It has been a very busy fall for ECFC. In addition to general patient care and all the day-to-day administrative issues, we are faced with another task. The state of MN has mandated that all recipients of state-sponsored health insurance have access to and are members of a state-certified Health Care Home. Eagan Child and Family Care is one of ...

We've noticed just a couple of practices across the country that are turning to a so-called membership plan to help curtail costs for patients. The model requires patients to pay a flat rate monthly or annually and then covers office visits, routine tests and the like. All the coverage I've seen of this model is careful to emphasize that this is ...

Writing in today's issue of USA Today, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell champions nurse practitioners as the means to universal access to healthcare. Together with Tine Hansen-Turton, who is CEO of the National Nursing Centers Consortium headquartered in Philadelphia, Rendell argues that the projected primary care physician shortage could thwart ...

Summer is rolling along at ECFC. Thankfully, our June has been busier than May was. Within the next three weeks our state has mandated that all medical claims be filed electronically (July 15). The state has contracted with an organization to allow free access to their Web-based e-filing system. We are awaiting approval to go ahead and begin ...

I heard a report on American Public Radio's Marketplace program this morning about the possible future of the ''concierge'' model of medical practice. A concierge practice is a sort of membership health care plan: Basically, patients pay an annual flat fee for comprehensive, on-demand access to their health care provider. The interesting note in ...

Pennsylvania NP regulations are up for legislative review. Letters are encouraged to be sent to the board of nursing by 12/8/08. I wrote one personally that you can read below, and I got several physicians, dentists, NPs, other colleagues, patients, and even representatives to send letters. Please show your support! If you are an NP ...

Owning your own business comes with many challenges. Including, managing the practice as well as seeing  patients. Although I love seeing patients, I also enjoy spending time managing my own practice. This includes hiring, advertising, determining hours of operations, etc... After practicing for several years now, I have come to really ...

Owning an independent practice as a nurse practitioner can be very fulfilling. It can also be very stressful. Some NPs may be fortunate enough to open an independent clinic staffed with medical assistants, secretaries, billing personnel, a coding company, and so on to take care of the issues as they arise. However, many of us start as a one person ...