41

Should You Treat Yourself, Family or Friends?
Robyn Latessa, MD, and Lisa Ray, MD
It boils down to a personal decision in most situations.

49

What You Need to Know About the Medicare Prescription Drug Act
Jennifer Brinckerhoff, MD, and Eric A. Coleman, MD, MPH
Congress passed the legislation. Now physicians must learn the details.

59

Answers to Your Questions About Same-Day Scheduling
Mark Murray, MD, MPA
The concept's founder explains how to do "today's work today" and improve patient access to your practice.

10

EDITORIAL
Establishing Rules of the Road for Pharmaceutical Representatives
Jason Evans, MD
Being up-front can help prevent back-door tactics.

20

GETTING PAID
The Value of a Coding Education
John Rowe, MD, Blake Fagan, MD, David Mouw, MD, Dottie King and Kelly Christianson
This practice sent an employee to coding school and saw dramatic revenue gains.

27

CODING & DOCUMENTATION
Answers to Your Questions
Kent J. Moore
Coding forms completion • An office visit with multiple procedures • Venipuncture on a Medicare patient • Coding a pre-operative, consultative exam • Trigger-point injections • Interpreting diagnostic tests • Critical-care transport • "Reviewing" vs. "interpreting" an X-ray

67

IMPROVING PATIENT CARE
A Tool for Evaluating Patients With Knee Injury
Mark H. Ebell, MD, MS
The most widely used tests may not be the most effective.

76

COMPUTERS
How to Cure a Bad Case of Fax-o-rrhea
Tripp Bradd, MD
Feeling overwhelmed by faxes? Try this doctor's fix: a mix of technology and diplomacy.

90

BALANCING ACT
How to Become a Defensive Filer
Anna K. Cox-Havron
Saving information you don't need could be costing you more than you think.

8

EDITOR'S PAGE
Open Access: Nothing This Good Can Be Easy
Robert L. Edsall

14

LETTERS
Feedback on maintenance of certification • Asthma days worth further chronicling • Conflict of interest in EHR article • EHR vendor rating tool

37

MONITOR
Physicians' quality reports to go public • Medicare pay-for-performance demo under way • Health professionals unlikely to address colleagues' errors • Physicians sue health plan over fee reduction

72

PRACTICE DIARY
Sanford J. Brown, MD
Vitamin V • A transcription error

74

ASK FPM
Semi-retirement within a productivity-based group • Appointment of counsel • Salary comparison resources