Year: 2018
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Association Secures Significant Changes to Midwife Board Rule
The Medical Association and a coalition of health organizations this week convinced a legislative committee with oversight of state board regulations to make changes to a dangerous proposed regulation by the newly-formed Alabama State Board of Midwifery. The Midwifery Board was established by law in 2017 to license non-nurse midwives. The proposed regulation – if…
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Estimated 1.9 Million Vapers in U.S. and Growing
A research team including experts from Johns Hopkins conducted a survey to determine trends in e-cigarette use. Based on more than 400,000 responses from the national telephone survey led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the researchers estimate that 1.4 percent of the population in the U.S. vapes. Yet these roughly 1.9 million…
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REPORT: Nearly Half of Resident Physicians Report Burnout
ROCHESTER, Minn. – Resident physician burnout in the U.S. is widespread, with the highest rates concentrated in certain specialties, according to research from Mayo Clinic, OHSU and collaborators. The findings appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Physician burnout is a dangerous mix of exhaustion and depersonalization that contributes to physicians making mistakes while administering…
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Alabama Medicaid Alert: Short-Acting Opioid Naïve Limits
Effective Nov: 1, 2018, the Alabama Medicaid Agency will begin implementing limits on short-acting opiates for opioid naïve recipients. The Agency defines “opioid naïve” as a recipient with no opioid claim in the past 180 days. Edit Details: A 7-day supply limit for adults age 19 and older A 5-day supply limit for children age 18…
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President Signs Bills Lifting Pharmacist ‘Gag Clauses’ on Drug Prices
Earlier this week, President Trump signed two bipartisan bills into law that will allow pharmacists to tell patients they can save money on drugs by paying cash or trying a lower-cost alternative. At issue was the “broken” drug pricing system in the U.S. that was forcing patients to make decisions, which could have negatively impacted…
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POLL: Rural Americans “Profoundly Worried” about Opioid Crisis
BOSTON — According to a new NPR/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health poll, rural Americans cite drug/opioid abuse as the biggest problem facing their local community (25 percent), followed by economic concerns (21 percent). The poll of 1,300 adults living in the rural United States found that a majority of rural Americans…
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PIPA Open Enrollment During October
The Physicians Insurance Plan of Alabama through Blue Cross Blue Shield is available for qualified* members of the Medical Association providing you, your family and staff with strong benefits at affordable premiums as compared to other options. The PIPA health coverage rates for 2019 will have a decrease of 4.5 percent and dental coverage has…
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CMS Updates LCD Determination Process
On Oct. 3, 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced updates to Chapter 13 of the Medicare Program Integrity Manual, which deals with Local Coverage Determinations. According to CMS, the updates are intended to “increase transparency and patient engagement.”[1] These changes call for informal meetings with interested parties before a formal request is…