AMA Statement on Two-Month Delay of Medicare Physician Payment Cut
Resource:
American Medical Association News Release
Dec. 22, 2011
Statement attributable to:
Peter W.
Carmel, MD
President, American Medical Association
“With this brief reprieve from the massive 27 percent cut to Medicare payments,
Congress now has to enact a real and fiscally responsible solution to this sorry
cycle of scheduled cuts and short-term patches that compromises access to care
for patients and drives up costs for taxpayers. Members of Congress need to use
this time to work in a bipartisan manner to provide long-term stability for
seniors, military families and the physicians who care for them.”
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Contact:
Brenda Craine
Director, AMA Media Relations
(202) 789-7447
brenda.craine@ama-assn.org
Reference:
American Medical Association. (December 22, 2011) AMA statement on two-month
delay of medicare physician payment cut. Retrieved
January 2, 2012 from
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/news/news/2011-12-22-medicare-physician-payment-cut-delay.page
New AMA Studies Show Cost Burden of the Medical Liability System
Resource:
American Medical Association News Release
Dec. 21, 2011
CHICAGO -- The American Medical Association (AMA) today released two new trend
reports in its Policy Research Perspective series illustrating the price
Americans pay for the nation’s broken medical liability system.
“Information in the new studies paints a bleak picture of the cost burden caused
by excess litigation against physicians and bolsters the case for national and
state level medical liability reforms,” said AMA President Peter W. Carmel, M.D.
“We all pay the price for our broken medical liability system and the direct
effect it has on the cost of medical care.”
The first report analyzes indemnity and expense payments, claim disposition and
policy limits based on a sample of medical liability claims that closed between
2001 and 2010 aggregated by the Physician Insurers Association of America. The
report’s key findings include:
- The average expense of defending a physician against a medical
liability claim in 2010 was $47,158 - an increase of 62.7 percent since 2001.
- In 2010, 63.7 percent of all closed claims against physicians were
dropped, withdrawn or dismissed without any payment. Each of these claims costs
an average of $26,851 to defend, accounting for more than one-third of the total
annual defense expenses.
- The average medical liability indemnity payment to a claimant in
2010 was $331,947 - an increase of 11.5 percent since 2001.
- The share of medical liability insurance policies carried by
physicians with limits exceeding $1 million have increased from 28 percent to 41
percent since 2001.
The second trend report analyzes medical liability insurance premiums from
2004-2011 gathered from the Annual Rate Survey Issues of the Medical Liability
Monitor. Highlights in the report include:
- Physicians continue to face high costs of insuring themselves
against medical liability claims. Premiums in many states remain higher than
they were during the height of the last medical liability crisis.
- In some areas of New York, premiums for obstetricians/gynecologists
reached $206,913 in 2011 - an increase of 41 percent since 2004, while premiums
for general surgeons reached $128,542 - an increased by 64 percent since 2004.
- About 5 percent of premiums increased by 10 percent or more. This
is the largest proportion of upward premium changes since 2007 when 8 percent of
premiums increased by 10 percent or more.
The latest reports in the
Policy Research Perspective series are available online to AMA members.
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Editor’s Note: Credentialed members of the media can obtain a copy of the AMA’s
newest additions to the Policy Research Perspective series by contacting AMA
Media Relations.
Contact:
Robert J. Mills
American Medical Association
(312) 464-5970
Reference:
American Medical Association, (December 21, 2011). New AMA studies show cost
burden of the medical liability system. Retrieved January 2, 2012 from
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/news/news/2011-12-21-policy-research-perspective-studies.page
AHIMA Applauds HHS for Encouraging Hospitals to Use Health Information
Technology
ICD-10 and Meaningful Use are Essential for Quality Health Care
News Release
CHICAGO – December 5, 2011—The American Health Information Management
Association (AHIMA) applauds U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services‘
(CMS) intent to make it easier for physicians to adopt health information
technology.
Currently, healthcare providers who participated in the Medicare electronic
health record incentive program in 2011 will have to meet ICD-10 standards by
2013. However, under the new rule, healthcare providers who did not participate
in the program until 2012 will have an extension until 2014 to comply with the
new ICD-10 standards.
―It is essential for healthcare providers to move toward ICD-10, so it aligns
with the meaningful use incentive program as well as value-based reimbursement,‖
said AHIMA‗s CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon, RHIA, FACHE. ―We support the HHS in their
decision to provide an extension so all healthcare providers can make the
transition to ICD-10. Not only will this save the hospital money in the long
run, but patients will get better, more accurate care.
“To fully achieve meaningful use of electronic health records, the
healthcare industry must utilize a more modern, clinically rich classification
system,‖ said AHIMA Director of Coding Policy and Compliance Sue Bowman, RHIA,
CCS. ―The transition to the ICD-10 classification systems will provide greater
specificity and clinical detail that will improve the quality of healthcare
data.‖ Allison Viola, MBA, RHIA, AHIMA‘s director of federal relations also
noted that ICD-10-CM and some terminologies are expected to be part of
Meaningful Use – Stage 2 and the delay will allow vendors to ensure good mapping
with the Stage 2 electronic health record requirements.”
AHIMA has tools available to provide healthcare professionals with essential
training that will help ease the learning curve on ICD-10. Visit
ahima.org/ICD10
About AHIMA
Representing more than 63,000 specially educated Health Information Management
professionals in the United States and around the world, the American Health
Information Management Association is committed to promoting and advocating for
high quality research, best practices and effective standards in health
information and to actively contributing to the development and advancement of
health information professionals worldwide. AHIMA‘s enduring goal is quality
healthcare through quality information.
www.ahima.org
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Reference:
AHIMA – Quality Healthcare Through Quality Information. (December 2011)
Retrieved December 20, 2011 from
http://www.ahima.org/downloads/pdfs/pr/press-releases/ApplaudHHS.pdf
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