Practice Management

Only 11% of Americans have a high level of understanding of the key aspects of federal health reform, despite substantial media coverage in the 2-plus years since the legislation's passage.

Visits to retail clinics quadrupled from 2007 to 2009, and up to 40% of their patients paid out-of-pocket for their care despite reporting they had a primary care physician.

Health providers are in danger of being stuck with $11 billion in Medicare cuts beginning in January when automatic federal spending cuts are due to take effect, the White House warned in a report.

The American Academy of Family Physicians is asking the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to adopt several short- and long-term strategies that strengthen the Medicare program through primary care enhancements.

Want to know whether you and the other healthcare professionals and pharmacies in your area are at the forefront or lagging when it comes to adoption of electronic health records and e-prescribing? Now you can, thanks to a new tool from the federal government’s Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

Practice administrators working in smaller practices saw their incomes increase in 2011, but managers of larger practices experienced a decrease, according to the Medical Group Management Association.

Insurance companies must more actively engage physicians in quality measurement programs, suggests new research.

The financial incentive of shared savings may lead to "coding biases" whereby practices list more diagnoses per patient visit than they otherwise would, according to a recent study.

House calls can reduce rehospitalizations and boost satisfaction for high-risk patients, but they don't do much to reduce costs, according to a study published in the American Journal of Managed Care.

The American Medical Association (AMA) has asked the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to continue working on its proposed 2013 Medicare physician fee schedule.

The second stage of the government's program to incentivize physicians for implementing electronic health records systems will not begin until 2014, according to final rules recently released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

Nearly one-third of Massachusetts residents report that insurance companies are most responsible for their difficulty in accessing healthcare.

In the next 3 to 5 years, about 57% of employers say they will use integrated delivery models to improve the effectiveness of primary care, according to a new report from Aon Hewitt, a human resources and consulting firm.

What can you do to keep patients happy? Medical Economics asked the practice management experts for their advice.

ACA wants to build health information exchanges to connect Medicaid providers. Learn what you need to know about them.

Thinking of the selling products in your office? Here's what you need to know before taking the plunge.

George G. Ellis Jr., MD, FACP, recommends two reference apps and a medical calculator.

You already like your current software, but imminent electronic health record system implementation requires a different program. Here's how to avoid entering information more than once.

If your business slows, you might consider giving free consults. Find out why this might not be the best idea.

You have no choice but to trust your patients when they say that they are taking their medications as prescribed. But they could be about to change with new technology that remotely keeps track of whether patients really do stick to their healthcare regimens.

Weight management and nutrition counseling may offer a way to help your patients—and your practice—become healthy.

Medicare may begin paying primary care physicians for the time they spend on post-discharge care coordination and preventive counseling and screening services via telehealth. Also, PCPs may get options for participating in quality improvement programs.

EHRs can pose a security risk to your patients. Discover what you can do to protect the data.

Thinking about incorporating midlevel providers into your practice? Here's what you need to know before doing so.

Using an electronic health record (EHR) system can help keep your patients loyal to your practice, especially if the EHR lets patients access their personal health information online, according to a new study.

It's easy for practices to become inefficient over time. Learn how meetings can change that.

Here's what to focus on when you're switching to 5010.

Nearly 11 million people in the United States had their healthcare data lost or stolen last year, almost twice as many as the previous year.

Want to increase the efficiency of your practice? Here are eight ways to do so.

E-prescribing has caught on big in Minnesota. Doctors there had the highest rate of e-prescribing use in 2011, according to the seventh annual "Safe-Rx Awards" survey from the e-prescribing service Surescripts.