Practice Management

Whether just done with residency, an experienced hospitalist seeking new work, or a private practice physician transitioning to hospitalist work, a job hunt, at the outset, is an exercise in information-gathering.

More than 140,000 (23 percent) of all office-based physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants in the U.S. are now using electronic prescribing, according to Surescripts. At the current pace, the company projects, the total number of health care professionals prescribing medication electronically via its network this year will more than double from the 74,000 active electronic prescribers who used it at the end of last year.

A new Web initiative to be launched in Ohio by several health plans is designed to benefit patients and practices by reducing the time, effort, and expense associated with the paperwork required for office visits.

There are a number of disease processes that must be managed, and doing so offers opportunities for reimbursement that you might not have been aware of.

I sometimes practice medicine with poor vision too. Here are some of my ailments.

An extraordinary number of physicians fail to stay current in their knowledge of coding, resulting in reduced reimbursement or delayed and denied claims.

Rising operating costs, maintaining physician compensation levels, and implementation of electronic health record systems were the top concerns among Medical Group Management Association members this year.

Diagnosis coding under ICD-10 is similar to that of ICD-9, but will use seven letters or digits, whereas ICD-9 uses three or four digits.

A few colleagues are proposing merging into a small group practice and have invited me to join. How do I determine if this is a good idea?

The California Nurses Association reported in September that health plans in the state rejected more than one in five claims from 2002 through June 30 of this year.

Medical interventions for patients with type 2 diabetes won't reduce health costs over the long term, according to a recently published study, but that doesn't mean they don't offer benefits.

Buying a local competitor's practice at the right price is often a cost-effective way to grow your existing practice.

Healthcare costs are expected to increase by 10.5 percent over the next 12 months, according to Aon Consulting.

I think I am busy enough to support an associate. Are there quantifiable measures I can apply to determine whether I should recruit someone?

Preparation is the key to conducting successful interviews-and to hiring the ideal physician.

I've had several negative experiences with the insurance reimbursement system and am thinking of going with an all-cash concierge-style practice. Should I?

Can I bill for a preoperative visit, and if so, what CPT code should be used?

Unfortunately, even though there are CPT codes for simpler procedures, there is currently no code for ring removal or entrapment.

A better future for primary care is right in front of us if we have the courage to change, and indeed we must change.

If patient information is stolen, practices must notify the affected patients and, in some cases, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and local media, according to new regulations that go into effect on September 23.

Nearly half of physicians believe that various off-label uses of prescription drugs are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, according to a national survey.

Efforts to thwart the increasing costs of healthcare cannot succeed without addressing the question of how much care to provide the terminally ill.

What statistics do I really need to track in my practice?

Our physicians don't want to report code 90465 when children under 8 years of age are vaccinated, because they do not provide any counseling.

A rough year for the U.S. economy had little negative impact on the income of physicians, according to the results of Medical Economics' 2009 Exclusive Survey.