LUGPA Annual Meeting

At the 2021 LUGPA Annual Meeting, Steven Rowe, MD, PhD, discussed the paradigm-shifting emergence of PSMA-PET imaging in prostate cancer.

As health care reform and payment policies evolve, LUGPA is ensuring that independent urologists have a strong voice in Washington and the resources they need to sustain successful practices, said Richard G. Harris, MD, LUGPA president, at the association’s 2019 annual meeting in Chicago.

Private equity firms’ acquisition of physician practices has escalated in recent years, and urology practices are currently garnering great interest due to an increased demand for services from an aging population and a low supply of urologists.

Having four generations of physicians working in the same practice is both a blessing and a significant source of complications, said Haydn Shaw, CSP, at the LUGPA annual meeting in Chicago.

Independent urologists provide the same quality of care for men on active surveillance for prostate cancer as urologists in largely academic settings, compared with prior studies, according to research presented at LUGPA’s 2019 annual meeting in Chicago.

Jeb Bush touched on a range of issues in health care and politics and shared a few personal anecdotes about his famous family with LUGPA members at the association’s annual meeting in Chicago.

A two-part grant is designed to provide guidance on gaps in existing guidelines on the management of advanced prostate cancer, Neal D. Shore, MD, reported at the LUGPA annual meeting in Chicago.

A new study by the Partnership for Health Analytic Research appears to bolster arguments by independent physicians and those who operate outpatient clinics that they are at a substantial financial disadvantage against hospitals when it comes retaining profits from the administration of injectable and infused drugs.

A renewed effort to establish a new Office of Men’s Health, which would improve coordination of initiatives throughout the federal government and improve education, awareness, and screening programs to improve men’s health, is now underway in Washington.

America is facing a health care crisis and physicians, including urologists, and the health care organizations for which they work, are an integral component of both the cause and the solution, according to Scott MacDiarmid, MD.

“There are a lot of patients in the greater St. Louis area that seek out my practice because I am a female practicing urology, and they want to see a female,” says Elizabeth Williams, MD.

Changes in the Medicare fee schedule, including plans to pay essentially the same amount for services whether performed in a hospital provider-based department (PBD) or in individual physician offices, were hailed as “significant wins” in a Health Policy Forum at the 2018 LUGPA annual meeting in Chicago.

A study of men diagnosed with prostate cancer in the setting of a community urology practice showed that adherence with active surveillance is good after 3 years of follow-up.

At 10th anniversary meeting, Neal D. Shore, MD, discusses what has made LUGPA “decidedly unique” from other urologic associations.

“Patients have rising expectations for telehealth services as new technology-based ways and preferences for consuming services are shifting into health care. Therefore, it is important for urologists to gear up to meet the market demand,” explains Christian Milaster, MS.

Noted in many recent accounts of doctors running for Congress is the fact that, since January 2017, urologists have been fortunate to have one of their own serving in the U.S. House of Representatives-Florida's Neal Dunn, MD.

"[The MIPS program] provides the only mechanism for many specialists and subspecialists to engage in federally-sponsored quality improvement and demonstrate their commitment to deliver high-value care," says Parag Parekh, MD, of the Alliance of Specialty Medicine.

“The APMs being designed by LUGPA allow for participation by all urologists regardless of their practice setting or affiliation,” explains Alec Koo, MD.

“Care process models… represent a way to decrease variation and waste, and thereby they lead to improved outcomes and significant cost reductions,” says Jay T. Bishoff, MD.

“The answer is to remove the barriers and frustrations that are causing burnout so that physicians can focus on their role as care providers,” advises Paul DeChant, MD, MBA.

Nearly three-fourths of men with very low-risk prostate cancer underwent active surveillance as a primary therapy, according to a study presented at the LUGPA annual meeting in Chicago.

In his health policy briefing, Deepak A. Kapoor, MD, discusses LUGPA’s comments to CMS regarding MACRA and the 2018 Medicare physician fee schedule.

The association and its member groups are “leading the way” in developing urology-specific measures that can be used for MIPS quality reporting, says LUGPA President Neal D. Shore, MD.