Mar 1999 Table of Contents

Features

Quality Improvement: First Steps

Scott Endsley; Mary Thoesen Coleman

How to Evaluate and Implement Clinical Policies

Thomas T. Gilbert; Julie Scott Taylor

Take Charge of Coding: Don't Lose Income to Neglect

Wm. Jackson Epperson; Karl S. Hubach; Karen E. Menn; Sharon Oates

Practicing Without Paper

John Spicer

Tips for Making Inpatient Care More Efficient

Spencer H. McCleave

Departments

Editor's Page

Rescuing Managed Care From the Wreckage of Managed Care

Robert L. Edsall

Getting Paid

What to Consider When Choosing a Billing Service

Judy Capko

Improving Patient Care

Beginning With a Vision

Stacey Eubanks

Computers

Three Sites for Patient Health Information

David C. Kibbe

Balancing Act

Tips for Life Balance and Time Management

Pamela J. Vaccaro

Coding & Documentation

• Coding Treatment of "Road Rash" • A Diagnosis Code for Poor Posture • Destruction of Multiple Lesions • Coding for House Calls • Services in an Adult Day-Care Center • Coding Inpatient Care of an Infant • Observation Care or a Nursing Facility Admission? • Getting Paid for FMLA Paperwork

Ask FPM

• Discounting Self-Pay Patients • Balance Billing HMO Patients • Practicing in a Strip Mall • Waiving a Co-Payment

Practice Diary

• A Lesson in Serving Patients • Computer Fix • Mystery Diagnosis

Monitor

• Y2K Update: HCFA Says It'll Be Ready, But Will You? • HMO, POS Enrollment Slows; Overall Health Plan Costs Rise • Boomers Will Demand Greater Accountability • The Future of Family Practice: A Glass Half Full? • Medicare Overpayments Continue to Fall • Groups Collaborate on Performance Measures • New York HMO Complaints Double

Letters

• Cover Critique

• Broke and Miserable

• Patients Should Pay

• The Benefits of the Hospitalist Movement

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