October 2007

(10/30/2007)  --  A coalition to fight chronic disease already has had a significant impact on the 2008 presidential campaign by convincing several of the candidates to adopt chronic disease prevention and management as major themes of their national health care proposals. The Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, or PFCD, a coalition composed of the AAFP and 79 other organizations from a broad cross section of society, recently unveiled its "Ideas for Change" policy platform. More

(10/30/2007)  --  The AAFP is calling on all family physicians -- or their medical practice staff members -- who have used a free online credentialing application developed by the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare, or CAQH, to complete a questionnaire to assess that experience. More

(10/29/2007)  --  The consolidation of the nation's health insurance industry has given insurance companies the power to dictate the terms and conditions of patient coverage and physician payment agreements, driving many family physicians out of business and undermining patient care. That's what AAFP President Jim King, M.D., of Selmer, Tenn., told federal lawmakers during a recent hearing before the House Committee on Small Business. More

(10/29/2007)  --  The AAFP has expanded its federal advocacy efforts in recent weeks by launching a new Web page and creating two new initiatives -- the AAFP Advocacy Activity Team and a grassroots toolkit -- to help promote legislation that will benefit family physicians. More

(10/26/2007)  --  Medicare beneficiaries now can go online and compare details of their Medicare prescription drug plans using a revised Web site tool recently launched by CMS. The newly revamped Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder allows beneficiaries to compare plans offered in their areas, contrasting plans based on prescription costs and monthly premiums. More

(10/25/2007)  --  The Senate Finance Committee is still crafting legislation that would negate steep cuts in Medicare physician payment rates in 2008 and 2009 now required by the sustainable growth rate, or SGR, formula. Senate Finance Committee members were planning to introduce the legislation in mid-October, but they still are working on some of the finer points of the bill, trying to draft legislation that Congress will approve, said Kevin Burke, director of the AAFP Division of Government Relations. More

(10/25/2007)  --  HHS has appealed a court decision that would require the agency to release Medicare physician claims data to a consumer organization that wants to make it available in an online database. In late August, Consumers' Checkbook/Center for the Study of Services, won a freedom-of-information lawsuit against HHS that would have required the agency to release data about every physician claim paid by Medicare by Oct. 22. HHS appealed the decision on Oct. 19, sending the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for a decision. More

(10/24/2007)  --  In response to a resolution passed during the recent Congress of Delegates in Chicago, the AAFP has made information about the Academy's conflict of interest disclosure policy more readily available to members. More

(10/24/2007)  --  Virtually every practicing family physician has patients who struggle with osteoarthritis of the knee. Although many treatments are available for this condition, not all of them have been proven effective. In a recent evidence report titled Treatment of Primary and Secondary Osteoarthritis of the Knee, researchers describe the findings of a systematic review of outcomes for three treatment courses: intra-articular viscosupplementation; oral glucosamine, chondroitin, or both; and arthroscopic lavage and debridement. More

(10/24/2007)  --  Americans may be sicker than their European counterparts, but patients in the United States also are more likely to encounter aggressive disease screening and treatment, according to a recently published study comparing health care costs in the United States with those in 10 European countries. More

(10/23/2007)  --  The Academy recently urged CMS to stand by its pledge for transparency and release edit criteria for its Medically Unlikely Edit, or MUE, project to the public. At issue is CMS' refusal to disclose to physicians and other health care providers the MUE criteria CMS and its coding contractor, Correct Coding Solutions LLC, have developed and began using earlier this year More

(10/23/2007)  --  The U.S. House of Representatives, as expected, could not muster enough votes to override President Bush's veto of recently passed State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, legislation, leaving the program's current funding levels intact and jeopardizing health care coverage for thousands of children. More

(10/19/2007)  --  The Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation has awarded a one-year, $195,000 grant to the AAFP's Robert Graham Center in Washington to study factors that influence a medical student's decision when choosing a certain field of practice and whether those factors affect a student's decision to work with underserved populations. More

(10/19/2007)  --  A new study published in the Sept. 4 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine shows that although primary care physicians do a good job of adhering to some clinical guideline recommendations on depression, there still is room for improvement. Of 20 depression care quality measures the researchers examined, primary care physicians achieved high rates of adherence to slightly less than one-third; they demonstrated low rates of adherence to almost half of the measures. More

(10/19/2007)  --  Legislation introduced last month would require drug, biological product and medical device manufacturers with $100 million or more in annual gross revenues to disclose the names and office addresses of every physician who receives a gift valued at more than $25 from one of these companies. The Physician Payments Sunshine Act, S.B. 2029, would apply to payments, honoraria, travel and other rewards to physicians from pharmaceutical companies or medical device manufacturers; drug samples and funding for clinical trials would be exempt. More

(10/18/2007)  --  "Implementing a Quality Care Program for Diabetic Patients in a Family Medicine Residency," a research presentation by Gretchen Dickson, M.D., of Lee's Summit, Mo., won top honors in the Family Medicine Research Presentation program element at the 2007 Scientific Assembly Oct. 3-6 in Chicago. More

(10/18/2007)  --  More physicians are using their National Provider Identifier, or NPI, numbers to submit Medicare claims, and CMS is continuing to alert physicians to glitches they may encounter in the process. In a recent advisory, CMS reminded physicians to be mindful of the NPI number they use on Medicare claim forms. Specifically, the NPI number a physician uses to bill Medicare must match the physician's Medicare enrollment information. More

(10/17/2007)  --  The board of directors of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, or CMSS, has named AAFP VP Norman Kahn Jr., M.D., as EVP and CEO of the organization. The appointment takes effect Jan. 1, 2008. More

(10/17/2007)  --  Driven by the need to respond to a changing association environment, the AAFP, during the past few months, has been transforming itself to become a leaner, stronger, more strategy-driven organization with a balanced budget -- an organization that focuses on serving members and strategically positioning family medicine for the future. More (Members Only)

(10/16/2007)  --  The demand for family physicians exceeded the need for other physicians between 2006 and 2007, continuing a trend that began a few years ago, according to a new report from a national physician search firm. More

(10/16/2007)  --  The Academy has added a fifth item to its menu of modules in a performance improvement program known as METRIC, or Measuring, Evaluating and Translating Research Into Care. More

(10/16/2007)  --  Seven of the nation's largest insurance companies have joined the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, or PCPCC, a group of medical associations -- including the AAFP -- employers, advocacy groups and academic centers that is working to transform the U.S. health care system by making primary care and the patient-centered medical home an integral part of public and private health care plans. More

(10/15/2007)  --  The Maryland AFP announces the candidacy of Joseph Zebley III, M.D., of Baltimore for AAFP vice speaker. More

(10/15/2007)  --  The Colorado AFP announces the candidacy of Jeffrey Cain, M.D., of Denver for AAFP director. More

(10/15/2007)  --  The Georgia AFP announces the candidacy of George Shannon, M.D., of Columbus for AAFP director. More

(10/15/2007)  --  Experts agree that correct coding of the services physicians provide may be the single most important area for practice enhancement. However, keeping up with near-constant changes in claims coding and billing rules can be costly and time-consuming. But now help is available. Get a 40 percent discount on your subscription to a comprehensive online coding resource, courtesy of the Academy's new affinity program, AAFP Coding Today. More

(10/12/2007)  --  HHS will have to release data on every physician claim paid by Medicare as a result of a lawsuit brought by Consumers' Checkbook/Center for the Study of Services, or CSS. More

(10/12/2007)  --  AAFP News Now approached a few of the family physicians attending the Academy's 2007 Congress of Delegates Oct. 1-3 in Chicago to ask them why they take time away from their families, practices and patients to participate in the Congress. More

(10/11/2007)  --  North Carolina's Medicaid program continues to demonstrate how physician-led primary care networks and patient-centered medical homes can improve health care quality and save costs. North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley recently released data showing that Community Care of North Carolina, or CCNC, saved the state a combined total of more than $231 million in Medicaid costs for fiscal years 2005 and 2006. More

(10/11/2007)  --  The National Asthma Education and Prevention Program, or NAEPP, recently issued revised clinical practice guidelines on preventing and managing asthma that underscore the importance of regular monitoring to help patients achieve and maintain control of their asthma, reduce their risk for exacerbations, and slow or halt disease progression. It's the first comprehensive update of the NAEPP guidelines in a decade, says a news release from NIH's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, or NHLBI, which coordinates the program. More

(10/10/2007)  --  Here's a convenient way to enhance your care of children and teens: Get the free CD-ROM on caring for these patients, now available from the AAFP. The comprehensive CD-ROM contains popular resources from the Academy's 2006 Annual Clinical Focus on Caring for Children and Adolescents. More

(10/10/2007)  --  Less than one week after having been honored during the Academy's annual Scientific Assembly in Chicago as the AAFP 2008 Family Physician of the Year, David Demuth, M.D., of York, Neb., died suddenly Oct. 9. He was 57. More

(10/08/2007)  --  "Defining patient-centered care is really up to primary care specialties. If we don't define it, somebody else will, and it likely won't be in the patients' best interests," said Terry McGeeney, M.D., M.B.A., during a session at the AAFP Scientific Assembly on Oct. 4. More

(10/08/2007)  --  As expected, President Bush vetoed a bill on Oct. 3 that would have reauthorized and greatly expanded the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, prompting a swift and sharp rebuke from the AAFP, which has worked tirelessly during the past several months to ensure enactment of proposed SCHIP legislation. More

(10/05/2007)  --  A number of resident and medical student posters won awards at this year's Scientific Assembly in Chicago. More

(10/05/2007)  --  The Academy should evaluate the fiscal risks, drawbacks and benefits of creating and owning a clinical data repository for members that could give the AAFP control over critical health information, the AAFP Congress of Delegates decided on Oct. 3. More

(10/05/2007)  --  Venous thromboembolism, whether associated with deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, or with pulmonary embolism, or PE, is a life-threatening medical problem that is difficult to prevent and treat. But early diagnosis and therapy for DVT and PE can save lives, given that more than 500,000 cases of DVT occur every year in the United States, and PE and other complications of venous thromboembolism account for 5 percent to 10 percent of all hospital deaths. More

(10/05/2007)  --  Most chronic illnesses develop long before the physician learns about their symptoms. Over time, genetics; years-long lifestyle choices; psychological pressure; exposure to chemicals, other environmental hazards and inappropriate medications; as well as other factors, contribute to the eventual manifestation of the condition. More

(10/05/2007)  --  Tar Wars, the tobacco-free education program adopted by the AAFP in 1997, is here to stay. That was the message sent to Academy members Oct. 2 when the Congress of Delegates voted to support and seek expansion of Tar Wars activities. More

(10/05/2007)  --  Oppositional defiant disorder, or ODD, is one of the most commonly encountered disorders in children and adolescents, occurring in 1 percent to 16 percent of children, depending on the criteria used, according to Maggie Blackburn, M.D. At the same time, however, ODD is somewhat enigmatic. More

(10/05/2007)  --  Retail health clinics, rural health care, pharmaceutical company support and smoking cessation were big items on the Congress of Delegates' agenda on Oct. 2 and Oct. 3. More

(10/04/2007)  --  Beginning Oct. 3, government and business leaders will find it increasingly difficult to ignore the central role family medicine should play in reform of the nation's health care system, as the AAFP kicks off a $5.3 million strategic advertising campaign to highlight the specialty's importance in system reform. More

(10/04/2007)  --  "We need to put an end to the games insurance companies are playing." With those words, Rhode Island delegate John Bossian, D.O., of Wakefield urged the AAFP Congress of Delegates to adopt a resolution that addresses insurance company policies that deny payment or that underpay family physicians for mental health care. More

(10/04/2007)  --  The need for primary care physicians will steadily increase as medical care becomes more complicated in the years ahead, said Republican strategist Mary Matalin, who, alongside her husband, Democratic strategist James Carville, delivered the keynote address at the Oct. 3 opening session of this year's Scientific Assembly. More

(10/04/2007)  --  The Center for the History of Family Medicine, or CHFM, has received a five-year, $75,000 commitment from the American Board of Family Medicine, or ABFM, Foundation to provide long-term funding for the center. "The center is the only central repository for most of the important historical documents associated with the evolution of our specialty," said ABFM Foundation President James Puffer, M.D. "The ABFM Foundation is therefore pleased to provide continuing support for this valuable resource." More

(10/04/2007)  --  Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, is a deadly condition that claims more than 120,000 lives in the United States every year, but it can be prevented and treated if it is detected early and its underlying causes, primarily cigarette smoking, are eliminated. More

(10/04/2007)  --  Radio Command: "I am an admiral with the U.S. Navy. You are in the direct path of a battleship. Alter your course immediately." Radio Reply: "No, sir. You must alter your course. I am a lighthouse." "I believe we have to be lighthouses," said FP Regina Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A., founder and CEO of BayouClinic Inc. (formerly the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic) in Bayou La Batre, Ala., in her lecture "Family Medicine in a Disaster Zone" at the AAFP Scientific Assembly here Oct. 3. More

(10/03/2007)  --  Incoming AAFP President Jim King, M.D., of Selmer, Tenn., stood before his friends, family and AAFP colleagues during his president's address on Oct. 3 and told them that the Academy was poised to ascend to a whole new level. "I look forward to working with the Board as the Academy begins to take bold steps toward change for our patients and our specialty," said King. More

(10/03/2007)  --  The AAFP Congress of Delegates today elected Ted Epperly, M.D., of Boise, Idaho, to be the Academy's next president-elect. The delegates also chose other leaders by election or acclamation. More

(10/03/2007)  --  What family physicians need from the Academy has changed -- and the Academy is transforming itself in response. That need can be summed up in one word: advocacy. More

(10/03/2007)  --  Public and private payers are starting to embrace primary care and the patient-centered medical home as keys to improving health care quality and reducing costs, said outgoing AAFP President Rick Kellerman, M.D., of Wichita, Kan., in a speech during the opening session of the Congress of Delegates in Chicago on Oct. 1. More

(10/03/2007)  --  Each year at the AAFP Assembly, the Academy recognizes members and others for their outstanding contributions to family medicine. The following persons were honored during this year’s Assembly. More

(10/03/2007)  --  They call him "Dr. D" in York, Neb. When they speak of him, they use terms such as "compassion," "dignity" and "patience." He is, as one York family wrote, "a strong example of what a family physician should be." More

(10/03/2007)  --  The AAFP's Sept. 30 town hall meeting in Chicago was billed as a wrap-up of the Academy's efforts and successes in the private-sector advocacy arena. It quickly turned into a riveting discourse on the power of primary care, led by guest speakers from corporate giant IBM and Internet power Revolution Health Group. Both companies are collaborating with the Academy on projects important to family medicine. More

(10/03/2007)  --  America's health care system would take a U-turn and focus reform efforts on patient care rather than on payer systems under a plan approved by the AAFP Congress of Delegates Oct. 3. The plan, dubbed "Health Care for Everyone," calls for a primary health care-based system in which all Americans have a medical home. More

(10/03/2007)  --  Good news for those who thrive on having the very latest information at their fingertips: The AAFP's membership in the World Organization of Family Doctors, or Wonca, entitles AAFP members to participate in Wonca's Journal Alerts program. More

(10/02/2007)  --  Don't you wish this were happening in the United States? "JEDDAH, 1 July 2007 -- Saudi Arabia is seeking 13,000 family doctors to work at its primary health centers, according to Dr. Obaid ibn Sulaiman Al-Obaid, deputy health minister for planning and development. … " More (Members Only)

(10/02/2007)  --  The latest news on available supplies of pediatric and adult formulations of hepatitis A vaccine, inactivated, is mixed. Of the two manufacturers that produce this vaccine for the U.S. market, one reports that it has temporarily ceased taking orders for vials of the vaccine, and the other states that its current production and supply levels are in good shape to handle demand for the product. More

(10/02/2007)  --  The Senate Finance Committee likely will include a provision to expand a Medicare medical home demonstration program as part of a Medicare bill that will be introduced on Capitol Hill in October or November, giving added impetus to the medical home as Congress heads into the final three months of 2007. More

(10/02/2007)  --  Family physicians should be aware that a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine provides solid evidence that steroids are not effective in treating pediatric bronchiolitis. More

(10/02/2007)  --  Congress has approved, and President Bush has signed, a bill that promises to reduce long-term educational debt for most students, including medical school students, by making key changes to the Higher Education Act. More

(10/01/2007)  --  Congress has moved quickly to delay implementation of a recently passed law requiring physicians and pharmacists to start using either electronic prescriptions or tamper-resistant prescription pads for their Medicaid patients. More

(10/01/2007)  --  The FDA will have new authority to regulate medications and medical devices that are already on the market under a bill recently signed by President Bush. More

(10/01/2007)  --  The FDA has issued an alert for health care professionals warning them about the use of fentanyl buccal (i.e., Fentora) tablets after recent reports of deaths and other adverse events. The FDA says the deaths were the result of improper patient selection, dosing or product substitution. More