Opinion

Latest News


CME Content


On June 22, House Republicans announced proposals for a healthcare plan to replace the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”). Republicans claim the proposals would slow healthcare spending and ease federal rules for health insurance. Not surprisingly, a varied set of reactions to the proposals came quickly.

New strides toward better care and spending can stir up plenty of blowback along the way, but CMS has shown a willingness to listen and adjust, this time by allowing ACOs to jump aboard the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) train – an initiative with the potential to impact up to 5,000 practices, 20,000 providers and 25 million patients.

Unfortunately, for many physicians, the professional rewards of status, security, and meaningful work are threatened by an avalanche of responsibility and stress characterizing today’s practice environment and further contributing to an escalating epidemic of physician stress and burnout.

Physicians treating Medicare patients may get some relief this year from the reporting requirements under the Meaningful Use rules, thanks to a bill in both houses of Congress. But that relief is far from guaranteed.

the United States healthcare system is neither responsible for, nor is it the cause of, social disparities that have compromised the health and lives of so many people in our country, which unfortunately fall disproportionately on those who reside in our minority communities.

As I visit with providers, I discover managers that are not well educated in the HIPAA process, and do not understand they are required to do an annual Security Risk Audit and review of their practice even if they do not have an EMR, writes Carol Gibbons in her latest blog.