Physicians Practice’s most-read articles of 2020

#10 – Concierge medicine and primary care: The differences

Changes in healthcare are still spawning number of alternative practice models. Though primary care and concierge medicine both share membership fees, they are not always the same.

Physicians in 2020 were clearly still curious about these main differences, resulting in this slideshow reaching out 10th most-viewed article of the year

#9 – 2021 E&M guideline leveling changes

Written in August by Joe Ferro, President of Abeo Technology Solutions and Founder of TRUSTEDi10, and Angela Jordan, senior CDI consultant at Abeo, this article highlighted CMS' move from a points-based system for history, exam, and medical decision making to a medical necessity-based system.

E&M updates are always popular with our physician and practice administration audiences, so it's no surprise that a major anticipatory change garnered enough views in the second half of the year to place 9th in our top 10 articles of the year.

#8 – Prepare for patients who refuse to wear a mask in your practice

Our legal Pearls writers stayed on top of the legal questions throughout the pandemic, highlighting the key updates and implications for physician practices.

When mask-wearing by staff and patients became mandated last year, some might have questioned what to do about patients that would refuse to wear a mask citing a plethora of reasons.

In this article, Ericka L. Adler, JD, LLM, writes, "Every practice must consider the steps that will be taken if a patron refuses to wear a mask or to comply with other precautions put in place, such as social distancing, waiting outside the office to be called, or having their temperature taken. The following are some recommendations that I make to my clients on how to best prepare for a possible run-in with an uncooperative patient."

#7 – Masks and your practice: policies that work, set expectations, and reduce conflict

In conjunction with his article on how practices can avoid patient conflict and legal risks regarding mask policies, legal Pearls writer Ike Devji, JD, also provided a set of policies for practices.

Our associate editor, Logan Lutton, is the mastermind behind most of the expertly curated slideshow themes on Physicians Practice. Combined, Ike's in-depth policies and Logan's aesthetics propelled this article to our 7th most-read article of the year.

#6 – Marketing and promotion strategies for medical practices

Just as the pandemic was taking off in the United States, Logan Lutton put together this slideshow offering best practices in marketing and promotion to independent practices.

Though the pandemic would challenge practices with greatly reduced patient volumes, the 6th-place ranking of this slideshow indicates marketers were likely anticipating jumping back into full swing to bring patients back into the office and regain income for the practice.

#5 – 7 financial reports your practice needs to run

This slideshow from 2019 made its way into the top spot among our most-read articles of 2020. In a year where financial worries would take on unanticipated levels of significance, Angela Watkins says these topics can shed light on areas to help grow your practice.

"While "financial reporting," might not have been a class at your medical school," she says, "experts say you need to at least become familiar with understanding some of the basic reports."

#4 – Staff Salary Survey 2020: Staffing trends

In September, we unveiled the results of our 2020 Staff Salary Survey.

Always a staple on Physicians Practice, this particular slideshow outlines how peers responded to changing staff levels, especially during the pandemic.

#3 – 13 red flags your patient is a drug seeker

Though written in 2017, this article by Linda Girgis, MD, garnered major attention in 2020.

"Doctors and other healthcare providers want to do our best for our patients," Girgis writes. "When they are in pain, we want to alleviate it. But, we are often conflicted when we are treating a patient in pain because so many tried to scam us in the past and we cannot honestly tell which ones are telling the truth or not."

#2 – Best states for physicians in 2020: 5 states with the lowest average physician salaries

Another major survey for Physicians Practice is the 'Best States to Practice' survey, in which editors compile data on malpractice premiums, cost of living indexes, tax climates, physician density, malpractice premiums, and the mean salary of each state.

The latter is then stratified highest to lowest, resulting in this slideshow. Interestingly, the slideshow presenting the states with the five lowest mean salaries for physicians ranked considerably higher than the slideshow featuring the states with the highest salaries.

#1 – The best states for physician in 2020: The complete ranking

And, finally, our complete ranking of states, which is derived from an analysis of the aforementioned criteria, was our most popular article, by page views, in 2020.