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As a physician practicing family, or internal medicine, you are more likely than your colleagues in pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, psychiatry, or other medical specialties to quality for Medicare- or Medicaid-related incentives for achieving ?meaningful use? of electronic health records (EHRs). That?s the finding of an analysis of federal survey data by Brian K. Bruen, lead research scientist in the Department of Health Policy in the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, Washington, DC, and colleagues.

If your patient population is similar to the pool of those responding to a recent survey, you?ll want to consider adding a secure online communication tool to your practice to allow patients to obtain lab results, request appointments, pay medical bills, and communicate with your offices?if you haven?t done so already.

If your practice is on the small side and plans to implement an electronic health record (EHR) system soon, an analysis of 26 primary care practices?each ranging from two to 12 physicians?in the Dallas, Texas, area may provide some insights into the financial and nonfinancial costs you?ll incur.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services levied more than $5 million in fines and penalties on a major hospital and a medical group for alleged violations of HIPAA.

Understand your rights regarding patients who refuse to pay their deductible expenses.

The president's fiscal year 2012 budget proposal sets the stage for stabilizing the Medicare physician payment system and building up the primary care physician workforce.

Six health plans in New York's Hudson Valley paid $1.5 million to 236 primary care physicians in 11 practices that achieved patient-centered medical home recognition from a national nonprofit organization.

Seventy-three percent of Americans surveyed would use a secure online communication service to make it easier to get lab results, request appointments, pay medical bills, and communicate with their doctors' offices.

Many doctors would like to manage their own investments but lack the time, energy or expertise to do so. Instead, often they seek out an investment adviser they think they can trust to handle their money.

Half of Americans oppose the "individual mandate" clause in the healthcare reform law that requires all Americans to purchase health insurance but 71% agree that healthy people should buy insurance to help pay costs for those that are sick.

As a primary care physician, you're also a business person, with at least some responsibility for managing the practice's finances, and all the responsibility for managing your own.

Only 14% of patients get their medical records electronically from their physician?s offices, and 30% don?t know why they would need to do so, finds a new report by the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Health Research Institute. The finding has implications for you and your peers in practices and organizations that hope to reap federal stimulus payments.

One community planned a 1-day screening event for the 14,000 homeless who live on the streets and in shelters in Houston, Texas.