About this newsletter
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The ACP Advocate is an e-newsletter, edited by the College's Washington, DC governmental affairs division, created to
provide you, our members, with succinct news about public policy issues
affecting internal medicine and patient care. To learn more about ACP's
Advocacy, go to www.acponline.org/advocacy
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Welcome
to The ACP Advocate.
President Obama was
inaugurated this week, and has already made mention of his intention to make
health care reform a priority. In his inaugural address he mentioned that
families needed to have access to care they can afford; and that we need to make
use of technology to provide higher quality care at lower
costs.
In this
issue of The ACP Advocate you’ll find
coverage of some of the movement his administration has already made toward
health care reform. This includes
the experiences of physicians who participated in health care
reform discussions
that were held across the country at the request of
Tom Daschle, President
Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services. You’ll also
find coverage of the health
subsidies in the proposed economic stimulus
package and the conscience
protection regulation put into effect under
the Bush administration at the end
of
2008.
You may
also want to note the
sidebar, directly to the right of this letter, mentioning
the new ICD-10 coding regulations that were released last week. After taking office this week,
President
Obama requested that government agencies review some
regulations that are
still in process (meaning regulations that have been published, but that they
have not yet taken effect). The new
ICD-10 ruling may fall under this request.
We’ll be tracking the situation and will update you as more information
becomes available.
Looking forward, ACP’s
annual State of the Nation’s Health Care briefing will be held in Washington on
February 2. In our next issue we’ll
tell
you about ACP’s recommendations for the year’s health care
agenda.
For more on health
care reform and
other health policy issues, check out my blog, The
ACP Advocate Blog by Bob
Doherty . I hope
you’ll join me
over the course of this year, as I discuss ACP’s efforts in
guiding
health care reform.
Please send your
feedback and
suggestions on this newsletter to: TheACPAdvocate@acponline.org.
Yours
truly,
Bob
Doherty
Senior Vice
President
Governmental Affairs and Public
Policy
American College of
Physicians |
In the news
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Health Leaders Identify Priorities for Reform |
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They emphasize
the need for primary care and community partnerships |
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HealthDay News -- President Barack Obama's
swearing-in this week marks what many in the medical community see as the
best hope in years of garnering federal support for needed health-care
reforms.
In small forums across the country last month,
physicians, patient advocates and other community health leaders responded to a call from Tom Daschle, President Obama's nominee for Health and Human ... » Click to read the full article
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Stimulus Package Includes Health Subsidies |
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Funding targets
information technology, preventive care and primary-care
training |
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HealthDay
News -- House Democrats, along with President Barack Obama's economic team, have called for investing tens of billions of dollars in health care as
part of a sweeping plan to reinvigorate the nation's economy.
An outline of the $825 billion economic stimulus plan, unveiled January 15, included $20 billion to jumpstart efforts to computerize patient
medical records. On the campaign ... » Click to read the full article
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Conscience Rule Could Have Broad Impact |
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Doctors are divided over Bush administration policy |
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HealthDay News -- Some of the nation's largest medical groups are
objecting to a final regulation issued by the Bush administration to
"clarify" the scope of existing federal "medical conscience" laws.
They say the Dec.18, 2008, ruling, which took effect January 20 of
this year, could affect a swath of healthcare services -- beyond abortion
-- and may stymie access to care and biomedical in...
» Click to read the full article
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In focus
CMS Issues Final ICD-10 Rule, However Delay is Still Possible
Last week CMS issued the final
rule for the ICD-10 code sets that will replace the ICD-9-CM code sets.
However, this week, President Obama issued a memorandum requesting that
agencies review certain regulations in process. This may apply to the
ICD-10 rule.
ACP is opposed to the implementation of the ICD-10 codes
sets, noting the burden that they would place on small primary care
practices. (read our letter here) Look for further guidance
from the College in the coming months. |
Free ACP E-prescribing Webinar January 28th at 7PM EST
Join ACP for a free webinar focused on
the new Medicare E-prescribing Incentive program. Learn about the rationale underlying the program, participation and reporting requirements, and the potential for financial reward for successful participation and reporting. In addition, listen to practical information from a practicing internal
medicine physician regarding the use of e-prescribing in an ambulatory
office setting.
Registration instructions and information about future
webinars can be found on ACP's Running a Practice website at the above
link. |
College CEO Named Chair of eHealth
Collaborative
On January 8th, John Tooker, MD,
MBA, executive vice president and chief executive officer of ACP, was
announced as the chair of the 2009 Board of Directors of the National
eHealth Collaborative.
The National eHealth Collaborative is a
public-private partnership that seeks to advance interoperable health
information technology, including electronic health records (EHRs). They
were formerly known as the American Health Information Community
(AHIC). |
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