Practice Management

(06/02/2009)  --  Physicians know all too well that dealing with the details required by health insurance plans takes time. Now, researchers have tallied up all those physician and staff hours spent on administrative tasks related to pharmaceutical formularies, prior authorizations, claims and billing, credentialing, and contracting, and they have assigned these services a hefty price tag. The researchers estimate the cost of such administrative tasks ranges from $23 billion to $31 billion annually. (Discuss this story on the AAFP News Now bulletin board.) More

(06/01/2009)  --  A new area on the Academy's Web site is open for business. Check out the patient-centered medical home, or PCMH, Web pages, which were created by the Academy to make family physicians' transition to the medical home as smooth as possible. More

(05/13/2009)  --  A report recently issued by the PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute concludes that government incentives intended to spur the use of health information technology are a "small carrot" when compared with the amount of money it will cost hospitals and physician practices to implement and maintain electronic health records, or EHRs, during the next five years. (Discuss this story on the AAFP News Now bulletin board.) More

(05/13/2009)  --  An independent evaluation team under contract with the Academy to analyze data from TransforMED's national demonstration project, or NDP, on the patient-centered medical home, or PCMH, took the unusual step of releasing a preliminary report with findings the team said were too important to keep under wraps. (Discuss this story on the AAFP News Now bulletin board.) More

(04/24/2009)  --  Physicians living in Virginia, Illinois and Georgia have a new online option when it comes to selecting an electronic health record, or EHR, system -- that is, if they are members of Sam's Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and are willing to consider a prepackaged assortment of products and services. (Discuss this story on the AAFP News Now bulletin board.) More

(04/09/2009)  --  On April 1, UnitedHealthcare, or UHC, one of the nation's largest health insurance plans, implemented a new fee schedule methodology for its physician contracts that bases physician payment on Medicare's 2008 resource-based relative value units, or RVUs. The move has sparked protest from the AAFP and four other medical specialty groups. (Discuss this story on the AAFP News Now bulletin board.) More

(03/12/2009)  --  CMS is moving forward with its Recovery Audit Contractors, or RAC, program, which seeks to recover Medicare overpayments to physicians and other providers. In response, the AAFP has compiled an online guide to help physicians better understand and cope with the program. More