Practice Finance

Lawsuit: Medicare payments illegal as well as unfair

The filing of a lawsuit by six Georgia primary care physicians has escalated the battle against the American Medical Association (AMA)-led process that favors higher payments to specialists at the expense of primary care. Read more to learn why plaintiffs maintain that government reliance on AMA's Specialty Society Relative Value Update Committee (RUC) violates federal law. » More

Health Law & Policy

Safeguards needed in law making physician performance public

The response period for the government plan to make public reports on physicians' performance may be over, but not before numerous medical associations expressed some concerns. Find out why more than 80 physician organizations called for measures to increase the accuracy of the information and to allow you more opportunity to review your own data. » More

Liability & Risk Management

Fiscal crisis affects California medical board actions

Public Citizen recently sent a letter to California Governor Jerry Brown, asking him to do something about the state medical board's failure to stop potentially dangerous doctors from practicing. The letter from the advocacy group and an earlier report got wide coverage in the news media, but most accounts failed to point out that the medical board may not have been the villain in this situation but a victim itself of California's fiscal crisis. » More

We want to hear from you

The way you see it

We're looking for readers who would like to share their experiences and observations about important issues facing primary care—payer issues, ACOs, EHRs, patient relations, malpractice, and more. Let us know what's on your mind by submitting a 600-word article on any challenge that you are facing, especially if you have an innovation or solution that might help other doctors. We will pay an honorarium to you should we publish your article. Submit your article for consideration to Editor-in-Chief Tara Stultz at [email protected]

Technology

Survey: Doctors find EHRs worth the expense

Meaningful use incentives are a strong motivator for physicians to implement electronic health records (EHRs), but lack of funds remains the primary reason for not taking the plunge, according to a new survey. Still, practices that had stretched to buy them were highly satisfied with EHRs. » More

Practice Management

Barriers to seeing PCPs send patients to EDs

According to new research, what patients perceive as barriers to office-based primary care may be more important than health insurance coverage in determining whether they go to emergency departments for nonacute care. Find out what potential patients see as barriers to seeing you. » More

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