Physicians do not plan ahead to violate HIPAA; but, in this digital age you may be doing it because you did not plan ahead. The recent final rule of the HITECH Act outlines that even if the physician is unaware of the violation, he may be fined a civil penalty of $100 $50,000 per violation. It is time for even the most resistant physician to pay attention to how he handles protected health info...

Epidemiology At five years of age, 15 to 25 percent of children wet the bed. With each year of maturity, the percentage of bed-wetters declines by 15 percent. Hence, 8 percent of 12-year-old N octurnal enuresis is a common problem, affecting an estimated 5 to 7 million children in the United States and occurring three times more often in boys than in girls. Unfortunately, only about one third o...

Noninvasive in vivo imaging techniques have become an important diagnostic aid for skin cancer detection. Dermoscopy, also known as dermatoscopy, epiluminescence microscopy, incident light microscopy, or skin surface microscopy, has been shown to increase the clinician's diagnostic accuracy when evaluating cutaneous neoplasms. A handheld instrument called a dermatoscope or dermoscope, which has...

In 1971 a study was made of the effects of a 25-percent coinsurance provision on the demand for physician services under a comprehensive prepaid plan for medical care. Comparing physician utilization rates in 1966 (the year before coinsurance was introduced) and 1968 (the first calendar year after the change) showed that coinsurance led to a 24-percent decline in the per capita number of all ph...

Etiology Although viral infection is the most common cause of pericarditis, the condition has many possible causes (Table 1), including bacterial infection, myocardial infarction, trauma, malignancy, uremia, hypothyroidism, collagen vascular disease, and the effects of certain drugs, notably hydralazine (Apresoline) and procainamide (Pronestyl). Purulent pericarditis as a result of bacterial in...

Brandi White Y ou couldn’t make up stories like these: Shane Avery, MD, is a family physician practicing solo in Scottsburg, Ind. Earlier this year, his practice received a contract from a major health insurer offering a fee schedule based on 120 percent of Medicare rates. “It sounded fair, and we were about to sign,” Avery said, “but then we read further and found out it was based on 2004 Med...