June 2006

(06/29/2006)  --  Although the House of Representatives recently passed legislation to renew the program that provides federal support to the nation’s more than 1,000 community health centers -- a number that continues to grow -- federal legislators so far have failed to address many other problems these clinics face. More

(06/29/2006)  --  The Academy raised objections recently to a proposed rule involving CMS' hospital discharge policy, saying the rule would place an undue burden on family physicians. As written, the rule fails to address the current discharge process, said the AAFP, and thus stands to be duplicative, creating further drain on an already overtaxed health care system. More

(06/28/2006)  --  Two years of hard work and collaborative effort by the AAFP and other medical specialty societies bore fruit with CMS' recent announcement of proposed changes to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. The changes, which would take effect beginning in 2007, would significantly increase payments for evaluation and management services, the bedrock of family physician practices. (Discuss this story on the AAFP News Now bulletin board.) More

(06/28/2006)  --  A national study that found that primary care physicians' real incomes had fallen by as much as 10.2 percent between 1995 and 2003 should spur Medicare to implement "timely, accurate" updates for the codes used most by primary care physicians, say researchers at the Center for Studying Health System Change, or CSHSC. Without such updates, Americans may face a shortage of primary care doctors. More

(06/28/2006)  --  The medical home may be the future of primary care, but finding a way to pay for it needs to happen now. The good news is that this goal can be achieved -- and quickly. More

(06/28/2006)  --  The ship is turning. After years of drifting through policies that discouraged medical students from choosing primary care, America's medical community has recognized the danger of drifting too close to the shores of subspecialization, according to AAFP leaders. Nowhere was that more clear than during the 2006 annual meeting of the AMA House of Delegates. More

(06/28/2006)  --  AAFP members now can learn how to enhance their ability to care for a culturally and linguistically diverse patient base through free, Web-based CME. That's what the new online Quality Care for Diverse Populations, or QCDP, curriculum More

(06/28/2006)  --  The nation’s emergency departments are being overwhelmed, in part because of patients' lack of access to primary care services, according to a report released June 14 by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. The report is one of three covering various aspects of the status of emergency care in the United States. More

(06/27/2006)  --  AAFP positions on physician payment and the physician workforce each got a significant boost when the AMA House of Delegates voted that comprehensive health system reform "be of the highest priority" for the AMA. More

(06/27/2006)  --  Income dropped 10.2 percent for primary care physicians between 1995 and 2003, compared with a 7.1 percent decrease for all patient care physicians during that period, said the Center for Studying Health System Change in a June 22 report. The Academy worked with media outlets such as National Public Radio and The New York Times to publicize the impact the inflation-adjusted primary care pay slump might have on the nation's patients. More

(06/26/2006)  --  The AAFP Congress of Delegates will meet Sept. 26-28, Tuesday through Thursday, in the International Ballroom of the Washington Hilton and Towers in Washington, D.C. The Congress will convene in conjunction with the AAFP Scientific Assembly, which will meet Sept. 27-Oct. 1. More

(06/23/2006)  --  Family physicians who have documentation of appropriate training and current clinical competence are qualified to administer nerve conduction studies and should be paid by Medicare to do so, said AAFP Board Chair Mary Frank, M.D., of Mill Valley, Calif., in a letter to Robert Kamps, M.D., medical director of Palmetto GBA in Columbus, Ohio. More

(06/23/2006)  --  For a no-holds-barred look at AAFP advocacy activities on your behalf, turn to "As We See It: Voices From the AAFP," the new members-only section of AAFP News Now. "As We See It" replaces the "Opinion" section online and also will appear in the print AAFP News Now, beginning with the July issue. More

(06/23/2006)  --  You may have noticed a pattern when you scanned headlines like these recently in AAFP News Now: "Anthem Blinks: Blended Codes in Ohio to End in September" ... "Academy, Humana Exchange Ideas, Clarify Views" ... "AAFP Asks CIGNA to Rescind Unfair Payment Policy" ... "Aetna Modifies Policy Regarding Bundling of E/M Codes." More (Members Only)

(06/23/2006)  --  I'm very excited and honored to kick off "As We See It: Voices From the AAFP," the new members-only section of AAFP News Now. Limiting "As We See It" to members will enable the Academy to communicate more candidly with you about its advocacy work, sometimes including the "inside story" to help you better understand the latest developments on an issue. More (Members Only)

(06/21/2006)  --  Family physicians supported by the Academy are rising to key positions within the AMA and are helping renew it, says FP Edward Langston, M.D., of Lafayette, Ind. More

(06/21/2006)  --  Make sure your practice stays current with the latest geriatric care by attending the course, Geriatric Medicine for the Family Physician, Oct. 11-15 in Salt Lake City. More

(06/21/2006)  --  Memory loss can be a delicate topic to broach with some patients. To help ease the dialogue, the National Institute on Aging offers two new resources doctors can pass along to patients. These concise, easy-to-read resources are appropriate for all older patients, including those with limited literacy skills. More (Members Only)

(06/21/2006)  --  Vaginal birth after cesarean, or VBAC, has been found to have encouraging outcomes unless infants have very low birth weight, says a new research report in the May/June issue of Annals of Family Medicine; an essay in the same issue advocates the concept of patient choice of vaginal delivery. More

(06/20/2006)  --  Want to learn more about office health information technology at your own pace and in your own space and earn CME along the way? The Academy's Center for Health Information Technology, or CHiT, invites members to take advantage of a new series of online tutorials designed to give FPs and their staff members the information they need to know about health IT in an easy-to-use video format. More

(06/20/2006)  --  Financing of Medicaid is deeply flawed, but there is little political will to deal with the problem, according to Thomas Scully, former administrator of CMS. In recent years, however, some managed care companies have begun pushing to fill that gap by expanding the use of capitated plans that can provide substantial savings without sacrificing quality of care. More

(06/19/2006)  --  Questions about why CMS is revising its 1500 health insurance claim form, or CMS-1500, and how the changes affect physicians, led the Academy to compile an online resource with answers to some of members' most frequently asked questions. More

(06/14/2006)  --  If the excitement of Scientific Assembly 2006, Sept. 27-Oct. 1 in Washington, D.C., hasn’t set in yet, it may after the Assembly 2006 CME Brochure lands in your mailbox. More

(06/14/2006)  --  Obesity rates among children have tripled during the past 20 years, according to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey published in 2002. Research has shown that these increased rates of obesity have led to higher rates of type 2 diabetes. In fact, although fewer than 5 percent of children overall were diagnosed with diabetes prior to 1995, that percentage has since risen to 30 percent to 50 percent, according to research studies published in 2000 and 2002. More

(06/14/2006)  --  The family medicine residency at Duke University, Durham, N.C., is closing, according to a May 25 The announcement was followed by a June 13 joint statement from the AAFP, the Association of Departments of Family Medicine, the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. The associations said they were "disappointed" to learn of the decision to discontinue the program. (Discuss this story on the AAFP News Now bulletin board.) More

(06/14/2006)  --  Family Practice Management, a journal published by the AAFP, recently garnered two awards in the American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors 2006 awards competition. More

(06/14/2006)  --  Reforms other than caps don't make a dent in the cost of malpractice awards or premiums. That is among the findings of a study, "The U.S. Medical Liability System: Evidence for Legislative Reform," in the May/June issue of Annals of Family Medicine. More

(06/13/2006)  --  Family physicians now have two new tools to help them protect their patients. Late last month, the FDA granted licensure to a vaccine intended to reduce the risk of herpes zoster -- commonly known as shingles -- in older patients. And just last week, the agency approved a vaccine that targets human papillomavirus strains known to cause cervical cancer. More

(06/13/2006)  --  An Academy dream several years in the making became reality June 2 when representatives from 18 family medicine practices around the country converged in Kansas City, Mo., to begin the hard work of delving into a national demonstration project that could change the course of family medicine. More

(06/13/2006)  --  Physician training programs are facing another cut next year if Senate appropriators fail to hold the line on a $7 billion amendment to the 2007 budget package. More

(06/12/2006)  --  Federal lawmakers are debating a bill that promises to accelerate existing federal efforts to promote electronic health records technology but that also would speed up the switch to the ICD-10 code set. More

(06/12/2006)  --  The AAFP Foundation recently received notification of a $50,000 donation from pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca as part of its AstraZeneca Charity Challenge. More

(06/09/2006)  --  Family medicine needs a big response from its physicians, and it needs that response now. That's the message in an e-mail sent via the State Legislation E-mail Discussion List urging AAFP members to respond to a proposed CMS rule that could have severe adverse effects on all family medicine residency programs. The deadline for responding to the rule is 5 p.m. Monday, June 12. More

(06/09/2006)  --  Although the total number of children's visits to family physicians has dwindled, demand for FPs remains high among children from rural or underserved areas and among teenagers, says FP Robert Phillips, M.D., M.S.P.H., director of AAFP's Robert Graham Center in Washington. More

(06/09/2006)  --  Family physicians' expertise in caring for patients through all their life stages gives FPs critically important insight into caring for disabled or chronically ill children as they grow through adolescence into adulthood. Family physicians should not cede the care of these youngsters to subspecialists, says Daniel Earl, D.O., of Prescott, Ariz. More

(06/07/2006)  --  Primary care physicians, including family physicians, have the potential to offer their patients a high-value medical home, but doing so may require a change in the financing of health care first, according to Robert Graham, M.D., a professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. More

(06/06/2006)  --  Thanks to an effective mediation process, Aetna, an insurance plan that contracts with many FPs, has agreed to rectify a payment dispute dating back to July 2004. Aetna's action stands to benefit not just the physicians directly involved in the dispute -- but all physicians who do business with the insurer. More

(06/06/2006)  --  The advent of June means that if your AAFP reelection cycle ends in 2006, there are only six months left to earn the necessary CME credit before the Dec. 31 deadline. More

(06/05/2006)  --  Federal rule makers will allow a moratorium on specialty hospital expansion to expire on Aug. 8, but future payment regulations will "promote a level playing field for all health care providers, including both community and physician-owned specialty hospitals," according to CMS Administrator Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D. More

(06/05/2006)  --  The Academy's focus on patient safety and continuity of care issues in retail health centers got a national stage May 30 when AAFP President Larry Fields, M.D., of Ashland, Ky., appeared on the CBS Early Show with "HealthWatch" host Emily Senay, M.D. More

(06/02/2006)  --  The countdown begins. In less than a year -- on May 23, 2007 -- health care providers must begin using the National Provider Identifier, or NPI. More

(06/01/2006)  --  Providing an atmosphere of comfort that allows patients to open up about sensitive issues and topics can be tricky. Age and language differences only compound the problem. The National Institute on Aging offers a free 38-page guide to help elderly Hispanic patients communicate more effectively with their doctors. More

(06/01/2006)  --  The Academy's journals are experimenting with one-day live CME courses in July. The sessions -- called American Family Physician and Family Practice Management LIVE!TM -- use journal content as a base for presenting clinical information and practical tips on hyperlipidemia, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, child and adolescent immunizations, and depression to family physicians and their primary care teams, including nurse practitioners and physician assistants. More