Opinion

Lifestyle counseling program would be first to be eligible for expansion to all Medicare beneficiaries under the Affordable Care Act.

For the last several years, everyone who works in health care has been hearing about privacy, security, breach notification rules and the possibility of additional audits.

Beginning next year, HHS will commence conducting onsite audits, visiting practices to review compliance.

Healthcare organizations need to focus on improving efficiency while still remaining supportive to physicians, selecting and developing leaders with the skills to foster physician engagement, helping physicians optimize work-life balance, and creating an environment that nurtures flexibility and other qualities that help cultivate physician wellness.

What is our social responsibility to fix this mess called healthcare, get patients what they need and not break the bank in so doing?

This is a mildly edited version of an email I sent a few months ago to my only child, a partner in our practice of primary care internal medicine.

Readers sound off on MOC and primary care delivery in our latest Your Voice.

As payment models evolve, physicians may have to limit the care they provide or expose themselves to increased legal risk

Tips for shielding yourself from defensive medicine.

Leaders of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and its member boards say they’ve been searching for the right path since deciding to take the MOC process beyond the once-per-decade requirement and add elements like subspecialty tests and patient ratings to the process.

The difference between over-coding and under-coding is the hot topic of the latest Coding Insights Q&A with Bill Dacey.

Some physicians are fed up with MOC and ready to flee, but repercussions remain uncertain.

With ICD-10 now a reality, overcoding can result in penalties, while undercoding can mean lost revenue. Here’s how to develop a comprehensive compliance strategy.

Leaving it all to charity.

Internists and other primary care physicians can have a significant impact on reducing the risk of hospital readmissions, according to David C. Judge, MD, an internist and chief medical officer at Boston, Massachusetts-based Iora Health and a member of the Medical Economics editorial advisory board.

If you don’t hire and retain service-oriented staff members who can help you deliver value-based care, be prepared to take a hit to your practice’s bottom line.

Improving collaboration between physicians and hospitals.

Impart values, consider what-ifs before calling the estate-planning attorney.

It is safe to say that physicians are none too pleased with the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and its recertification process.

Society has rightly focused on the Triple Aim-improving population health, enhancing patient experience and reducing costs-as a framework for optimizing the performance of health systems in the U.S. Unfortunately, the administrative burden created in the pursuit of those aims is creating physician dissatisfaction and frustration. As a result, the achievement of those goals is being imperiled rather than facilitated.

As healthcare moves away from the program as it currently exists, physicians must decide to keep EHRs or seek better solutions.

Physicians know that Meaningful Use will soon become part of MIPS, but there plenty of other unknowns about the future use of EHRs.

How women in medicine can confront the wage gap – and increase their earning potential.

If you have a significant income (six figures or more), you are the equivalent of a corporation that is worth potentially millions of dollars. Can you imagine a corporation like this not having a chief financial officer? So why are you any different?

If you have received a Medicare overpayment and have not returned it within 60 days of identifying that overpayment, you may be liable for False Claims Act penalties.

For too long, the nation's health care system has been out of balance. We have lost our focus on prevention and health promotion and spend most of our time and money focused on treating disease.

While geared toward app developers, recent guidance from HHS is also helpful for physicians working on mobile outreach to their patients.

There are apps required to be HIPAA compliant and those that aren’t. If you are a physician, you should know the difference.

We estimate less than 1% of the general population knows what to ask before considering investing in a company. MarketWatch paraphrased Warren Buffett, “Put your money in index funds and move on . . . Seriously, you’ll do better. That's what I plan to do with my own money once I am gone.” In short, buy index funds. Ample evidence proves the vast majority of investors would be considerably better off following this advice. Without unique knowledge, active investing is simply a guessing game.

As part of our election poll, we asked Medical Economics’ readers, “If you could ask the presidential candidates one question, what would you ask?” Here were some of the inquiries that summed up the majority of replies by those taking our poll.