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Teamwork Cuts In-Hospital Observation Time

Lengths of stay cut substantially at one hospital chain.

The Hospital Leader: An Interview With Toronto's Adina Weinerman, MD

What strategies can streamline code status documentation?

10 Questions: Mary Norine Walsh, MD

"The waste will continue until the method of reimbursement changes."

Sinking Pediatric Practice Afloat After 番茄社区 Profile

Sometimes an article is worth $97,000 (in back pay).

The Happy PCP: $400K/Yr and Home in Time for Dinner

Primary care doc earns a specialist's income without working overtime.

Excerpt From 'Being Mortal ... '

Ivan Ilyich isn't as foreign to today's medicine as we imagine.

Doctor's Memoir Exposes Dark Side of Medicine

Sandeep Jauhar puts his life on stark display to illustrate harmful financial intrusions into medicine in his newest book.

CardioBuzz: Toward the $500 an Hour Physician

In this guest blog, Mark Jay Zucker, MD, JD, an attorney and transplant cardiologist at Rutgers University New Jersey Medical School in Newark, explains why he thinks it's time to talk money.

Groups Want Gay Diagnoses Out of ICD-11

A WHO working group has recommended that diagnostic codes referencing homosexuality in ICD-10 be dropped from the forthcoming 11th edition, echoing policies of the leading U.S. psychiatry and psychology societies.

AMA Agrees to Recharge Advocacy

CHICAGO -- The AMA will bolster their political advocacy efforts, recognize presurgical transgender birth certificates, and support insurance to cover young pregnant women and newborns, their House of Delegates voted here.

Lethal Injections, MOC, and E-Cigs on AMA Agenda

The American Medical Association is being asked to strengthen its ethical stance on physician participation in execution by extending its ban on doctors participating to include all health professionals.

Top 5 Reasons Why Internists Are Sued

Not properly diagnosing a condition and nonmedical errors such as equipment failure accounted for more than half of the malpractice lawsuits against internists, a study found.

How To Get Medicare To Cover A Spa Trip

Good news for doctors who think their patients need a trip to the spa: Medicare will reimburse, with only two catches.

ICD-10 Follies: Watch Where You're Walking

Yes, there's a code for that. To mark the forthcoming move to the ICD-10 coding system, 番茄社区 is spotlighting some of those thousands of new codes that might just be getting a bit too granular.

5 Ways Doctors Can Use Data Analytics

Data analytics takes claims data, a providers' electronic health record, and any of piece of information available to help physicians become more aware of the patients they're treating. Here are five ways the technology can help meet payers' demands for higher-quality, higher-value care.

ICD-10 Follies: Struck by an Orca

Yes, there's a code for that. To mark the forthcoming move to the ICD-10 coding system, 番茄社区 is spotlighting some of those thousands of new codes that might just be getting a bit too granular.

ICD-10 Follies: The Birds

Yes, there's a code for that. To mark the forthcoming move to the ICD-10 coding system, 番茄社区 is spotlighting some of those thousands of new codes that might just be getting a bit too granular.

Can You Get Paid For Prescribing Exercise?

How do doctors get reimbursed when they prescribe exercise? We asked Jordan Metzl, MD, author of the new book, "Exercise Cure."

Pay and Practice: Are Neurologists Primary Care Docs?

WASHINGTON -- Neurology isn't often mentioned in the same breath as primary care, but the American Academy of Neurology is again lobbying to gain that sobriquet -- this time to take advantage of a recent policy change that benefits primary care providers.

Paging Dr. Colbert: How Not To Drive Traffic to Your Website

A doctor tries paying bloggers to endorse his supplement-hawking website.

'Out of Network': More Money but Some Problems

Whether they plan to or not, a growing number of physicians no longer have contracts with some of the nation's largest health insurance carriers, but being "out of network" has both benefits and drawbacks.

10 Questions: John P. Erwin, MD

What's the biggest barrier to practicing medicine today? That's just the first of 10 questions the 番茄社区 staff is asking leading clinicians and researchers to get their personal views on their chosen profession. In this series we share their uncensored responses. Here, answers from John P. Erwin, MD, of Scott & White Healthcare in Temple, Texas.

AMA President Discusses SGR Repeal Efforts

Shortly after the American Medical Association's interim meeting adjourned, Ardis Hoven, MD, president of the American Medical Association, sat down for a one-on-one interview with 番茄社区 to discuss the AMA's SGR repeal strategy.

Docs Need Info on 'Grace Period,' AMA Says

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- The American Medical Association wants health plans to notify doctors when patients haven't paid their premiums, a situation that could leave physicians on the hook for unpaid services.

SGR Repeal Still Gets AMA Support

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- The AMA's policymaking House of Delegates voted nearly unanimously to continue its support of congressional efforts to repeal Medicare's payment formula despite its opposition to a 10-year pay freeze that's part of a draft proposal.

Fast-Acting AMA Group Hopes to Fix SGR

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- A large coalition of American Medical Association members met in seclusion Sunday morning here at the interim meeting of the House of Delegates and rapidly found consensus on a proposed resolution for the repeal of Medicare's sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula.

Will You Make More $$ if You Subspecialize?

Ivan Today looks at a study that looks at whether fellowships pay off.

New Nerve Tracer Not Ready for Routine Use?

CHICAGO -- The radiotracer iodine-123-metaiodobenzylguanidine may be a new tool for cardiac imaging, but whether it's ready for routine use in most practices was debated by nuclear cardiologists here.

Concierge Medicine Gains Ground

SAN DIEGO -- Concierge doctors are spreading the word that it's possible to operate a direct primary care practice, make a living, and avoid one of the biggest headaches for family medicine physicians -- dealing with health insurance companies.

Congress Probing VA Bonuses to Doctors

WASHINGTON -- A congressional committee is using a recent report questioning performance bonuses for Department of Veterans Affairs physicians as reason to examine a range of pay-for-performance issues at the VA.

Health Insurers Improve Claims Processing

CHICAGO -- The percentage of claims incorrectly processed by health plans fell for the third straight year to 7.1% in 2013, according to the American Medical Association.

On-Call Pay Varies Widely by Specialty

Surgeons commanded more than $1,000 a day for being on-call at the hospital, while primary care physicians reported compensation rates of around $150 a day, according to annually compiled data.

More Docs Joining Forces in ACOs

SAN FRANCISCO -- The number of physician-led accountable care organizations (ACOs) has recently surpassed the number led by hospitals, becoming the largest backers of the payment and delivery model, an analysis showed.

Docs May See Pay Delay Under ACA Exchanges

SAN FRANCISCO -- A provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) states that insurance companies will not process claims on patients who haven't paid their premiums in 3 months, leaving doctors on the hook to recoup payment directly from the patients.

OIG: Avastin a Better Buy for Wet AMD

茂禄驴WASHINGTON -- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should establish a national payment policy for bevacizumab (Avastin) to treat wet age-related macular degeneration, a government report concluded.

Possible ICD-10 Delay Rankles IT Industry

茂禄驴LAS VEGAS -- The possible delay in implementing the new ICD-10 coding system may make physicians happy, but the health information technology industry is not so thrilled.

AMA Adopts Policies on Circumcision, Gun Safety

The American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates has adopted a number of new policies at its interim meeting, including policies on male circumcision, physician discussion of gun safety, and a new medical coding system that will go into effect in 2013.