Legal

In our relaunch of Funny Bone Comics, it's been an interesting week for presidential candidate Donald Trump. One that may make physicians a little worried about what he'd do with healthcare.

Not everyone can treat patients legally, and not everyone can hold a person’s life and future in their hands. That’s why we have medical schools and licensure fees and exams and state medical boards-to keep quacks and charlatans from hanging out a shingle.

One of the most dangerous and active even at this time is the skepticism around the vaccination of children.

Smart glasses and other wearable technologies could become as ubiquitous in the exam room as a stethoscope or blood pressure cuff, giving doctors not only another tool to deliver quality care but helping to bolster their personal connections with patients.

Once considered medicine for the rich, concierge practice may be worth exploring for doctors facing today’s challenges

Healthcare’s transition to value-based payments is ratcheting up the pressure on independent medical practices battling for survival, and data is the ammunition they need to have any chance of winning.

AMA recently published an article with findings from a study alleging an association between free meals for physicians and an increased rate of prescribing the branded drugs discussed during a lunch or dinner meeting. Of course, it wasn’t until you got to the very end of the piece that the authors came clean and admitted that there is no actual cause-and-effect relationship present.

Q: Where can I find specific guidance on cloning and electronic health record (EHR) issues?

DPC, billing confusion and defensive medicine are the hot topics in this issue's Your Voice.

“Patients respect certification a lot more than reviews on Yelp,” says ABIM president in an exclusive interview.

New Medicare payment system still coming into focus, but practices should act now.

As medical groups continue to struggle in today’s complex and changing healthcare business environment, there is a rise in the number of these groups submitting bankruptcy filings across the country. These bankruptcies are not the result of malpractice suits in favor of the plaintiffs and have little to do with medicine or the business of healthcare.

Small practices are set to receive a sizable slice of federal funding in an effort to ease their transition into the Quality Payment Program (QPP), but the shift has not started without its strains.

Recent guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeking to clarify patient safety work product (PSWP) privilege under the Patient Safety Act has instead stoked conflicting opinions among organizations representing healthcare providers as to how the provision should be interpreted.

I agree that electing Hillary Clinton will be historic for America, but the message of Bernie Sanders shouldn’t be muted to get there.

What will it mean to doctors that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit July 21 in District Court to block two mergers involving health plan giants?

Recent analysis by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. reveals that many insurers are losing money in ACA individual markets, with aggregate year over year losses more than doubling, and with post-tax margins between –9% and –12%. Losses like these resulted in UnitedHealth Group leaving the California ACA market after only one year.

Curiosity can be costly if your medical practice staff checks a patient’s medical record in certain situations, says a healthcare attorney.

Flexibility allows practices to define what “minimum necessary” information must be shared regarding patient records, but many still are without a standard.

The disparity in pay between blacks and whites has been well documented over the years, with sociologists imputing everything from systemic discrimination to differences in education and employment expectations for the inequality in paychecks.

While the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimates that nearly $29 billion of improper payments were made in 2015, according to spokespersons for the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and CMS, the full extent of EHR fraud remains elusive.

HCVcAg tests may cost less and improve diagnostic capacity in settings of high hepatitis C virus prevalence, according to new research.

Removing potential barriers to treat hepatitis C virus is yet another key component to patient access, notes lead researcher.

For Eve Shapiro, MD, MPH, being a delegate at this year’s Democratic National Convention is just the latest expression of her dedication to progressive causes.

Healthcare has played a very underwhelming role throughout the 2016 presidential election cycle thus far.

On the night she became the official Democratic candidate for president, Hillary Clinton’s healthcare experience came to the forefront.

When physician groups in the Dallas-Fort Worth area started to feel the pressure of value-based contracts, they realized quickly that banding together was the best way to maintain autonomy while staying competitive in a changing market.

While Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign is over, what he started must continue in the spirit of democracy.

To gain the respect and trust of Bernie Sanders voters, Hillary Clinton must utilize some of her “change maker” skills we heard about Tuesday night.

It will cost a lot to solve the challenge of covering the 30 million Americans who are still uninsured despite the Affordable Care Act.