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In its 103rd installment, the AUA annual meeting introduced urologists to interesting research about relationships between urologic conditions and other significant health issues. The annual take-home messages are presented here.

In an attempt to remedy the pressures associated with insurance claims reimbursement for physician services, the American Medical Association has launched the Cure for Claims campaign simultaneously with its first National Health Insurer Report Card on claims processing.

With all the changes you face, it's easy to forget that focusing on the basics just might provide the results you want.

Poor communication skills are a frequently cited factor in a patient's decision to leave a practice or even pursue a malpractice claim against a physician.

Currently there are several code choices when using the da Vinci system to perform a robotic radical prostatectomy.

Urologists who own or who have an interest in ambulatory surgical centers perform more than three times as many stone surgeries as non-owners do.

Retention of staff in the medical office is emerging as a difficult challenge, and urology practices are no exception.

Safety is an unspoken yet fundamental expectation of almost all personal and business relationships.

Given current Medicare policy, we do not recommend billing either 64450 or 64430 in conjunction with prostate biopsy.

Unless Congress steps in again, physicians participating in the Medicare program will see their fees reduced by an average of 9.9% for 2008, a move that already has prompted a call for action from the American Medical Association.

Many challenges face the group urology practice, but one issue that doesn't get much attention is the cultural challenge of mixing physicians from different generations.

The shift of surgical procedures from the hospital to physician-owned outpatient facilities has been the prevailing trend over the past 2 decades and will continue into the foreseeable future.

Value-based purchasing actually has little to do with outcomes in patient care, and has more to do with cost-containment in health care delivery.

The federal government is pressing forward with an initiative launched by the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) to implement a national system of electronic prescriptions intended to increase both efficiency and patient safety.

Most urologists have patients who come from many different backgrounds, speak different languages, and have different attitudes toward Western medicine.

The Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) is a program established at the end of last year to provide incentive funding for physicians to begin submitting data that will be used to make Medicare a smarter purchaser of health care.

Many physicians are concerned and confused about all the discussion on pay for performance, and urologists are no exception.

National Report-With another year of Medicare payment cuts looming in 2007, declining reimbursement is no surprise as the number one current concern among practicing urologists, according to an exclusive survey from Urology Times and its sister publication, Contemporary Urology. Changes in reimbursement are followed closely by malpractice, office overhead, pay for performance, and increasing regulations as the top five issues that urologists are extremely or very concerned about, the first State of the Specialty survey found.

What is considered the usual postoperative bleeding time following a transurethral resection of the prostate?

New York-Urology practices that have not started performing office-based surgery (OBS) are missing significant advantages in scheduling, convenience, and compensation.

It is not enough to maintain control over the profitability of your practice. In order to gain control, you need to know the cost of each procedure you perform in the office, the reimbursement from each of your payers, and the profit margin for each service you offer your patients.

Washington-On Aug. 8, 2006, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a proposal to reform the Medicare ambulatory surgical center payment system beginning Jan. 1, 2008, and the news for urology appears to be mixed.

Atlanta-Operating room-based procedures continue to make up a significant proportion of urologists' practice, despite a predominance of office-based clinical practice, data from the American Board of Urology indicate.

Atlanta-Undiagnosed urinary incontinence may occur in up to half of adult women age 25 to 80 years, according to a survey sent to patients at Kaiser Permanente Northwest Health Maintenance Organization, Portland, OR.

Whenever the needs of the practice change, job descriptions should be redefined to reflect those changes so that you achieve optimal staff productivity.

What you discuss with patients and when you do it can make a difference in how you code

Atlanta-Direct medical costs are nearly twice as much for men with chronic prostatitis as men without, and those costs are definitely because of the disease, an analysis of an HMO's cost data showed.

Atlanta-Results of a Medicare claims analysis of women undergoing a sling procedure for stress urinary incontinence have revealed a significant variation between gynecologists and urologists in their approach to patient evaluation and the outcomes after surgery. However, further study is needed to understand the factors underlying those differences, researchers from UCLA said at the AUA annual meeting here.

Many urologists are in the process of trying to transition their practices from the hospital to the office, and are looking for opportunities for ancillary income. A number of ancillary services are being explored.

The current CPT terminology does focus specifically on the results of the laser and not the laser itself.