Practice Management News

Drug companies that make prescription pharmaceuticals covered by Medicare or Medicaid must begin including the list price — also known as the Wholesale Acquisition Cost — in their television ads if that price is $35 or more for a month’s supply or the usual course of therapy under a final rule that HHS Secretary Alex Azar announced today.

The burden of cystic fibrosis-associated liver disease in the United Kingdom increased from 2008 to 2013, with new estimates showing a rising prevalence and higher mortality than patients with cystic fibrosis and no liver disease.

The Trump administration recently unveiled its latest strategy on confronting the nation’s opioid crisis, the HEALing Communities Study, in which more than $350 million is available as grants to hospitals or universities in Kentucky, Ohio, New York and Massachusetts — some of the states hit hardest by the opioid crisis. The funding will support community partnerships that lower the incidence of opioid use disorder, increase the number of individuals receiving medication-assisted treatment for the condition, increase treatment retention for longer than 6 months, provide recovery support services and expand the distribution of naloxone, the release said. The administration’s goal is to reduce overdose by 40% over 3 years in the communities selected.

Employed physicians in the United States outnumber self-employed physicians for the first time, the AMA wrote in a press release.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — For many clinicians, apps have become a convenient way to access information that can assist in caring for their patients, a presenter said here at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Annual Clinical and Scientific Meeting.

PHILADELPHIA – A physician should not feel that he or she has to expedite efforts to ferret out their entire patient panel’s social determinants of health in a short amount of time, according to a presenter at the American College of Physicians Internal Medicine Meeting.

LOS ANGELES — Social media is a powerful tool that connects physicians with patients and other providers and offers a space for important conversations about health care reform and education. But even those who want nothing to do with social media cannot ignore it completely, Kevin Pho, MD, founder of the blog KevinMD.com, said at the AACE Annual Scientific and Clinical Congress.

PHILADELPHIA – Physicians need to find time work through the feeling of loneliness they may have for their, and their patients’ sakes, a speaker at American College of Physicians Internal Medicine Meeting said.

The CDC Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain are not consistently followed, putting patient health and safety at risk, according to a perspective recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

PHILADELPHIA — The prevention or treatment of some medical conditions, such as cancer-related fatigue, heart disease, infertility and osteoporosis may be complemented with herbs and supplements, according to a speaker at the American College of Physicians Internal Medicine Meeting.