fast food / shutterstock

Mid-sized, low wage companies will feel the effect of Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation. Opponents of the law have been making a big deal out of how it will harm businesses and stop their growth plans. But if you learn more, you’ll see there’s little to fear.[read more]

workers' comp / freedigitalphotos.net

ICD-9 coding to ICD-10 as mandated by the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA). Workers’ compensation commercial insurers are non-covered entities under HIPPA and therefore exempt from the mandate to convert their billing practices to ICD-10.[read more]

Patient leads (Photo: Alan Cleaver)

People are increasingly relying on the Internet to find the answers they need when it comes to services, especially with healthcare and medical services. This is why it is so important for medical offices to have a strong process set up that gets people landing on their website.[read more]

Medical technology / shutterstock

Conventional wisdom has it that investment in medical technology is down. I don’t buy it. I have seen the emergence of so many new medtech companies, even since the Great Recession of 2008. I have witnessed hundreds of millions of dollars flow into medtech.[read more]

Marilyn Tavenner / Reuters

One would think that that news of the first Senate-confirmed CMS head in 7 years would get some media play. This week, the U.S. Senate confirmed Marilyn Tavenner to the post. Prior to this installment, Tavenner worked as a healthcare exec for HCA for a quarter century.[read more]

End of life legislation in VT / shutterstock

Vermont becomes the fourth state to legalize a physician’s ability to prescribe lethal medication to the terminally ill patient. The act is significant in this state because it is the result of legislative action. Three other states have had similar measures approved by either referendum or judicial action.[read more]

ICD-10 is coming / freedigitalphotos.net

The US Dept. of Health and Human Services has directed the supplanting of the ICD-9-CM code sets, those currently utilized by physicians, medical billers and coders to report healthcare procedures and diagnoses, with ICD-10 codes. Implementation is to be effected on October 1, 2014.[read more]

GMO: Frankenfood and chimeras?

The knowledge that humans have manipulated genes in plants for at least 11,000 years gives some perspective. Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) are neither the Frankenstein chimera that some suggest, nor are they the magic bullet for feeding the world and saving the environment.[read more]

patient support group / shutterstock

On May 8th, @Bonnycastle took the reins and moderated the hcsmca chat. Together we discussed the relationship between physicians and patients support groups. As an introduction, she wrote the blog post "Should medical doctors advocate for patient support groups?"[read more]

Preventative cancer surgery / People.com

Actress Angelina Jolie is making news because she chose to have both breasts removed, with reconstruction with breast implants following. She made that aggressive cancer prevention choice because she tested positive for the “breast and ovarian cancer genes": BRCA1 and BRACA2.[read more]

Person-centered healthcare

This is a story about the jacket painting of Tom Evans, MD. If you read Tom’s biography you’ll see many accomplishments in his long career. He has succeeded at so many things. He has a BA, MA and MD to his name. But today we are going to hear about Tom’s failure.[read more]

H7N9 & public health (Photo: AFP)

Over the last few months, H7N9 has been making headlines around the world. As of May 9, there have been 130 identified cases. There are four things we should learn from responses to H7N9, which have so far led to effective control of the disease.[read more]