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| Dr. Alnoor A. Malick |
Welcome to the AMA Corner managed and prepared by Alnoor A. Malick, MD, FACAAI, member of the ACAAI Board of Regents and Delegate to the AMA House of Delegates, to keep you abreast of important AMA news and developments impacting allergy-immunology.
AMA: Physicians facing imminent storm of federal regulations
The American Medical Association (AMA) and state and national medical specialty societies, including ACAAI, sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) expressing concern about an onslaught of overlapping regulations that affect physicians. Programs with overlapping timelines include the value-based modifier, penalties under the electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) program, physician quality reporting system (PQRS), and electronic health record (EHR) incentive program, along with the transition to ICD-10.
AMA applauds House passing bill to repeal IPAB, enact liability reforms
The AMA applauded the House for voting to eliminate the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a panel that would have too little accountability and the power to make indiscriminate cuts that adversely affect access to health care for patients. While the AMA continues to support the ACA, including expanded health coverage and insurance market reforms, elimination of the IPAB is an important change that must be made. This new, arbitrary system is not what we need when patients and physicians are already struggling with a looming cut of nearly 30 percent from the broken Medicare physician payment formula. Ending the ongoing threat of drastic cuts from the physician payment formula and preventing new cuts from IPAB are important first steps to stabilize the Medicare system for patients.
AMA testifies at FDA hearing on expanding types of OTC drugs
"The AMA, concerned about patient safety, sees limited ability of this new proposal to improve patient outcomes or medication adherence," said AMA Council on Science and Public Health Chair-elect Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, MD, while testifying at an FDA public hearing held to obtain input on a proposal that would expand the types of drug products available over-the-counter. "We also have concerns about patients taking certain drugs without physician involvement, especially for patients with chronic disease. While the increased availability of certain prescription-based antidotes, such as Epi-Pens, appear to have few, if any, safety concerns, the FDA has not offered evidence that patients with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, asthma, or migraine headaches can self-diagnose and manage these serious chronic medical conditions safely on their own." Read more
More doctors work part-time, flexible schedules
Two of the fastest-growing demographics of physicians are driving the demand for options beyond full-time reports. A survey by Cejka Search and the American Medical Group Association found 22 percent of male physicians and 44 percent of female physicians worked less than full-time in 2011. Read more
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