Today’s Top Story
House, Senate complete step one in ACA repeal process.
The Hill reports that the U.S. House of Representatives has, in a 227-198 vote, approved a budget resolution to cut funding to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Overall, nine Republicans broke ranks with their party to join all Democrats in voting to oppose the measure. Congress is using the budget resolution process as a repeal tactic because it cannot be filibustered in the U.S. Senate. The proposal passed the Senate earlier this week. Read more…
Other News
State medical boards outline priority healthcare issues for incoming administration.
In a letter to President-elect Donald Trump, the Federation of State Medical Boards has proposed a set of priorities on which the organization hopes to work with the incoming administration “to ensure that state medical boards continue to play a central role in shaping the future of medical regulation by protecting the public and promoting quality healthcare in the United States.” The list includes:
- The Interstate Medical Licensure Compact
- Opioid abuse and treatment
- Telemedicine
- State regulatory autonomy
Study: Multidisciplinary conference may help improve patient selection and care for certain conditions.
Findings from a pilot study published online in the journal Spine suggest that multidisciplinary conferences involving healthcare providers with various backgrounds may help improve patient selection and offer more diverse treatment options to patients with lumbar degenerative spine disease. The researchers implemented a multidisciplinary conference that included orthopaedic spine surgeons, other specialty physicians, and nursing staff, to make recommendations for 137 patients who were being considered for spinal fusion or who had a complex history of prior spinal surgery. They compared the conference consensus against treatment proposed by outside surgeons. The researchers found that the multidisciplinary conference advocated for non-operative management in 58 percent of patients (58 of 100) who had been previously recommended for spinal fusion by another institution. In addition, the surgical treatment plan was revised as a product of the conference for 28 percent (n = 16) of the patients who ultimately underwent surgery. The researchers state that there were no 30-day complications in surgically treated patients. Read the abstract…
Study: MRSA prevention initiative linked to ongoing reduction in HAI rates.
A study published in the Jan. 1 issue of the American Journal of Infection Control finds that implementation of a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) prevention initiative was linked to an ongoing decline in MRSA healthcare-associated infection (HAI) rates at Veterans Administration facilities. The authors reviewed information on 23,153,240 intensive care unit (ICU) and non-ICU patient-days, 1,794,234 spinal cord injury (SCIU) patient-days, and 22,262,605 long-term-care facility (LTCF) resident-days during 8 years of the Veterans Affairs MRSA Prevention Initiative. Over the course of the study, the authors found that admission prevalence changed from 13.2 percent to 13.5 percent in acute care, from 35.1 percent to 32.0 percent in SCIUs, and from 23.1 percent to 25.0 percent in LTCFs. At the same time, monthly HAI rates fell 87.0 percent in ICUs, 80.1 percent in non-ICUs, 80.9 percent in SCIUs, and 49.4 percent in LTCFs. Read more…
Read the complete study…
Report looks at reasons, rates of physician burnout.
Medscape has released its 2017 report on physician lifestyle and burnout. The report is based on responses from more than 14,000 physicians, and finds that emergency medicine physicians reported the highest rate of burnout, at 59 percent. Overall, 49 percent of orthopaedists surveyed reported burnout. Most frequent reasons cited for burnout included “too many bureaucratic tasks,” “spending too many hours at work,” and “feeling like just a cog in a wheel.” View the report…
Massachusetts.
The Massachusetts Medical Society reports that the Massachusetts State Public Health Council has approved new regulations for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) that eliminate a 20-year moratorium on freestanding ASCs. All currently licensed ASCs are now allowed to apply for a determination of need certificate without affiliation or in a joint venture with an acute care hospital. Read more…
Last call: CMS panel on unplanned readmission measure for Medicaid beneficiaries.
AAOS seeks to nominate members to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Technical Expert Panel on Hospital-Wide 30-Day All-Cause Unplanned Readmission Measure for Medicaid Beneficiaries. The primary goal of this project is to develop an outcome measure to reflect the quality of care for Medicaid beneficiaries. The measure will adapt methodology from the Medicare hospital-wide readmission measure to the Medicaid population, taking into account features specific to Medicaid beneficiaries and the Medicaid program. Applicants for this position must be active fellows, candidate members, candidate members osteopathic, candidate member applicants for fellowship, or candidate member applicants for fellowship osteopathic. In addition, all applicants must provide the following: an online AAOS CAP application, a current curriculum vitae, a 100-word biosketch, a letter of interest highlighting their expertise in the subject area, and a CMS nomination form. All supporting materials must be submitted by Monday, Jan. 16, 2017, at 11:59 p.m. (CT), to Kyle Shah at: shah@aaos.org
Learn more and download the nomination form…
Learn more and submit your application…(member login required)
Note: In observance of the Martin Luther King Day holiday, AAOS offices will be closed and AAOS Headline News Now will not be published on Monday, Jan. 16. Publication will resume on Jan. 18.
