Contents tagged with family physician
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Member of the Month: Ashok Tripathy, M.D.
Member of the Month: Ashok Tripathy, M.D.
Physician enjoys creating lasting relationships with patients
posted 06.12.13
For 23 years now, Ashok Tripathy, M.D., has been a board certified … more
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Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt
By Troy Fiesinger, M.D.
TAFP President, 2012-2013We received our monthly physician quality report cards recently. Software mines our electronic health record and generates reports to tell us if we are meeting our goals. These quality measures are defined by Medicare, our clinically integrated physicians group, and commercial payers like Blue Cross Blue Shield. While some are based on solid medical evidence, others seem arbitrary and not relevant to the day-to-day reality of seeing family medicine patients.
I prefer creating and using our own data instead of relying on the often incomplete and inaccurate claims data from insurance. Despite our efforts to be good sports, often we feel bombarded by the endless number of things we should do to show we are good doctors.
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Meet TAFP’s Physician of the Year: Justin Bartos III, M.D.
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A spokesman for the specialty
Story by Kate AlfanoPhotos by Samantha White
When he was TAFP president in 2001, Justin V. Bartos III, M.D., promoted a campaign he called “Take Back … more
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CAPITOL UPDATE: House, Senate lay out base budgets
Capitol Update: House, Senate lay out base budgets
posted 01.24.13
Both the House and the Senate laid out their versions of the budget last week, each maintaining spending at about the same … more
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Study: Patients are very satisfied with family physicians
Study: Patients are very satisfied with family physicians
posted 11.20.12
A new consumer study released last month by the Physicians Foundation shows that patients highly value family physicians. … more
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Austin family physician tells lawmakers to restore funding to physician education loan repayment program
Austin family physician tells lawmakers to restore funding to physician education loan repayment program
posted 11.09.12
David Wright, M.D., faculty physician and clerkship director at the UT … more
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TAFP past president Van Winkle elected to AAFP Board of Directors
TAFP past president Van Winkle elected to AAFP Board of Directors
posted 10.25.12
TAFP’s 2010-2011 Family Physician of the Year, Lloyd Van Winkle, M.D., has won his bid to serve on the board of … more
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The sour side of sugary drinks and what family physicians can do about obesity
Regularly drinking sugar-sweetened beverages like soda and sports drinks will make you fat.
By now this is an old message, but it gains more ground with each new article, study, or documentary released about the American obesity epidemic. The latest research comes from three studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Two of the studies found that drinking noncaloric drinks could lower children’s weight gain, and the third study found that people with a genetic predisposition for weight gain were twice as likely to gain weight if they drank sugary beverages compared to people who did not drink these beverages.
One of the studies’ authors, Dr. David Ludwig from Boston Children’s Hospital, told Reuters Health, “I know of no other category of food whose elimination can produce weight loss in such a short period of time. The most effective single target for an intervention aimed at reducing obesity is sugary beverages.”
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Calling all TAFP members: Make your mark on family medicine
Calling all TAFP members: Make your mark on family medicine
We want your talent and knowledge on a committee or commission
posted 03.13.13
Help determine the direction of family medicine by … more
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A win for the patient-centered medical home
WellPoint, the country’s second-largest health insurance company, is the latest industry leader investing significant funds into the patient-centered medical home. And while none of their 34 million enrollees are Texans, this still adds weight to the argument that spending more for primary care—upwards of $1 billion—will save money down the road.
Starting this summer, WellPoint will pay primary care physicians more through an increase to their fee-for-service schedule of around 10 percent, by paying them for “non-visit” services currently not reimbursed (like preparing care plans for patients with multiple chronic conditions), and through shared savings payments for achieving quality outcomes and reducing medical costs. Meeting the shared savings goals alone could make a practice eligible to earn 30 to 50 percent more than they earn now for the same service.
In addition to paying primary care physicians more, the company will enhance “information sharing,” provide care management support from WellPoint’s clinical staff, and incorporate best practices from their medical home pilots, the company said in a press release. In return, the physicians would have to meet additional requirements including expanded access for patients and maintaining a chronic disease registry.
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