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Whether to switch to a concierge practice is weighed.

The U.S. Congress passed a bill in December that exempts doctors, nurse practitioners, and non-medical professionals from the Federal Trade Commission's "Red Flags" Rule, which helps protect consumers from identity theft.

To settle or not to settle? Read the article to determine how to discern the best choice.

Policies that require physicians to ask permission from a patient's insurance company before performing a treatment negatively impact patient care, according to survey results.

Physician-patient encounters are full of teachable moments.

Medicare provides access to physician care that is equal to or even better than care available to Americans with private plans, according to a survey conducted in September 2010 from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC).

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

Lower-income families in high-deductible health plans are more likely to delay or forgo care due to cost than higher-income families who have similar coverage, according to researchers from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars program, Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Most frequent medication errors and adverse drug events in primary care practices are communication problems and lack of knowledge, according to a recent study. Researchers from the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine studied urban, suburban, and rural primary care practices in California, Connecticut, Oregon, and Texas that used MEADERS (Medication Error and Adverse Drug Event Reporting System) for 10 weeks, submitting 507 confidential event reports. Of the reports, 70% included medication errors only, whereas 2% included both medication errors and adverse drug events. Average time spent reporting an event was slightly more than 4 minutes.

When researchers in Massachusetts used a computer-automated safety surveillance system of clinical outcomes registries for cardiovascular devices, they were able to identify a drug-releasing stent that had significantly higher rates of major adverse cardiac events than similar stents.

The American Medical Association has adopted a new policy in an effort to help physicians maintain a positive online presence and preserve the integrity of the patient-physician relationship.

Medical practices lag behind hospitals in their past efforts and future plans to address security issues related to electronic health records, according to responses to the 2010 HIMSS Security Survey, sponsored by Intel and supported by the Medical Group Management Association.

Patients are significantly more likely to abandon at the pharmacy prescriptions submitted electronically than those dropped off in person, according to the results of a study appearing in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Four primary care physician membership organizations issued a set of principles for Accountable Care Organizations, where a group of healthcare professionals accept a shared responsibility to deliver a broad set of medical services to a defined set of patients across the age spectrum and are held accountable for the quality and cost of care provided through alignment of incentives.

Determine whether to roll over a 401(k) or leave it be.

Discover ways to finance for a new office in your practice.

Consider best approaches to enhancing call coverage.

Experience with certain patients inevitably become retained as "teaching points," both positive and negative, to be tucked away for use in future patient care.

One physician and his physician wife made a pledge early in their careers that they would not treat family members.

Learn of new PECOS regulations to ensure reimbursement in 2011.

As an increasing number of physicians migrate to electronic health records to replace their paper charts, concerns have been growing about the possibility of information being wiped out or no longer accessible.

Adding pharmacists to the primary care team in the office may help patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes better manage associated risks, according to a new study.

Daniel Z. Sands, MD, a practicing general internist, spoke at the American Academy of Family Physicians' Scientific Assembly about how engaging patients online can improve treatment adherence, lifestyle improvements, and outcomes.

Learn how to stay up with the competition that retail clinics offer to consumers.

Being diagnosed with sarcoidosis changes physician's perspective on practice of medicine.

Understand the difference between load and no-load mutual funds.

"Wow, that was easy!" How wonderful it would be if you could utter those words once your transition to electronic health records was complete.

What specialty in medicine compromises the quality of its work based on its model of care? The author of this article points to primary care.