Austin Littrell

The insurer pledge on prior authorization carried no enforcement. The federal rule arriving Jan. 1, 2027 does, and it lands on payers, on EHR vendors and, through a new attestation measure, on practices themselves.

More than 400 revenue cycle leaders told Inovalon which workflows send their claims back. The ranking reads as a to-do list for whoever owns the front end of the practice.

Denials that surface a week late, a hybrid revenue cycle split across internal staff and outside vendors, and payer contracts multiplying faster than anyone can track them. Veradigm's Aaron Ledbetter breaks down which of those an administrator can fix with better tooling and which still need payer reform.

Jay Bregman of Andel explains how employers are carving high-cost drugs out of the pharmacy benefit, and what happens to a patient's price when the contribution stops.

Every practice has one person who is the only one who knows how to do a handful of things. Here are eight of them, and what breaks the week that person is out.

Shawntea Gordon of Atlas & Perpetua Healthcare Consulting says a cost cut made without benchmarking data is a guess, and the wrong guess costs more than it saves.

Joanne Frederick of Government Market Strategies argues the fix for runaway health care costs turned out worse than the problem it solved.

Staffing shortages, training gaps and insurance verification delays are the front-end problems dragging on patient access, and nearly all of them land on the administrator's desk. Experian Health's chief operating officer breaks down which ones automation can absorb now and which ones still need payer or policy reform.

An outbreak in the news brings a surge of calls before it brings a surge of cases. A Michigan pediatrician on the triage rule, the lab conversation and the reassurance approach that keep a practice from being overwhelmed.

The proposed 2027 Medicare fee schedule shifts payment between specialties and changes same-day billing as MIPS winds down, and MGMA's Anders Gilberg explains what practice leaders should watch before comments close Sept. 14.

Women physicians leave clinical practice 15 years earlier than men, and for practice leaders the retention levers are schedule control, documentation burden and how care time gets paid.

Overhead runs about 60% of practice revenue, concentrated in four line items every administrator knows by heart.

Most physicians know the direct primary care pitch; whether the economics hold up once you're in it is the harder question.

The same low-risk procedure can pay five to 12 times more in a hospital outpatient department than in a physician's office. Three U.S. Women's Health Alliance advocates break down what that gap does to recruiting, referrals and patient choice, and the federal bill aimed at closing it.

As consolidation reshapes the market, health care investment banker Andy Colbert breaks down what an independent practice is really worth and how to weigh private equity, a hospital deal or a management services organization.

As more physicians weigh a move to concierge or hybrid practices, health care attorney Ericka Adler, J.D., breaks down the contract and Medicare traps that can turn a panel-shrinking strategy into a legal problem.

New YouGov data rank what patients consider before accepting care, and several of the top factors run straight through your front office.

PYA's Tynan Kugler breaks down the four forces pulling physician pay in competing directions, and why getting the underlying compensation model wrong can be expensive and legally complicated to undo.

For the first time in years, physician pay and productivity have split, and a new Medicare efficiency adjustment is about to make 2026 a hard year to benchmark, schedule and recruit.

Two new federal programs are opening Medicare and Medicaid coverage for GLP-1 obesity drugs, and Tracy Zvenyach, Ph.D., M.S., RN, of the Obesity Action Coalition explains what it means for primary care physicians and their patients.

Clinical applications are climbing while hires lag behind, and Trent Cotton of ICIMS says the practices that win top talent are the ones that make hiring fast, personal and transparent.

A new federal rule makes it far cheaper for practices to challenge denied and reduced payments, but Anders Gilberg of MGMA says the harder problem is getting insurers to pay up after physicians win.

The highest offer is rarely the best deal. If you're waiting until you're ready to sell, you've waited too long.

Nearly 40% of Gen Z patients don't have a primary care physician, and Andrea Giamalva, M.D., FAAFP, says urgent care is quietly stepping in to fill the gap.

MGMA's government affairs team on what’s already changed in 2026 and what’s still to come.

John Cianca, M.D., FAAPMR, left institutional medicine 22 years ago to build a cash-only solo practice. He says the care he delivers is better for it.

In an MGMA Summit digital conference session, a veteran administrator laid out the five trends set to reshape practice operations over the next five years.

Why medical groups miss budget for reasons that have nothing to do with money, and how finance professionals become strategic advisers.

Two Physicians Foundation experts on why where a patient lives may shape health more than the care received and what physicians can do about it.

Revenue cycle leaders at the 2026 MGMA Summit laid out the digital patient billing playbook and the order of operations administrators should follow.