AMA Statement on the Future of Health Care Reform
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…
Latest NewsBrief Now Available
The October 2016 issue of AMS NewsBriefs has been distributed via email and printed mail. Members, if you did not receive a copy, please give us a call to update your subscription preferences at 800-542-1058. The issue is available online in the Publications section as well as excerpts…
HHS Office of Civil Rights Rule Finalization
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…
MACRA Update
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…
Final MACRA Rule Expands Exemptions, Flexibility
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…
Issue 4 Disqualified from November Ballot
Thursday Oct 13, 2016 - AMS has just learned that the Arkansas Supreme Court has disqualified the AMS supported tort reform amendment (Issue 4) from the November ballot. Two separate lawsuits were filed with the Court in an effort to keep Arkansas’s voters from deciding whether there should be…
Public Health Implications of Medical Marijuana
Authors: Nathaniel Smith, MD, MPH and Gregory H. Bledsoe, MD, MPH | As seen in the November issue of the Journal of the Arkansas Medical Society. What is "medical marijuana"? To respond to this question meaningfully, we must first define terms. Marijuana contains over 80 different cannabinoids in varying concentrations and…
Stories, More Than Statistics, Help Convince Scared Parents to Immunize Their Children
From Arkansas Medical News, AUTHOR Becky Gillette The failure of parents to vaccinate their children can be caused by concern that the vaccinations cause autism. Although that link has been thoroughly disproven by dozens of scientific studies, some parents remain scared to vaccinate their children. Bryan L. Burke, Jr., MD,…
Malpractice: Primary & Secondary Prevention
From Arkansas Medical News, author: Cindy Sanders Part art, part science delivered by imperfect humans and impacted by hundreds of variables from a tiny protein on a gene to an individual’s age and socioeconomic status – the practice of medicine is anything but predictable. In a high-stakes field where…
ADH Health Update: Zika Exposure Testing
Expanded Availability of Testing for Exposure to Zika Virus Overview: Commercial labs are now able to perform Zika IgM MAC-Elisa testing. Doctors seeking testing for patients for pregnancy planning purposes should be aware of this option. It is still recommended that pregnant women (regardless of symptoms) or any…
AMS Position Statement on Medical Cannabis 2016
In voting to oppose both ballot initiatives, the AMS Board of Trustees adopted the following position statement at their July 27th meeting: While there is evidence that now suggests that cannabinoids may have beneficial clinical uses, the proposed initiated act is one of the most comprehensive, including over…