practice pay its employees a day’s wages for the holiday?

Many doctors complain that electronic health records (EHRs) drain their time, rather than create efficiencies. In fact, Deloitte’s 2016 Survey of U.S. Physicians found that seven out of 10 physicians think that EHRs reduce their productivity. Health IT experts say doctors can take these six steps to boost their productivity:

Trying to make sense of the Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act of 2015? We're here to help.

Most physicians are familiar with the necessity of Continuing Medical Education (CPE), although many ignore the impact of education on the medical practice’s employees -- one of the major assets of any practice.

There is a primary care crisis in the United States. We know it because patients only get 8-12 minutes with their primary care physician (PCP) who interrupts them within about 18 seconds and never fully listens to them. Patients are sent for tests, given a prescription or referred to the specialist even though the PCP could-with more time-have figured out the problem without a test, prescription or referral.

Many doctors emerge from their medical training with little knowledge of what and how they are paid. It seems counterintuitive that, after such extensive education, physicians still need to learn about something so fundamental that will affect the rest of their professional lives.

Despite warnings being issued frequently during the years since 1998, and despite the discussion of this issue during any Medicare training you might attend, there are still healthcare businesses that believe they can get by with waiving co-pays without a policy requiring a hardship evaluation.