November 2007

(11/29/2007)  --  New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has accomplished a clean sweep in his efforts to enlist insurance company support of a new physician ranking model that would make such programs in New York state fair and transparent. The latest development was announced in a Nov. 20 press release, in which Cuomo said that health insurance giant UnitedHealthcare, or UHC, as well as two smaller health plans, had signed legal agreements stating that they would abide by the new rules. (Discuss this story on the AAFP News Now bulletin board.) More

(11/29/2007)  --  "Divided We Fail" is the name of a national movement that AARP launched with Business Roundtable and the Service Employees International Union to engage the American people, businesses and elected officials in finding bipartisan solutions to ensure that everyone has access to quality, affordable health care and the opportunity to attain lifetime financial security. The National Federation of Independent Businesses subsequently joined the movement. More (Members Only)

(11/28/2007)  --  One of the most helpful tools a family medicine practice can use to improve vaccination rates is an immunization registry. Learn more about the use of registries by reading the latest issue of the Academy's CME Bulletin, "Using an Immunization Registry to Improve Vaccination Rates." The issue now is available online; a printed version is being mailed to active and resident members. More

(11/28/2007)  --  The Council of State Governments, or CSG, is urging its members to implement and fund patient-centered medical home pilot projects, providing a strong impetus for states to adopt the medical home as part of their health care plans. More

(11/28/2007)  --  Thousands of rural family physicians and their patients may benefit from a recently announced Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, initiative aimed at increasing patient access to acute, primary and preventive health care. The FCC announced in a Nov. 19 news release that it would allocate $417 million for the construction of 69 statewide and regional broadband telehealth networks in 42 states and three U.S. territories under the Rural Health Care Pilot Program, or RHCPP. More

(11/27/2007)  --  More than 65 million adults in the United States have high blood pressure, making it one of the most common conditions family physicians are likely to encounter in everyday practice. Two common classes of medications used to manage essential hypertension -- angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, or ACEIs, and angiotensin receptor blockers, or ARBs (also known as angiotensin II receptor antagonists) -- have been studied extensively. Now, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, or AHRQ, has published a report comparing the effectiveness and other aspects of these two types of drugs. More

(11/27/2007)  --  The AAFP has joined AARP's "Divided We Fail" campaign, becoming one of the newest members of a movement to make access to affordable health care and long-term financial security key issues in the 2008 elections. In early 2007, AARP launched Divided We Fail, along with Business Roundtable and the Service Employees International Union. In November, the National Federation of Independent Business, an associaiton that represents aout 600,000 members, joined the campaign as the voice of small business. More

(11/21/2007)  --  "It's all about the prep." That's the mantra behind a fitness challenge issued by FP Michael Orzechowski, M.D., to his patients in Anchorage, Alaska. Inspired by a marathon he and his wife walked earlier this year, Orzechowski ("Dr. Mike" to his patients) now is inspiring his patients to do likewise. More

(11/21/2007)  --  Undoubtedly, every family physician who cares for patients with type 2 diabetes knows the value of regular physical activity in helping these patients manage their disease. Now a new study suggests that combining aerobic exercise with resistance training may offer benefits exceeding those achieved with either of these activities alone. More

(11/21/2007)  --  National Influenza Vaccination Week, or NIVW, is right around the corner -- Nov. 26-Dec. 2 -- and the Academy, CDC and other organizations are pulling out all the stops to help ensure that you and your patients are able to take full advantage of this season's record tally of influenza vaccine. More

(11/21/2007)  --  Family physicians and the specialty are poised to ascend to a new level of importance in America's health care system, but there are challenges to be met. So says new AAFP President Jim King, M.D., of Selmer, Tenn., in an AAFP News Now interview. More (Members Only)

(11/21/2007)  --  Pay-for-performance, or P4P, programs, as currently constructed, may not always result in healthier patients. So says Katie Coleman, M.S.P.H., lead author of a recently published study that examined a performance-based compensation system for providers at a network of federally qualified health centers located in underserved communities throughout Chicago and surrounding suburbs. More

(11/21/2007)  --  If you'd like to add tobacco cessation group visits to your practice, but don't know where to start, help is available. The AAFP's tobacco cessation program, Ask and Act, has added a guide to group visits to its online Ask and Act Practice Toolkit. The step-by-step guide covers preparing for a tobacco cessation group visit, conducting the visit and billing for it. More

(11/20/2007)  --  The New Mexico AFP announces the candidacy of Richard Madden Jr., M.D., of Belen for AAFP vice speaker. More

(11/20/2007)  --  The Alabama AFP announces the candidacy of John Meigs Jr., M.D., of Brent for AAFP vice speaker. More

(11/20/2007)  --  The Kentucky AFP announces the candidacy of John Darnell Jr., M.D., of Flatwoods for AAFP director. More

(11/19/2007)  --  The AAFP has added a key component to its Web-based resource on the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates by unveiling a grid detailing the candidates' positions on issues that pertain directly to family medicine. More

(11/16/2007)  --  During the past few weeks, three major health insurance companies in New York state -- CIGNA, Aetna and Empire BlueCross BlueShield -- have bent to pressure applied by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and agreed to restructure their physician ranking programs. More

(11/16/2007)  --  FDA officials on Nov. 14 called for changes to the warning label for the oral antidiabetic drug rosiglitazone maleate, which is the sole active ingredient in the brand-name prescription medication Avandia and an ingredient in two other antidiabetic drugs, Avandamet and Avandaryl. All three medications, which are used to treat type 2 diabetes, are manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, or GSK. More

(11/16/2007)  --  Merck & Co. Inc. recently notified the CDC that its Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccine, sold as PedvaxHIB, currently is unavailable for shipment. Merck said it anticipates the vaccine, which is indicated for routine immunization against invasive disease caused by H. influenzae type b in infants and children ages 2-71 months, will become available again sometime in the first quarter of 2008; the exact timing will depend on resolution of a manufacturing issue. More

(11/14/2007)  --  Here's something to think about: You've developed a new interactive practice Web site for your patients only to discover that the site is a frustrating maze to patients with limited literacy. More

(11/14/2007)  --  Congress needs to restructure the Medicare payment system to recognize and reward care coordination and quality and to prevent expensive and duplicative tests and procedures, said AAFP Board member Bradley Fedderly, M.D., of Milwaukee before a House subcommittee on Nov. 8. More

(11/14/2007)  --  If your Academy membership is coming up for re-election, it's easy to get a jump on the process: Report all CME credit earned during your re-election cycle by Dec. 31. More

(11/13/2007)  --  A study in the American Journal of Managed Care that measured patient satisfaction and quality of care in managed care organizations, or MCOs, against primary care provider turnover rates found that higher primary care provider turnover rates were tied to lower patient satisfaction scores. More

(11/09/2007)  --  The AAFP and the AAFP Foundation have joined with the International Medical Corps,or IMC, to help strengthen physician response to domestic and international emergencies. More

(11/08/2007)  --  Cancer mortality rates in the United States are dropping more quickly now than ever, and most cancer incidence rates also are declining. That's the news from "Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2004, Featuring Cancer in American Indians and Alaska Natives," which is scheduled to appear in the Nov. 15 print issue of Cancer. More

(11/08/2007)  --  The FDA is exploring the public health benefit of allowing certain drugs now available only by prescription to be dispensed -- with pharmacist oversight -- from "behind the counter," or BTC. The agency will hear public comment on the issue at a Nov. 14 meeting in Washington. More

(11/07/2007)  --  The New York Times has trumpeted the message that family doctors need to be paid more in an article published Nov. 7 -- the same day that the AAFP and about 40 major employers, insurers, consumer groups, physician organizations and other stakeholders in the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative, or PCPCC, sponsored a national health care summit in Washington. More

(11/07/2007)  --  The nation's largest primary care collaborative plans to use a new voluntary designation program from the National Committee for Quality Assurance, or NCQA, to recognize physician practices as patient-centered medical homes, a development designed to promote comprehensive and coordinated care. The Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, or PCPCC, is a coalition representing some of the country's largest corporations, policy-makers, consumers and 330,000 primary care physicians. The coalition unveiled the voluntary designation program during a national health care summit in Washington on Nov. 7. More

(11/07/2007)  --  The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, or STFM, is offering a fellowship program to provide current and aspiring predoctoral directors the information they need to be successful in the role of predoctoral director. More

(11/07/2007)  --  CMS is launching a demonstration project designed to encourage small- to medium-sized physician practices to adopt electronic health records, or EHRs, to help manage and deliver health care; however, the AAFP has raised some questions about the project. More

(11/07/2007)  --  You won't find many outright surprises in the newly released Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule for October 2007-September 2008, particularly if you've been tracking the individual vaccine recommendation changes made throughout the past year. More

(11/06/2007)  --  Jessica Messner has bronchitis, and she's grateful that her family physician, Neal Erickson, M.D., of Kansas City, Mo., is able to see her today. Messner says she's never been to a retail health clinic, and she doesn't think she'll ever need to visit one. That's because Erickson and his partners at Kansas City Family Medical Care are making patient access to health care as convenient as possible. More

(11/06/2007)  --  President Bush is expected to veto the currently proposed Labor, HHS and Education appropriations bill for fiscal year 2008, increasing the chances that primary care training programs and other health-related programs funded via Title VII of the Public Health Service Act will remain at current funding levels for the next several weeks. More

(11/05/2007)  --  Members of the Senate Finance Committee are divided about whether to provide a one- or two-year physician payment update as part of a bill the committee plans to introduce within the next few weeks. More

(11/05/2007)  --  The Texas AFP announces the candidacy of Leah Raye Mabry, M.D., of San Antonio for AAFP speaker. More

(11/05/2007)  --  The Pennsylvania AFP announces the candidacy of Thomas Weida, M.D., of Hershey for AAFP president-elect. More

(11/02/2007)  --  November brings bad news for pizza fans, with General Mills, the maker of Totino's and Jeno's brand frozen pizzas, announcing a voluntary recall of millions of its pepperoni-containing products in the wake of a multi-state outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infections More

(11/01/2007)  --  A new study that assesses the effectiveness of an antimigraine medication in treating alcohol dependence reports the drug shows promise for this indication. However, pharmaceutical interventions, while potentially effective, are not enough for these patients, warns a family physician who specializes in addiction medicine. More