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Medical Economics Insider: Save your practice

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Medical Economics Insider: Save your practice

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If you haven’t done so already, consider circling September 23, 2013 on your calendar. That’s the day that the federal government will start enforcing changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Opinions vary wildly on whether Obamacare will succeed, but there is little debate that Affordable Care Act will forever change the delivery of healthcare in the United States. Here's what it means for primary care physicians.

Medicare’s Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) currently offers .5% incentive to participate this year (1% with Maintenance of Certification); penalties will start in 2015 as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

The months are winding down until the health insurance exchanges mandated under the Affordable Care Act must be operational, and 17 states have declared their intent to open state-based exchanges, while seven have made plans for a partnership with the federal government, and another 27 have decided to let the feds take over their exchanges altogether.

Medicaid expansion could save physicians and hospitals billions in uncompensated care costs. Yet fewer than half the states have agreed to increase their participation thresholds after challenging the expansion mandate before the Supreme Court last year.

Primary care physicians can, for the first time, get paid for transitional care management (TCM) - the time they spend coordinating care for patients transitioning from hospitals, nursing, or skilled nursing facilities back to the community.

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) wants to better integrate behavioral healthcare with primary care. In fact, the change is spelled out in new proposed standards for its Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) program.

Epocrates, Inc., an athenahealth company and provider of the top medical app for U.S. physicians, has expanded collaborations with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN).

The FDA has approved the supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) for licensure of its 4-strain influenza vaccine, Fluzone Quadrivalent vaccine (Sanofi Pasteur).

Featuring HD resolution in a 5mm diameter scope, the product provides bright, crisp images for seeing fine details during surgery. It also offers the surgeon 100 degree angulation in all directions as well as the flexibility to adjust direction of view to above, behind, or head-on.