A critical question in medicine will come before the U.S. Supreme Court this fall: How much power should physicians wield over their peers when the power to regulate also potentially could tamp down competition that benefits patients? The court has announced that on October 8, justices will...
Starting this week, nurse practitioners (NP) in Kentucky who have completed a four-year collaboration with a physician can prescribe routine medications without physician involvement, a major shift that could help improve consumers’ access to care, Kaiser Health News reports. Senate...
Missouri Gov. Ray Nixon has signed a bill that creates a new class of medical license in that state: the “assistant physician.” The new certificate will be issued to medical school graduates who didn’t get into a residency program and who passed Step 1 and 2 exams, but not Step 3. Assistant...
Since CMS finalized its 2-midnight rule in August 2013, the agency has seen unrelenting backlash from hospitals that argue the arbitrary rule complicates care for Medicare beneficiaries by establishing a 2-midnight benchmark for inpatient admissions....
The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down Wisconsin’s bid to begin enforcing a state law requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, while a legal fight over the law plays out in lower federal courts. A federal judge is weighing a challenge to the law from Parent...
The AMA House of Delegates last week approved a set of principles to ensure appropriate coverage of and payment for telemedicine services. The principles set out a number of conditions for coverage and payment, including abiding by state licensure laws and following evidence-based practice...