Each year, when the new RVU values and rates are announced, a tremendous amount of attention is paid to the "Conversion Factor" - is it going down 10% this year, after all? Will the cut only be 5%?...

We have had confirmation that the recent bulletin from UHC interpreted to mean that they intended to delay -25 modifier payments indefinitely does not refer to the -25 modifiers!  They are still on...

I have two you'll-see-it-here-first-if-not-only reports to provide you about the 2008 RVUs, but I'm reloading my personal machine (new hard drive) and I can't get to them until Friday. Until then,...

I have to admit that I was a bit dismayed, but fascinated, by the giant Microsoft booth at the recent AAP show in SF. The fascination came from the cool vein-finder tool (if you saw it, you know what...

This month's issue of the Pediatric Coder's Pink Sheet features yours truly in a piece about E&M distribution along with Dr. Lander, Susanne Madden, and Donelle Holle. Such esteemed company! Anyway,...

I hate parroting things from PedTalk and elsewhere, but this one is big (and it's a tough week). Straight from Susanne Madden, of course, is an update to a previous important announcement from...

I was in the middle of re-stating these facts when I realized that Linda Walsh said it as well as I could:

My apologies for brevity and inconsistency, but we are in the midst of a family emergency and I am racing out of town.  In my potential absence over this Thanksgiving week - and later, to augment or...

[Note: Since this post, there are have been major changes to the RVUs. Check more recent posts in this blog, like this one.  You may also want to go directly to PCC's on-line RVU tools.]

If you don't have the time to read this all, I'll provide my conclusion here: JR is right. "Healthcare gift cards" fall only a few centimeters short of being an out-and-out scam, imo.

This may be my favorite email of, well, November 2007.  If not the year:

Jennifer Godreau, from the Coding Institute, wrote to me the other day to ask whether their Pediatric Coding Alert is covering enough of the right material. You see, PCC customers get a free...

By the time any reasonable person reads this, I will be giving or have given a talk at the local AAP VT Fall meeting here in Burlington. I am quite flattered that Dr. Aakre thought me capable of...

One thing leads to another and I found myself poking around the American Journal of Managed Care today. Doesn't that title seem redundant to you? As though there might be, say, a Canadian version of...

It's email like this that keeps me going.

It's a Sunday and things are crazy (anyone else with kids who play hockey?). However, I couldn't resist passing this one along. I know there are a lot of PedTalk readers here - over 100, on Friday...

For those who missed it, here is most of a recent editorial in the WSJ by Dr. Ari Brown responding to Jenny McCarthy's recent book which blames immunizations for her child's autism. You can find the...

Announced by SOAPM and the AAP today: