My Weblog

NPR Documentary on Primary Care

Pat Maples, our GIMSPP Director, caught this great documentary on NPR on what is happening to primary care in this country.  Texas ACP believes it has some good statistics for us to use to illustrate that the statewide preceptorship programs in Texas is making an impact on encouraging many more medical students to become primary care physicians than the national average.  Interestingly, she was talking to a preceptor one day this summer and discovered they had both listened to the program and were impressed by it.  Here's the link if you want to listen in:  http://www.insideout.org/documentaries/primarycare/

CMS adds "no pay" conditions

CMS has just decided to add three more conditions to the “no pay”, hospital acquired conditions list.  Attached is a WSJ blog you may be interested in reading.  

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/08/01/medicare-expands-list-of-no-pay-hospital-conditions/

 

The three new conditions are:

1)      Blood clots in patients after surgery for knee and hip replacements

2)      Surgical site infections after certain elective procedures

3)      Certain major problems that result from failing to control blood sugar levels after a patient is hospitalized

 

 

Several other conditions are already on the list of "no pay" conditions.

2008 ACP Leadership Day

Seventeen members of TAIM participated in Leadership Day 2008 on May 14th in Washington, DC to represent internal medicine on Capitol Hill.  The delegation met with members of Congress during the annual event and express support for issues important to patients and physicians.  The key issue discussed was fixing Medicare, which is scheduled to implement a physician reimbursement cut by 10.6% this July and another 5.0% in January 2009.  TAIM members met with Congress Michael Burgess (R- Tx) who is sponsoring H.R. 5545, which calls for a permanent SGR fix. In the photo below:  Mark Armstrong, Phillip Myatt, Marc Elieson, David Winter, Rep. Michael Burgess (R -Tx), Scott Yates, Marguerite Wuebker, and Clark Gregg.

Building Medical Homes

The Association of American Medical Colleges endorsed the Medical Home model as promosing and supports future research on how to implement them, the association stated in a position statement this week.  You can find the full position statement at:

http://www.aamc.org/newsroom/pressrel/2008/medicalhome.pdf

I'll take that Scope victory!

Texas physicians are savoring a recent Texas 3rd Court of Appeals ruling stating that the ankle is not the foot.  According to the TMA's press release:  "The  court sided with TMA and the Texas Orthopaedic Association, and opposed the Texas State Board of Podiatric Medical Examiners' 2001 assertion that the definition of the foot should include the bones in the ankle."

This is clearly a scope victory and reaffirms what phycisians have been saying all along that if people want to practice medicine, they should go to medical school.  Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/03/19/0319foot.html