The PMD Critical List: The Price Tag of ICD-10

Transitioning to ICD-10 is far from inexpensive. A look at the average cost of the transition tops this week’s PMD Critical List. Also on the list: A look at physician pay relative to other professions, and new data on the diversity of the nation’s medical students.

• Small-Business Loans for Doctors Prepping for ICD-10 (NerdWallet)

A useful report about “the financial fallout from ICD-10—a major shift in the way physician’s document medical diagnoses.” To make the transition, a typical small practice will pay $57,000 to $226,000; for a medium-sized practice, it’s $213,000 to $825,000. That high price tag has many practices looking for small business loans.

• Physicians Top “Highest Paying Jobs” List (HealthLeadersMedia)

Despite persistent job unhappiness, surgeons, psychiatrists, and primary care physicians are the three highest-paid professions in the United States, according to new US Bureau of Labor Statistics. And all three medical specialties can expect 18% wage growth through 2022.

• Dr. Oliver Sacks, Famed Physician and Author, Dies (The New York Times)

Neurologist and acclaimed author, Oliver Sacks, MD, “who explored some of the brain’s strangest pathways in best-selling case histories,” has died at age 82. The British-born doctor’s “neurological novels" were best sellers.

• A More Diverse Doctor Workforce Coming? (Pacific Standard)

When it comes to medical profession diversity things are improving, according to a new JAMA analysis, but there's still a long way to go. “Among medical students and doctors in post-graduate training, diversity numbers are close to representative”—suggesting a more diverse physician set in the future.

• Helping Doctors Lead More Balanced Lives (Trib Live)

A groundbreaking new “time banking” program at Stanford University seeks to ease work-life conflicts for its emergency medicine faculty. “When a physician drops off the precipice because they're overstressed, the amount of damage it does to the medical care system is tremendous.”

• Why Millennials Avoid Seeing Doctors (International Business Times)

Due to “time, money and uncertainty,” Americans age 18-34 don’t visit doctors the way other age groups typically do. “These habits could not only jeopardize young people’s health but also potentially increase healthcare costs over the long run.”

• Growth of the Digital “Second Opinion” (The Wall Street Journal)

“A growing number of online services are offering second opinions and some are seeing increasing patient demand for a second set of eyes. About 60% of the patients ended up following the recommendations from the second opinion, according to a recent American Journal of Medicine study.”

• Sleep Doctors Favorite Tricks for Falling Asleep Fast (The Huffington Post)

If there’s anyone who could use more restful sleep, it’s today’s harried physicians. This report offers up seven scientifically sound methods from medical sleep experts so that “you'll never lie awake at night again.”

• Why Doctors Don’t Do Facebook Friends (Kaiser Health News)

Physicians are “hesitant to blur the lines between personal lives and professional work and nervous about the privacy issues that could arise in discussing specific medical concerns on most Internet platforms.” Since “HIPAA was written before email and social media’s ascent, it may not address patient preferences or behavior.”

• Physician-Patient Communication: “Words Matter” (News-Medical.net)

A new study is highlighting the “significant divide that can exist between patients and physicians about the same medical terms.” Doctors “may not realize that the words they use have different connotations to them than they do to patients.”

• Are Physicians Really Dissatisfied with EHRs? (HIT Consultant)

Interesting report from an EHR company executive. The medical profession’s “cognitive dissonance over EHRs continues but over time, EHRs will improve and doctors will become more satisfied with them, perhaps will even depend on them, as essential clinical tools.”