Practice Management

At a time when communication with patients is being identified as a key component in increasing quality of care and decreasing medico-legal risk, perhaps we should intensify our endeavors to teach our students, residents, and colleagues to communicate with each other.

Many in the medical community are looking to the next president to inspire systemic changes that will remove the obstacles that hinder quality patient care.

More than half of doctors at least "occasionally" use some form of complementary and alternative medicine in their practice, according to a July survey by physician staffing firm Jackson & Coker.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation needs doctors, and it is ready to pay.

A bill was introduced in July in the U.S. Senate to award $600,000 state grants to create medical volunteer programs for which the state would assume medical liability.

Just 39 percent of patients at retail clinics said they had a primary care physician, according to a study by the RAND Corp.

More and more Americans are turning to sources other than their doctors for medical information, according to a recently released report. The web is patients' fastest-growing source of medical information.

The model of charging patients "access" fees to cover administrative expenses has given way to the concept of "concierge" or "boutique" practices.

The Department of Health and Human Services will require health care providers to use its set of new diagnosis and procedure codes known as ICD-10 by October 2011.

A New Jersey health insurer has launched a pilot program that will allow participating physicians to access patients? medical imaging records through a web portal.

About 25,000 U.S. physicians have downloaded a free drug information software program that runs on Apple's popular iPhone, according to the California company that develops the software.

One of our office employees just resigned, and the rest of our staff will have to cover her duties until we replace her, which may take a while. What's the best way to compensate them?

My in-house biller says the electronic claims with the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) codes have all been accepted without a problem. But when we call Medicare to ask why I haven't received a bonus, we get nowhere. Should I be concerned about the status of my bonus payment?

One of my partner's patients occasionally asks me to approve a prescription refill in my partner's absence. Does providing those refills increase my malpractice risk?

How do I figure the number of patients to schedule each day to ensure a reasonable pace for me and a minimal wait for my them?

I'm thinking about adding some municipal bond funds to my portfolio. But I remember hearing some-thing about munis being affected by the alternative minimum tax. Can you clarify?

It is appropriate to bill for suture removal only when the sutures were provided by another Tax ID provider.

Medical practices must credential outside physicians to their insurance plans before they can bill for services.

Modifier -59 for services listed in column 2 of the CCI edits is accepted by most major insurers as indication that there was a separate service.

Service is the most powerful secret to enjoying your profession and healing others.

The growth of retail clinics means that fewer patients are visiting their primary care doctors for simple respiratory infections, upset stomachs, and earaches. And physician practices are starting to take notice.

When a state boots a health-care provider from its Medicaid program for incompetence, fraud, or patient abuse, it's supposed to inform the federal government so that the offenders will be barred from receiving any more federal funds. But that doesn't always happen.

Many patients are responding to higher prices for basic goods by cutting back on their medical care. About 22 percent of U.S. consumers say they're visiting their doctors less.

Patients in the United States made an estimated 1.1 billion visits to physician offices, and hospital outpatient and emergency departments in 2006, an average of four visits per person per year.

A new report from the National Association of Community Health Centers cites a severe shortage of primary care physicians as the nation's biggest barrier to universal health care.

I need to hire a new office manager. Should I invite my other key employees to interview the final candidates?

When making notes in a patient's record, I often indicate possible conditions that might be worth checking out. But a colleague says that could invite malpractice trouble. Is he right?

Recently, a difficult patient said she was switching doctors and asked us to transfer her records to another practice, which we did. Then she changed her mind and called us for another appointment. Could we have turned her away? And how can we avoid this situation next time?

Billing for services in nursing facilities depends on extent of care.

Doctors not yet credentialed can bill for services in some states.