Practice Management

If an area hospital has offered to help you purchase an electronic health record system, don't worry about missing out on the potential $44,000 incentive payment from the economic stimulus act.

Mystery patients can help solve the problems you didn't even know you had.

Replace the E&M documentation-based payment system with a system that rewards service and value, results in sparser and more useful documentation, and eliminates unnecessary complexity and burden.

All members of your staff should have rewards for meeting expectations as well as consequences for falling short.

A few months ago, our practice ran into some financial difficulties, and we tried to renegotiate our lease contract for our computers, but were rebuffed.

Is it safe to have my office staff pay my practice's bills online?

Codes 99441, 99442, and 99443 are used to report non-face-to-face evaluation and management services provided by a physician to a patient using the telephone.

Critical care is the total of care rendered by a physician within a calendar day and may be rendered by more than one physician.

More than half of all non-referred visits to specialists are for routine or preventive care that likely could have been managed by the patient's primary care physician, according to a recent study.

It appears that I would be exposed to potential liability claims if my locum tenens company terminated business because, in this event, there would be no tail policy.

The challenge: Health plans deny or require pre-authorization for prescriptions of name-brand drugs.

If you'd prefer not to pay for a mystery-patient firm, follow this guide to design your own program.

Practices that aspire to become medical homes are required to set self-and evidence-based standards for access, communication and clinical care, create and document team-based strategies for achieving these standards, and document movement toward achieving standards.

Senator Max Baucus and another pair of senators have produced two plans to reform America's struggling health care system. How would these plans affect you?

Compare Barack Obama's pre-election and post-election plans for healthcare reform.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has recommended a 1.1 percent increase in fee-for-service payments to physicians in 2010.

The additional rules obligate physicians to individually notify patients and the local media if there has been a security breach of "protected health information."

What can we do to continue caring for our patients after they've entered a nursing facility, and the nursing facility is denying us access?

While leaders of the AMA, AAFP, and American College of Physicians all support Obama's goals and what he's done so far, no one is underestimating the tremendous political hurdles-or the potential for opposition from segments of the physician community.

In a large medical practice, who typically fills out disability and Family Medical Leave Act forms for a patient?

The number of family medicine residencies offered to U.S. medical school seniors and other applicants dropped to 2,535 this year, down from 2,636 in 2008.

Can I buy part-time malpractice insurance due to the fact that I see so few patients?

We're trying to find a way to get through the tough times right now, and I have read a little about accounts receivable factoring. What do you think about this?

The type of monitoring device affects the selection of the CPT codes used to report the service.

Several states have recently launched medical school loan reimbursement programs for primary care physicians, and more may be on the way.

Though a little optimism never hurts, it is a fool's bet that politicians alone can fix what's wrong with our system.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, self-referral laws prohibit a physician from referring patients to an entity for a designated health service if the physician (or immediate family member) has a financial relationship with the entity.

Professional courtesy cannot be used as a "reward" or "incentive" to physicians, their families, or office staff for referring patients to you.

How should we bill care provided by a physician who doesn't have her credentials yet?

I've heard that malpractice insurers often revoke your tail coverage if you volunteer outside of the state in which you're insured. Is that true? What should I do about tail coverage?