MedPAC Draft Recommendation Calls for 1.3% Pay Bump for Medicare Clinicians
Physicians who treat Medicare patients would get about a 1.3% pay increase in 2025 under a draft chairman’s recommendation released Thursday by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). That figure represents half of the projected 2.6% increase in the Medicare Economic Index (MEI), a measure of the costs of running a medical practice, Brian O’Donnell, […]
AMA Delegates Take Action on Cannabis, Medical Aid-in-Dying Resolutions
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The American Medical Association (AMA) should work to educate physicians and the public on the health risks of cannabis to children as well as potential risks to people who are pregnant or breastfeeding, members of the AMA House of Delegates voted Monday. “My patients are often surprised to hear me say […]
Guidance Focuses on Mental Health Symptoms in Long COVID
An interdisciplinary group of physicians has released the latest guidance in its series on long COVID, this time focusing on mental health symptoms. The guidance, published by the American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (AAPM&R), discusses how to assess mental health systems in patients with post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), or long COVID, […]
Medicare Finalizes 3.4% Payment Cut for Physician Fees in 2024
Physicians would receive a 3.4% cut in their Medicare reimbursement under a final rule released Thursday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Overall, the finalized calendar year 2024 physician fee schedule conversion factor is $32.74, a decrease of $1.15, or 3.4%, from 2023, CMS said in a press release. CMS’s Positive Spin […]
Emergency Physicians Group Votes to Bar Use of the Term ‘Excited Delirium’
The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) voted to stop using the term “excited delirium” when referring to patients with hyperactive delirium, joining a host of other medical societies that have already done so. The decision reverses the conclusions reached in a 2009 ACEP white paper on the topic, ACEP said in an article posted […]
NPs No More Likely Than Physicians to Prescribe Inappropriately to Older Adults
Nurse practitioners were no more likely than physicians to inappropriately prescribe medications to older patients, researchers found. In an analysis of Medicare Part D claims, the mean rates of inappropriate prescribing by NPs and primary care doctors were “virtually identical” at adjusted rates of 1.66 and 1.68 per 100 prescriptions, David Studdert, LLB, ScD, of […]
House Members Mull Bills to Cut Red Tape and Improve Docs’ Medicare Pay
A House hearing on ways to increase payments and cut red tape for physicians who treat Medicare patients also included a discussion over whether Republicans wanted to cut Medicare benefits for seniors. “Just yesterday, in a speech on the House floor nominating [Rep.] Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) as their candidate for Speaker, Republicans expressed concern with […]
Have a Story About Private Equity Ownership? The FTC Wants to Hear From You
PHILADELPHIA — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is interested in hearing from physicians about their experiences with private equity involvement in healthcare as well as other marketplace issues, FTC chair Lina Khan said Wednesday at the annual meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians. “It’s difficult to overstate how valuable your stories, your experiences […]
Opinion | Questions You Should Be Asking About How Your Physician Group Works
Pines and Aldeen are emergency medicine physicians and leaders of a physician-owned emergency medicine group. Emergency physicians experience burnout at three times the rate of the average doctor. A common refrain underlying this is that corporatization by so-called contract management groups (CMGs) interferes with the physician-patient relationship and erodes the specialty. Acerbic posts in the […]
ACP Sticks With Age 50 for Colorectal Cancer Screening
The American College of Physicians (ACP) updated guidance reaffirming its stance that colorectal cancer screening should wait until age 50 for average-risk, asymptomatic adults. The ACP recommends that clinicians “should discuss the uncertainty around benefits and harms of screening” with individuals ages 45 to 49, and that screening be dropped in asymptomatic average-risk adults older […]