Practice Management

Is banding together with other medical practices to create an independent practice association the right choice for you?

Letter to the editor

While the Affordable Care Act (ACA) seeks to open healthcare access to millions of uninsured Americans, there are seemingly just as many unanswered questions about its impact on physician practices in terms of costs, payer rules, quality of reimbursements, increased collections, and other issues associated with an influx of new patients.

A House bill that would repeal the dreaded SGR formula increases Medicare reimbursement to physicians by 0.5% per year. But given that the annual increase is less than inflation, is it a fair amount?

A new report from Black Book rankings shows which EHR systems dissatisfied physicians are turning to as replacements for their old, unwanted systems. Find out which eight vendors are the most popular choices.

What immediately jumps out about the list of residency programs that produce the lowest percentage of primary care graduates is that it includes some of the biggest names in healthcare: Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Brigham and Women's and plenty of others.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will not conduct end-to-end external testing with physician practices for ICD-10. In response, the Medical Group Management Association has sent a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of Health and Human Services, that urges her to immediately reverse that policy.

Many physicians recognize the need to control health costs in the U.S., but they're not eager to change how physicians are paid as a means of cost control, according to a new survey of physicians' attitudes about health cost containment published in JAMA.

Lt. Kevin Bernstein, MD, MMS, joined the Navy in his third year of medical school. Now, as chief resident at Naval Hospital Pensacola in Florida, he says it was the right decision for his career.

Heidi Moawad, MD, wrote "Careers Beyond Clinical Medicine" to help doctors discover new career opportunities that don't involve practicing medicine. In this interview, Moawad talks about the first step physicians should take to explore new careers.

The Patient-Centered Medical Neighborhood (PCMN) builds on the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) concept that’s designed to improve care coordination between primary care practices and specialists.

Try these medical journal curation apps to stay up-to-date with the latest research.

For physicians who are already short on time, managing multiple social media platforms can sometimes feel more burdensome than beneficial. But how should they decide which site to devote the most time to?

Physician staffing and recruiting firms are always looking to network with doctors, but when does it make sense for physicians in the job market to reach out to recruiters?

A new CMS proposal details two G-codes for primary care physicians for wellness and preventative care services and an expansion of telehealth services.

The U.S. population is healthier than ever, but compared to other wealthy nations, the U.S. is falling behind.

If you haven’t done so already, consider circling September 23, 2013 on your calendar. That’s the day that the federal government will start enforcing changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Opinions vary wildly on whether Obamacare will succeed, but there is little debate that Affordable Care Act will forever change the delivery of healthcare in the United States. Here's what it means for primary care physicians.

Medicare’s Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) currently offers .5% incentive to participate this year (1% with Maintenance of Certification); penalties will start in 2015 as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

The months are winding down until the health insurance exchanges mandated under the Affordable Care Act must be operational, and 17 states have declared their intent to open state-based exchanges, while seven have made plans for a partnership with the federal government, and another 27 have decided to let the feds take over their exchanges altogether.

The ICD-10 transition is a costly one for physicians, who must often purchase new information technology systems and train staff on the new coding system.

Medicaid expansion could save physicians and hospitals billions in uncompensated care costs. Yet fewer than half the states have agreed to increase their participation thresholds after challenging the expansion mandate before the Supreme Court last year.

October 3, 2013, is the last day doctors and other eligible professionals (EPs) can begin the attestation process to qualify for the first stage of meaningful use (MU1) in 2013.

Primary care physicians can, for the first time, get paid for transitional care management (TCM) - the time they spend coordinating care for patients transitioning from hospitals, nursing, or skilled nursing facilities back to the community.

Doctors have more tools at their disposal for helping patients than ever before, but demands on them are also greater.

Physicians are facing a cascade of change, and primary care doctors will lead them through it.

The mobile revolution just reached a tipping point, according to a recent survey. In fact, about 51% of respondents are using their tablets to access EHRs.

A nine-month telehealth pilot program was launched by Humana and AMC Health to evaluate clinical and financial outcomes of home-based monitoring for congestive heart failure (CHF) patients.

Adapting to rapid changes, legislative pressures and fiscal uncertainty rank as the top challenges facing practice business leaders.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released hospital outpatient charge data for the first time.