APMA News Brief

The Health Resources and Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, is announcing a decrease in user fees charged to individuals and entities authorized to request information from the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB).

Visit https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/07/20/2016-17117/national-practitioner-data-bank-change-in-user-fees to view the full article online.

Visit http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/news/mips-explained-4-categories-physicians-must-master to view the full article online.

Visit http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/onc-struggles-to-find-way-to-balance-hipaa-protection to view the full article online.

Your feet can say a lot about your health. So when your feet send one of these 15 warning messages, pay attention, according to Caring.com. 

Visit http://www.krcrtv.com/news/national/15-things-your-feet-say-about-your-health/41705141 to view the full article online.

Seeing your little one go from trying on mommy’s heels while playing dress-up to becoming a teenager who wants to rock her own pair of high heels isn’t an easy transition for most parents — and celebrity dads and moms are no different. 

Visit https://www.yahoo.com/style/girls-allowed-wear-heels-000000275.html to view the full article online.

It started as an annoying pain with each step Leon Traeger made. 

Visit http://www.sctimes.com/story/money/2016/07/29/epat-helps-heel-spur-patients-avoid-knife/87455852/ to view the full article online.

There are few things that can ruin your day like a pair of shoes that are painful to walk in. 

Visit http://www.cheatsheet.com/gear-style/painful-shoes-types-seriously-hurt-feet.html/?a=viewall to view the full article online.

When guys free their feet from the shackles of socks and actual shoes, the results are rarely good. 

Visit http://www.gq.com/story/foot-nails-grooming-how-to-fix-jacked-up-feet to view the full article online.

As healthcare reform moves from the planning stages to implementation, Robert Kocher, M.D., former special assistant to President Obama for healthcare and economic policy, sees an opening for the government to better support small, independent practices, per an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. 

Visit http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/practices/former-policymaker-tells-government-not-to-crowd-out-small-practices to view the full article online.

Mergers, acquisitions and other types of partnerships remain critical as hospitals face extraordinary pressure to reduce costs, manage care more effectively and improve patient engagement and experience. 

Visit http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-physician-relationships/6-pros-and-cons-of-joining-a-national-physician-practice.html to view the full article online.

The pace of change in the United States’ health care system is accelerating. Building on work by private and public payers, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) officials are pursuing a transformation of how our health care system pays for care, spurred on by the passage of last year’s bipartisan sustainable growth rate (SGR) reform legislation and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell’s own payment reform goals. 

Visit http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2016/08/02/three-steps-congress-can-take-to-accelerate-medicares-delivery-transformation/ to view the full article online.

Have you ever heard someone in your office say, "I think Medicare may not have paid these claims correctly?" 

Visit http://www.healio.com/infectious-disease/practice-management/news/online/%7Be84692fe-e0af-46aa-9b7b-410027fd3f7b%7D/physician-responsibilities-for-suspected-medicare-overpayments to view the full article online.

Recent analysis by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. reveals that many insurers are losing money in ACA individual markets, with aggregate year over year losses more than doubling, and with post-tax margins between –9% and –12%.  

Visit http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/news/what-insurers-leaving-obamacare-exchange-means-physicians to view the full article online.

Physicians reported low satisfaction with their electronic health records and computerized physician order entry, according to findings published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Visit http://www.healio.com/internal-medicine/practice-management/news/online/%7B68d77c31-ad76-4835-ad50-dc978e0064d2%7D/use-of-ehrs-cpoe-associated-with-physician-burnout-dissatisfaction to view the full article online.