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  Today's Top Story Presidential Webinar on Payment Reductions for 2022 Orthopaedic surgery is set to face reductions in Medicare reimbursement and changes to the process for resolving surprise medical bills beginning Jan 1, 2022. In this recorded webinar that is free for AAOS members, AAOS President Daniel K. Guy, MD, FAAOS, and AAOS Advocacy Council Chair Douglas W. Lundy, MD, MBA, FAAOS, explain these healthcare policy changes, how they will impact patient access to musculoskeletal care, what [...]

  Today's Top Story AAOS Nominating Committee Recommends 2022 Slate The AAOS Nominating Committee has released its recommended slate of nominees 120 days in advance of the business meeting at the 2022 Annual Meeting as required by AAOS Bylaws. Chaired by Kristy L. Weber, MD, FAAOS, the AAOS Nominating Committee included Julie E. Adams, MD, FAAOS, Joint Board of Councilors/Board of Specialty Services Representative (Tenn.); John J. Callaghan, MD, FAAOS (Iowa); Stephen M. McCollam, MD, FAAOS (Ga.); Mary [...]

Today's Top Story Study Identifies Relationship between OR Size and SSI Rates A retrospective study published in the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of the AAOS ® reported that OR size affects the rate of surgical site infections (SSIs) in orthopaedic procedures. The researchers evaluated 11,163 patients who underwent total joint arthroplasties, laminectomies, or spinal fusions between January 2018 and January 2020. Overall, 137 patients developed SSIs (1.2 percent). Across small (250-399 net square feet [NSF]), medium [...]

  Today's Top Story Study Investigates Incidence of ED Visits for DVT after TJA At a single center, 1 percent of patients who underwent primary total joint arthroplasty (TJA) visited the ED due to concerns of postoperative deep vein thrombosis (DVT), according to a study published in the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of the AAOS ®. In total, 10,445 TJA patients were compared with 252 propensity-matched controls. The most common reason for accessing the ED was [...]

  Today's Top Story House Bill Introduced to Mitigate 2022 Medicare Physician Pay Cuts Late last week, U.S. Reps. Ami Bera, MD (D-Cal.), and Larry Bucshon, MD (R-Ind.) introduced a bill (H.R. 6020) that would extend a delay of pay cuts to physicians under Medicare until 2023. Congress previously implemented a one-year, 3.75 percent pay raise for independent physicians in the Fiscal Year 2021 spending law to alleviate cuts to specialists when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [...]

  Today's Top Story Study: Hispanic Ethnicity Is Associated with TKA Complications in Obese Patients A study published in the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of the AAOS ® reported that Hispanic ethnicity was associated with a 1.36 times greater odds of postoperative total knee arthroplasty (TKA) complications in obese patients compared with non-Hispanic patients. Using the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database, the researchers identified 35,027 patients, 6.3 percent of whom were Hispanic. Hispanic patients were [...]