Practice Management

Beginning a full-time, house-call geriatric practice in one state while living in another creates a payment dilemma.

The author has seen a troubling rise in fraud, graft and discount doctoring since insurers have raised premiums, copays, and deductibles to maddening heights.

Equipment and supplies for new free health clinics in Palm Bay, Florida, and Bluffton, South Carolina, are the first results of the Family Medicine Cares initiative.

Learn how to free up physicians' time to efficiently and effectively maintain a steady patient volume and viable operations.

Medical Economics' technology editor is on your side, here to help with every matter of health information technology, from barcoding to EHR to mobile apps and more.

Letters discuss 'death committees,' the growth of urgent care and decline of primary care, and increasing revenue streams without compromising one's ethics.

Typos and filing mistakes can create a huge Medicare billing problem, as one writer discovered. Here's what to do if you get 'disowned.'

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final rule for its physician fee schedule November 1 and stated that providers would see an across-the-board reduction of 27.4% for services in 2012, but much is still unclear about this change.

What to consider when deciding whether to contract with a communications vendor for appointment tracking.

Be prepared to receive less reimbursement for the services you provide.

What kind of technology exists to assist in tracking insurance claims from the office visit to paid in full?

When you've decided that the time is right to sell your practice, one of the important issues impacting what you get from the transaction is income taxes.

Other than your home, your largest lifetime expense may well be paying for your children's or grandchildren's educations. Here's how to start.

In the "real" world, people expect to pay more for something if it's of higher quality or offers superior performance. The same cannot be said of the healthcare industry.

Discover what led EHR systems by vendors eClinicalWorks, Cerner, Sage, and NextGen to be named the best systems for midsize-to-large physician practices, according to a report by a market research firm.

Physicians need to be more cost-conscious, but not at patients? expense, according to the new ethics manual from the American College of Physicians (ACP). Read why in this exclusive interview with ACP President Virginia Hood.

Government and commercial health plans must now use an electronic tracking number to match your claim and the plan’s payment, according to a federal rule that went into effect this year.

Reforming team-based payments and expanding the scope-of-practice for nurses could boost primary care access in the United States, according to a policy analysis by a nonprofit group.

The CEO of an accountable care organization participating in a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services initiative says he is confident his network of 180 primary care physicians will earn a cost-savings incentive throughout the 3-year program.

The cost of defending a medical malpractice lawsuit continues to increase, as does the cost of liability insurance premiums for some specialties, according to two reports released in December by the American Medical Association.

More than 100,000 primary care practices are using the services of a regional extension center to implement electronic health records. Consider joining them if your practice is closer to the beginning of the process than the end.

The federal Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction failed to reach agreement on a deficit-reduction proposal, which means that doctors still face a 27% cut in Medicare payments effective January 1. Predictably, the decision elicited strong reactions from organizations representing primary care physicians. Read what the organizations are saying on your behalf and their suggestions for future action.

If your office isn’t prepared to submit claims using version 5010 electronic transaction standards, take a breath but keep on working. With so many of your fellow physicians in the same position, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has decided to wait until March 31 to begin enforcing adherence to the standards. Some caveats apply, however.

Physicians are doing their part to improve the lackluster economy. Healthcare employment grew by 12,000 jobs in October, with 8,000 of those jobs in doctors' offices, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This after September saw the highest growth in healthcare employment in 9 years. Find out how that rate compares with growth in other industry sectors and how long you can expect the healthcare boom to last.

Have you and your colleagues expended significant time and money to understand and meet the requirements of a law that may be declared unconstitutional? The answer is not clear at this point, but at least the issue is headed toward resolution. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to rule on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, with oral arguments likely this spring and a decision later next year. Find out what issues before the court could have the biggest effect on your practice.

The American Medical Association House of Delegates has voted to “work vigorously to stop implementation of ICD-10” by an October 2013 deadline. But don’t get your hopes up. The smart money is probably on the government. Find out what the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said about changing the deadline, and why the agency is so anxious to start using the new coding system.

A new government initiative will begin awarding $1 billion in funds next March to physician offices and other healthcare sites exploring creative ways to deliver high-quality medical care and reduce costs for people enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Projects that can be up and running in 6 months or less and demonstrate a model for sustainability after the 3-year award period will have priority. Find out why it might be worth a look to see if your practice can qualify.

Here’s a novel use of electronic health records: Using the technology to provide an “electronic cohort” that allows you to evaluate a course of treatment on a real-time basis. Usually, physicians rely on randomized, controlled trials, when possible, and turn to expert opinion when necessary. But what if experts aren't available or testing is inconclusive? Find out how a medical team used a quick analysis of an EHR database to determine treatment of a pediatric patient with systemic lupus erythematosus complicated by nephritic-range proteinuria, antiphospholipid antibodies, and pancreatitis.

Responding to a new report that says growing pains for health information technology are creating some short-term safety issues, technology experts say physicians should remember one immutable fact: The new systems are far less dangerous than the old paper-based systems still used by many practices. The Institute of Medicine said there have been reported cases of patient injury related to medication dosing errors, failure to detect fatal illnesses, and treatment delays due to poor human-computer interactions or loss of data. Read on to learn how can you avoid these errors when using technology in your practice.

A liberal advocacy group says that liability reform in Texas shouldn’t be a model for the rest of the nation because the only beneficiaries are doctors and malpractice insurance companies. It also maintains that healthcare is scarcer in the state and more expensive than the national average-claims disputed by supporters. You might be interested in what the report says about the drops in the frequency and dollar amounts of liability payments since malpractice caps were instituted.