| | | | | Ms. Codit
| | | By
Inga Ellzey
| | | It's no big news to anyone doing medical billing that getting paid gets more and more time consuming. It seems that each month carriers devise new schemes not to pay us. The latest one is that CPT code 17000 is denied when billed with another service, but 17003 is paid. When asked why the 17000 code was not paid, carriers state it is bundled into the other surgical service billed, such as 11100. They state they are following CPT guidelines. Where is that written?
| | | Derms consider safety of in-office procedures
| | | By
Karen Nash
| | | A recent two-year study in Florida indicated that patients were 10 times more likely to suffer complications, even death, if their surgery was performed in an office settingrather than an ambulatory surgical center.
| | | To the Point
| | | By
Kevin C. Smith, M.D.
| | | Recently I gave a talk about the use of Botox for pain at Memorial University in Newfoundland. Wonderful facility - but the screen was positioned directly over my head, making it almost impossible for me use my laser pointer. It was then that I realized my PowerPoint presentations are put together in ways that greatly reduce or eliminate the need for a laser pointer - and at the same time make my presentations more effective and easier for the audience to follow. I put down my laser pointer and did fine without that high-tech crutch.
| | | Consider your options carefully with life insurance
| | | By
Joel Blau
| | | Q How much life insurance coverage is recommended for a physician who has a family?
| | | Laboratory tests for fun and anxiety
| | | By
Norman Levine M.D.
| | | A person of my acquaintance is a middle-aged man in good health, although he has a moderately elevated cholesterol level. He has been treated with one of the statin drugs for several years.
| | | Medicare reform law carries hidden costs
| | | By
Bob Gatty
| | | While Medicare recipients now have some help in covering the cost of prescription drugs, the new Medicare reform law passed by Congress carries some hidden costs that may result in difficulties in obtaining care for some patients. This applies, in particular, to physicians who administer drugs in their offices.
| | | Real , personal property taxes are biggest burdens
| | | By
Mark E. Battersby
| | | Tax planning long has been an extremely effective tool used by many dermatologists to keep their tax bills to a minimum. Often overlooked in this ongoing battle for legitimately lower tax bills, however, is the biggest tax bill faced by many dermatologists and their practices: property taxes. Even those who rent property for their practices are impacted by property taxes.
| | | Cosmetic Conundrums
| | | By
Zoe Diana Draelos, M.D.
| | | Q. Why do so many topical moisturizing products claim to have effects similar to botulinum toxin A injections?
| | | PDAs plug efficiency into your daily practice
| | | By
Neil Baum, M.D., M.Sc.
| | | Personal digital assistants (PDAs), have now reached critical mass, and nearly 25 percent of physicians use them on a daily basis. If you haven't implemented this technology into your daily professional life, you might want to consider what these incredible electronic boxes can do for you and your practice. Now it is possible to have all of these functions included in a 3-inch by 5-inch PDA that fits into your pocket. There are software companies that offer more clinical and management PDA applications than most of us realize are available.
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| | | | Choosing anti-aging tools
| | | By
Louise Gagnon
| | | San Francisco - With a host of fillers and ablative techniques available to dermatologists, clinicians should exercise a variety of options to meet the short-term and long-term goals of their patients who want to treat their aging skin.
| | | Understanding chemoprevention
| | | By
Michelle Stephenson
| | | Tucker, Ga. - Three mechanisms are purported to induce cutaneous malignancies: initiating events, promotional effects, and effects on the immune system, according to Kathleen J. Smith, M.D., from Quest Diagnostics.
| | | DNA, RNA in diagnoses
| | | By
Alison Palkhivala
| | | Montreal - Diagnosing unusual sexually transmitted infections can be a unique challenge, particularly for physicians lacking expertise in this area.
| | | Research pinpoints pruritus
| | | By
Alison Palkhivala
| | | Barcelona, Spain - New research demonstrates the pathophysiology of itch may be more complex than once believed. Recently discovered pruritic pathways, such as those involving proteases or neuropeptides, are opening doors to new therapeutic targets for this uncomfortable, hard-to-control phenomenon.
| | | Diagnosing and treating hand dermatitis can be challenging
| | | By
Michelle Stephenson
| | | Danville, Pa. - Hand dermatitis can be difficult to diagnose and treat, according to Christen M. Mowad, M.D., assistant professor, department of dermatology, Geisinger Medical Center, Pennsylvania State College of Medicine.
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| Harbingers of sedative risk
| | | By
Rebecca Bryant
| | | Chicago - Cosmetic surgeons need to freshen up their understanding of sedation and analgesia in order to competently supervise staff, according to P. Allan Klock, M.D., associate professor of anesthesia and critical care at the University of Chicago.
| | | Targeting treatments
| | | By
Cheryl Guttman
| | | New York - Lesion-directed, narrowband UVB phototherapy with the 308-nm excimer laser offers a safe and useful modality for treatment of localized psoriasis and vitiligo in properly selected patients, said Suhail M. Hadi, M.D., assistant professor of dermatology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
| | | Derms are on front line
| | | By
Fred Wilson
| | | Salt Lake City - Genetic testing for hereditary melanoma is currently being marketed to physicians.
| | | Great expectations
| | | By
Lisette Hilton
| | | Washington -- When it comes to photoprotection, people expect too much from sunscreens.
| | | Aggressive treatment
| | | By
Fred Wilson
| | | Houston - Dermatologists should treat actinic keratoses (AKs) more aggressively because AKs are part of a tremendous epidemic of skin cancer - melanoma and nonmelanoma, according to Leonard H. Goldberg, M.D.
| | | Tech breakthroughs
| | | By
Steven Emmet, M.D.
| | | Dial-up modems, which opened the Internet to a vast audience and are still commonly found in medical offices, nominally create a 56k connection, although it is often closer to 44k and, depending on your line quality, 28k. With the prodigious amount of spam and viruses being circulated these days, it can often take 30 minutes or more just to download an e-mail, and if my colleagues have sent large picture files, it could take 45 minutes or more.
| | | Critical endpoints
| | | By
Nancy Groves
| | | Philadelphia - Citing a paucity of reliable information on how much blood loss occurs during liposuction surgery, a Seattle-area cosmetic surgeon has devised a statistical model for predicting blood loss. Furthermore, the data from the ongoing study confirms that blood loss is related to factors other than just the total volume of aspirate.
| | | Custom treatment
| | | By
Cheryl Guttman
| | | Las Vegas -- New options for the treatment of actinic keratoses allow dermatologists to tailor therapy according to patient needs and the lesion characteristics, said Roger I. Ceilley, M.D., at the Fall Clinical Dermatology Conference.
| | | Sign of the times
| | | By
Lisette Hilton
| | | Washington, D.C. -- Tattooing, body piercing, and other skin adornments are nothing new. When the body of the Ice Man was discovered frozen in the mountains of Northern Italy, the well-preserved, 5,300-year-old corpse had tattoos on its knees. One belief is that the tattooing might have been for medicinal reasons - to remedy his arthritic knees.
| | | Broaden your patients' treatment options
| | | By
Rochelle Nataloni
| | | Baltimore - PUVA and phototherapy are safe and effective for the treatment of more than two dozen conditions, but of the dermatologists who provide these treatments, as many as half use them solely for psoriasis, according to Warwick L. Morison M.D., professor of dermatology, Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore.
| | | Laser removes AKs for a year
| | | By
Fred Wilson
| | | La Jolla, Calif. - A single treatment with d-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) for one hour followed by intense pulsed light (IPL) exposure achieves photorejuvention and removes superficial actinic keratoses (AKs) without recurrence for at least one year.
| | | Dogged pursuit
| | | By
Laird Harrison
| | | Washington, D.C. - The rash was like nothing John Melski, M.D., had ever seen before and he had reason to be alarmed. Bitten by a prairie dog, his 3-year-old patient had been hospitalized with a fever that raged for days despite intravenous antibiotics. Meanwhile, her parents became sick as well. It took Dr. Melski nine days of high-tech sleuthing to find out he was the first dermatologist in the Western Hemisphere to diagnose monkeypox in humans.
| | | Higher fluence
| | | By
Cheryl Guttman
| | | Hong Kong - Cryogen spray cooling of the epidermis is a valuable adjunct to pulsed dye laser treatment of port wine stains in Asian patients because it allows the procedure to be performed more safely and effectively compared to use of the pulsed dye laser alone, according to the results of a recently reported prospective study undertaken by researchers at the University of Hong Kong.
| | | 532-nm laser adds option to skin rejuvenation
| | | By
Cheryl Guttman
| | | Summit, NJ - A long-pulse 532-nm frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser (DioLite Laser, Iridex) offers another safe and effective alternative for nonablative facial skin rejuvenation in appropriately selected patients, according to the results of a randomized, split-face clinical trial conducted by Paul J. Carniol, M.D.
| | | Combination kills cancer
| | | New York - Results from the largest-ever phase III trial in advanced metastatic melanoma, while preliminary, suggest dacarbazine (DTIC) plus an investigational antisense compound (oblimersen sodium, or Genasense) may significantly improve overall survival versus DTIC alone, according to Anna C. Pavlick, D.O.
| | | Patient psychology and surgery
| | | By
Michelle Stephenson
| | | Iowa City - Patients who undergo oncologic procedures often have different expectations than those who are undergoing a cosmetic procedure.
| | | Quick ID critical
| | | By
Alison Palkhivala
| | | Montreal - Whether caused by an infection or a drug, severe cutaneous reactions must be quickly identified and treated, as many are associated with significant morbidity and mortality.
| | | Quickening healing
| | | By
Rebecca Bryant
| | | Washington D.C.- New concepts in the management of ulcerations as well as new treatments and dressings have emerged, Mark D. P. Davis, M.D., said.
| | | Expanding TIMS treatments
| | | By
Rochelle Nataloni
| | | Washington, D.C. - Tacrolimus and pimecrolimus may spring to mind first when atopic dermatitis is diagnosed, but it turns out that these topical immunomodulators are also effective for a host of previously difficult-to-treat diseases. Granuloma faciale, Hailey Hailey disease, hand and foot eczema and chromic actinic dermatitis are among the lengthy list of conditions these work well for, according to Mark Lebwohl, M.D., Professor and Chairman, Department of Dermatology, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine.
| | | Injury model designed
| | | By
Barbara J. Rutledge, Ph.D.
| | | Amsterdam - Dermatologists have long been aware that superficial burns tend to heal quickly and leave little or no scarring, and that burns of full thickness, affecting deeper layers of the dermis, are often very slow to heal and leave permanent scars. According to Christopher Dunkin and Jonathon Pleat of the Stoke Mandeville Burns and Reconstructive Surgery Research Trust, Aylesbury, UK, the explanation for this difference might be that there is a "threshold level" for wound depth, with wounds above the threshold healing quickly without scarring and wounds below the threshold healing slowly and developing a fibrotic scar.
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| | Micrografts
| | | By
Louise Gagnon
| | | Washington, D.C. - Hair transplants can appear very natural now that they can be performed using micrografts and natural follicular grouping that occurs in the scalp, according to Marc R. Avram, MD, at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.
| | | Understanding chemoprevention
| | | By
Michelle Stephenson
| | | Tucker, Ga. - Three mechanisms are purported to induce cutaneous malignancies: initiating events, promotional effects, and effects on the immune system, according to Kathleen J. Smith, M.D., from Quest Diagnostics.
| | | Filler Explosion
| | | By
Cheryl Guttman
| | | Las Vegas - Dermatologists can look forward to an explosion in available filler materials for soft tissue augmentation, said Rhoda S. Narins, M.D., at the Fall Clinical Dermatology Conference.
| | | Customizing photoepilation
| | | By
Beth Kapes
| | | Washington - Today's photoepilation is as individualized as the patient being treated, and it is up to the dermatologist to determine the appropriate laser system for each case, according to Elizabeth L. Tanzi, M.D.
| | | Successful hair-loss treatment requires expertise
| | | By
Louise Gagnon
| | | Bethesda, Md. - Dermatologists need to become experts themselves in evaluating hair loss so they can more rapidly diagnose their patients and inform them of available treatment options, according to Dr. Leonard Sperling, chair of the department of dermatology at Uniformed Services University here, and a professor of dermatology and pathology.
| | | Perioral reconstruction
| | | New Orleans - For Michael J. Fazio M.D., avoiding complications can be a difficult task in vermilion and perioral reconstruction, but as with any reconstructive surgery, a cautious prevention is simpler than the cure.
| | | Sweeping changes
| | | By
John Jesitus
| | | Washington, D.C. - With a handful of new options expected to receive FDA approval within a year, the field of tissue augmentation stands poised to undergo a seismic shift. "The bottom line is, tissue augmentation is about to change dramatically," said Mariano E. Busso, M.D. He is clinical professor in the University of Miami's department of dermatology, chief of dermatology at Mercy Hospital, also in Miami, Fla., and a private practitioner who is board-certified in dermatology.
| | | Panel moves to deconstruct itch
| | | By
Alison Palkhivala
| | | Barcelona, Spain - Identifying the cause of itch is the key to treating it. New research is helping better characterize pruritus, leading to more effective therapies for this frustrating condition, according to physicians reporting at the 2003 meeting of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV).
| | | Basic research plays vital role in treating KS
| | | By
Alison Palkhivala
| | | Montreal - Physicians must use information obtained about Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpes virus learned through basic research to help prevent and treat KS in the clinical setting, a virology expert said.
| | | Patient history of chronic eczema? Think steroid addiction
| | | By
Paula Moyer
| | | Washington - When patients come in complaining of weeks, months, and even years of chronic eczema, the physician should immediately suspect overuse of and subsequent addiction to topical corticosteroids.
| | | Problem pathogens
| | | By
Alison Palkhivala
| | | Montreal - Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin-resistant enterococcus, once believed to be a problem of hospitals only, have hit the community. Now, more than ever, clinicians must adopt basic infection-control practices, both in hospital and in their clinics, to prevent further spread of these problem pathogens.
| | | Topical treatment tips
| | | By
Cheryl Guttman
| | | Detroit - Topical treatment allows medication delivery directly to the skin with reduced systemic exposure compared to orally administered agents, but local drug application is not without risk to internal organ systems, according to Peter J. Aronson, M.D.
| | | Mycobacterial malaise
| | | By
Alison Palkhivala
| | | Montreal - Mycobacterial infections are on the rise. Physicians should be aware of the key clinical features of these conditions and use microbiology laboratory facilities to confirm diagnoses. While some of these infections respond to antimicrobials, others require more intensive therapy, such as surgery.
| | | Balancing act
| | | By
Rebecca Bryant
| | | San Diego - Physicians enter medicine to take care of people, but to continue doing so, they need to master business principles as well, according to Walter Erhardt, M.D.
| | | Dermatologists are key players in smallpox war
| | | By
Beth Kapes
| | | San Diego - With careful use, smallpox vaccination programs can be implemented on a large scale, and dermatologists will play a big role in its execution by assisting local health departments and preparing their professional colleagues, according to information presented by Colonel John D. Grabenstein, R.Ph., Ph.D., at the recent Infectious Diseases Society of America's annual meeting, held here.
| | | Infections are getting more serious
| | | By
Laird Harrison
| | | San Diego - The incidence of community-acquired methicillin-resistant staphyloccocus aureus (CA-MRSA) infections rapidly increased in 2003, and the infections appear to be getting more serious, according to Dennis L. Stevens, M.D., Ph.D.
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| | | | Melanoma unravels over the years
| | | By
Lisette Hilton
| | | National report - Harley A. Haynes, M.D., remembers a lecture he heard while a student at Harvard Medical School in the early 1960s. His professor showed a series of slides of melanoma and the basic message of his talk that day was: Sometimes, people get melanoma and then, they die.
| | | Renaissance man
| | | By
Lisette Hilton
| | | Craig G. Burkhart, M.P.H., M.D., has a flier for patients in his waiting room in Sylvania, Ohio. It is not your ordinary practice brochure. Rather, his is more personal. It features a series of pictures that a Toledo Blade newspaper photographer took of Dr. Burkhart when the dermatologist was 2 1/2 years old. It was his first haircut, and the photo was taken at the barbershop. The series starts with a picture of the toddler crying because he was about to lose his cute, curly locks. The pictures go on to show the range of emotions, with the last photo
| | | Tomorrow's tx will fend off cancer
| | | By
Lisette Hilton
| | | National report - Trends in the treatment of melanoma continue to focus on early detection and include experimentation with vaccines that might someday stop the cancer from spreading or prevent it entirely. Despite progress in early detection, survival rates for late-stage patients continue to be a concern.
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| | Botox battles heat up
| | | By
Timothy N. Troy
| | | Palm Beach, Fla. - Dermatologists apparently have had enough hype, spam, and promotion of new retail creams claiming to be "better" than mainstay anti-aging products. The upshot is a first-ever clinical comparison of such topicals to botulinum toxin A, a wrinkle fighter turned household word by Allergan's Botox Cosmetic.
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| | | | Telomeres govern aging, photoaging
| | | By
John Jesitus
| | | Washington - Attempts to explain the aging process at the cellular level have identified two main culprits - intrinsic aging and photoaging. "When referring to the skin," said Mina Yaar, M.D., "it's important to differentiate between intrinsic or chronologic aging that comprises the clinical, histologic, and physiologic changes in sun-protected skin, and photoaging, defined as the clinical, histologic, and physiologic changes in habitually sun-exposed skin." She is professor of dermatology at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Yaar will speak on molecular mechanisms in aging and photoaging at the AAD meeting scheduled here February 6-11.
| | | Melanoma's trailblazers
| | | By
John Jesitus
| | | Washington, D.C. - Because dermoscopy is only as reliable as the doctor using it, researchers are striving to develop diagnostic systems that eliminate the variable of physician experience altogether. Four of these systems will be discussed during a two-hour forum as part of the AAD annual gathering in February 2004. The same systems also will be demonstrated at the conference.
| | | FDA panel recommends label change
| | | By
John Jesitus
| | | Washington, D.C. - Responding to concerns over increased malignancies seen in animal studies, a pediatric subcommittee of the FDA's Anti-Infective Drugs Advisory Committee said topical immunosuppressant labeling should include a warning against use in children under the age of two.
| | | Experimental therapy figures to save limbs
| | | By
Indra Neal Sinha
| | | Cambridge, Mass. - An experimental therapy that makes use of fibroblast growth factor type 1 (FGF-1) encoded in naked plasmid DNA (NV1FGF) could save the limbs of patients afflicted with chronic wounds due to critical leg ischemia associated with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), according to Vincent Li, M.D., M.B.A.
| | | Online consensus
| | | By
John Jesitus
| | | New York - If two heads are better than one, imagine what 40 can do. Such was the premise of the Consensus Net Meeting on Dermoscopy (CNMD), held over a four-month period in October 2000. It joined colleagues from 13 countries to evaluate 108 pigmented skin lesions and found that diagnostic sensitivity for melanoma improves when the diagnosis is made by a consensus of multiple examiners online.
| | | Medicare audits made easy
| | | By
Lisette Hilton
| | | Washington - Brett Coldiron, M.D., a dermatologist and clinical assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Cincinnati,, gets audited every year by Medicare. He was so frustrated by the system and what it does to well-meaning dermatologists that he became a master "medical chartsman" and an expert on the topic. Dr. Coldiron frequently lectures on the topic to enlighten his peers about the inevitable audit.
| | | Innovate, integrate, and treat
| | | By
Cheryl Guttman
| | | Las Vegas - Much of what is new in dermatologic therapy represents off-label use of marketed drugs, but clinicians should not let that fact necessarily deter them from prescribing what may be very safe and effective therapy, said Stephen Stone, M.D., at the Fall Clinical Dermatology Conference.
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