News From Around the Web
> Six new states are getting onboard with the Federation of State Medical Boards' Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, which would make it easier to provide care across state lines. The new states to introduce legislation on the compact include Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, New Hampshire and Washington. Announcement (.pdf)
> State laws and immunity clauses may create murky legal waters when it comes to health IT, according to Ron Hedges, a former U.S. Magistrate Judge in the District of New Jersey. In some cases, it may also mean that "providers which offer services through new technologies might face challenges by jurisdictions such as Texas which regulate the services through 'traditional' means and attempt to apply traditional practices to new technologies," Hedges writes at the Journal of AHIMA. Article
Provider News
> Excellent healthcare leaders share several common traits, including an in-depth knowledge of how their whole business works and great decision-making skills, according to the results of a 10-year study of successful executives. Article
Practice Management News
> Primary care practices have trended toward hiring a wider array of non-physician staff members, but the key area of behavioral specialists could use more attention. Article
> About 70 percent of the more than 240,000 veterans who leave military service each year will seek care at physician practices around the country, according to Monica Lypson, M.D., associate chief of staff for education at the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System, and Paula Thompson Ross, director of advancing scholarship at the University of Michigan. Article
And Finally... When pigs fly, for real. Article