Practice Management

Protecting against embezzlement comes down to eliminating opportunity. You cannot do much, if anything, to control another person’s motive or rationalization. However, motive and rationalization are the places where you look for a problem.

High-quality care and efficiency – Those are the two points that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) emphasized with the release of its 2014 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.

Two Connecticut medical associations won a temporary injunctive order against UnitedHealthcare in federal court hours before the insurer was set to drop thousands of doctors and patients from its rolls.

Timelines were extended today to meet Meaningful Use (MU) 2 and 3 electronic health record (EHR) incentives, report two top officials from the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Researchers found that most medical graduates practice near where they trained, a trend that partly explains the primary care shortage.

A systematic review of studies of patient portals finds insufficient evidence that they improve health outcomes or utilization, or lower costs.

While the overall impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is still largely undetermined, it seems to have many physicians re-evaluating their length of stay in practice.

The Hartford County and Fairfield County medical associations in Connecticut took their fight against UnitedHealthcare to a town hall meeting November 26, in front of prominent federal and state legislators.

More tech-savvy seniors want access to healthcare via smartphones, tablets and other web devices.

A new proposal to reform the broken Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula has emerged from Congress. It calls for a repeal of the SGR, a 10-year payment freeze and a new performance-based incentive program.

Most primary care physicians love their work, but they are clearly frustrated about their income and the increasing compliance challenges associated with payers and government initiatives, according to results from the 85th annual Medical Economics 2013 Exclusive Continuing Study

The decision to leave a health plan is often still a difficult one, especially with the dominant health plans in your market. However, if you do decide you are through, here is how you can get out of your agreement and start your new life as a non-participating provider.

New compensation models will be key as payers look to reward quality vs. volume

A majority of the U.S. House of Representatives have signed a letter urging House leadership to support repeal of the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula, a long-time revenue threat to physicians.

Actress Angelina Jolie made headlines around the world last May when she wrote an op-ed in The New York Times describing how she elected to have a preventive double mastectomy based on the results of genetic tests. Her decision cast genetic and genomic testing into the spotlight, and widescale product development may soon fuel new patient inquiries-a lot of them.

A reader notes that alternatives exist to the current adversarial system of settling medical malpractice claims.

The author proposes a new way of paying for healthcare that keeps elements of the fee-for-service model but also takes outcomes into account.

Most primary care physicians use electronic health records, but others say they are opting out for good

Though some physicians are facing a decrease in patient volume, experts say the boom is coming

Entering into a relationship with an electronic health records vendor is like entering into a marriage. You need to select a partner with whom you can get along and trust, communicate openly, and who will have your back when times get tough.

The number of urgent care centers in the United States is growing, and many physicians see expansion into urgent care services as an opportunity to grow their practices.

Our office is starting to do a monthly audit of our physician charts. We’re going to be looking at documentation and coding to make sure they are on the right track. When we’re conducting these audits, do we have to use either 1995 or 1997 guidelines or can we combine the two?

Physician practice owners took a pay cut last year, according to the results of the 85th exclusive Medical Economics Continuing Study, an annual survey that examines physician earnings.

A look at the median income of primary care physicians, using data from the 85th annual Medical Economics 2013Exclusive Continuing Study, which collected responses from physicians about their professional life.

Doctors are benefitting from more companies entering the malpractice market, but the Affordable Care Act could end the slide