AAFP in 2002 -- December 2002 -- FP Report

December 2002 • Volume 8 • Number 12

AAFP in 2002

AAFP's Web site on bioterrorism is so helpful the Association of Medical Publications asks AAFP to maintain the site for all physicians. "If bioterrorism strikes, they won't know what hit them. Make sure you do," says an ad in AMP journals referring physicians to http://www.btresponse.org.
Warren Jones, M.D.

Medicare payments slump as the conversion factor (used to convert relative values for Medicare services into payments) plummets 5.4 percent. FPs including Baretta Casey, M.D., raid their personal savings to subsidize their practices. Her story, first told in FP Report, is later repeated in AAFP's congressional testimony, a New York Times article and a National Public Radio interview.
Vaccine shortages worry AAFP. Maldistribution and rising costs complicate the situation. "Governmental action at the highest level within HHS must be taken to define solutions" to vaccine-related problems, says (then) AAFP President Warren Jones, M.D.
The Future of Family Medicine project leadership team, in its organizational meeting, selects task forces.

Douglas Henley, M.D.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issues advance beneficiary notice forms that "reflect changes that we requested and pushed for, and for that we claim victory," says EVP Douglas Henley, M.D. The new forms lighten the paperwork for general physician services and lab services.
AAFP kicks off phase two of its public awareness campaign. Ads in The Washington Post and USA Today and on National Public Radio say family physicians offer traditional family practice combined with up-to-date medical technology.
The Physicians With Heart airlift sets a new record -- pharmaceuticals and medical supplies valued at nearly $15 million (U.S. wholesale value) are delivered in a two-part airlift to Moldova. The Academy is a partner in this annual project.

Some 2,357 family practice residency positions fill in the National Resident Matching Program, compared with 2,363 positions in 2001. Because fewer positions were offered in 2002, the initial fill rate rises to 79 percent from 76 percent in 2001.
Annals of Family Medicine names Kurt Stange, M.D., Ph.D., as editor and William Phillips, M.D., M.P.H., as senior associate editor. By fall, more than 90 manuscripts are submitted to the publication, scheduled to debut in spring 2003.

AAFP's HIPAA Privacy Manual is hot off the press and available to members as they prepare to comply with regulations for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

(Then) AAFP President Warren Jones, M.D., testifies before the Small Business Committee of the House of Representatives, saying FPs across the country are finding it difficult to keep taking new Medicare patients while Medicare payments dwindle.
A 50-member lobbying contingent treks to Washington for the spring legislative visit. Topics high on the FPs' agenda include Medicare payments to physicians, Medicare prescription drug benefits, and funds for Title VII and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
AAFP rolls out its first patient/physician guide on the safe use of over-the-counter medications at a press conference in New York City. By year's end, about 7 million TV viewers see an AAFP video news release on the guide.

Virgilio Licona, M.D.

AAFP applauds the decision of the American Board of Family Practice to offer certification/recertification exams twice a year. The computerized exams are scheduled to be phased in during 2003 and 2004.
The Academy teams up with Microsoft in a review of medical software -- evaluating nine practice management systems for their functionality, reliability, customer satisfaction and cost.
Virgilio Licona, M.D., a member of the AAFP Commission on Legislation and Governmental Affairs, accentuates the positives and the negatives when he testifies before the HHS Advisory Committee on Regulatory Reform. The topic: HIPAA standards covering electronic data interchange.

The new AAFP smallpox policy is highlighted during a CDC community forum in St. Louis on smallpox and its bioterrorism potential. The AAFP policy embraces the 2001 CDC plan but goes one step further, recommending vaccination of "persons at the federal, state and local levels acting as smallpox response team members who would be called upon to investigate smallpox cases and contain outbreaks." By fall, the CDC issues mass smallpox vaccination guidelines.
Richard Roberts, M.D., J.D.

The Academy launches a HIPAA home page -- an online resource for members to turn to with questions about HIPAA.
For the first time, AAFP's Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics program travels to China.
Ditch the documentation guidelines for evaluation and management services, AAFP tells HHS. "Few things frustrate and discourage family physicians more than the E/M documentation guidelines," says (then) AAFP Board Chair Richard Roberts, M.D., J.D., in a letter to HHS.

The redesigned AAFP Web site is posted, streamlined according to members' suggestions. In September, http://www.aafp.org logs 789,529 visits.
The AAFP spearheads a drive in which a 37-member coalition writes the House and Senate Appropriations committees, recommending $390 million in funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
AAFP leaders give input to a While House official on funding for AHRQ, the Medicare fee schedule and the medical liability insurance crisis.
A new AAFP practice profile study shows a 28 percent hike in the number of FPs no longer accepting new Medicare patients -- from 17 percent of FPs in 2001 to 21.7 percent in 2002.
The Medical Journal of Australia publishes the first international study of primary care errors. The study, coordinated by the Robert Graham Center in Washington, uses data from AAFP's National Network for Family Practice and Primary Care Research, as does the U.S. study published this fall.
The West Nile virus becomes an epidemic. In early August, the Academy directs members to a CDC Web site for the latest tips on prevention, case information and links to state health departments.

The AAFP Board of Directors adopts expense reductions and revenue enhancements -- the final step in a budget priority process that has been under way since spring 2001.
Academic Medicine publishes a review of the specialty's problems and prospects, a study from the Robert Graham Center.
The 2002 Member Attitude Survey shows 85 percent of members are satisfied with the Academy when it's compared with other medical organizations.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality awards $300,000 to AAFP's national research network. The funds will help the network recruit more minority physicians and conduct a patient-safety pilot study of errors in giving, processing and reporting lab and imaging tests.
The Academy seals a deal with Elsevier Science to offer PDxMD to AAFP members at a special rate. The system offers continually updated information on more than 450 medical conditions and gives data on more than 750 medications and other therapies.

The Congress of Delegates, meeting in San Diego, takes these actions:
- welcomes Cynthia Romero, M.D., of Virginia Beach, Va., as the AAFP Board's first member representing new physicians, those in practice up to seven years;
- chooses (then) Speaker Michael Fleming, M.D., of Shreveport, La., as president-elect and (then) Vice Speaker Carolyn Lopez, M.D., of Chicago as the AAFP Congress' first woman speaker and first Hispanic speaker;
- criticizes mandatory hospitalization for patients before placement in Medicare-qualified skilled nursing facilities as "obsolete" and "wasteful of valuable resources" and calls for it to be abolished;
- says the AAFP should meet with third-party payers to seek FPs' reimbursement for mental health diagnosis and treatment.
A total of 16,300 people, including 5,428 physicians, attend the AAFP Scientific Assembly in San Diego. Sessions cover, for example, EKG interpretation, hormone replacement therapy and computer skills.
AAFP unveils its first immunization schedule for adults and puts it on the Academy's Web site, along with the children's immunization schedule. The schedule for adults is a joint effort of the AAFP, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and CDC.
Barbara Yawn, M.D., M.Sc., past chair of the Commission on Clinical Policies and Research, attends a conference at NIH on issues raised by studies of estrogen/progestin therapy. Yawn says the AAFP now recommends counseling on risks and benefits of HRT and suggests physicians consider short- and long-term use separately.

A new online resource helps patients find family doctors in their city via http://www.familydoctor.org. FPs may post contact information on this directory of most AAFP active members.
In October and November, AAFP members make a last-ditch effort to ask lawmakers to protect Title VII and fix the Medicare fee schedule. Some 615 members send e-mails to Congress about Title VII, and 3,018 members do likewise on the fee schedule.

The Academy advises members to consider their three options in regard to Medicare: being a participating physician, being a nonparticipating physician or using private contracting (see story, page 3).

FPs highlight issues in 2002

Standing on the farmland that he's mortgaged to save his practice, Ronald Johnson, M.D., says he's been hurt by declining Medicare payments. About one-third of Johnson's patients are on Medicare. Stories throughout the year have focused on the plight of physicians such as Johnson.

Jeffrey Cain, M.D., who helped found Tar Wars, defends it at an Assembly Town Hall meeting on budget reduction. The Congress of Delegates voted for the Academy to keep funding Tar Wars until external funding is secured.

Cynthia Romero, M.D., addresses the Congress of Delegates after being acclaimed the AAFP Board's first member representing new physicians (see October).

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