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Redesign your practice. Reignite your purpose.

Redesign your practice. Reignite your purpose. AMA STEPS Forward® offers a collection of engaging and interactive educational toolkits that are practical, actionable “how-to” guides to transform and improve your practice. EHR-related burnout can overwhelm even the most organized physician. It doesn’t have to be this way. Reduce EHR burden by assessing and prioritizing how to respond more effectively by analyzing the volume and type of inbox messages. An EHR Inbox Reduction Checklist can support your efforts as you embark on this endeavor to eliminate unnecessary burdens and improve workflows in the EHR ...

Big Provisions in $1.7 Trillion Omnibus: What Doctors Should Know

In enacting the 4,000-plus page, end-of-the-year spending package, Washington politicians failed to stop the entirety of scheduled Medicare pay cuts, which will come at a financially precarious time for physician practices left reeling in the COVID-19 pandemic’s third year. Because of that, physicians will face a 2% cut in Medicare payment in 2023, and 2024 will bring at least a 1.25% cut. Nevertheless, the $1.7 trillion bill signed by President Joe Biden does include a number of important AMA-supported provisions that physicians should know about. Among other things, the omnibus bill ...

Physician Burnout Rate Spikes to New Height

New physician burnout research builds on landmark studies conducted at regular intervals between 2011 and 2021 by researchers from the American Medica Association (AMA, Mayo Clinic and Stanford Medicine. Together, these studies found the overall prevalence of burnout among U.S. physicians was 62.8% in 2021compared with 38.2% in 2020, 43.9% in 2017, 54.4% in 2014, and 45.5% in 2011. CHICAGO - The burnout rate among physicians in the United States spiked dramatically during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a newly published study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Researchers found that ...

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 ...

AMA Resources Focus on Behavioral Health Integration and Physician Mental Health

In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, the American Medical Association (AMA) has released resources to help physicians integrate behavioral health into their practices as well as prioritize their own mental well-being.   The two newly developed guides focus on behavioral health integration in private practices, one for practices serving adult patients and the other for children and adolescent populations. The guides outline key guiding questions relevant to independent practices caring for adult and youth patients who are considering behavioral health integration.   The newly revised “Managing Mental Health During COVID-19” ...