Early findings suggest a radiation therapy that involves numerous highly-focused and potent radiation beams provides targeted tumor control in nearly all patients, reduces treatment-related illness and may ultimately improve survival for patients with inoperable non-small cell lung cancer, according to a study in the March 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The U.S. Senate yesterday passed legislation that will delay the date of a 21.2 percent Medicare payment cut to physicians until Oct.1.
The 21.2 percent cut in Medicare reimbursement officially went into effect Monday, March 1, but the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a guidance Friday that will delay its effects for two weeks, or until the U.S. Senate acts on a bill delaying the cut.
A study conducted by the American Medical Association (AMA) found that within 24 of the 43 reporting states in the study, two large insurance payors had a combined market share of 70 percent or more, and that overall competition in the health insurance industry is decreasing.
The push is on for healthcare providers to make the switch to EHRs but it is hard to tell how well these complex health IT systems are being implemented and used, according to a Feb. 3 commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
A letter was sent to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Jon Leibowitz by leaders of the American Medical Association, American Osteopathic Association, American Dental Association and American Veterinary Medical Association to exclude healthcare professionals from a “red flags” rule intended to combat identity theft.
The U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday passed a $636 billion defense appropriations bill, which included a provision to delay the 21.2 percent reduction in Medicare physician payment until March 2010.
Publicly released report cards that rely heavily on the evaluation of hospitals do not significantly improve patient care, according to a study published Nov. 18 in the Journal of American Medical Association.
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives managed to squeak out a healthcare reform victory (220-215) late Saturday evening, after ratifying the Stupak-Pitts Amendment that will prohibit abortion funding for both the public option and affordability credits.
With the exception of evaluation and management services, nearly all services that cardiologists perform will see cuts ranging from 10 percent to more than 40 percent for individual services phased in over four years, according to the just-released Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule. The cuts will be phased in over a four-year period, which is a slight change from the proposed rule.
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Palliative care services are available at most U.S. cancer centers, although the scope of services offered and the degree of integration between palliative care and oncology care varies widely among centers, according to a study in the March 17 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
The American Medical Association (AMA) and Dell are collaborating for health IT adoption for such technologies as EMRs, e-prescribing and laboratory services through the AMA’s new health information solutions platform for physicians.
The 21.2 percent cut in Medicare reimbursement officially goes into effect today, but the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a guidance Friday that will delay its effects for two weeks, or until the U.S. Senate acts on a bill delaying the cut.
Physicians are working fewer weekly hours and making less money than they did in recent decades, which is inconsistent with other professional careers. Any further negative economic factors could be the tipping point for unsustainable decreases in hours worked in a market already hurt by physician shortages, according to a study in the Feb. 24 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association.
Previous studies suggest that for patients with a suspected blood clot in a deep vein of a leg, withholding anticoagulation therapy after a negative whole-leg compression ultrasound is associated with a low risk of developing a blood clot during the subsequent three months, suggesting that multiple ultrasounds may not be necessary for low-risk patients, according to a report in the Feb. 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The American Medical Association (AMA) has endorsed the Senate version of healthcare reform.
The American College of Radiology held a session regarding the current process of reimbursement for new technologies and procedures through CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) codes and the development of these codes at the Radiological Society of North America annual conference in Chicago last week.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to pass H.R. 3961, the Medicare Physician Payment Act, 243-183, altering the way Medicare pays physicians and preventing a scheduled 21.2 percent rate decrease set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2010.
The American Medical Association (AMA) has released a new Category 1 CPT code for use of electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy (ENB), used in the detection of lung cancer.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is “determined to continue working” on changing the Medicare payment system and repealing the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula after failing last week to get enough votes to force an up-or-down vote on S. 1776 (Medicare Physician Fairness Act).
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The use of health IT to reduce rehospitalizations will be welcome but also disruptive, said Stephen Jencks, an independent consultant in healthcare safety during a Feb. 24 webinar on the potential use of health IT to mitigate rehospitalizations, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
During the Health IT Standards Committee meeting on Feb. 24 in Washington, D.C., the Clinical Operations Workgroup sought to gather comments on proposed recommendations on implementation specifications for content exchange, vocabulary and code set standards for the Interim Final Rule of meaningful use.
In 2006, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), a branch of the FDA, began examining the number of medical device reports they received. Over the past two years, the number of submitted reports has increased, sparking a demand for the CDRH to make a move to electronic reporting.
A new hospital breaking ground usually isn’t breaking news. But the vision of patient care at one new facility, tentatively named Palomar Medical Center West (PMC West), is currently illegal under California state law.