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Jim Van Steen is one of those patients who comes along rarely in a doctor's career: an ordinary man who faced extraordinary challenges with wisdom and humor.

Learn how disability insurance market has evolved.

Letters discuss reimbursement, malpractice reform, and bureaucracy.

A bill introduced recently by Sen. Jay Rockefeller would require physicians and other healthcare providers seeking to obtain or renew a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration registration number to complete CME related to responsible opioid prescribing practices.

Determine whether it's a good idea to add an automated phone attendant to help front office staff.

The author describes letting go as his wife passed away, and how he picked up the pieces in the wake of her loss.

Learn whether to notify CMS if a partner leaves a practice.

Primary care practices are not currently required to participate in accountable care organizations, but pressure to join likely will increase because primary care physicians are central to the concept.

Appeals of denied insurance claims from you our your patients "frequently" are successful.

Years ago, pharmaceutical companies used to market directly to prescribing doctors, not on TV directly to patients, nor to insurance companies. Pharmaceutical sales representatives came to each doctor's office to discuss their products.

Time was when violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act got you little more than a warning letter from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Learn the ins and outs of long-term care insurance.

The continuing pressure on the primary care system will be significant if so-called RomneyCare in Massachusetts is a harbinger for national healthcare reform, as some critics have claimed. Read on to see how primary care physicians there have coped.

For more than a decade, Congress and physicians have agreed that the Sustainable Growth Rate isn't sustainable. Noted at a recent hearing, the 29.4% cut in reimbursement scheduled for January 1, 2012, would have a "disastrous effect on access to care for Medicare beneficiaries," which in turn may cause 82% of physicians to "make significant changes in their practices that will affect access to care."

Medical informatics, long in a gray area between information technology and medicine, may soon be recognized as a full-fledged medical subspecialty. If this occurs, it will arrive just as many healthcare organizations and physician practices are beginning to view health IT as an essential tool for improving the quality and lowering the cost of healthcare. Our experts explain the thinking behind this proposal.

The new proposed rules for accountable care organizations haven't been well received, to say the least. All 10 of the clinics that participated in the prototype program, and 93% of American Medical Group Association members, said they would not participate in ACOs under the proposed rules.

Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services mailed the first Medicare checks to physicians who had attested that they had achieved meaningful use of their electronic health records (EHRs). What effect will these payments have on you and your colleagues? Will everyone rush out to buy EHRs now or will they let this opportunity pass them by? Read on to find out.

Who is going to care for all those Medicaid patients?

CMS wants to know if upfront funds would be carrot enough to attract ACO participation

Note to Government: Slow down on health information technology

Don?t leave ICD-10 to the coders: Five tips for minimizing the risk to your practice

Researchers involved with a study published in a recent Archives of Internal Medicine hypothesized that you could improve colorectal screening rates among your patients by sending reminder messages and personalized risk assessments via their personal health records (PHRs). The results didn?t turn out quite the way they had thought.

You and your peers increasingly are relying on smartphones and tablet computers to check email, research medications and conditions, and complete online surveys, according to new research by online research company Knowledge Networks using its Physicians Consulting Network.

Good news if you use an electronic health record (EHR) system?and a tip on how best to use it, courtesy of the Sage Healthcare Insights survey: Patients feel more comfortable with physicians who use an EHR system, and they believe that the information contained in the medical record is more accurate when they physically see the information being entered electronically.

A newly published study by Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) researchers may lead to electronic health record (EHR) system improvements that facilitate your ability to follow up on your patients? abnormal test results?if vendors heed the findings.

Your physician colleagues in Michigan may be able to offer insights into American Medical Association subsidiary Amagine Inc.?s health information technology (IT) platform, Amagine, which now is available to physicians nationwide.

Primary care, as it is currently practiced, is unsustainable in the current marketplace.

Sometimes questioning the efficacy of a practice manager is not the best approach, as the problem may lie elsewhere.