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In a series of articles this year, Robert A. Dowling, MD, will examine what you need to know about the law, what the CMS proposed rule for implementation implies for the near and long-term future, and-when it is issued later this year-what the final rule means to your urology practice.

"With all this uncertainty, the good news is that men will no longer need to travel to Canada or elsewhere for prostate HIFU therapy," writes Leonard G. Gomella, MD.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a proposed rule regarding the implementation of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015. This article will summarize some of the details of the proposed rule, including an outline of the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), one of the key components of MACRA.

Expert urologists offer time-saving techniques for artificial sphincter insertion.

Our coverage of the 2016 AUA annual meeting includes articles on stone disease, prostate cancer, Peyronie’s disease, and more.

The ACA is a large step forward in allowing men to embrace their health concerns, and for health care practitioners to understand men and the challenge of help seeking, masculinity, and disparity in their quest for wellness (Men’s Health in Primary Care [Current Clinical Practice]. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2016).

Evaluation of the InterStim system in patients with urgency incontinence, urgency frequency, or both suggests benefits beyond urinary symptom relief.

In a study of intralesional collagenase clostridium histolyticum, mean curvature was reduced most dramatically after the first cycle, researchers reported.

A recent study provides the first comprehensive catalog of urinary calcium oxalate monohydrate binding proteins.

The procedure maximally preserves normal renal parenchyma and provides better surgical precision than standard partial nephrectomy, researchers report.

Researchers looking to create a shared decision-making tool identify 13 major themes when interviewing parents of children with VUR.

Paradoxically, the authors of a large study did not find a negative effect in functional outcomes analyzed.

Transrectal HIFU shows a statistically significant increase in per-core negative biopsy rates.

Researchers from the Endourology Disease Group for Excellence research consortium compared the techniques in 152 patients at several stone centers.

Trends in percutaneous nephrolithotomy may reflect other stone treatment trends, study authors say.

A CMS quality measure needs to be bidirectional, “specifying a rate of observation for low-risk disease and a rate of treatment for high-risk disease,” researchers say.

An image-guided technique for treating LUTS associated with BPH is reproducible and promising, researchers say.

A retrospective analysis looks at the short-term morbidity associated with transfusion among patients in the National Surgical Quality Improvement database.

Large study examines surveillance results in men with very low-, low-, intermediate-, and high-risk disease.

Specific clones may have the potential for grade conversion, research suggests.

With the AUA annual meeting beginning Friday, UT blogger Adele M. Caruso, MSN, CRNP, reflects on the benefits of professional meeting attendance.

"As evidenced by the flurry of activity at the state and federal levels of government, many physicians are fighting back against increasingly burdensome recertification requirements," writes the AACU's Ross E. Weber.

"The world of physician measurement is rapidly evolving and residents need to understand the changing landscape," writes urology resident Alan L. Kaplan, MD.

As a result of strong opposition from organized medicine, including the AUA and patients, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has put on hold its development of a draft plan to penalize physicians for ordering “non-recommended” PSA tests to screen for prostate cancer.

It is imperative that physicians know the law of the state they practice in with regard to their relationship with and responsibility for advanced practice providers who are providing urologic care, writes Brianne Goodwin, RN.

The next few years may bring more change for urologists in a more compressed time frame than ever before. Could a perfect storm be brewing, and what should you be doing about it?

No significant relationship was found between use of a phosphodiesterase type-5 inhibitor and prostate cancer recurrence after treatment in a nested case-control study.

A new comparative study showed that the use of intradetrusor injections of abobotulinum toxin A (Dysport) for urinary incontinence due to neurogenic detrusor overactivity provided results that were similar to or superior to those seen with onabotulinum toxin A (Botox), depending on the dosage of the latter.