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To ease doctor-departing woes, write careful terms into the contract

06/09/2025

If you’re worried that one of your employed physicians will want to leave before their contract expires, be aware that the best time to handle that problem is when they first sign on. Also, remember that “I quit” isn’t always the end.

Budget bill would peg physician pay to MEI; might mean raise in 2026

06/09/2025

by: Roy Edroso

The budget bill passed on May 22 in the U.S. House of Representatives, now being considered by the Senate, has a proposed change to the physician fee schedule conversion factor (CF) that, while it doesn’t appear to do anything about low reimbursement rates in 2025, promises some relief in 2026 and possibly in years to follow. But experts caution that the gains may not be what they at first appear.

Consult the details for MDM discussions for accurate E/M coding

06/09/2025

by: Julia Kyles, CPC

Question: When our doctors requests a consult from another doctor, how can we tell whether our physician can count the conversation toward “discussion of management or test interpretation with external physician or other qualified health care professional or appropriate source (not separately reported)” in the data review column for medical decision-making (MDM)? Do we need to coordinate with the other physician’s practices that the consulting physicians work for to make sure they aren’t counting it too?

Dissect comments on the proposed HIPAA Security Rule update

06/09/2025

by: Dom Nicastro

As medical groups and the larger health care industry await the final version of HHS’ proposed HIPAA Security Rule update, over 4,600 comments met the March 2025 deadline (PBN 1/22/25). Below is a summary of the most notable comments from leading health care organizations.

Survey: Patient wait times rising across specialties, except ortho

06/09/2025

by: Roy Edroso

You may have suspected as much, and now a survey of 1,391 physician offices located in 15 metropolitan areas offers evidence that wait times for patients to get physician appointment have gone up substantially in recent years, at least in many metropolitan areas.

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