Departments

EHR Contracts Done Right: Get the most out of the government’s new adoption incentives

Need an incentive to implement an electronic health records (EHR) system in your practice? How about $44,000? That’s the amount the federal government is making available to eligible physicians as part of its effort to speed up the adoption of health information technology throughout the U.S. In fact, under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act), part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, billions of federal stimulus dollars are flowing to medical practices throughout the U.S. to help physicians set up EHR systems.

More of the Same: Why isn’t otolaryngology becoming more diverse?

As America grows and evolves, its face necessarily changes. Our country rests solidly on the idea that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness should be available to all. Our collective understanding that access to health care and healthy living are essential to that ideal happiness continues to mature. But while the population becomes more diverse and blended, cultural disparities in health care not only persist, they do not appear to be diminishing. Collectively, African-Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans comprise over one-quarter of our population. Yet, in the year 2000, they made up less than 10 percent of the physician workforce. These numbers dwindle even more when we consider surgical subspecialties.

Generation Gap: Combating “fogeyphobia” in the workplace

In an address to the 2009 Combined Otolaryngological Spring Meetings in Las Vegas, neurosurgeon Harry Van Loveren, MD, chair of the department of neurosurgery at the University of South Florida, coined the term “fogeyphobia” to describe a tendency among older doctors to become reluctant to speak out against new surgical tools and techniques, out of fear of being viewed as old-fashioned.

The Opt-Outs: Otolaryngologists extol the benefits of third-party independence

When describing to the curious the benefits of opting out of both Medicare and private insurance, Gerard J. Gianoli, MD, president of The Ear and Balance Institute in Baton Rouge, La., often recalls one particular example: During one 90-day global period about five years ago, after an eight-hour resection of a skull-based glomus tumor, post-operative ICU care and several days of inpatient care and the usual post-operative office visits, he received a total reimbursement of $500.