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This column presents tips to help you master two major skills involved in communicating with patients -- listening and providing informaiton -- and will provide other pointers.

Learn how healthcare reform taxation will impact your practice.

After reviewing thousands of medical charts, and interviewing hundreds of prospective clients who were the purported victims of medical negligence, general patterns of malpractice began to emerge that repeatedly formed the basis of successful claims against providers and healthcare facilities.

Lower-income families with high-deductible health plans are more likely to delay or forego care due to cost than higher-income families who have similar coverage, according to new research.

When you spend a lot of time talking with patients in the office, you may wonder how you will finish all the work related to diagnosis and treatment on any given day, but many good reasons exist for these conversations.

The healthcare world has seen major changes in the past 30 years that have led Wall Street and hospital systems to impose paradigm shifts on medical practices willing to accept their premises and terms.

The cost of inefficient healthcare claims processes, payment, and reconciliation is estimated to be between $21 billion and $210 billion, eating up to 10% to 14% of physician practice revenue, according to the American Medical Association.

Most frequent medication errors and adverse drug events in primary care practices are due to communication problems and lack of knowledge, according to a recent study.

Congress has delayed primary care's Medicare reimbursement cut for another year. Rather that this being cause for celebration, however, it simply represents the reality that had the cut gone through, there wouldn't be much incentive to stay in the practice of medicine-and Congress knows that.

The bigger and thicker your policy manual is, the more you may be choking the health and growth of your practice.

Although the recently passed legislation that creates a 1-year extension of current Medicare physician payment rates is a step up from the series of shorter-term patches witnessed during 2010, it is "only one step toward a permanent solution to the flawed sustainable growth rate formula that threatens deep Medicare payment cuts and the financial viability of primary care physician practices," according to Roland Goertz, MD, president, American Academy of Family Physicians.

Medical societies representing the 50 states and the District of Columbia and 57 national medical specialty societies have requested that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services use the $200 million from Congress to provide physicians with overdue Medicare reimbursements for payments that they should have received in 2010.

Surgeons married to physicians appear to face more challenges in balancing their personal and professional lives than do surgeons whose partners work in a nonphysician field or stay at home, according to a recent study.

Family physician Gregory Oliver, DO, has always had an interest in business, although it wasn't until his late 30s when he became an employed hospital physician that his interest deepened.

Letters discuss social networking and practicing solo.

An independent physician organization in Massachusetts representing 1,800 doctors and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Inc. signed a multi-year contract that pays physicians with a modified global payment model designed to encourage cost-effective care rather than reward doctors for the quantity of the care they deliver to patients.

Sigmund Freud regarded acting out as a clinical concept related quite specifically to psychoanalytic treatment. During treatment, patients' actions may represent the only way repressed memories and wishes initially find their way to the surface.

You can be prepared for increasing taxes.

Learn whether Medicare is paying for preventive services, how to bill for meningococcal vaccine, as well as coding for Medicare Advantage plans.

Learn whether you are responsible to pay off debt in your deceased spouse's name.

The best way to maximize payment from insurers for the services your practice provides to patients is to keep your knowledge current regarding American Medical Association Current Procedural Terminology coding so that you correctly report your services to the payers the first time you submit a claim.

A fully automated cell phone-based telemonitoring system that involves patients in their care significantly improved blood pressure control among patients who had diabetes and uncontrolled systolic hypertension, according to a study by Alexander G. Logan, MD, of the University of Toronto, and colleagues.

Insufficient privacy protection with social networking sites such as Facebook may have an impact on the doctor-patient relationship, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

Americans remain divided over the nation's healthcare reform package, with 40% of adults wanting to repeal all or most of the legislation while 31% favor keeping all or most of the reforms, and 29% uncertain, according to results of a poll.

The most current Report to the Nation on Fraud by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimates annual fraud at $952 billion, an increase of more than 46% from the 2008 figure of $652 billion.

It's natural for people to worry about that which they do not understand. As learned professionals, our reassurance can go a long way toward soothing our patients.

The consequences of incomplete information at the point-of-care can be inconvenience, inefficiency, increased costss, and adverse, even life-threatening outcomes for patients.

Understand how Social Security spousal benefits work.