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  • FEATURES

    Where to Look for Good Clinical Policies

    Thomas T. Gilbert, Julie Scott Taylor

    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

    Brandi White

    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

    John Spicer, Brandi White

    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

    William T. Cushing

    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

    Max Burger

    There's no such thing as a free dinner when you're dealing with “wanna-be medical entrepreneurs.”

    EDITOR'S PAGE

    Bringing You Knowledge in Small Bites

    Robert L. Edsall

    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

    Family practice is still family practice

    Russell Lee-Wood

    Collaboration, not supervision

    Susan Murawski

    There's room for everyone

    Eileen O'Connor

    NPs are here to stay

    Bill Manahan

    Turf battles for the insecure

    Harriet L. Hellman

    Priced out of a job

    Jon F. Bode

    The good old days

    Gabor Somjen

    The NP's role

    Joseph A. Anistranski

    Academy action

    GETTING PAID

    Implementing a Policy for Same-Day Payments

    Jean Kouris

    The sooner you collect a payment for your services, the greater its value to your practice.

    CODING & DOCUMENTATION

    CPT Changes for 1999

    Kent J. Moore

    Look especially closely at code changes for radiology, lab and pathology, and immunization services.

    Coding and Documentation

    Kent J. Moore, John Spicer

    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...

    PRACTICE DIARY

    Practice Diary

    Sanford J. Brown

    Embracing technology | Customer service | Small victories | Penny wise, pound foolish | Getting along with insurers

    ASK FPM

    Ask FPM

    Katherine H. Autieri, Keith Rayburn, Kent J. Moore

    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

    Brandi White

    By teaching patients about clinical and nonclinical issues, you can replace their uncertainty with trust.

    COMPUTERS

    Voice Recognition Software: A Tool for Encounter Notes

    Louis Spikol

    Talking to the computer is no longer just an outlet for a doctor's frustration.

    Our Featured Web Site: Medical World Search

    David C. Kibbe

    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

    Lyndia Flanagan

    While you can't eliminate conflict altogether, you can improve your reaction to it.



    Disclosure

    All editors and editorial advisory board members in a position to control content for this activity, FPM journal, are required to disclose any relevant financial relationships. View disclosures.



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