On Nov. 2, CMS issued the CY2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule, which includes updates to physician payment policies, the Quality Payment Program (QPP), and the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). The AOA has prepared a detailed summary to help physicians prepare for changes that will take effect in 2024, including: Discussion of overall payment changes … Read More
A 25-pound weight limit is currently set on containerized instrumentation sets by the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) and the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), in order to reduce strain on the staff and ensure that the sets are not too crowded in order to preserve sterilization and drying of the … Read More
I remember the first time I noticed it. It was like something huge had just happened and no one seemed to know, all before COVID had even hit. I was eating my lunch in a virtual department meeting, going through the cursory division reports. When we came to medical student rotations, the director noted, “We … Read More
The emergency department (ED) is a cacophony of sounds. We have ringing phones, overhead announcements, bleeping monitors, alarms, blaring televisions and people talking. Sometimes folks are yelling. We have babies crying and patients retching. Those of us who work in this chaotic setting learn to tune out the noise. Occasionally, we miss an alarm or … Read More
This issue of the Journal of Osteopathic Medicine (JOM) features abstracts from the posters that were presented at the 2023 Osteopathic Medical Conference and Exposition (OMED23), which took place virtually on Friday, October 6, 2023. This year’s abstracts were organized into Basic Science, Clinical, Health Services, and Public Health categories, indicated within each abstract immediately under the … Read More
The average medical resident is earning $67,400 annually, according to Medscape’s 2023 Resident Salary and Debt Report (login required), an increase of 5% from the $64,200 they earned in 2022. Although the pandemic resulted in a couple years of stagnant growth for resident pay, this trend appears to have changed this year, with residents generally receiving higher … Read More
As the representative body for the nation’s 186,000+ osteopathic physicians and medical students, the AOA works continuously to combat misinformation about osteopathic medicine in the media. AOA leadership recently learned of some misleading comments regarding the DO credentials that were made during the Monday, Nov. 27 episode of “The View.” While discussing a report on … Read More
In the December issue of Journal of Osteopathic Medicine (JOM), you’ll find a lineup of articles across various subspecialty areas and topics, including the impact of the USMLE Step 1 and COMLEX Level 1 transition to pass/fail on osteopathic medical student stress levels and board preparation, integrating OMT into prenatal care visits, the effectiveness of … Read More
The AOA recently sent a letter to Senators John Thune and Tom Carper applauding them for introducing the bipartisan Chronic Disease Flexible Coverage Act (S. 3224). This legislation will support care affordability for patients managing chronic conditions by allowing health savings account (HSA) eligible high deductible health plans (HDHPs) to cover low-cost preventive care and … Read More