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About half of all office-based U.S. physicians were in practices employing so-called ?physician extenders,? with primary care physicians being more likely to work with them than medical specialists, according to a government report.

Physician practices are steadily adopting electronic health records (EHRs), according to recent reports, and primary care physicians are leading the pack. More than 40% of practices now use EHRs, with more than 2,200 already having attested to meaningful use. Who are they and how did they do it?

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services needs to make substantial changes in methodology and distribution before physician feedback reports can be considered meaningful, actionable, and reliable for individual physicians as well as groups, according to the Government Accounting Office (GAO). The reports indicate how practices are meeting criteria that will ultimately determine their Medicare reimbursement.

Family medicine practitioners have a lower probability of being sued for malpractice than most specialties but still have at least a 75% chance of facing a lawsuit before typical retirement age, according to a new study. The good news? More than three-quarters of all claims resulted in no payments.

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) can be financially rewarding for participating physician groups, but it may take longer than expected, if the results of the physician group practice demonstration apply. Read more to find out when the risks actually resulted in rewards.

Compensation in primary care practices edged up about 2.6% in 2010, a smaller increase than in the previous year but still slightly more than specialty practices, a recent survey found. Overall, however, the news was far from good?many practices were operating at a loss.

Meaningful use incentives are a strong motivator for physicians to implement electronic health records (EHRs), but lack of funds remains the primary reason for not taking the plunge, according to a new survey. Still, practices which had stretched to buy them were highly satisfied with EHRs.

Public Citizen recently sent a letter to California Governor Jerry Brown, asking him do something about the state medical board?s failure to stop potentially dangerous doctors from practicing. The letter from the advocacy group and an earlier report got wide coverage in the news media, but most accounts failed to point out that the medical board may not have been the villain in this situation but a victim itself of California?s fiscal crisis.

The response period for the government plan to make public reports on physicians? performance may be over but not before numerous medical associations expressed some concerns. Find out why more than 80 physician organizations called for measures to increase the accuracy of the information and to allow you more opportunity to review your own data.

The filing of a lawsuit by six Georgia primary care physicians has escalated the battle against the American Medical Association (AMA)-led process that favors higher payments to specialists at the expense of primary care. Read more to learn why plaintiffs maintain that government reliance on AMA?s Specialty Society Relative Value Update Committee (RUC) violates federal law.

Physician practices may not have the wherewithal to take on much payment risk in an accountable care organization, but commercial payers can provide the support needed to make a variety of risk-sharing models work. Read more to find out how those models work.

Add effective use of technology to diet, exercise and medication compliance when it comes to helping patients control their diabetes. A study found that care for patients with diabetes was appreciably improved when their physicians used electronic health records (EHRs) extensively. And lowering A1c? There?s an app for that.

Being served with a medical malpractice lawsuit can be disturbing, but, before you panic, keep something important in mind: There is a better than even chance the suit eventually will be dropped. The author of a recent study offers advice on speeding that process along.

Is your practice inadvertently trying to double-dip when it comes to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) incentive programs? To make sure you don?t, the agency has posted new answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about how many incentives you can receive at once. The information is complicated but useful.

No amount of urging and prodding from an enormous number of physicians and their associations could persuade Congress and President Obama to use the bipartisan debt deal to repeal the controversial Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula. Even worse, the plan that actually was signed into law could mean additional Medicare reimbursement cuts for physicians.

The author discusses the advantages and disadvantages of a hybrid concierge practice.

A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine says that new information systems tend initially to increase malpractice risks for physician practices, largely because of unfamiliarity with the system and computer-related errors.

When your patients know what to do and why it is important, yet struggle to make lifestyle changes, you could consider a coaching approach. Coaching empowers patients to change ingrained lifestyle patterns and is consistent with patient-centered communication.

Rep. Tom Price, MD (R-Georgia), has introduced a bill in Congress aimed at ending the need for doctors to practice defensive medicine.

Physicians find it more difficult to refer children in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program to specialty care than they do privately insured children, according to the Government Accounting Office.

The number of adult Americans with health insurance continued to decline last year, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Find out how to set up a wireless network for your office computers.

Find out the advantages of purchasing disability insurance at a younger age.

Oklahoma likely will face the biggest shortage of family physicians due to the broader Medicaid eligibility requirements contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to a study in the New England Journal

As a physician, whether to treat a patient is up to you. And whether to discontinue treatment is up to you and your patient. The author discusses reasons why you may wish to discontinue treatment and the best way to handle each situation.

Respondents to the 2011 Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) Medical Practice Today survey said four of the top five "considerable or extreme challenges" they face relate to operational issues.

Two information systems designed to detect Medicare and Medicaid fraud are not working as well as they should, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The author discusses participating versus nonparticipating status with Medicare and opting out.