Urgent Survey: CMA needs your help to advocate for better Medicare payments Since 2001, inflation has increased by 40%, yet physician Medicare fee-for-service payments have only increased by 7% - and that was largely due to the federal COVID-19 pandemic funding. Nationally, today’s Medicare payments on average, lag 40% behind the cost of providing care. The California Medical Association (CMA) is hearing that physicians are struggling to maintain their practices, which is negatively impacting patient access to care. While hospital and nursing home payments are indexed to inflation (and as a result have increased by 60% since 2001), the broken physician payment ... July 27, 2022 AMA, CMA 0 0 Comment Read More »
988: The New Three Digit Dialing Code for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline The Lifeline and 988 988 has been designated as the new three-digit dialing code that will route callers to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. While some areas may be currently able to connect to the Lifeline by dialing 988, this dialing code will be available to everyone across the United States starting on July 16, 2022. When people call, text, or chat 988, they will be connected to trained counselors that are part of the existing National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network. These trained counselors will listen, understand how their problems are ... July 18, 2022 Mental Health, Public Health Lifeline, Suicide Prevention 0 0 Comment Read More »
SCCPHD HEALTH ADVISORY: Monkeypox Infections in Bay Area The County of Santa Clara Public Health Department (SCCPHD) has now identified one confirmed and one probable case of Monkeypox among Santa Clara County residents. As of June 29, there are 5,115 cases in 51 countries reported globally, 350 cases reported in the US, and 80 cases reported in California. While international travel is still a risk factor, epidemiologic investigation suggests that community transmission of the virus is occurring via social and sexual networks in Europe and the United States, including in the San Francisco Bay Area. Cases in the U.S. and in the Bay ... July 5, 2022 Public Health Monkeypox, SCC 0 0 Comment Read More »
Children’s Vision Problems Often Go Undetected, Despite Calls for Regular Screening By Collen DeGuzman from California Healthline Jessica Oberoi, 13, can’t exactly remember when her eyesight started getting blurry. All she knows is that she had to squint to see the whiteboard at school. It wasn’t until last fall when her eighth grade class in Bloomington, Indiana, got vision screenings that Jessica’s extreme nearsightedness and amblyopia, or lazy eye, were discovered. She’s been going through intense treatment since then, and her optometrist, Dr. Katie Connolly, said Jessica has made great improvements — but her lazy eye, which causes depth perception problems, may never go ... June 13, 2022 Patient Care Children's Health, Vision Care 0 0 Comment Read More »
Patients Seek Mental Health Care From Their Doctor But Find Health Plans Standing in the Way by Anrti Pattani of California Healthline When a longtime patient visited Dr. William Sawyer’s office after recovering from covid, the conversation quickly turned from the coronavirus to anxiety and ADHD. Sawyer — who has run a family medicine practice in the Cincinnati area for more than three decades — said he spent 30 minutes asking questions about the patient’s exercise and sleep habits, counseling him on breathing exercises, and writing a prescription for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder medication. At the end of the visit, Sawyer submitted a claim to the patient’s insurance using one code for ... June 9, 2022 Mental Health, Patient Care 0 0 Comment Read More »
