American Medical News Articles on Medicare

Incorrect enrollment information on physicians participating in Medicare can lead to doctors losing billing privileges and inaccurate information being posted on the Physician Compare website.

Solo practices and physicians approaching retirement age could become exempt from Medicare pay reductions if expanded hardship exemptions for EHR adoption are enacted.

A federal judge struck down a 1979 injunction that had prevented Medicare payment information identifying individual physicians from being released to the public.

As accountable care organizations develop, early patterns emerge on which arrangements are most likely to put physician payment in jeopardy for not meeting goals.

Medicare cost growth remains low but is expected to rise, triggering automatic spending cuts under the IPAB before the end of the decade.

Study attributes cost variations to patients being sicker in some regions, not to the varying care efficiency of physicians and hospitals.

Physicians and other health professionals are encouraged to apply for funds to develop innovative payment concepts that reward quality and keep federal costs down.

Authorities on federal law said the Health and Human Services secretary would determine Medicare cuts for congressional fast-tracking if the cost-control board failed to convene.

Usability of electronic health records remains a top concern for physicians as other goals of interoperability and information sharing appear to be far off.

Bureaucratic rules and other administrative burdens placed on physician practices accumulate, cutting into time to treat patients and costing practices money.

As AMA president, Ardis Dee Hoven, MD, says she will listen to physicians' concerns and help pave the way for new payment and delivery of care models.

Federal incentives have helped push electronic prescribing, which the vast majority of physicians are now doing.