By Leslie Champlin http://www.aafp.org Diversity may be good in many circumstances. But in issues related to health care administration — such as credentialing requirements, health plan contracts, coverage, copayments and deductibles, and prior authorizations within and among insurance plans — can be crippling. According to the Medical Group Management Association, or MGMA, the annual cost […]

http://www.berkshireeagle.com The state law requiring all residents to have health insurance will, if successful, take a huge burden off the state’s emergency rooms, cutting down the high costs of that service, but it will put much of that burden on the state’s already over-extended primary care physicians. These physicians are the critical component of preventive […]

http://www.eurekalert.org Physician researchers with only an M.D. degree are less likely to receive NIH research grants than researchers with a Ph.D. degree or those with both M.D. and Ph.D. degrees, according to a study in the June 13 issue of JAMA. “Declines in the number of physician-scientist applicants and recipients of National Institutes of Health […]

http://www.eurekalert.org The average American spends a total of about 30 minutes a year with a primary care physician in a system that is less comprehensive than that of Australia or New Zealand, according to a new study comparing primary care practice in the three countries. Findings showed patient-physician time in the US is about half […]

By Liz Freeman http://www.naplesnews.com Despite efforts to crack down sooner against physicians in Florida who harm patients, the state Board of Medicine has a mediocre standing when it comes to serious disciplinary measures against physicians, according to a new analysis. Mariner Apts & Motel The Florida Board of Medicine ranks 35th among the nation’s 51 […]

By Sarah Bzdega http://www.businessrecord.com Once tucked within the quiet country club neighborhood on the northwest corner of University Avenue and Jordan Creek Parkway, NCMIC Group Inc.’s building is gaining as much attention from the increase in traffic passing by as it is from the growth in its business. Since the 1990s, the company has been […]

By GUY BOULTON http://www.jsonline.com There’s a good chance that your doctor works for a health care system – and there could be an even better chance of that in the coming years. The health care systems in the Milwaukee area are all vying to put more doctors on their payroll. The systems long have employed […]

By Kate Moran staff writer http://blog.nola.com Mordecai Potash was paying down his medical school debt by picking up evening shifts at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in downtown New Orleans — before Hurricane Katrina destroyed it. But Potash’s student loans survived the storm just fine. Doctors like Potash who earned solid — and often enviable […]

http://www.petconnection.com/ Did you say “familyâ€?? Nope. Not to be too cynical about it, but for the most part, it often seems that pets are said to be “family “when someone’s trying to sell you something based on your love for the animal … and “thingsâ€? when something goes wrong, such as when a contaminated pet […]