Bob Keaveney

The increasing aggressiveness of Medicare's so-called recovery audit contractors (RACs) is making it ever more vital that practices have formal coding compliance programs in place.

If you’re thinking of starting or forming an ACO, you better make sure the organization in question is already fully clinically integrated.

How will Washington's budget-cutting zeal affect your practice next year?

Considering selling your practice and becoming employed? Here’s what you should know before you decide.

Recently, as part of our virtual trade show, Physicians Practice Live!, I gathered some of healthcare's more perceptive thinkers for an in-depth talk about the future of private-practice medicine.

In case you've been wondering how little influence physicians hold in Washington these days, consider how the triple-blow of health reform, deficit cutting, and ordinary Medicare spending adjustments will likely affect you.

What's happening now to American physicians is the result of a long-term cultural shift in the way society views you and your role in public life.

Who's worse to deal with: Medicare or private insurers? The answer to that question will determine which Medicare cost-reduction plan is worse for physicians.

The battle over how to fix Medicare comes down to which unelected bureaucrats you trust more to impose painful reforms

What's the problem with ACOs? Put simply, the model is asking providers to accept too much risk without offering enough potential reward. Editorial Director Bob Keaveney wonders if Medicare will be able to figure out a way to incent providers in a way that actually rewards them.

Medicare's proposed rules for ACOs raise serious questions. Will it push private practice healthcare toward extinction? And, can services be reduced without reducing the quality of patient care?

At ICD-10 Summit, attendees urged to make the transition by Oct. 1, 2013

There's a real shift in EHR vendors' attitudes. It seems that the small-sized practice's moment has arrived.

Worried about how you'll adapt to the work flow changes of a new EHR system. Try making the switch while rebuilding your practice after a devastating natural disaster.

Wondering about the process for demonstrating meaningful use? The rules have been final for months but this week the government unveiled its process for following them.

Are health IT vendors ready to supply the marketplace with products enabled to meet the government's requirements for meaningful use of EHRs?

Defensive medicine is one of the single-biggest drivers of healthcare costs, yet the so-called reformers simply ignore this fact. What can you do as a physician?

Dozens of Medicaid patients awaiting organ transplants are being left to die because cash-strapped Arizona will not pay for the operations.

The doctors who have cared for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of last week's shooting deserve more credit than they've been getting for their heroic efforts.

Is private-office healthcare in its death throes? Was the just-passed health reform legislation the final thrust to push out independent physicians? Find out what editorial director Bob Keaveney has to say.

Not only is meaningful healthcare reform possible without an individual mandate, it's politically preferable to President Obama, even if he doesn't know it. Here's why.

Is real health reform possible without a requirement that every person have insurance, or is it doomed if the mandate is declared unconstitutional?

Congress yesterday passed legislation exempting physicians' practices from abiding by so-called Red Flags Rules aimed at preventing consumer identity theft.

As part of an effort to boost America’s flagging primary care industry, Medicare says it will offer a 10 percent bonus to doctors who perform mostly primary care services in 2011, and will begin paying for an annual “wellness exam” to supplement its one-time-one “Welcome to Medicare” physical.

The 23 percent reduction in Medicare payments, scheduled to begin Wednesday, has been delayed until Jan. 1. The search for a permanent "doc fix" continues.

Doctors in England are being encouraged to fire their office staffs, to be replaced with call-center drones. Could it happen here?

Fretting about how you’ll access government stimulus money for your EHR usage? No need. Here’s advice on how to play the game right.

If there’s one thing Republicans and Democrats agree on, it’s that Medicare is laden with fraud and abuse. The new health reform law gives the government vast new powers to investigate and prosecute suspected violators.

Many physicians hope that by selling their practices to hospitals, they can withdraw from its operations and “just be doctors.” Not so, says expert Marc Halley. For physician-hospital partnerships to succeed, doctors must remain engaged leaders, not just employed “technicians.”

Thinking of selling your practice and getting a job with a hospital? Here's some advice for doing it right from experts who negotiate the deals.