Speak out about the Medicare physician pay cut

Family physicians have just a few more days to voice concerns to legislators about the 5.1 percent Medicare pay cut. Congress is set to recess by the end of September to prepare for November’s midterm elections. If nothing is done before the recess or during the lame-duck session following the elections, the pay cut will take effect Jan. 1, 2007 and potentially cripple many primary care practices. Visit AAFP Speak Out and find out how to contact your federal legislators by phone, mail, fax or e-mail.

Rally for family medicine

White coats will blanket the U.S. Capitol’s West Lawn this week as thousands of family physicians, their families, office staff, patients, colleagues and friends gather in Washington, D.C. to voice family medicine’s concerns to Congress. On Sept. 27, from 10 to 11 a.m., the Vote for America’s Health Rally will draw attention to key health care issues. If you can’t catch the buses from the Washington Convention Center or claim one of the white coats provided on site, there is still a job for you. AAFP and TAFP encourage you to notify your U.S. senators and representatives, the media in your area and your patients using a template letter to the editor, guide to health issues document and family medicine fact sheet provided by your Academy. Use the rally announcement as a conversation starter to other concerns of the specialty.

Participate in the Worldwide Day of Play

The 2006 Worldwide Day of Play, set for Saturday, Sept. 30, may be all fun and games, but it also has a real purpose: to encourage healthy physical activity among children and raise awareness among parents and providers of the health risks of childhood obesity. The Nickelodeon television network will stop broadcasting for three hours to encourage children and their parents to go outside, get heart rates pumping and begin a lifestyle change toward a more active life.

All of these initiatives fit into Nickelodeon’s six-month Let’s Just Play Go Healthy Challenge. The focus of the challenge falls on four real kids and the challenges they face to live healthy lives. Along with profiles of the four participants, the Let’s Just Play Web site provides goals, tips and recipes for a healthy life.

A study published in the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity predicts that more than half of children living in North and South America will be overweight by 2010. In response to this study and many others on the dangers of childhood obesity, Nickelodeon has teamed up with the American Heart Association, the W.J. Clinton Foundation and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee to launch the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, which aims to curb the increase of childhood obesity by 2010. On their Web page, health care providers can find tools to education patients and their families on how to lead a healthy, active life.

Press releases, media announcements and other resources are available in the Let’s Just Play Partners Toolkit. More information can also be found on the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and the Let’s Just Play Web pages.

U.S. health care system fails quality test

After measuring more than 37 aspects of the U.S. health care system against either the best-performing nations in the world or the best medical practices in each category, a report by the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System gave the United States an overall score of 66 out of 100, a failing grade. Among the different categories judged were population longevity, quality, access and efficiency.

“We spend more on health care than any other country. But we allocate our resources inefficiently and wastefully, failing to provide universal access to care and failing to achieve value commensurate with the money spent,” the study reports.

The ideal high-performance health care system, the authors state, would “help everyone, to the extent possible, lead long, healthy, and productive lives” by achieving four goals: high quality, safe care; access to care for all people; efficient, high value care; and system capacity to improve. The authors specifically recommend each patient find a medical home “with a single primary care physician or group practice responsible and accountable for his or her care.”

To remedy the broken system, the commission suggests first identifying the sources of system failures. Current bad habits include addressing the need for change while maintaining the status quo, rewarding specialty care rather than primary care and a lack of investment in health information technology. Fixing the system would mean expanding health insurance coverage, implementing quality and safety improvements, emphasizing primary care and patient-centered care, investing in transparency, providing incentives for quality, expanding health information technology and encouraging collaboration between private and public sectors.

The Commonwealth Fund established the 18-member Commission on a High Performance Health System in 2005. Find the executive summary and the full report on the Commonwealth Fund’s Web site.

Price of newborn screening test will increase

The cost of the new newborn screening specimen kit, which allows for the testing of 27 disorders, will increase from $19.50 to $29.50 starting Nov. 1. The Department of State Health Services mailed a letter to providers last week announcing the increase. Within the letter is more information on other resources and CME opportunities. Additional questions can be e-mailed to DSHS.

Reminder: Medicare to hold payment of claims from Sept. 22 through Sept. 30

Don’t forget: CMS will not pay any Medicare claims during the last nine days of the fiscal year, Sept. 22 through Sept. 30, to save money in this year’s federal budget. Read AAFP’s News Now story for more information on what family physicians should do to ensure adequate cash flow.

Copyright 2006, Texas Academy of Family Physicians