Health Law & Policy

A July 29 report by the Institute of Medicine on reforming the nation’s graduate medical education program has struck a nerve with the AUA and other medical societies by questioning the seriousness of continuing physician shortages in the United States.

The House of Delegates, the democratic policy-making body of the American Medical Association, meets twice a year to establish broad policy on health, medical, professional, and governance matters. As in previous years, several resolutions from this June’s meeting were of key interest to urologists.

This infographic depicts the efforts of several states to boost graduate medical education funding. Is your state among them?

As policymakers learn about the burgeoning bottleneck between medical school graduation and graduate medical education, a number of novel approaches to physician training have launched from Sacramento to Jefferson City to Tallahassee. Not surprisingly, many of these solutions pit providers against one another amid concerns about patient safety and the dilution of professional standards.

Important developments that could have an impact on urology practices include an attempt by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to provide more flexibility for providers in how they use certified EHR technology to meet meaningful use requirements and be eligible for program payments as well as proposed revisions to the FDA's “Guidance for Industry: Distributing Scientific and Medical Publications on Unapproved New Uses-Recommended Practices.”

Earlier this spring, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the case of North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission, a case arising out of the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners’ (NC Dentistry Board) attempt to enforce the state’s scope of practice laws against a group of non-dentists. While this case arises out of a dispute between North Carolina dentists and non-dentists, its outcome is being watched by state dental and medical boards throughout the country for its impact on their ability to regulate the practice of dentistry and medicine within their own states, particularly with respect to scope of practice.

Two years ago in May, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended against PSA-based screening for prostate cancer, asserting that “many men are harmed as a result of prostate cancer screening and few, if any, benefit.”

Professional organizations including the AACU empower individual urologists with resources that support grassroots engagement in vital campaigns to re-assert the physician's role in health reform.

In spite of the record heat wave sweeping much of the nation, now is not the time to cool down. Issues actively being considered in Congress are some of the most vital to urology.

The American Association of Clinical Urologists (AACU) rejects the USPSTF's complete disregard of the positive effect the PSA test has had on so many men in this country.

Today’s five-to-four vote by the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) as constitutional will result in sweeping health care system changes for all physicians and their patients.

Three leading urology associations have announced support for the USPSTF Transparency and Accountability Act of 2012 (H.R. 5998), which calls for significant changes to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and the process by which the group makes formal recommendations regarding preventive care services.

Noted Irish playwright Oscar Wilde once mused, "Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result." Thanks to a foundation strengthened by direct and indirect participation in advocacy campaigns across the country, the urologic community secured positive policy outcomes in the first several months of 2012.

Forging and leveraging relationships with state legislators and their staff can help you protect your patients, employees, and practice from harmful legislation.

For the second time in a month, urologists are being criticized for self-referred ancillary services?this time by radiologists for providing intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treatment for prostate cancer patients in urologists' own radiation therapy centers.

Urologists' self-referral of prostate surgical pathology services leads to increased use and higher Medicare spending but lower cancer detection rates, according to a recent study.

Effective advocacy depends on data, relationships, and, for lack of a better term, money.

Urologists who gathered for the annual Joint Advocacy Conference listened politely as a member of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force explained the thinking behind the group's recommendation against routine PSA testing, but few, if any of them seemed to have been swayed.

The AUA and the American Association of Clinical Urologists have lost no time in pressing Congress for a better solution on Medicare physician reimbursement following passage of legislation to delay a 27% cut in payments for 10 months.

A developing advocacy campaign in Washington state has the AACU Government Affairs team implementing the very practices described in this space and thereby urged upon urologists in seemingly ad nauseum Calls to Action.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPTF) announced it was no longer recommending the PSA test to screen healthy men for prostate cancer, but experts say the impact this recommendation could have on health insurance coverage and treatment decisions remains unclear. While insurers are likely to take their time issuing formal coverage decisions, the AUA and other urology organizations have been quick to respond to the recommendation.

The Alliance of Specialty Medicine soundly rejected MedPAC?s approval of a recommendation that Congress reform the Medicare reimbursement system by reducing reimbursements to specialists by 5.9% per year for 3 years while freezing the reimbursement rate for primary care physicians.

The AUA said the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is "doing a great disservice" to patients with its draft recommendations regarding the PSA test.

The future of patient-centered urologic care depends on collaboration with allied advocacy affiliates.

After seeing physicians in Maine ask legislators to delay a bill limiting medical liability, speculation is that because doctors who have joined large groups or hospital practices have fewer concerns related to running a business-eg, meeting payroll, hiring staff, malpractice premiums, and meeting overhead-their priorities might be shifting.

The American Medical Association and 91 state and specialty medical societies, including the AUA, recently submitted formal comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on the proposed changes to the electronic prescribing penalty program.

While very few legislatures remain in session after July 1, from late summer into early fall and beyond, so-called interim committees meet with regularity to establish much of the agenda that will be considered the next year.

The House of Representatives has approved an amendment offered by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) to increase funding for prostate cancer research by $16 million.

Rising operating costs and selecting and implementing a new electronic health records (EHR) system are among medical practice professionals? greatest challenges to running a group practice, recent questionnaire results indicate.

Two issues of concern to urologists?compensation for ancillary services and the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula?are among the issues discussed by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) in its June 2011 report to Congress.