With the rise in laparoscopic surgery for many common surgical procedures, some in healthcare are concerned that surgeons may eventually lose proficiency for open procedures, writes Sekptical Scalpel in a recent guest blog for Physicians Weekly. Other open operations have been done...
The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) praised CMS changes that would expand coverage of telehealth services for Medicare beneficiaries starting next month. “The proposed new rules, while incremental, represent another step toward integrating the use of telecommunications technology into...
The American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG) has reversed an earlier directive and will permit members to treat male patients for sexually transmitted infections and to screen men for anal cancer. ABOG last week eased restrictions it had instituted in September, according to The...
The draft of the next National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) Guide is available for comment through early next year. Some things have changed since the last edition was printed—for starters, the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank has been merged into the NPDB, although this merger...
When emergency rooms in rural areas see very sick or badly injured children, bringing in a pediatric critical care specialist by videoconference to help with treatment could prevent errors, a new study suggests. Researchers found rural ER physicians made medication errors—such as giving the...
The National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) is revising the NPDB Guidebook to incorporate legislative and regulatory changes adopted since its last edition, including the merger of the NPDB with the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank. The revised Guidebook will offer...
Credentialing Resource Center Digest - Volume 14, Issue 47
CMS has finalized payment rates and policies for 2014, including a proposal to support care management outside routine office interactions, the agency announced last week. The final rule sets payment rates for physicians and non-physician practitioners paid under the Medicare Physician Fee...
Credentialing Resource Center Digest - Volume 14, Issue 47
The evolution of healthcare has brought changes to career tracks and staff levels—some good, some not. CareerCast, an employment website, predicts that implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will lead to hiring for healthcare professionals in the very near future. CareerCast’s...
Credentialing Resource Center Digest - Volume 14, Issue 47
Physicians who work in outpatient settings are at just as much risk for burnout as their inpatient counterparts, a study published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine has found. Researchers at the Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic reviewed 54 burnout studies from around the world, which...
A U.S. District Court judge in Newark, N.J., this week sentenced a former physician to six and a half years in federal prison for fraudulently diagnosing patients with heart ailments and ordering them to undergo unnecessary tests. The physician reportedly defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and private...
