AAFP News Now -- American Academy of Family Physicians

Photo of AAFP Board Chair Rick Kellerman, M.D., at a Washington, D.C., news conference

Problems with access to care are proof that the health care system is unraveling, says AAFP Board Chair Rick Kellerman, M.D., during a press conference announcing the results of a tracking report released by the Center for Studying Health System Change.

Center for Studying Health System Change Report

Americans Experiencing Greater Access-to-Care Barriers

(07/08/2008) -- The number of people forgoing or delaying health care jumped dramatically between 2003 and 2007, signifying a fundamental reduction in Americans' overall access to health care says a recently released tracking report from the Center for Studying Health System Change. More

Medicare Payment Fiasco Causes Delay in Claims Processing

Action Should Not Mean Delayed Payments

(07/01/2008) -- The Bush administration has announced it will delay the processing, but not necessarily the payment, of Medicare claims to give Congress more time to pass a bill blocking a 10.6 percent reduction in the Medicare payment rate. However, the administration's action should not result in delayed Medicare payments to physicians, said Kent Moore, the AAFP's manager of health financing and delivery systems. More

Editorial

No Matter How You Describe It, Senate's Inaction on Medicare Pay Stinks

(07/01/2008) -- Unbelievable. Outrageous. Unconscionable. These are just a few of the adjectives that spring to mind when it comes to describing the U.S. Senate's inaction on legislation to address the Medicare physician pay cut last week. More (Members Only)

FP Essentials, FP Audio Get New Look

Redesign Highlights Shorter, More Focused Content

(07/03/2008) -- Subscribers to AAFP's Home Study program might have noticed the most recent FP Essentials monograph -- the June edition -- has a new look. The changes were made at the request of Home Study program subscribers and come at no additional subscription cost. More

Congress Passes Bill Blocking Reductions in Medicaid Matching Funds

Bill Promises to Save GME Programs Millions

(07/02/2008) -- A $161.8 billion supplemental spending bill the U.S. Congress recently passed includes provisions that will temporarily prevent the Bush administration from reducing federal Medicaid matching funds for graduate medical education, or GME. More

Ophthalmologists Reach Out to FPs

Consider Cataracts Before Prescribing Alpha Blockers for Your Patients

(07/02/2008) -- If you're about to prescribe an alpha blocker for an older adult with hypertension or a prostate or urinary retention problem, consider whether the patient has cataracts before you prescribe. That's because the use of alpha blockers -- especially tamsulosin, marketed as Flomax -- is associated with an eye condition that makes cataract surgery more difficult, even in patients who no longer use these drugs. More

NIH's ACCORD Clinical Trial Publishes Results

Researchers Still Have No Explanation for Deaths

(07/02/2008) -- As AAFP News Now reported earlier this year, the NIH's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute halted the intensive glucose-lowering arm of the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes, or ACCORD, trial because of concerns about the number of deaths in patients who were participating. Results from that arm of the study now have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, but the troubling deaths that led the NIH to halt the study arm have not yet been explained. More

Physicians Face 10.6 Percent Medicare Payment Reduction on July 1

Cut Threatens Patients' Access to Care, Says AAFP President

(06/27/2008) -- Congress failed to pass a measure to block a steep reduction in the Medicare physician payment rate before adjourning for a weeklong July 4 recess. That failure allows a 10.6 percent cut to take effect on July 1 that could end up limiting or denying care to millions of Medicare beneficiaries. More