Cross-Post: Physician Pay Cuts Are Another Threat to Independent Practices
From time to time on Neurosurgery Blog, you will see us cross-posting or linking to items from other places when we believe they hit the mark on an issue. Today’s post originally appeared in The Hill on Nov. 13, 2021. In the op-ed titled “Physician pay cuts are another threat to independent practices,” Richard Menger, MD, MPA, […]
Cross Post – Bipartisan Payment System Improvements Mean More Physician Participation and Better Patient Care
Since we are smack dab in the middle of our focus-month on physician regulatory relief, we wanted to highlight an opinion piece published by The Hill featuring the Alliance of Specialty Medicine and neurosurgery’s own Alex B. Valadka, MD, FAANS, FACS, president of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. The article, “Bipartisan payment system improvements […]
Efforts to Repeal the SGR Continue
Over the past few months there has been a lot of activity on the SGR front, and the AANS and CNS have been at the forefront of discussions on the best way to fix Medicare’s flawed sustainable growth rate (SGR) payment formula. Neurosurgery is urging Congress to incorporate the following elements in any SGR replacement […]
Alliance of Specialty Medicine Hosts Successful Capitol Hill Advocacy Conference
Guest Post from Alliance’s spokesperson Alex Valadka, MD Chief Executive Officer of the Seton Brain and Spine Institute Austin, Texas Earlier this month, I attended the Alliance of Specialty Medicine annual Capitol Hill Advocacy Conference. More than 100 participants from 13 medical societies – including the AANS and CNS – attended the three-day event in […]
Efforts to Fix the SGR Continue
Year after year, because of Medicare’s flawed sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, physicians face significant cuts in Medicare reimbursement. And time and time again, Congress intervenes with a short term “fix” to prevent these steep cuts. With luck (and a favorable cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office), perhaps the time has finally come — […]
Medicare Must Preserve Patient Access to the Physician of their Choice
We all know that Medicare is very important to seniors, and we know that seniors are worried about its future and financial security. Seniors have paid into the system for many years and they certainly deserve to get what they were promised – a Medicare benefit that allows them access to the physician of their […]
Going Over the Fiscal Cliff will Hurt Patients
Today, Roll Call Newspaper (Capitol Hill’s paper of record) published a Guest Opinion piece featuring the Alliance of Specialty Medicine and our own Alex Valadka, the Alliance’s spokesperson and chair of the AANS/CNS Washington Committee. The article, “Doctors: We Gave at the Office, and Then Some” addresses the idea that preventing the pending SGR cuts […]
Specialty Medicine Responses to New York Time IPAB Editorial
Now that everyone is back to the grind and by now over their turkey-induced comas, we wanted to highlight that last week, Alex Valadka, MD, FAANS, FACS, a neurosurgeon from Austin, Texas, and spokesperson for the Alliance of Specialty Medicine, penned a letter to the New York Times on behalf of the Alliance in response […]
Specialty Physicians Raise Concerns Over Value Based Payment Modifier
Last week, The Alliance of Specialty Medicine (a coalition of 13 physician specialty societies) issued a statement on provisions specific to the Value-Based Payment Modifier (VBPM) as described in the recently released Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 2013 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule. While the Alliance recognized that implementation of the VBPM is […]