Legal

The dynamics of primary care will enter a new era as major provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) take effect on January 1, 2014. While the changes are expansive and the impacts are in many ways still unknown, experts who spoke with Medical Economics offered predictions falling into five main categories.

The impact of the health exchanges and Medicaid expansion will depend on geography, but every practice will be affected to some extent.

The Food and Drug Administration’s black box warning is the strongest advisory that prescription drugs can contain without being pulled from the market in the U.S. If improperly prescribed, drugs with a black box warning can lead to serious adverse events. How can prescribers reduce the legal risks of prescribing drugs with black box warnings?

The numbers of new Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs) climbed to 123, according to new numbers from Health and Human Services.

As more adults are being charged with taking responsibility for their healthcare costs and outcomes, a recent survey suggests that many don’t have a clear understanding of what many health insurance terms mean.

GlaxoSmithKline changes its sales and marketing practices to put more focus on patients, CEO says.

Features such as short wait times and convenient location are not what keep patients coming back, according to a new study

As the deadline to secure 2014 healthcare coverage grows closer, many Americans say they would rather pay a fine than sign up for insurance.

The complexity of insurance reform and time demands of administrative mandates are putting ever-greater pressure on primary care doctors' ability to care for their patients.

‘High deductible’ patients provide an opportunity for practices to modernize payment policies.

A new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rule known as the “two-midnight provision” instructs physicians on when hospital admission is appropriate.

Some patients with high deductible plans neglect preventative care.

Delivering quality patient care key to physician satisfaction, study finds

Thought leaders identify risks that many physicians overlook and offer steps to protect from liability

U.S. physicians have more problems dealing with insurance companies than their counterparts

Two Connecticut medical associations won a temporary injunctive order against UnitedHealthcare in federal court hours before the insurer was set to drop thousands of doctors and patients from its rolls.

Timelines were extended today to meet Meaningful Use (MU) 2 and 3 electronic health record (EHR) incentives, report two top officials from the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Researchers found that most medical graduates practice near where they trained, a trend that partly explains the primary care shortage.

The Hartford County and Fairfield County medical associations in Connecticut took their fight against UnitedHealthcare to a town hall meeting November 26, in front of prominent federal and state legislators.

A new proposal to reform the broken Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula has emerged from Congress. It calls for a repeal of the SGR, a 10-year payment freeze and a new performance-based incentive program.

Most primary care physicians love their work, but they are clearly frustrated about their income and the increasing compliance challenges associated with payers and government initiatives, according to results from the 85th annual Medical Economics 2013 Exclusive Continuing Study

The decision to leave a health plan is often still a difficult one, especially with the dominant health plans in your market. However, if you do decide you are through, here is how you can get out of your agreement and start your new life as a non-participating provider.

A majority of the U.S. House of Representatives have signed a letter urging House leadership to support repeal of the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula, a long-time revenue threat to physicians.

Actress Angelina Jolie made headlines around the world last May when she wrote an op-ed in The New York Times describing how she elected to have a preventive double mastectomy based on the results of genetic tests. Her decision cast genetic and genomic testing into the spotlight, and widescale product development may soon fuel new patient inquiries-a lot of them.

A reader notes that alternatives exist to the current adversarial system of settling medical malpractice claims.

The author proposes a new way of paying for healthcare that keeps elements of the fee-for-service model but also takes outcomes into account.

Doctors are benefitting from more companies entering the malpractice market, but the Affordable Care Act could end the slide

Trends in medical malpractice premiums for primary care physicians from the 85th annual Medical Economics Continuing Survey

Despite the widespread publicity their complaints have received, fewer than 1% of adults under 65 are at risk of having their health insurance polices canceled.

A reader writes that a previous article in Medical Economics did not include some relevant information.