Physicians must be educated on proper documentation to meet ICD-10 code-set specificity and payer-coverage policies.  Guest commentary from Holly Louie, RN, CHBME, PCS, corporate compliance officer at Practice Management, Inc., in Boise, Idaho The reimbursement impact of ICD-10 implementation on providers has the potential to be more ...

Guest commentary from Valerie M. Chapman, RN, MSN I am a wife, a mother of two awesome kids, a daughter, a sister and a nurse. I am also a survivor. At the age of 43 a routine screening mammogram picked up an abnormality in my left breast that turned out to be invasive lobular carcinoma. I had no family history or major risk factors, but ...

(Editor's note: This is a guest blog written by Valerie M. Chapman, RN, MSN, a pediatric nurse for 25 years. She is a 3-year breast cancer survivor and lives in Medford, NJ, with her husband and two children.) I am a wife, a mother of two awesome kids, a daughter, a sister, and a nurse. I am also a  survivor. At the age of 43 a ...

(Editor's note: This is a guest blog by Lorettajo A. Kapinos, an ED nurse at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, MA.) Last month was Breast Cancer Awareness month and I blogged about my experience with a false positive mammogram.  Ironically, this is now the center of a new debate: if women, with little to no risk of breast cancer, ...

Last month was Breast Cancer Awareness month and I blogged about my experience with a false positive mammogram.  Ironically, this is now the center of a new debate: if women, with little to no risk of breast cancer, should have annual mammograms before age 50. According to the U.S. Preventative Services Task force mammograms should begin at ...

Ouch. That's about all I can say (and really, all I can think) after overexerting myself this weekend. A few of my friends have been doing P90 X, an extreme workout plan that includes several videos, each of which features a different routine, i.e. abs, arms, yoga. The idea is to rotate videos so you exercise different muscles each day. Well, ...

The Protecting America's Workers Act of 2009, if passed by Congress, would dramatically alter the regulatory regime. Guest commentary from Eric J. Conn and Robert C. Gombar, partners in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery, LLP, based in Washington, D.C. Just weeks before his death, the late Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), with the help of ...

Evidence-based medicine will improve the quality of care and impact of each health care dollar spent. Guest commentary from Marc Perlman, global vice president, Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry, Oracle The U.S. health care industry is challenged like never before to improve outcomes while reducing costs. Our current rate of spending is ...

With all the attention focused on the contentious health care reform debate around the country, one message seems to have gotten lost. That message is the focus on personal responsibility. In other words, while the government can legislate and insurance companies can underwrite, at the end of the day the most important steward of your personal ...

Guest commentary from Physicians for a National Health Program, an organization of 17,000 doctors who support single-payer national health insurance. A research team at Harvard Medical School estimates that 2,266 U.S. military veterans under the age of 65 died last year because they lacked health insurance and thus had reduced access to ...