When it comes to workplace ergonomics, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) doesn't have any specific enforceable rules, laws, or standards. Instead, it offers a set of industry-specific voluntary guidelines. But that doesn't mean you can shrug off ergonomics in your practice. Although its ergonomics guidelines for the healthcare industry are voluntary and directed specifically at nursing homes, OSHA can cite any business-including hospitals and physician practices-under its general duty clause, a catchall section of the 1970 Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act that requires every employer to provide a safe and healthy work environment.

Is your practice doing all it can to prevent HIPAA privacy violations? Perhaps not. More than half of providers experienced one or more privacy breaches between January 2005 and June 2005, according to the Summer 2005 U.S. Healthcare Industry HIPAA Compliance Survey, sponsored by the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and Phoenix Health Systems, the most updated survey as of press time (see www.himss.org for the full report).

Preventive medicine is often one of the most important services physicians render to their patients. Medicare and many third-party payers have recently increased their willingness to reimburse providers for these visits, particularly for annual visits. Most payers recognize that by catching problems at an early stage through annual visits, they can minimize/avoid insurance payments for more expensive methods of treatment (e.g., hospitalization and surgery). As of January 2005, Medicare began paying for an initial preventive physical examination (IPPE) for a patient within the first six months of him or her becoming a Medicare Part B participant.

In today's consumer-oriented market, many patients-as many as six million per day1-use the Internet to research doctors and find healthcare information. Most physicians understand the importance of the Internet as a tool to reach patients. Case in point, many practices have created Web sites to establish a professional Web presence. But how often have you thought about your personal Web presence? When searching the Internet, people tend to look for a physician by name, not by affiliated practice, says Rosmarie Nelson,2 a practice management consultant from Syracuse, NY.