Senate proposal to add 1000 new pain residency positions
Opioid Workforce Act of 2021 Introduced in Senate
Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced the Opioid Workforce Act of 2021 in the Senate on April 27.
www.aamc.org
This bill was recently introduced in the senate aiming to add 1,000 new Medicare-supported positions in the areas of pain and addiction medicine. Given that there are currently less than 350 pain fellowship spots, is there any concern that this will significantly reduce training exposure during fellowship and heavily oversaturate the pain job market? Current pa...
Source: Student Doctor Network - May 10, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Cold-Eeze Tags: Anesthesiology Source Type: forums
Vertiflex Insurance Issues
I adopted Vertiflex to treat LSS a couple years ago, and have hit some home runs with it, although it does have some limitations. Over the past several months however, I have been running into more and more issues with non-Medicare insurance coverage. It used to only be Tricare/VA that denied Vertiflex, but now I'm running into denials from BCBS and United secondary insurance, or even when it's "Medicare-replacement." These plans that covered Vertiflex a year ago are now denying it as...
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Source: Student Doctor Network - March 28, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: manowar rules Tags: Pain Medicine Source Type: forums
Amazon telemedicine
Amazon Care is a big deal - here's why
With its promise of virtual care in all 50 states, this is the first time a big tech firm will be directly in the healthcare services business. Will it be another failed experiment, or the breakthrough we've been waiting for?
www.healthcareitnews.com
Amazon likely getting into primary care this summer. Would be interesting to see how it goes. Cornering the insured market leaving complex medicare and medicaid patients for the university and hospital owned practices like the trend of ortho taking their...
Source: Student Doctor Network - March 28, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: TheLoneWolf Tags: Anesthesiology Source Type: forums
Realistic income in a practice that accepts medicare/medicaid patients
Ive always wanted to serve lower income patients, and eventually i want to join/open a practice that accepts patients with medicare/medicaid. Unfortunately, i have not found a mentor in my community who accepts these patients, so i dont have a clear idea of how successful their practice is. Money is not the most important thing to me, i chose dentistry because i love it, but obviously i do have loans to pay off. So what can i expect to make in a practice that accepts state insurance? Is...
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Source: Student Doctor Network - March 19, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Jumpman26 Tags: Dental Residents and Practicing Dentists Source Type: forums
2021 PFS , Path PC cut 4%
CAP has an updated CMS fee schedule for 2021.
Medicare Physician Fee Schedule
Medicare's physician fee schedule information for pathologists that includes impact tables based on calendar year.
www.cap.org
Most common professional codes are cut 4% (Source: Student Doctor Network)
Source: Student Doctor Network - January 13, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: AZpath Tags: Pathology Source Type: forums
Is CMS looking for cost savings in the wrong place?
"Radiation oncology physician charges represent a small fraction of total Medicare expenses and are not a driver for Medicare spending" (Source: Student Doctor Network)
Source: Student Doctor Network - January 6, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Chartreuse Wombat Tags: Radiation Oncology Source Type: forums
Democratic Socialists 2021
Let's assume the Democrats win the Presidential election and retain the House of Rep. Let's also assume the Senate stay GOP 51-49.
Realistically, what can the Biden/?Klobuchar administration get passed through Congress? What will Biden propose in his first 100 days? 1 trillion infrastructure bill? Expand Medicare to start at age 60?
Unless the Democrats secure the Senate I don't see much progressive legislation getting passed. Maybe, a rollback of Trump tax cuts? Higher brackets...
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Source: Student Doctor Network - December 31, 2020 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: BLADEMDA Tags: Anesthesiology Source Type: forums
Queens pharmacy owners exploited pandemic to swindle $30 million in Medicare funds: feds
Peter Khaim, 40, and Arkadiy Khaimov, 37, who own 13 pharmacies in New York City and Long Island, took advantage of the relaxation of “refill-too-soon” pharmacy rules during the COVID crisis to order a cancer medication that sells for $34,000 a tube.
www.nydailynews.com (Source: Student Doctor Network)
Source: Student Doctor Network - December 26, 2020 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Chrish Tags: Pharmacy Source Type: forums
Is the demand for dermatologists keeping up with the insane residency growth rate?
I was looking through some match data and noticed that Dermatology is right up with EM as the most rapidly growing residency. The number of positions offered has increased from 297 to 538 in the past 12 years, an 81% percent increase. For reference, EM, which I see everyone on these forums complain about oversaturation, has increased 90%. Is there a threat of oversaturation in dermatology? Especially considering the pending bill to add 15000 more Medicare funded residency positions, some of...
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Source: Student Doctor Network - December 15, 2020 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Student189045 Tags: Dermatology Source Type: forums
2021 Medicare E & M rules
As many of you are aware, Medicare has shifted to reimbursing E&M codes based on the complexity of medical decision-making (MDM). An option is still given for "time spent" but it is much more challenging to document so most practices are transitioning to MDM.
Have any of you seen Radiation Oncology specific MDM templates from ASTRO or any other RO professional society? (Source: Student Doctor Network)
Source: Student Doctor Network - December 15, 2020 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Gfunk6 Tags: Radiation Oncology Source Type: forums
Medicare anesthesia conversion factor is scheduled to be reduced by nearly 10%
Can someone give me a synopsis as to how this could occur (I.e. why this would even be proposed)?
Did the surgeon general have any involvement in this?
I have to imagine that many republican anesthesiologists vote republican for financial reasons- curious how they feel about proposed fee structure under a republican administration?
I am not trying to trigger anyone- just truly a baffling proposal (Source: Student Doctor Network)
Source: Student Doctor Network - December 12, 2020 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: joshbc Tags: Anesthesiology Source Type: forums
More Medicare sadness
Finalized cuts for 2021
I will just leave this wonderful Christmas present from CMS here and go yell into a pillow somewhere. (Source: Student Doctor Network)
Source: Student Doctor Network - December 10, 2020 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Sanman Tags: Psychology [Psy.D. / Ph.D.] Source Type: forums
10% cut to reimbursements for many procedures
Final Policy, Payment, and Quality Provisions Changes to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for Calendar Year 2021 | CMS
Oh wow - this is gonna make some heads spin. Good luck folks
I’m guessing Ortho and other heavy procedure specialties get hit (Source: Student Doctor Network)
Source: Student Doctor Network - December 7, 2020 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: ER BlueBlood Tags: Emergency Medicine Source Type: forums
Why don't more psychiatrists accept Medicare?
I've been exploring the business end of things this year as I haven't had much exposure to it during residency. I feel like I'm missing something because I've been told by many attending psychiatrists that if you go into private practice, it's not feasible to accept Medicare. Also been told that it's impossible to have a therapy based practice if you take insurance.
However, when I look up the Medicare fee schedule, the lowest reimbursement for a 99213 + 90838 is relatively high. These are...
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Source: Student Doctor Network - November 18, 2020 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: reca Tags: Psychiatry Source Type: forums
Private Practice: Out of Network Provider
Hey,
I am starting a practice but after running some numbers it seems like you basically have to run an extremely high volume practice (bordering mill status) to have a profitable practice. I'd like to be a little more boutique and cutting edge. I was wondering how feasible would it be to only be out of network for PPOs and Medicare? I know some other docs in my area doing this and they all seem to be doing very well but i cant figure out if its because they have good reputations an...
Private Practice: Out of Network Provider (Source: Student Doctor Network)
Source: Student Doctor Network - November 8, 2020 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Nonphysiologic Tags: Pain Medicine Source Type: forums
