Yul Ejnes, MD
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Physicians
It is time to dethrone the office visit as the king of primary care physician compensation and how the work of a primary care physician is defined. Several months ago, a reporter asked me how many patients I see in…
It is time to dethrone the office visit as the king of primary care physician compensation and how the work of a primary care physician is defined.
Several months ago, a reporter asked me how many patients I see in a typical day. I told her that the question should not be how many patients I see each day, but how many patients I take care of each day, a number …
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Primary care compensation models: Why wRVUs are obsolete
Physicians
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. For this column, my 61st for the American College of Physicians (ACP), I thought it would be interesting to look back at the first 60 and review the…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
For this column, my 61st for the American College of Physicians (ACP), I thought it would be interesting to look back at the first 60 and review the trends and topics that inspired me to write 800 to 900 words every month. Rather than scan the titles or reread the whole collection, I used …
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Different perspectives but the same goal: providing the best possible care to patients
Policy
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. By the time you read this, Congress will be in session and hopefully not engaged in another watermelon spitting contest on health care (I’d use a urological metaphor,…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
By the time you read this, Congress will be in session and hopefully not engaged in another watermelon spitting contest on health care (I’d use a urological metaphor, but there may be children in the room). If our Representatives and Senators choose to tackle this again, may it be in a thoughtful manner that …
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Rising premiums, high deductibles, and gaps in coverage before the ACA
Physicians
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. Recently, I’ve been thinking about how physicians express condolences. This weekend, I attended calling hours to visit with the family of a recently deceased patient. As I drove…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
Recently, I’ve been thinking about how physicians express condolences. This weekend, I attended calling hours to visit with the family of a recently deceased patient. As I drove back from the funeral home, I tried to recall when I started to attend my patients’ wakes, funerals, and Shiva observances, and why I began this …
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A part of patient care that I was not taught in medical school
Physicians
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. For many years, I've wanted to visit Cuba. When travel restrictions to Cuba were relaxed a few years ago, I hoped that I would get there before the…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
For many years, I’ve wanted to visit Cuba. When travel restrictions to Cuba were relaxed a few years ago, I hoped that I would get there before the first Burger King opened in Havana. I had my chance in May, as a member of a delegation representing the American College of Physicians (ACP) that …
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A wealth of medical knowledge in a country that lacks resources
Meds
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. One thing about me that even my closest friends are unaware of is that I am a zombie fighter. Unlike the ones in video games, TV series, or…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
One thing about me that even my closest friends are unaware of is that I am a zombie fighter. Unlike the ones in video games, TV series, or movies, the zombies that I fight in my practice are prescriptions that won’t die. They are prescriptions for discontinued drugs or old medication doses. These “zombie …
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Averting a zombie prescription apocalypse
Physicians
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. Lately, I’ve been asking myself whether today’s patient is less able to self-manage minor illnesses than their parents or grandparents. That question was inspired by my review of…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
Lately, I’ve been asking myself whether today’s patient is less able to self-manage minor illnesses than their parents or grandparents. That question was inspired by my review of notes from my patients’ visits with my nurse practitioners or to our after-hours clinic, as well as some of my own patient encounters.
My practice has done …
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Are patients with minor ailments visiting the doctor too often?
Meds
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. One of the things that I dread the most about January 1 is that it’s the start of “prior authorization (PA) season” for prescription medications. It is time…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
One of the things that I dread the most about January 1 is that it’s the start of “prior authorization (PA) season” for prescription medications. It is time consuming and frustrating, plus it often jeopardizes patient safety and quality of care.
A recent Viewpoint in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) describes PA programs, …
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The pitfalls of prior authorization for prescription drugs
Physicians
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. If you are a primary care physician, chances are that you’ve had patients ask you to complete forms for work as part of their employer’s wellness program. Workplace…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
If you are a primary care physician, chances are that you’ve had patients ask you to complete forms for work as part of their employer’s wellness program. Workplace wellness programs have been around for several years, but it seems that more of my patients have been participating since the adoption of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Although …
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Workplace wellness program requirements should reflect High Value Care recommendations
Policy
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. When the Trump Administration takes office, health reform as we now know it will not go away, but it will take a different form. I don’t think the…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
When the Trump Administration takes office, health reform as we now know it will not go away, but it will take a different form. I don’t think the changes will be as easy as opponents of the Affordable Care Act make them appear to be. It won’t be as simple as tearing down a …
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Will repeal and replace of the ACA move us forward or set us back?
Physicians
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. It made the rounds on social media this winter: a photo of a coffee mug with the words “Please Do Not Confuse Your Google Search With My Medical…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
It made the rounds on social media this winter: a photo of a coffee mug with the words “Please Do Not Confuse Your Google Search With My Medical Degree.” Colleagues shared and retweeted it, feeling a sense of vindication. I have to admit that I had a chuckle over it as well. It was the …
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Dr. Google isn’t all bad: Patient engagement might help outcomes
Tech
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. This September, I reached a milestone, the tenth anniversary of my electronic health record (EHR) “go live.” Note that I did not write “I celebrated my tenth anniversary,”…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
This September, I reached a milestone, the tenth anniversary of my electronic health record (EHR) “go live.” Note that I did not write “I celebrated my tenth anniversary,” because while the event was the most disruptive change in over 25 years of practice, the word “celebrate” connotes something joyous, which EHR adoption was not. For that …
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One action that could ease our EHR pain
Policy
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. This will not be another article focused on the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) and its Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). Everyone else is writing about…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
This will not be another article focused on the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) and its Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). Everyone else is writing about that. (But I can’t promise that I won’t mention MIPS at all.)
Hopefully, by now, most of you know what MACRA and MIPS are, but how many of you …
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Keep hierarchical condition categories in mind when you code
Physicians
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. A couple of months ago I received a Facebook invitation to “like” a page. That was not unusual, and usually the pages are on silly or obscure topics,…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
A couple of months ago I received a Facebook invitation to “like” a page. That was not unusual, and usually the pages are on silly or obscure topics, but this page was different. The name of the page was New Kidney for Stu.
Stuart Himmelstein, MD, FACP, is one of my Facebook friends. Stu is …
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A doctor turns to social media for organ donation
Physicians
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. “Before we end the meeting, I would like to thank our staff, without whom none of this would have been possible …” I can’t count how many times…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
“Before we end the meeting, I would like to thank our staff, without whom none of this would have been possible …” I can’t count how many times I said that or something similar when I was the American College of Physicians’ (ACP) Rhode Island Chapter Governor or Chair of the ACP Board of Regents or …
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Collaboration is vital to mission of professional medical societies
Physicians
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. When I accepted the invitation to write this monthly column for the American College of Physicians (ACP), I assumed it would be a one-year assignment. Even so, I…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
When I accepted the invitation to write this monthly column for the American College of Physicians (ACP), I assumed it would be a one-year assignment. Even so, I wondered if I could come up with a different topic each month. Now, over 40 columns and four years later, I guess that my fears were unfounded. Ideas …
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Picking up the pieces with the ACP’s Yul Ejnes
Physicians
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. If the old adage “the pen is mightier than the sword” is true, then the doctor’s note is the most powerful weapon around. When I entered practice over…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
If the old adage “the pen is mightier than the sword” is true, then the doctor’s note is the most powerful weapon around.
When I entered practice over 25 years ago, I wrote notes when people were too sick or injured to work, or to verify that they could return to work. That was it. The patient …
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The ever expanding list of reasons for a doctor’s note
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