This chart shows the average annual compensation for primary care physicians across the country, divided by geographic region. Southern providers make the most, followed by those in the Midwest. Primary care providers in the East and West region make the least in each of the three primary care subspecialties graphed below.

Download this month's tool, DecisionHealth Professional Services' E/M outpatient checklist, from the Part B News website, www.partbnews.com.

It's been about six weeks since the first Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) targets were publicly posted, but less than 100 RAC demand letters have been sent out nationwide, CMS officials tell Part B News.

Your Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) is allowed to send you only one complex review request every 45 days -- easing a potentially huge burden for fulfilling record requests, CMS officials tell Part B News.

Prepare for the more than 19,000 changes about to take place in the latest round of Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) edits released by CMS. CCI edits block you from getting paid for services Medicare considers to be not separately payable -- edits you can often override using a modifier when appropriate.

A physician can be a your best friend, but these relationships can sour at any moment, practice consultant Marge McQuade of Tampa, Fla., told attendees at the Physician Office Managers Association of America in Baltimore.

You would see a 0.5% boost to your Medicare payments in 2010 - but no permanent fix to the payment formula that continually acts to cut your payments - under the first official draft of the Senate Finance Committee's health reform bill. A permanent SGR fix is "a separate side issue," that will be addressed this year, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said in a televised press conference with reporters Sept. 16.

Save money and improve patient payment behavior by sticking to a clear, tough-but-fair collections policy, experts say.  The key: Work with patients who tell you they have problems paying, but don't be afraid to send unresponsive patients to collections, even with the economy still sputtering.

Your Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) can't disregard the coverage conditions in your local coverage determinations (LCDs) to demand overpayments on any claim in a complex review, CMS officials say. If a RAC believes you should've been paid for a service despite a relevant LCD saying otherwise, it has the power to override the LCD and approve the claim,