June 2008

(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

(06/27/2008)  --  It's no secret that medical students typically carry such a heavy debt load coming out of medical school that it can influence their medical specialty and practice locale choices. Faced with that financial reality, many enter subspecialty areas of medicine, rather than family medicine and other primary care specialties. They also may choose to practice in more lucrative settings, such as larger cities and suburbs, rather than in rural communities. More

(06/26/2008)  --  It was with great concern that I read the AAFP News Now editorial on the doctor of nursing practice concept. I am the medical director of a hospital-based rural health clinic in Gonzales, Texas. We have four FPs, one pediatrician, two physician assistants and one nurse practitioner. Our clinic offers services ranging from urgent care to inpatient care covering obstetrics, orthopedic medicine and acute care. As such, we can see very complex patients. More (Members Only)

(06/25/2008)  --  The patient-centered medical home, or PCMH, got a boost during the 2008 annual meeting of the AMA House of Delegates in Chicago, when delegates adopted a set of recommendations aimed at ensuring physicians-in-training are primed for practice in the PCMH setting. More

(06/25/2008)  --  Delegates at the recent annual meeting of the AMA House of Delegates in Chicago left little room for doubt when it came to their views on the appropriate role of nurses in patients' medical care. Although nurses -- including those with a terminal degree in nursing -- are welcomed as part of the medical team, physicians still need to take the lead. Despite strongly worded opposition from national nursing organization representatives who attended the meeting, the delegates adopted a resolution that called for new AMA policy stipulating that doctors of nursing practice, or DNPs, "must practice as part of a medical team under the supervision of a licensed physician who has final authority and responsibility for the patient." More

(06/25/2008)  --  The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, or RWJF, is investing $300 million in the second phase of a far-reaching initiative that could produce a national model for health care. More

(06/25/2008)  --  A recently released study examining physicians' use of electronic health records, or EHRs, in the United States concluded that just 4 percent of physicians have an extensive, fully functional EHR at their fingertips. Another 13 percent of physicians reported that they were using a basic EHR. More

(06/24/2008)  --  If you've assumed it's too late to participate in CMS' 2008 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, or PQRI, mark your calendar for 2-3:30 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 1. That's when AAFP and CMS will co-host a special toll-free conference call about family physicians participating in the 2008 PQRI. More

(06/24/2008)  --  Score one for the Georgia AFP. Earlier this year, the Georgia legislature approved -- and the state's governor signed into law -- a funding increase for Georgia's family medicine residency programs after an intense lobbying campaign by the Georgia Academy. More

(06/19/2008)  --  A study published this spring in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology found that although physicians and other health care professionals have made headway in providing appropriate care for patients with asthma, some patients still are not getting the care recommended in national guidelines. In addition, the study found that subspecialty physicians have a 27 percent lower rate of prescribing inhaled corticosteroids to their patients with asthma compared with family physicians or general practitioners. More

(06/18/2008)  --  In an alert issued June 16, the FDA notified physicians that the agency has directed manufacturers of conventional antipsychotic drugs to add specific warnings about the risk of mortality in elderly patients being treated for dementia-related psychosis to the drugs' package labels. The required warnings would be similar to those added to the prescribing information of atypical antipsychotic drugs in 2005. More

(06/18/2008)  --  Barring congressional action, phase one of a competitive bidding program for Medicare durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies, or DMEPOS, is set for implementation on July 1 in 10 areas of the country. More

(06/17/2008)  --  Based on my own past experience and present economic conditions, I just have to comment on your seemingly naive article on targeting medical school programs to rural areas. More (Members Only)

(06/17/2008)  --  The AAFP's Americans in Motion, or AIM, program has released a step-by-step guide to conducting and getting paid for group visits for patients with health conditions directly related to overweight and obesity, including diabetes. More

(06/17/2008)  --  Senate Republicans have blocked attempts to bring a Medicare payment bill to the Senate floor for debate, thus greatly reducing the chances that Congress will be able to pass legislation blocking steep reductions in the Medicare payment rate before they take effect on July 1. More

(06/13/2008)  --  America's Health Insurance Plans, or AHIP, recently released a health care reform proposal that it says could reduce America's total health care expenditures by $145 billion by the year 2015, but some groups have problems with the proposal's details. More

(06/12/2008)  --  In response to your article, "Match Results Show Resurgence in Family Medicine Interest," let's be honest with ourselves. Just because there was a record "high" match rate of 90 percent does not mean we have a resurgence in family medicine. Your article is misleading. More (Members Only)

(06/12/2008)  --  Your 80-year-old patient has high blood pressure. Should you treat the condition in someone that old? If the patient isn't frail, a study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that maybe you should. More

(06/11/2008)  --  The chair of the Senate Finance Committee introduced a bipartisan bill last week that would provide an 18-month update in the Medicare physician payment rate, thus blocking a steep payment reduction scheduled for July 1. Today, the committee's ranking Republican introduced an alternative bill that also would provide a positive 18-month payment update. More

(06/11/2008)  --  The quality of care provided to Medicare patients varies widely based on geographic location and the race and ethnicity of beneficiaries, according to a recently released report commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and conducted by the Dartmouth Atlas Project. "Disparities in Health and Health Care Among Medicare Beneficiaries" is based on fee-for-service Medicare enrollment and claims data for patients 65 and older. Researchers found wide care disparities in the areas of diabetes testing, breast cancer screening, and rates of leg amputations resulting from diabetes and peripheral vascular disease complications. More

(06/11/2008)  --  The FDA has proposed a major overhaul of its system for labeling prescription drugs and biological products to give physicians and their patients a clearer picture of the risks and benefits of using these drugs during pregnancy and lactation. The proposed rule would eliminate use of the current pregnancy categories A, B, C, D and X, which stakeholders have criticized as oversimplified and not conducive to updates when new information becomes available. More

(06/10/2008)  --  CMS has issued a call to all physicians anxious to review their 2007 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, or PQRI, quality measures data: Register now with CMS' security system so that access to the reports will be quick and easy when they become available in mid-July. More

(06/10/2008)  --  Effective June 1, TransforMED, a wholly owned subsidiary of the AAFP, became a limited liability company, or LLC. The company will offer support and consultation services to primary care physicians and health systems as they align the care they provide with the patient-centered medical home concept. More

(06/06/2008)  --  A medical home pilot project under way in New York state is the first such pilot in the country to link primary care practice reform with fundamental changes in physician payment methodology. Data gathered from the project could "ultimately -- hopefully -- save primary care," according to Brian Morrissey, VP of strategy and development for the Capital District Physicans' Health Plan Inc., or CDPHP. More

(06/04/2008)  --  Osteoporosis is a serious health issue for men, as well as for women, yet it's "substantially underdiagnosed, undertreated and underreported" among male patients, according to a new clinical practice guideline from the American College of Physicians, or ACP. The guideline strongly recommends that physicians periodically evaluate their older male patients for osteoporosis risk factors and order dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, or DXA, for men at increased risk who would be willing and able to take drugs to treat the condition. More

(06/04/2008)  --  I was very interested to read the comments from colleagues in different areas of the country regarding Medicare cuts. Noticeably absent were any comments from the New York metropolitan tristate area, specifically New Jersey. More (Members Only)

(06/04/2008)  --  I believe your assertion that family physicians should jump onto the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, or PQRI, bandwagon is unfounded and misguided. I have seen no evidence that shows PQRI programs actually decrease morbidity, mortality or cost in our patient populations. Indeed, when we focus on disease-oriented (i.e., specialty) care and not patient-centered (i.e., primary) care, costs increase and quality decreases. Therefore, the disease-oriented focus is the antithesis of what we should be looking for in the future of family medicine. More (Members Only)

(06/04/2008)  --  Seven chronic diseases are costing the U.S. economy more than $1 trillion in direct and indirect medical costs each year, a figure that could soar to nearly $6 trillion by the middle of this century unless steps are taken to reduce the incidence of these conditions. That's the gist of a recently released report from the Milken Institute, a member of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, a coalition that includes the AAFP. More

(06/02/2008)  --  FamMedPAC, the AAFP's federal political action committee, has raised more than $230,000 since Jan. 1 of this year, far more than the amounts raised during the first four months of 2006 and 2007, respectively. The average FamMedPAC contribution now stands at $299, according to Mark Cribben, J.D., director of FamMedPAC. If that pace continues, the political action committee will have raised more than $700,000 by the end of the current election cycle. That amount would easily surpass the totals raised in previous years and put the PAC directly on course to become the nation's largest medical political action committee. More