Articles
Where to Look for Good Clinical Policies
Doctors increasingly need to know how to find, evaluate and implement clinical policies. Our primer begins with this first of two articles.
Ground Rules for Dealing With Health Care Plans
A new AAFP document maps out the high ground for family physicians' relationships with managed care organizations.
More Take-Home Messages From the AAFP Assembly
From coding to capitation to computerized records, the Managed Care and Practice Enhancement Forum had a lot to teach.
A Physician's Guide to Locum Tenens
If you've ever been curious about this unique practice option, here's how one family physician made it work.
An Expensive Dinner: Surviving a Failed Business Venture
There's no such thing as a free dinner when you're dealing with “wanna-be medical entrepreneurs.”
From the Editor
Bringing You Knowledge in Small Bites
First, in case you missed the January issue, which introduced our new design, some reassurance: Yes, this is still Family Practice Management. The cover has changed, we've changed the look of our pages, we've increased the number and variety of articles, and we've added some…
Letters
Getting Paid
Implementing a Policy for Same-Day Payments
The sooner you collect a payment for your services, the greater its value to your practice.
Coding & Documentation
CPT Changes for 1999
Look especially closely at code changes for radiology, lab and pathology, and immunization services.
Coding and Documentation
Differentiating between new patients ... | ... and established patients | Coding repeat procedures | Codes for motor vehicle accidents | Discharging hospitalized patients | When preventive visits get complicated
Monitor
Monitor
Medicare spending slows; leaders call for more | Site offers one-stop shopping for clinical policies | How much are you paying your management staff? | Doctors fleeing HMOs? | HMOs sued over compensation methods | Studies find increasing numbers of uninsured | Quote. End quote…
Practice Diary
Practice Diary
Embracing technology | Customer service | Small victories | Penny wise, pound foolish | Getting along with insurers
Ask FPM
Ask FPM
Legal risks of giving a reference | Teaming up physicians and midlevel providers | Medicare HMOs and “teaching physician” rules
Improving Patient Care
Time Savers
Use these tips to boost your efficiency in the office.
A Broader View of Patient Education
By teaching patients about clinical and nonclinical issues, you can replace their uncertainty with trust.
Computers
Voice Recognition Software: A Tool for Encounter Notes
Talking to the computer is no longer just an outlet for a doctor's frustration.
Our Featured Web Site: Medical World Search
For searches of the clinical and allied health literature, nothing beats MEDLINE online (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/databases/databases_medline.html). But for searches of the World Wide Web at large for information related to medicine and health care, I recommend Medical World…
Balancing Act
Conflict 101
While you can't eliminate conflict altogether, you can improve your reaction to it.