Health Law & Policy

Changes in health care have made quality improvement (QI) program participation more than a good idea. Today, QI activities are part of the alphabet soup of regulations impacting provider pay.

"Urology providers and caregivers can serve as the primary venue for positively impacting both the psychological and physical components of men’s health as men trust us with their most intimate and personal issues of life," writes SUNA President Gwendolyn Hooper, PhD, APRN.

As the Republican-led Congress wrestles with the daunting challenge of developing comprehensive health care legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act, specialty organizations-including those representing urology-are working to influence the ultimate outcome.

"The health care field does not show any signs of slowing in pace or growth, and as many people view health care as a service, it is important to strive for an environment that is high in quality, care, support, and acceptance," writes SUNA's Amy Hull, MSN, WHNP-BC.

A new look at the burnout rate among practicing urologists shows that the problem may not be as widespread as previously reported. Nevertheless, nearly 40% of urologists are burned out, a number researchers say is still much too high.

In this interview, Raj S. Pruthi, MD, discusses the factors behind burnout and steps that can be taken to address and prevent it.

While drug importation may sound like a good option to reduce drug costs, the potential can of worms it could create isn’t worth it, the AACU’s Ally Lopshire writes.

The fiscal 2017 appropriations wrap-up package approved by Congress in early May included a $2 billion increase for the National Institutes of Health, despite a Trump administration request for a $1.2 billion reduction for the nation’s primary medical research facility. That bipartisan action, which funds the federal government through September, came in the face of President Trump’s demand to slash spending for domestic programs to pay for a huge increase in appropriations for defense.

"The nurse practitioner, nurse, and other ancillary providers who make up the urology team are an essential and valuable asset in the consideration of adding oral androgen receptor inhibitors into the office setting," writes Gwendolyn Hooper, PhD, APRN.

Urologists’ adherence to value-based care pathways for BPH surgery is extremely low and only modestly improved when given individualized feedback on patient outcomes, costs, and practice patterns relative to peers, say UCLA researchers.

The AUA-sponsored AQUA Registry is gaining momentum as more U.S. urologists choose to sign on with the first national urology-wide registry for quality reporting and more.

Organizations that promote national medical policy standards and lawmakers in several states have recently considered proposals that would direct scrutiny upon surgical procedures undertaken in infancy to assign or confirm gender.

The new draft recommendation on PSA screening from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which improves the previous D rating for all men to a C rating for those ages 55 to 69 years, has been met with guarded approval by three of the key national organizations representing urologists.

Hundreds of urologists visited Capitol Hill last month as part of the Joint Advocacy Conference, where they met with members of Congress on key issues affecting health care, urology, and urology practices. They did so at a historic time, as lawmakers sought to enact Republican legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

“It may be that urologists need to rely more on their internal medicine instincts to find new ways to treat conditions such as IC/PBS,” writes SUNA President Gwendolyn Hooper, PhD, APRN.

“Preauthorization has escalated beyond reason,” according to AACU President Charles McWilliams, MD.

“The evidence is clear: Not only can APRNs practice independently, they can do so effectively and without sacrificing quality of care,” writes SUNA President Gwendolyn Hooper, PhD, APRN.

President Trump’s campaign promise to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act has proved to be easier said than done as Republicans who control Congress have been unable to devise a workable and acceptable replacement for the controversial health care law.

The Affordable Care Act's controversial contraceptive coverage mandate requires most private health plans to provide cost-free coverage of female contraception. Reproductive health advocates in many states are pressing for new laws that include vasectomy in those covered services.

In the wake of heated criticism about lengthy wait times for veterans’ care at Veterans Health Administration hospitals, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has moved to allow advanced-practice registered nurses to practice to their full authority without physician oversight and regardless of individual state law in VA facilities.

The practice of performing concurrent and overlapping surgeries in hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers across the nation has come under scrutiny by the Senate Finance Committee, and hospitals and surgeons are on notice that some practices that may have been commonplace in the past need to change.

Robert A. Dowling, MD, summarizes key findings from the recent CMS report “National Health Spending: Faster Growth In 2015 As Coverage Expands and Utilization Increases."

“I am concerned about decreased federal support impacting urologic clinical practices and research progress,” Arthur L. Burnett, II, MD, MBA, told Urology Times.

"I don’t know what to expect from any aspect of the President Trump camp. There is so much vagueness in what he says," one urologist said.

The era of value-based health care has arrived. And while the idea of basing reimbursement on quality and efficiency rather than volume of care is good in theory, the majority of urologists say it will be difficult to carry out, according to Urology Times' 2016 State of the Specialty survey.

Over the past several months leading up to the November presidential and congressional elections, organizations representing urology sought to persuade members of Congress to bring sense and reason to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which nearly 5 years ago gave a “D” rating to PSA-based screening for prostate cancer.