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Top stories summarized by our editors
Top stories summarized by our editors

AAFP supports OPPS changes, calls for further site-neutral payments

10/10/2019

The AAFP continues lobbying for site-neutral payments, telling the CMS it supports proposed changes to the 2020 hospital outpatient prospective payment and ambulatory surgical center payment systems that would align payment policies for independent physician practices and hospital-owned practices. The Academy also asked the CMS to consider broader site-of-service payment parity and said payments for services at inpatient, outpatient or ambulatory surgical center settings should not be more than payments for the same service in a physician office setting.

Academy: More FPs in rural settings than other specialties

10/10/2019

The AAFP responded to a Health Resources and Services Administration request for information on rural access to health care by noting that 17% of Academy members practice in rural US communities, the highest rate of any specialty. The letter, signed by AAFP Board Chair John Cullen, M.D., said the rural health care crisis can be linked to low Medicaid payments, rural hospital closures, hospital and insurance consolidation, and costly EHRs.

AAFP supports proposed rule on cigarette warning labels

10/9/2019

The AAFP sent a letter to the FDA in support of a proposed rule to add graphic warning labels to cigarette packs next year, but the Academy said regulators also should include better safeguards for all nicotine delivery systems. The letter signed by Board Chair John Cullen, M.D., said research shows that visuals such as those included in the proposed rule can motivate people to stop smoking better than text warnings and can discourage tobacco use among youths.

Delegates at AAFP hearing debate certification, residency issues

10/4/2019

Physicians who attended the AAFP's 2019 Congress of Delegates Reference Committee on Education hearing debated issues including concerns about the American Board of Family Medicine's Family Medicine Certification Longitudinal Assessment. Resolutions addressing family medicine residency closures and shortages were referred to the Board.

Groups get quick CMS response on delayed advanced APM bonus payments

10/3/2019

The AAFP and eight other groups in September asked the CMS about delays in making performance bonus payments to clinicians in advanced alternative payment models in 2017, noting many have taken on substantial financial risk to make the transition to advanced APMs. The CMS responded less than two weeks later that qualifying participants would soon receive the payments.

COD adopts resolutions on family-friendly meetings, gender designation

10/3/2019

The Reference Committee on Organization and Finance hearing at this year's AAFP Congress of Delegates included debate on a variety of issues related to the operation of the Academy. The Congress adopted one resolution asking that AAFP meetings and events be more family-friendly and another directing the Academy to ask event registrants how they want their gender to be identified on badges.

AAFP COD adopts resolutions on obesity stigma, family separation

10/3/2019

Delegates to the 2019 Congress of Delegates adopted a resolution discussed at the Reference Committee on the Health of the Public and Science hearing addressing stigma and bias experienced by patients with obesity. Additional resolutions adopted addressed the separation of families seeking asylum and the conditions where they are held and access to abortion care.

Suki creator shows how digital assistant reduces FP data tasks

10/1/2019

Suki CEO Punit Soni, who created a digital assistant for physicians, told attendees at a panel discussion held at the AAFP's recent Family Medicine Experience that while shadowing a family physician, he discovered that health IT had taken a "sophisticated group of professionals and turned them into data clerks." He showed how the voice-enabled Suki can find a patient's history, take notes, order prescriptions and save updated files to an EHR system.

Survey seeks data about impact of PAMA cuts on FP practices

10/1/2019

The AAFP is asking family physicians to complete a brief COLA survey on how their practices have been affected by pay cuts to office-based laboratory services due to the Protecting Access to Medicare Act. The AAFP and other medical and patient groups have asked Congress to fix the law, which has reduced payments for some lab tests by up to 20% since 2018.