It’s easy to think today’s gadgets such as the Droid phones, iPads and Blackberry smartphones are strictly for the younger, up and coming doctors. But a new study by QuantiaMD shows that more experienced physicians use these technologies more than their still-wet-behind-the-ears colleagues.

You already know that Jan. 1, 2012 is the deadline to implement the new ANSI 5010 standard for electronic transactions of HIPAA-protected data. But you might be wondering why CMS recently announced a delay in the “implementation of the PWK (paperwork) segment associated with [the test of the 5010] claim transaction originally scheduled for July and October 2011.”

After much ado, CMS announced it would continue coverage for Avastin, the much debated breast cancer treatment, and start covering for Provenge (sipulecel-T), an immunotherapy treatment for prostate cancer, June 30 through an agency memo and a separate news conference. In each patient-driven decision, CMS concluded that Medicare beneficiaries deserve access to these drugs.

You might be wondering what will happen to your Medicare physician payments after Aug. 2 if Congress and the White House can't agree to boost the federal debt ceiling. On Aug. 2, the government is projected to exceed its debt limit of $14.3 trillion. There's been no official word from CMS, but President Obama did warn on July 12 that failure to raise the debt ceiling could result in Social Security checks, veterans' benefits and other federal obligations not being paid out as scheduled.

Your peers feel most challenged by new, upcoming physician payment models that put more financial risk on practices and by earning Medicare's electronic health record (EHR) incentive bonus, according to the latest research from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA). The organization's fourth annual "Medical Practice Today: What Members Have to Say" report, based on email responses from 1,190 MGMA members, found the following five issues to be the top challenges of running a practice ...