Legal

For patients to receive high quality care, healthcare providers must find ways to work together and ensure continuity of care between primary care physicians, specialists and hospitals. For a variety of reasons, continuity of care has not worked as advertised, but many physicians have ideas for how this collaboration can be improved.

Physicians can take steps, ranging from documentation training to taking out a line of credit, to keep their practice financially healthy during the transition to ICD-10

Physicians are highly unsatisfied with the maintenance of certification process and question its efficacy, according to an exclusive reader poll

Independent physician practices can start increasing their cash flow and reducing their bad debt immediately-and they don’t need fancy software or renegotiated reimbursement agreements to do it. All they need is to have some simple systems in place.

Underlying much of the controversy surrounding MOC is the question of how much-or even whether-the process as currently structured actually improves physician performance and/or patient outcomes.

The simmering controversy over requirements for maintenance of certification (MOC) and accompanying physician unhappiness with theAmerican Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), long confined to the medical community, burst into public view in March.

Medical Economics Editorial Advisory Board members weigh in on the effectiveness of MOC

Prepare yourself for the potential of malpractice cases by maintaining good relationships with your patients and by following thorough rules.

When patients visit your office, they may already have a diagnosis in mind. Google says that one of every 20 searches on its search engine are conducted to obtain health-related information. With that in mind, how can a primary care physician (PCP) win a patient’s trust and resolve conflicts if the patient wants tests or treatments that the physician believes are unnecessary?

Little guidance is available to help physicians determine how finding information about a patient online may affect the relationship with the patient.

In the current medical practice landscape, physicians are increasingly frustrated when it comes to the issue of payment for the care they provide. Doctors and their staff members often find themselves chasing patients and insurance companies to get paid, and frequently are forced to write off bills that could and should be paid.

By a vote of 92-8, the U.S. Senate last night approved legislation ending the long-reviled formula for determining Medicare reimbursements. The vote came just hours before a 21% reimbursement cut would have gone into effect. The measure, which the U.S. House of Representatives passed three weeks ago, now goes to the president, who is expected to sign it.

Physicians today must understand a myriad of laws and regulations that govern not only how they practice medicine, but also how they bill and refer their patients for services both within and outside their own practice.

The push is on for physicians to embrace the concept of high-value care, providing patients with appropriate treatment while avoiding wasteful or unnecessary tests. But high-value care requires physicians to navigate many pitfalls, including lack of time to talk with patients and malpractice pressures.

It appears that the highly-anticipated repeal of Medicare’s Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula-also known as the “doc fix”-will have to wait at least a couple of weeks longer.

As the annual Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) deadline approaches March 31, legislators are once again scrambling to avoid a cut in physician payments, which this year would be about 21%. Physicians have long lobbied for a permanent fix to the problem, and lawmakers came close last year but couldn’t agree on how to fund it.

A study of 34 physician practices jointly sponsored by RAND Corporation and the American Medical Association found that alternative payment models are changing the way physicians and medical practices operate. However, changing the payment system doesn't always ensure patient care improves.

While a doctor may discharge a patient for any nondiscriminatory reason, termination is not without pitfalls. Physicians should follow a careful process so as to avoid claims of patient abandonment.

Physicians across the country are witnessing the advent of new payment models such as patient-centered medical homes, bundled payments, accountable care organizations, and other risk models. What do physicians need to know to incorporate-and succeed with-these payment models?

In the first-place winner for our 2015 Annual Physician Writing Contest, Daniel Taylor, DO describes his experience helping "Jeremy," a 15-year-old boy struggling with problems associated with obesity.

Many physicians doubt that electronic health records (EHRs) improve the quality of care. But relatively few practices are mining their EHR data to see how well they’re doing or to update their care delivery processes.

Electronic health records (EHR) use has steadily increased among office-based physicians since the passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, but new studies indicate that the number of physicians who don’t or plan to participate is substantial.

According to a new study from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health, only 53% of surveyed physicians use prescription drug monitoring programs (PMPs). Fewer than three-fourths of physicians knew about their state’s PMP.

The ability to share patient health information among providers has been a key government goal since passage of the Health Information Technology for Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 and the Affordable Care Act the following year. Partly as a result of those pieces of legislation, by 2013 about two-thirds of U.S. hospitals and half of physician practices were using some form of health information exchange (HIE) with other organizations. So far, however, there is little conclusive evidence demonstrating that HIE benefits individual patients or the healthcare system generally.

HHS’ announcement that, by the end of 2016, it aims to link 30% of Medicare reimbursements to the "quality of value" is the latest sign that, after years of talking about the importance of quality and outcomes in medicine, payers are getting serious about making them part of their reimbursement formulas.

Follow these tips to improve patient management and adherence of asthma treatments

You need to be specific in your ICD-9 coding for asthma because there are several codes available.

Even the most experienced physicians and practice managers face a daunting dilemma on the financial front: Should they handle billing and collections internally or hand over these tasks to an external vendor? There are strategies that physicians can use to evaluate potential vendors and make the best decision for their practice.

Ask these 10 questions before you choose a RCM vendor

Being sued for malpractice, especially for the first time, can be an unsettling and frustrating experience. The consequences of a lost case can range from an increase in future insurance premiums to a health department investigation which could affect your license. So it is imperative that you immediately report a malpractice claim to your professional liability insurance carrier and retain an attorney specializing in the defense of medical malpractice cases in order to protect your interests.