Closing Gaps in Perspective of Value between Cancer Patients and their Health Care Providers

NCCN hosted an annual NCCN Patient Advocacy Summit: Delivering Value for Patients across the Oncology Ecosystem in Washington, DC, bringing together patients, advocates, clinicians, policy-makers, and others to share diverse perspectives on the meaning of value in cancer care.

American Association of Endodontists Underscores Recommendations on Endodontic Competency and Treatment Standards

Furthering its goal to advance the best patient care, the American Association of Endodontists (AAE) distilled its white papers on competency and treatment standards into executive summaries that provide key recommendations and directives to guide the insurance industry, state boards, and other communities of interest to support appropriate endodontic care.

Congressional leaders support radiation oncology community concerns about proposed Medicare alternative payment model

Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle issued a series of oversight letters to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in recent months to urge the Agency to adjust its proposed radiation oncology advanced alternative payment model (RO Model). CMS is expected to issue its final determination before the end of 2019.

Addition of College and Career Readiness Advisors Expected to Offset National Counselor-Student ratio of 455-to-1.

Educators from across the country left the CFES Brilliant Pathways National Conference invigorated by the announcement that newly trained College and Career Readiness Advisors will play a major role in helping increase postsecondary success and help offsett a national counselor-student ratio of 455-to-1.

U.S. House of Representatives Supports the Health of Our Nation by Passing Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) commends the U.S. House of Representatives for unanimously passing H.R. 728, the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act of 2019. This overwhelming support represents an important step towards reauthorizing vital programs that bolster nursing education, prepare the next generation of nurses, and support communities across the country.

STATEMENT OF AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NEPHROLOGY PRESIDENT MARK E. ROSENBERG, MD, FASN, ON THE KIDNEY CARE CHOICES MODEL ASN welcomes “visionary approach for the future of kidney care.”

American Society of Nephrology President Mark E. Rosenberg, MD, FASN, has issued the following statement regarding the new Kidney Care Choices Model:

“The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) welcomes the introduction of the voluntary Kidney Care Choices (KCC) Model, and its four kidney care payment options, addressing key aspects of the Executive Order on Advancing American Kidney Health (AAKH). This voluntary model will be a true game changer and brings desperately needed, sweeping changes to care for people with kidney diseases. ASN has long advocated for key elements of this model, and I thank HHS Secretary Azar and his entire team for putting forward such a visionary approach for the future of kidney care.

The Answer to Rural Woes Is Far More than Broadband

In recent weeks, presidential candidates pledged billions of dollars to bring broadband and internet access to rural America. That’s a good start, but the issue that the candidates need to address goes far beyond technology. It’s troubling that no candidate has begun to identify a strategy to concentrate on a more sweeping problem: More and more young people in our nation’s rural communities look at their hometowns and realize those places simply can’t support their dreams.

STATEMENT OF APA PRESIDENT MARKING WORLD POVERTY DAY

Following is the statement of Rosie Phillips Davis, PhD, president of the American Psychological Association, marking World Poverty Day:
“World Poverty Day represents an opportunity for us to examine our biases, move beyond our individual selves and identify the systemic, underlying mechanisms driving income insecurity. Psychological science can help address the structural barriers and cognitive processes that perpetuate poverty and generate solutions.”

NATIONAL ATHLETIC TRAINERS’ ASSOCIATION RELEASES OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF RECOMMENDATIONS TO REDUCE THE RISK OF INJURY RELATED TO SPORT SPECIALIZATION FOR ADOLESCENT AND YOUNG ATHLETES

I n anticipation of National Youth Sports Specialization Awareness Week (third full week in October) the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) released an official statement with health-focused recommendations to reduce the risk of injury due to youth sports specialization.

New STD Data Represent Urgent Call for Action

The continued steep increase in incidence of sexually transmitted diseases reported in the 2018 data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tuesday, is a cause for deep concern about dangerous gaps in our public health infrastructure.

American Society of Anesthesiologists Offers Trump Administration Medical Expertise to Protect and Improve Medicare

ASA today offered it medical expertise to the Trump Administration as it works to improve Medicare beneficiaries’ access to physician care, implement transparency and market-based reforms, while reducing cost and regulatory burdens as provided in President Trump’s Executive Order.

Briefing: Point-of-Care Testing—Bringing the Lab to the Patient

Point-of-care testing is transforming healthcare: this type of testing helps patients get diagnosed and treated faster, and also makes it easier for patients in remote areas to have access to medical testing. Join AACC and leading experts in laboratory medicine for a discussion about what lies ahead for point-of-care testing and what needs to happen so that all patients can benefit from quality testing of this kind.

Senate Subcommittees Takes Important Step Toward Ending HIV While Resources to Address Concurrent Epidemics, Housing Remain Critical, but Unaddressed

The Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Related Programs Appropriations subcommittee’s allocations of funding for the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative in its proposed budget for 2020 represent a significant step toward an ambitious, critical, and achievable goal; however, lack of new resources to confront increasing rates of hepatitis C and sexually transmitted diseases with insufficient support for addressing opioid-related infectious diseases, falls far short of the response to these concurrent epidemics that is needed.

ASTRO comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regarding their proposed radiation oncology alternative payment model

In response to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) request for comment on their proposed advanced alternative payment model (APM) for radiation oncology, the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) submitted comments and issued the following statement today from Paul Harari, MD, FASTRO, Chair of the ASTRO Board of Directors.

ATS Responds to FDA’s Promise of Future Action on Flavored E-Cigarettes 

The ATS congratulates the FDA important, but belated action, to remove flavored e-cigarette products from the U.S. market. Since e-cigarette products first emerged in the U.S., the American Thoracic Society has consistently called on FDA to aggressively regulate e-cigarettes and has repeatedly urged the FDA to ban flavored e-cigarette from the U.S. market.

370 Healthcare Groups Send Letter to Congress Urging Prior Authorization Reform in Medicare Advantage

The American College of Rheumatology (ACR), along with 369 other leading patient, physician, and healthcare professional organizations, sent a letter to Congress urging passage of the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act of 2019 (H.R. 3107), a bipartisan bill to protect Medicare Advantage beneficiaries from prior authorization requirements that needlessly delay or deny access to medically necessary care.

HIV, Infectious Diseases Provider Organizations Call for In-patient Antiretroviral Stewardship

the Infectious Diseases Society of America, its HIV Medicine Association and the American Academy of HIV Medicine call for the establishment of antiretroviral treatment stewardship programs in hospital settings to support appropriate use of the drugs, to avoid the use of medicines that are incompatible with patients’ regimens, and to avert the development of treatment-resistant HIV.

Opinion: Why I celebrate National Wildlife Day

I have been blessed these last three decades to pursue a career as a wildlife scientist at a land-grant university, working daily at the nexus of my vocation and advocation. So, celebrating National Wildlife Day comes naturally. However, in our increasingly urban society, many people may not understand my affinity for wildlife or even why we would celebrate a national day for wildlife.

CNS Publishes Guidelines for Pediatric Myelomeningocele

The Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) has developed an evidence-based guideline for the treatment of patients with myelomeningocele. Executive summaries of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Systematic Review and Evidence-Based Guidelines for Pediatric Myelomeningocele were published today in Neurosurgery. Full text of the guidelines can also be found on cns.org.

Increased CMS Reimbursements for New Antibiotics Represents Progress in Attention to AMR

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Inpatient Prospective Payment System rule for the coming fiscal year will raise reimbursements for novel antibiotics, a meaningful step in confronting the threat of infections resistant to older medicines. At the same time, the rule does not require or support antibiotic stewardship in healthcare settings, also an essential measure to protect the effectiveness of existing infection-fighting medicines.