Legal

Without an act of Congress, Medicaid parity will expire on December 31, 2014

The American Academy of Family Physicians is calling out the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for failing to provide details about several primary care codes in its 2015 Medicare physician fee schedule.

Medicare now reimburses physicians and other healthcare professionals for time spent managing patients' transition from inpatient to community settings. Here is the information you need to bill for these services.

Is tort reform capable of achieving gains for physicians when it comes to medical liability? The jury is out.

Beginning January 1, 2015, medical practices can, for the first time, bill Medicare for the non face-to-face time spent managing care for patients with multiple chronic diseases. But doing so may prove challenging for many practices, at least at first.

Little difference found in outcomes from care provided by doctors required to recertify and those not

The non-medical tasks physicians now have to perform have removed much of the enjoyment that comes with practicing medicine, a reader says.

A reader writes that maintenance of certification (MOC) requirements have not been shown to improve quality of care, and are damaging medicine's feeling of collegiality.

The growing national scrutiny of facility fees charged by hospitals is placing many physicians in the difficult position of factoring costs into treatment decisions, and prompting a debate on whether physicians have a responsibility to engage patients on the financial side-effects of recommended treatments.

Medical societies are dismayed that some of physicians’ top concerns were not addressed during Congress’ lame duck session.

The number of Americans eligible for Medicaid is growing, but so is the problem of finding a doctor who will treat them

AHIMA-sponsored Twitter rally reaps more than 5,000 tweets to stop another ICD-10 delay

The Ebola outbreak in Africa still needs trained providers and health professionals to care for patients and contain the disease

The AMA, along with many regional medical societies, is urging Congress to include another ICD-10 implementation delay to a stalled appropriations bill during the current lame duck session.

A new study compares the health and access to care of America's senior citizens with those of other industrialized nations

A reader says more, not fewer, of his patients are uninsured since the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

The provision of the Affordable Care Act that raises Medicaid reimbursement rates is about to expire. Here's what it may mean to your practice--and what medical societies are trying to do about it.

Though the second enrollment period of the Affordable Care Act has been operating fairly glitch free, the healthcare reform law and the Obama administration are facing major scrutiny from Republicans.

Knowing which CPT code to use for an evaluation and management visit can boost your revenue and help avoid audits

Opportunities and strategies for billing non-face-to-face encounters

A national survey found that patients are also evaluating physicians based on diagnosis accuracy and wait times

Administrative challenges are nothing new to physician practices. But physicians and practice administrators across the United States now describe significant struggles to adapt to what amounts to far greater involvement from payers and regulators related to clinical decisions on a variety of fronts, such as prior authorizations, case manager involvement and network cancellations.

A practice in Connecticut details the impact of removal from a payer's network

Primary care physicians (PCPs) often refer patients to specialists when they face a complicated or perplexing diagnosis, or one that is beyond their purview. But is that always the right decision for the patient? Some experts say that it absolutely is, but others say knowing the patient is more valuable than being an expert in one specific area.