primary care

NEW PAYMENT PLAN: Insurer WellPoint Inc. plans to boost primary care reimbursement and start paying for care management it doesn't currently cover to improve quality and save money....

(MedPage Today) -- Elevated blood pressure readings are much more common at emergency department visits than in visits to primary care offices, government researchers said.

(University of Michigan Health System) Doctors at the University of Michigan Health System have developed a new tool that may help family physicians better evaluate the extent to which a patient's depression has improved.

(University of Chicago) Declining rates of hospitalization have discouraged primary care doctors from seeing their patients in the hospital and encouraged the growing use of "hospitalists," a new physician specialty focused on the care of hospitalized patients.

Further developments in the field mean that frequently hospitalized patients also may need a specialist focused on their care.

Just about everyone agrees that the way we pay for primary care needs fixing. Under the current insurance model, doctors get paid for procedures and tests rather than for time spent with patients, which displeases doctors and patients alike and increases costs.

Now some medical practices are side...

More and more primary care providers are treating patients with HIV, according to a survey by the Washington-based advocacy group HealthHIV.

Most patients who visit the emergency department four or more times a year have health insurance and a primary care physician, a review of the literature found.

It seemed like a relatively simple process: When you get sick, first call your primary-care doctor. Second, visit said doctor.

Third, follow doctor's orders: Fill prescriptions, take to bed, whatever. Fourth, get better.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Doctors have steadily cut their work hours over the past decade, a new study finds, something that experts say may only worsen the health care situation....

There was a dramatic shift away from the four primary-care disciplines and toward specialization between 1998 and 2006.

Here's how the numbers changed as medical school graduates selected residency programs: