News in Brief: Practice Management Updates

This roundup includes the following brief practice management updates:

The Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, has decided it won't start enforcing the Identity Theft Red Flags Rule until August 1. According to an April 30 news release, the FTC determined that entities covered under the new federal law need an additional three months to develop and implement identity theft programs.

"Given the ongoing debate about whether Congress wrote this provision too broadly, delaying enforcement of the Red Flags Rule will allow industries and associations to share guidance with their members, provide low-risk entities an opportunity to use the (soon-to-be-released) template in developing their programs, and give Congress time to consider the issue further," said FTC Chairman John Leibowitz in the release.

The regulation requires financial institutions and creditors -- including physician practices -- to develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs as part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (62-page PDF; About PDFs).

Earlier this year, the FTC rejected the Academy's argument that physician practices should be exempt from the rule.

A free online resource now is available to help primary care health professionals -- including family physicians and their office teams -- improve the self-management support they provide to patients living with chronic diseases.

The online quality improvement tool, which is dubbed the Assessment of Primary Care Resources and Supports for Chronic Disease Self Management, was developed by the Diabetes Initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to facilitate improvement of self-management support in all chronic illness care.

The interactive resource allows primary care health teams -- including front-line staff, clinicians and administrative personnel -- to assess current capacity in patient support and organizational support of self-management, as well as monitor ongoing progress in improving the support provided to patients with chronic illnesses.