The Washington Post (11/18, Sun) reported that the World Health Organization declared that the Zika virus is no longer an international public health emergency. However, experts with the WHO clarified that this designation does not indicate that addressing Zika is less important, but that it requires a sustained…
Statement attributable to: Andrew W. Gurman, M.D. President, American Medical Association “The AMA House of Delegates, reflecting more than 170 state and specialty medical societies from across the country, today reaffirmed its commitment to health care reform that improves access to care for all patients. “Using a comprehensive…
HHS OCR finalized a new rule under Section 1557 to advance health equity and reduce health disparities by strengthening protections for some of the populations that have been most vulnerable to discrimination in the health care context. Section 1557 is the nondiscrimination provision of the Affordable Care Act…
AMS will continue to provide our physicians with updates on MACRA as new information becomes available. The AMA has some resources here. Below are some other resources you might find helpful: MACRA website - Includes a checklist with steps practices can take now to prepare, an action kit and…
Nearly a third of physicians could be exempt from Medicare's new merit-based incentive payment system under a final rule CMS issued on October 14, 2016, for implementing the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). CMS heeded the concerns of small practices and Congress about the framework's impact on…
From AMA Morning Rounds, 9/12/16. The New York Times (9/10, A14, Fink, Subscription Publication) reported that some 72,315 healthcare providers and suppliers “will have a little over a year to meet federal disaster preparedness requirements completed this week by” CMS, but they will have to “scramble” to comply…
CDC Health Advisory Summary: CDC has previously issued travel, testing, and other guidance for local mosquito-borne Zika virus transmission (active Zika virus transmission) for a one-square-mile area in the Wynwood area of Miami that the Florida Department of Health (FL DOH) identified. The guidance for those who live…
Healthcare IT News (7/29, McCarthy) reported a new CareCloud survey of 1,443 patients found that close to “75 percent of patients expressed a high level of interest in accessing their electronic medical records...and 33 percent indicated that EHRs have already changed their experience for the better.” The survey…
(AMA Morning Rounds, 8/2/16) - On its website, CNBC (8/1, Mangan) reports a new analysis conducted by FAIR Health found that healthcare claims for people addicted to prescription pain medications “and heroin skyrocketed as the number of Americans who fatally overdosed on those opioids hit record highs.” Data…
Following last week's confirmation of the first continental US cases of Zika caused by local mosquitoes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised Monday that all pregnant women in the U.S. should be assessed for possible Zika exposure during every prenatal visit. The agency explained that pregnant…
A case before a United States Court of Appeals could restrict a state medical board from protecting patient safety through the regulation of telemedicine in that state. {click to view the latest telemedicine news in Arkansas} At stake in Teladoc, Inc. v. Texas Medical Board is whether the…