Month: July 2008

Physicians who plan to use a clinical data registry to submit data for CMS’ 2008 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, or PQRI, need to act quickly to ensure that their registry meets CMS criteria and is deemed a qualified and established registry.

Effective July 1, RxHub and SureScripts, the nation’s two largest electronic prescribing, or e-prescribing, networks, consolidated their operations to become SureScripts-RxHub. The merger forms a “single, secure nationwide network” for e-prescriptions and bodes well for family physicians.

Google Inc., familiar to millions of people around the globe as an Internet search vehicle, recently launched a Web-based health information service called Google Health that allows consumers to create online health accounts they can use to collect and store their personal health information.

A recently released study examining physicians’ use of electronic health records, or EHRs, in the United States concluded that just 4 percent of physicians have an extensive, fully functional EHR at their fingertips. Another 13 percent of physicians reported that they were using a basic EHR.

CMS has issued a call to all physicians anxious to review their 2007 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, or PQRI, quality measures data: Register now with CMS’ security system so that access to the reports will be quick and easy when they become available in mid-July.

Family physicians treating seniors for mental health disorders, such as depression, recently got a pay raise from the federal government.

A medical home pilot project under way in New York state is the first such pilot in the country to link primary care practice reform with fundamental changes in physician payment methodology. Data gathered from the project could “ultimately — hopefully — save primary care,” according to Brian Morrissey, VP of strategy and development for […]

Barring congressional action, phase one of a competitive bidding program for Medicare durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies, or DMEPOS, is set for implementation on July 1 in 10 areas of the country.

Proponents of electronic prescribing were encouraged recently when the DEA proposed regulations that would allow e-prescribing of controlled substances. If adopted, the new regulations would give physicians and other prescribers the option of adding Schedule II drugs to the other medications they routinely prescribe electronically.

HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt hosted a media conference call July 21 to provide details on the federal government’s latest effort to encourage physician adoption of electronic prescribing. AAFP President Jim King, M.D., of Selmer, Tenn., and CMS Acting Administrator Kerry Weems joined Leavitt on the call.