Practice Management

If you are a primary care physician, the good news is that your median compensation probably increased from 2009 to 2010. The bad news is that you still are making substantially less? sometimes less than half as much? as some of the higher-paid medical specialties. Now, the AAFP is seeking to do something about who determines the relative value of physician services.

When it comes to clinical transformation, information really is power. And if you don?t share enough information to empower staff, you probably won't get the results you want. That was the lesson from a recent study by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and McKesson, the health care technology company. Your practice can plan now to avoid those problems.

An innovative new program is providing abbreviated medical education to New York judges so that they can quickly dispose of frivolous malpractice suits and speed settlements of others. The ?judge-directed negotiations? concept, which began in the Bronx and is being expanded with a $3 million grant, offers some significant benefits to physicians facing the ordeal of a lawsuit.

Diagnostic issues are most likely to get you sued in the outpatient setting, according to a new analysis of reports to the National Practitioner Data Bank. The analysis published in JAMA also noted that the number of paid malpractice claims originating in the outpatient setting is catching up to the inpatient setting, but that the mean payments remain much higher for inpatient claims.

Are the days of solo and small physician practices numbered? Very likely for most practices, according to two recent surveys that indicate the trend of hospitals employing physicians is continuing unabated and raising new issues for all parties. Make sure you know how to protect your interests in negotiations with a future hospital employer.

If you aren?t e-prescribing today, you?re facing a 1% cut in Medicare Part B payments next year and a 1.5% penalty in 2013?but there?s still time to squeeze in the required 10 e-scripts before June 30 if you act quickly. With days to go before the deadline, use these tips to implement what you have or choose an e-prescribing program you can start using right away.

When patients request copies of their electronic health records from your practice, the clock starts ticking. This Q&A gives you the new information on the minimum information required and how quickly you must provide it. Also find out why you soon may have to inform patients when their health information is viewed.

Location, location, location doesn?t just apply to real estate; it also is a factor in how Medicare calculates payments to your practice. But how accurate and consistent is that process? Not very, according to a recent Institute of Medicine Report. Find out what the IOM recommended and what they?re proposing to improve accuracy.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) wants to publicize data about the care you?re providing as a primary care physician so that consumers and business could compare your cost and quality to other providers. The claims data would be derived from both Medicare and private sector insurers. Find out more while there?s still time to influence the final rule.

Recent congressional testimony makes it clear: The government?s health IT initiative will stand or fall on the ability of small practices to adopt EHRs and demonstrate meaningful use. The problem is that small practices, where nearly 60% of office-based physicians work, face significant financial, administrative, and legal barriers to technology implementation. What is being done to solve the problem?

Physicians seeking to become partners or shareholders in their medical practices frequently confront physician practice owners, employers, administrators, medical practice consultants, recruiters and brokers with the demand that "they want a position where they can have some control."

Important lessons in the life of a physician often come in a whisper. But one must have ears to hear.

A decade ago, a risk management consultant in Washington State predicted that "within the next few years all clinicians will be routinely using email as a communications tool in patient care."

When 34 very diverse primary care physicians join together into a single group, some differences of opinion and varying styles of practice are bound to occur.

How do you bill for a pharmacist's service in a patient-centered medical home?

Understand whether meaningful use and e-prescribing incentives are based only on Medicare Part B patients.

Jim Van Steen is one of those patients who comes along rarely in a doctor's career: an ordinary man who faced extraordinary challenges with wisdom and humor.

Letters discuss reimbursement, malpractice reform, and bureaucracy.

Determine whether it's a good idea to add an automated phone attendant to help front office staff.

The author describes letting go as his wife passed away, and how he picked up the pieces in the wake of her loss.

Learn whether to notify CMS if a partner leaves a practice.

Primary care practices are not currently required to participate in accountable care organizations, but pressure to join likely will increase because primary care physicians are central to the concept.

The author is graded and evaluated on the care I provide my patients with diabetes.

Time was when violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act got you little more than a warning letter from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Learn the ins and outs of long-term care insurance.