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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) shift to alternative physician payments has been a bumpy one. But its newest model, the Next Generation Accountable Care Organization (ACO), aims to smooth the way for healthcare providers looking to make the leap to value-based payments.

Despite the improvements, the new Next Generation ACOs still may not be the right fit for every organization.

While consumer apps have evolved quickly, apps for physicians have lagged behind, in both quality and utility

The following was sent to Virginia Moyer, MD, vice president for maintenance of certification (MOC) and quality at the American Board of Pediatrics a year ago. While the author ultimately completed MOC, lack of movement on this issue played a large part in the author’s decision to stop practicing.

The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) recently announced findings from a survey it conducted about potential changes to the current Maintenance of Certification (MOC) assessment.

The math is easy. The numbers of older adults in the United States continues to increase, while the number of physicians entering training programs for geriatric fellowships is decreasing.

A troubling new study about the “unhealthy behaviors” of millions of Americans documented a reality that has increasingly become all too familiar to me and the 209,000 other primary care physicians in the United States-more than 25 million adults have at least three behaviors that inevitably lead to poor health.

Burnout, which is often described in terms of the experience of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and lost sense of personal accomplishment, is a big and growing problem for physicians and for their patients-with lower quality of patient care where professional burnout rates are higher.

If you are looking for extra income in today’s ever changing-and money grabbing-healthcare industry, there are several options for physicians.We recently asked our audience if they received a secondary income outside their practice or employer to find out the most popular secondary incomes they took advantage of for themselves.

I am slowly getting used to a bit more hurried visit and a little less attention from my doctor. I wonder if my doctors will see the silent tears I cry…one thing is for certain: Today’s EHR won’t.

Paying for poor outcomes is unhealthy for patients and just poor business.

The good news is that EHR systems are producing more data for physicians. The bad news is that utilizing this information isn’t an easy task.

Think you are using your EHR correctly? Think again. You may be guilty of one of these common pitfalls with the systems.

After 50 years, physicians continue to struggle with quality metrics.

Bob Doherty, senior vice president of governmental affairs and public policy with the American College of Physicians, spoke to Medical Economics on his healthcare legislative outlook for the year.

Initiative is next step in move away from fee-for-service.

Despite the HIPAA rules and improved safeguards to PHI, more than 40 million Americans suffered a breach of their personal health information from 2009 through the end of 2014, not including the 80 million record breach that Indianapolis-based insurer Anthem revealed in 2014, according to health IT security firm Redspin of Carpinteria, California.

The last installment of Your Voice includes reactions to MOC and evidence-based medicine .

The adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) presents doctors with a dilemma when it comes to protecting patient health data.

Can the National Board of Physicians and Surgeons grow enough to become a true competitor to ABIM?

A breach or poor audit result can undo years of a physician’s hard work

We asked members of the Medical Economics Reader Reactor Panel, 200 physicians representing various specialties across the U.S., about their feelings on maintenance of certification and their daily lives in medicine. Here’s what they said about recertification.

Q: Can you explain the intensive behavior therapy code for treating patients with diabetes? Is this a new code?

Physicians should carry levels of coverage that complement their family’s financial game plan, experts say.

Online life insurance calculators, like the one offered by Bankrate, ask how much survivors will need to spend annually, and for how long. The Bankrate calculator also asks about children and current non-retirement savings.

Doctors and others in healthcare who were hoping to see some immediate relief from cyber attacks thanks to the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 will need to wait until next year before they begin getting any help, say those familiar with the legislation.

The rapid expansion and evolution of telemedicine in the U.S. brings with it increased access at lower costs for patients and growing competition for physicians from providers with regional, national and international reputations.

Opting out of the payer hamster wheel can provide greater independence but requires careful planning

Change is usually good, and change can save a medical institution, no matter how big or small.

From the value of hospital 30-day readmissions to the best provider for heart-failure patients, physicians are passionate about several care-based arguments.