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Publisher's Note

FiercePracticeManagement can connect you with qualified job candidates

Finding qualified job candidates in this fast-changing healthcare industry is never an easy task. So why not shift some of the burden onto us? With more than 175,000 email subscribers throughout healthcare, we're deeply embedded in every corner of the industry--from payers and practices to hospital executives, IT specialists and rev cycle experts.

We've recently improved and streamlined our Jobs page to make it much easier for you and your HR folks to post open positions. By using our new Web interface, you can advertise for an open position, purchase an enhanced listing and manage your postings online. Check it out and take it for a spin!

Just click here to get started. (Oh, and if you're looking for a new job, there are plenty of openings to choose from - free!) - Wendy

Latest News

Nurse practitioners' pay increases outpace primary-care doctors'

Whether you agree that nurse practitioners should help fill the void left by a shortage of primary-care physicians or not, it's clear that demand for these midlevels is increasing. And so is their... Read more >>

Consumer-driven health plan enrollment grows slower than in past

Consumer-driven health plans continue to grow--although enrollment is slower than in previous years. CDHPs grew at a rate of 18.1 percent this past year (about half that of 2009), but no longer cover... Read more >>

Solo practices take a stand against trend to go big

Healthcare reformers need to gather more evidence on how large and small organizations perform in the new framework of quality goals and financial incentives before pushing small practices to abandon... Read more >>

Ella approval moves emergency-contraception dilemmas back to doctors

When emergency contraceptive Plan B went to over-the-counter status in 2006, it largely took the prescribing decision--and potential legal and ethical dilemmas--out of physicians' hands for patients... Read more >>

Health credit cards: Proceed with caution

Despite revenue-cycle and practice-management experts' early enthusiasm toward encouraging patients to pay for their noncovered care with healthcare credit cards--for which patients apply for right... Read more >>

Also Noted

> A new study by Geisinger's Center for Health Research has revealed that pain patients with four common risk factors have a significantly higher risk of addiction. The study also suggests that the same risk factors, often noted in a patient's medical record, may influence drug addiction in patients without a history of chronic pain. Article

> Five physicians who recently resigned from Sadler Clinic in Texas filed suit against the healthcare system last week, challenging the noncompete clause in their employment contracts. The doctors' attorney, Chris Hanslik, said their departure was based on management changes within the clinic. Article

> In an opinion piece for the Washington Post, infectious disease specialist Manoj Jain admits that after being informed a physician intended to sue for malpractice, "the fear of a lawsuit trumped all other thinking." Article

> Impatience--on the part of providers as well as patients--could help explain the rising U.S. cesarean section rate, given that a high percentage of such deliveries probably are performed before women are in active labor, according to new National Institutes of Health-sponsored study. Article

> George Washington University emergency physician Dr. Neal Sikka has been using camera phones to help diagnose minor wounds for friends and family pretty much since he became a physician in 1999. Now, Sikka is in the midst of what he calls the largest mobile health study of acute wound care to date. FierceMobileHealthcare

And Finally... Real-life Frankenstein goes on rampage in Ohio. Article