MARCH 1999

QI can bring about substantial, lasting, positive change in your practice. It all begins with identifying the opportunities.

Here are step-by-step methodologies to help you select the right clinical policies and actually change practice with them.

The time you spend will be well rewarded — both financially and in improved service to your patients.

Using information technology, this Texas practice is working smarter and serving patients better.

You may be surprised at what you can do to improve the quality and reduce the cost of hospital care — and strengthen your own position.

It's really a shame that the term managed care has been applied to what has been going on in health care over the past several years. As many observers have commented, managed care organizations don't, by and large, manage to manage care. Access, maybe. Professional fees…

The key is to remember that the best indicator of a company's performance is its track record with practices like yours.

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…

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 | New York HMO complaints…

A lesson in serving patients | Computer fix | Mystery diagnosis

Discounting self-pay patients | Balance billing HMO patients | Practicing in a strip mall | Waiving a co-payment

Any efforts to improve patient care must be guided by a clear vision that you, your staff and your colleagues share.

Like a lot of family physicians, you are probably witnessing the results of your patients' newfound familiarity with the Inter-net. Patients come to see you carrying information they've printed from web sites, or they ask your opinion about advice they've received from an…

From quick fixes to major changes, here are a dozen ways you can get organized and find time you didn't know you had.