Politics: Physicians favor McCain's health-care plan in online social networking poll
October 24th 2008More physicians who responded to a late October poll on a social networking web site for doctors appear to favor presidential candidate Senator John McCain's (R-Arizona) stance on health care issues such as government regulation and the shortage of primary care physicians, while his opponent Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois) drew a more negative reaction.
Health-care IT: Indiana offers a national model for electronic information exchanges
October 24th 2008A large portion of physicians in Indiana always know about their patient's tests and treatments in hospitals thanks to a statewide electronic messaging service, which is being called a model for the nation.
EHRs: Americans favor electronic health records but worry about confidentiality
October 24th 2008A majority of Americans believe it's important for all of their health information to be stored electronically, but have "serious" concerns about the confidentiality of those records, according to a recent survey.
Reimbursement: New codes would impose "staggering" cost burden on practices, report says
October 24th 2008The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' planned transition to a new set of health-care diagnosis and procedure codes could lead to big cost increases to physician practices of all sizes, according to a recently released report.
Tools: Rural Georgia practices test patient-satisfaction electronic kiosks
October 10th 2008Are your patients satisfied with their visits? In four rural Georgia medical offices, patients leaving their family practice will be able to voice their opinion about communication with their doctor at an electronic touch-screen kiosk developed by researchers at the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine.
Compliance: Pirated software a risk for medical practices
October 10th 2008Software companies such as Microsoft and Adobe have publicly battled illegal copies of their well-known office and design computer programs for years, but historically, health-care software providers haven?t been as vocal about copyright infringement. But that doesn't mean the industry was unaffected by software piracy.
Reimbursement: MGMA blasts Medicare quality reporting project
October 10th 2008The Medical Group Management Association criticized a Medicare quality reporting initiative, complaining that the program doesn't provide guidance on how to improve patient outcomes and creates an administrative burden on practices.