Joseph Burns

A bill with bipartisan support in Congress would not only change how Medicare assigns patients to physicians in accountable care organizations (ACOs), but also help patients afford their care and foster use of telemedicine.

IPAB was established in 2010 to cut Medicare spending if the program’s five-year growth rate rose faster than a target growth rate. Because IPAB could make those cuts without Congressional oversight, there is concern about how reductions in Medicare spending would affect its 57 million beneficiaries

Four states have passed laws allowing patients to insert directives into their medical records saying they refuse their physicians’ prescriptions for opioids.

The 16-member caucus remain concerned about how the law could affect physicians.

Physicians, not the federal government, should decide what’s best for patients with advanced illnesses or who are close to death

A new bill in Congress is designed to help overcome one of the most challenging barriers patients face when accessing care: the out-of-pocket cost.

Last year, U.S. representatives Phil Roe, MD, (R-Tennessee) and John C. Fleming, MD, (R-Louisiana) learned an important lesson about the power of the GOP Doctors Caucus to affect legislation.

Robert A. Berenson, MD, of the Urban Institute says CMS’value-based performance measures are ‘PQRS on steroids’