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Helping Private Practices Navigate Non-Essential Care During COVID-19

The American Medical Association has released updated guidance for private practice physicians navigating the provision of care during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The resource emphasizes ways physicians and practices should protect their employees, patients, and visitors while also operating within the constraints of a national healthcare staffing crisis. The guide includes recommendations to review COVID-19 federal and state guidelines to ensure patient and staff safety and to assist in adjusting workflows to support both staff and patients. Read more here View guide [PDF]

Important News on the Provider Relief Fund

Due largely to AMA and specialty society advocacy, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has decided to reopen the reporting time for recipients of Period 1 Provider Relief Funds. In our March 31, letter to HRSA, the AMA and 31 national medical specialty societies noted small and rural practices appeared to be particularly impacted by the potential recoupment, and that physician practices were unaware of the deadline. Those physicians who received more than $10,000 in provider relief funds and failed to submit their period 1 report should act immediately. ...

COVID-19 Health Workers Suffer Combat-type Moral Trauma

A Duke University study shows that, amid COVID-19, US healthcare workers (HCWs) had similar rates of potential moral injury (PMI)—a type of trauma-induced wound to the psyche—as military combat veterans. The study, published yesterday in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, surveyed 2,099 HCWs in 2020 and 2021 and 618 military veterans deployed to a combat zone after the Sep 11, 2001, US terrorist attacks about PMIs they may have experienced. PMI is a distressing reaction to exposure to traumatic events that may have psychological, behavioral, social, and spiritual effects. Depression, lower quality of life Of ...

Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act

The Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act was officially signed into law on March 18, 2022 by the president. The law is named for Dr. Lorna Breen, a New York City based Emergency physician who died by suicide in April 2020 during the height of the COVID pandemic. The law seeks to identify and address the causes of burnout in physicians and health care professionals. The law will support a two-year timeline in which the Health and Human Services (HHS) will research best practices for improving the mental ...