Physicians News Health news for doctors and patients.

For academic medical centers to survive and thrive, they must adopt a certain stance toward their clinical researchers. Institutions must make clear policy commitments to endowments, to student mentoring, to clinical care and to salaries, or risk the fall of academic medicine.

As Physician’s News Digest reaches a ten-year milepost, Delaware Valley physicians have reached a decisive crossroad. PND will fulfill this urgency by attempting to foster a viable program of change for area physicians.

When seeking diversification, opportunity and value, savvy investors often turn to one of the least-explored areas of the stock market. Learn three general classifications of closed-end funds.

Effective collaboration goes beyond accepting capitation and restructuring provider incentives. Consider what the hospital and the medical community must offer each other to ensure smooth partnerships.

As managed care plans step up their cost containment efforts and scrutiny of physician performance, it is wise to understand the ways in which they may attempt to shrink their panel of physicians. Board certification, utilization management, patient satisfaction and preventive health programs are criteria with which health plans use to do so.

Physicians remain a favorite target in malpractice cases involving denial of treatment or referrals by managed care companies. Judicious record-keeping of office consultation, use of patient consent forms and investigation of HMO policies and track records are discussed as strategies to minimize your exposure to managed care company liability.

Duties of a board of directors, federal and state safeguards, and charitable asset requirements physicians should know, particularly those who are board members of a nonprofit contemplating selling their operating assets to for-profit businesses.

Doris G. Bartuska, M.D. draws from current literature to offer principles and recommendations to guide physicians in their approach to alternative medicine, including physician attitude, patient consultation and medical school curricula.

In the event of death or disability, it is difficult to determine the amount of money needed to support a family and pay down outstanding liabilities reduced by current asset holdings and future receipts of income. Here are some considerations.

HCFA has released the long-awaited guidelines for coding of evaluation and management services by specialists. In light of the rapidly expanding number of federal coding audits, the new guidelines send important messages about the expectations for scope of work in and documentation of patient examinations.