El medico ante la publicidad de la industria farmaceutica / Doctor facinf pharmaceutical industry publicing

La industria farmaceutica, por medio de sus visitadores, folletos, conferencias, revistas y libros, es la principal fuente de informacion cientifica para los medicos y su apoyo economico le otorga cierto control sobre publicaciones, congresos e investigadores independientes. Para mantener el sistema de funcionamiento, el paciente debe consumir gran cantidad de medicamentos caros; mientras los objetivos de la investigacion, la formacion, la difusion de conocimientos y la practica medica, preventiva o curativa se desplazan hacia aquellas areas que permiten un mayor consumo de farmacos. Se propone que el control economico de la investigacion, publicacion y educacion medica pase de manos de la industria a las de otros agentes (Administracion, universidades, asociaciones cientificas y profesionales, asociaciones ciudadanas...)

The manager's checklist: how to keep your group legally up-to-date.

Most groups depend on their administrators to lead them through the maze of legal rules, regulations and arrangements that businesses in health care must now confront, writes Keith Korenchuk, J.D., M.P.H. He, therefore, presents an indispensable checklist to aid administrators in systematically keeping their group legally up-to-date.

Analyzing vendor and supplier contracts.

Contracts increasingly govern the way medical groups operate their businesses. While physician employment contracts and contracts with HMOs and PPOs usually receive significant scrutiny and analysis, little attention has been paid to the myriad contractual relationships by which physicians secure services for their own practices.

Giving credit its due in the group practice setting. How credit cards can improve cash flow.

The health care industry is moving toward more patient service, and one aspect of service often overlooked is billing, writes Marcia Pear. Some practice managers believe credit cards aren't cost effective. In reality, they can actually accelerate cash flow and allow patients to resolve financial obligations sooner.

Dealing with reimbursement difficulties in today's payment environment.

Medical groups nationally are struggling with reimbursement levels, writes author Suzanne Anderson. Groups effectively dealing with the problem realize the solution is not restricted to the billing office but rather begins prior to providing service and lasts until well after payment is collected.

Patient, revenue and cost analyses for medical practices.

Authors Robert Stevens and Thomas Chatham write that revenue and cost analysis can be performed by medical groups from historical data they maintain. Such analysis provides the administrator with a data base for developing realistic objectives and identifying areas which should be more fully developed or even eliminated.

Responding to managed care proposals.

To continue to use the term alternative delivery systems in relation to managed care is inappropriate, writes Darrell Schryver, D.P.A., since these systems are rapidly becoming the predominant method for delivering health care. Because such managed care programs are administered by individuals trained in business, it is imperative that medical practices adopt a similar business attitude to negotiate advantageously with these programs.

[Use of computers for patient data and billing]. / Computereinsatz für Patientenerfassung und Abrechnungswesen.

The security and speed with which data can be handled in a medical software context depends on the kind of filing and sorting codes used. Thus software producers can be classified by how good the follow-up program is, as well by the quality of the filing and sorting codes applied. Using a sorting code that is composed of patients' initials, partially enlarged by their data of birth, is not sufficient to fulfill the demand for user comfort and input-security. An alternative often used, a patient number, demands a highly cooperative patient, who keeps his special number in mind and presents it when visiting the doctor's office. When used as a unique filing code, if that number is missing at the patient check-in counter in the office, an additional search must be made in a book listing patients. Besides wasting a lot of time, this kind of filing system is too insecure and unreliable. The best searching and filing code in medical software should be composed of parts of a patient's name, family name and date of birth. Large and small numbers should be accepted by the input window. The amount of matching codes should be minimized and selecting the patient in question should be done by clicking the mouse. A definite advantage in using a computer in the office is to manage routine data. Addresses, telephone numbers, insurance companies, drugs, therapy, mailing addresses, etc. must be made exclusively the computer's tasks. In this way, the speed of handling and data security can be improved. The benefits from an office computer will grow.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)