Legal

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) can be financially rewarding for participating physician groups, but it may take longer than expected, if the results of the physician group practice demonstration apply. Read more to find out when the risks actually resulted in rewards.

Meaningful use incentives are a strong motivator for physicians to implement electronic health records (EHRs), but lack of funds remains the primary reason for not taking the plunge, according to a new survey. Still, practices which had stretched to buy them were highly satisfied with EHRs.

Public Citizen recently sent a letter to California Governor Jerry Brown, asking him do something about the state medical board?s failure to stop potentially dangerous doctors from practicing. The letter from the advocacy group and an earlier report got wide coverage in the news media, but most accounts failed to point out that the medical board may not have been the villain in this situation but a victim itself of California?s fiscal crisis.

The response period for the government plan to make public reports on physicians? performance may be over but not before numerous medical associations expressed some concerns. Find out why more than 80 physician organizations called for measures to increase the accuracy of the information and to allow you more opportunity to review your own data.

According to new research, what patients perceive as barriers to office-based primary care may be more important than health insurance coverage in determining whether they go to emergency departments for nonacute care. Find out what potential patients see as barriers to seeing you.

The filing of a lawsuit by six Georgia primary care physicians has escalated the battle against the American Medical Association (AMA)-led process that favors higher payments to specialists at the expense of primary care. Read more to learn why plaintiffs maintain that government reliance on AMA?s Specialty Society Relative Value Update Committee (RUC) violates federal law.

Physician practices may not have the wherewithal to take on much payment risk in an accountable care organization, but commercial payers can provide the support needed to make a variety of risk-sharing models work. Read more to find out how those models work.

Is your practice inadvertently trying to double-dip when it comes to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) incentive programs? To make sure you don?t, the agency has posted new answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about how many incentives you can receive at once. The information is complicated but useful.

No amount of urging and prodding from an enormous number of physicians and their associations could persuade Congress and President Obama to use the bipartisan debt deal to repeal the controversial Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula. Even worse, the plan that actually was signed into law could mean additional Medicare reimbursement cuts for physicians.

Oklahoma likely will face the biggest shortage of family physicians due to the broader Medicaid eligibility requirements contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to a study in the New England Journal

Two information systems designed to detect Medicare and Medicaid fraud are not working as well as they should, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

A recent CDC blog seeks to educate Americans on how to prepare for emergencies in a unique way. This physician suggests patient education should also be interesting as well as interactive, effective, and presented in multiple formats (instead of solely providing medical handouts).

More than 70% of primary care and multispecialty practices are on the path to becoming Patient-Centered Medical Homes, according to a new study, and some new technology is helping them gather the patient information they need to achieve that status. Learn about some products that can help your practice conduct affordable patient surveys.

More affordable medications, courtesy of Medicare Part D, mean that more elderly adults now receive care in your office instead of in more costly hospitals and nursing homes, a new study suggested. See what effect that has had on care as well as cost.

Opponents of Medicare?s sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula are hoping their YouTube video goes viral. The American Academy of Family Physicians and 10 other physician-led groups released the YouTube video as part of a coordinated effort to infect Congress with the desire to eliminate the SGR in any deficit-reduction plan. Here?s a preview.

The effort to cap medical malpractice judgments in North Carolina looked like a lost cause when Gov. Beverly Perdue vetoed the bill, but the state House of Representatives overrode her veto to limit noneconomic damages to $500,000 for a negligent physician. Some 30 states have some form of malpractice caps, but legal challenges abound.

More than 90% of medical practices responding to a recent survey said that it would be ?very? or ?extremely? burdensome to meet the requirements of the proposed ?accounting of disclosures? rule. Read more to find out what several associations are suggesting in place of that rule.

DrFirst?s release of the first application available nationwide and approved by the Drug Enforcement Agency for e-prescribing of controlled substances should make e-prescribing easier for physicians?and prescription abuse a little harder for patients. Learn more about the product and how you may no longer have to maintain a dual prescribing system?paper for controlled substances and electronic for everything else.

When it comes to technology, an apple a day does not keep the doctor away. In fact, physicians prefer Apples, as in the Apple iPad and iPhone.

According to a New York Times article, individuals, arranged by the federal government, were to pose as new patients, calling physicians' practices up to three times to ask for expedited appointments.

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled recently that the state's cap on medical malpractice pain and suffering damages is constitutional. The court approved a lower court's decision to reduce a lawsuit award from $1 million to $500,000, in accord with an amendment enacted by the state legislature in 2003.

Federal healthcare reform will result in more or fewer Americans receiving health insurance through their employers, depending on which studies you choose to believe.

To increase parity between specialists and primary care providers (PCPs) and address the growing shortage of PCPs, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has called on the AMA/Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) to change its structure to give greater representation to primary care fields.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) gave physicians a break in its recently proposed rule on meaningful use requirements for electronic health records (EHRs). The revision would allow eligible providers (EPs) to ?continue to report clinical quality measure results as calculated by certified EHR technology by attestation? through 2012. Previously, CMS had required eligible providers (EPs) to start submitting quality measures electronically to CMS next year.

Overwhelmed by changing reimbursement models, emerging regulations and adopting new technology? You?re not alone. Respondents to a recent survey said four of the top five ?considerable or extreme challenges? they face relate to these operational issues.Three of the most troubling issues for practices had not even been on practice group leader?s radars in previous years.

Prescription drug abuse is the nation?s fastest-growing drug problem, and, unless primary care practices take appropriate precautions, it also could become one of their fastest-growing regulatory and liability issues. With increased regulation on the horizon, a new study recommends ways that physicians can improve prescribing practices for opioids and other often-abused drugs.

Money isn?t everything, but 35% of primary care physicians (PCPs) say it is the most important factor in changing practices. Compensation was 50% more important to PCPs in evaluating a professional move than location or quality of practice, the most significant factors for residents and fellows.

When patients seek your help in getting a device that can allow them live at home instead of having to move to a long-term care facility, you have to navigate through a confusing maze of Medicare regulations to submit the order, only to find out that you are being blamed for the latest government healthcare expense boondoggle. What is really behind a recent government report blaming physicians for insufficient documentation for power wheelchairs?

While the latest trustees report says Medicare is running out of money and time, the program's own actuary questions those projections. What is more certain is that, unless some decisive action is taken, reimbursements to physicians and other providers would be cut 10% by 2024, if not earlier.

State medical boards and legislatures are responding to public demands that information about disciplinary action against physicians be timely and easy to get by publishing disciplinary, criminal, and liability histories online. But what about the physicians' rights?