A prominent organization representing internal medicine physicians has launched a public relations campaign to, well, tell the public what internal medicine physicians do.
For one thing, the Philadelphia-based American College of Physicians, with 137,000 members, wants the public to understand that there is a big difference between internists and interns. One is a board-certified doctor of internal medicine, while the other is medical school graduate in his or her first year of post-graduate training. Who knew?
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Mobile computing devices are becoming almost as much of an essential tool in U.S. physician practices as the exam table, according to a new survey.
Nearly 80% of 300 U.S. practicing physicians in primary care, family and internal medicine that were sampled and surveyed in April said they were using a smartphone in their “day-to-day practice.” Another 61% were using mobile tablets.
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Republican and Democratic leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee released the latest version of a draft bill to repeal Medicare's sustainable growth-rate formula calling for a five-year period of stable payment increases as physicians transition into new payment models. But lawmakers still offered no way to offset the cost of the repeal.
Totaling 70 pages, the bill is a work in progress, as the panel's health subcommittee will mark up the legislation next week. Committee members—along with members of the House Ways and Means Committee—have worked throughout the year to craft a bill incorporating comments from more than 80 stakeholders. As before, this version of the bill gives providers the option of leaving traditional Medicare fee-for-service to try new payment models that emphasize better quality and lower costs.
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McDermott
Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) wants to reduce organized medicine's role in setting Medicare fees. But such legislation is likely to face stiff resistance from the American Medical Association and subspecialist physician groups, who are heavily represented in the fee-setting process.
McDermott has introduced legislation that he said will address “the lack of transparency and fairness” in setting the Medicare fee schedule and lessen the CMS' reliance on guidance from the AMA's Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee—commonly referred to as “the RUC.”
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