July 2024
Final performance feedback and payment adjustments for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) are released in August 2024, for determining the 2025 payment adjustments. More information is on the Quality Payment Program (QPP) website https://qpp.cms.gov/.
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released a landmark advisory declaring firearm violence a public health crisis in the US. Gun-related suicides, homicides, and accidents have become the leading cause of death among children, adolescents and young adults. The gun-related homicide rate in the US is now about 10 times the average in other OECD (high-income) countries (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, https://dataunodc.un.org/). (The only other countries with higher gun-homicide rates are controlled by drug-trafficking corruption, mostly in the Caribbean and Central and South America, and countries enduring warfare.)
CAFP-sponsored AB 2250 (Weber) would require health plans and insurers to provide coverage for social determinants of health screenings and access to community health workers or social workers. It passed the Assembly and has been pending action by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The “Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care” Act would confirm CMS fixes to prior authorization in Medicare Advantage plans and support administrative simplification in other plans. AAFP has provided testimony on noncompete agreements and health care consolidation.
The Medical Board of California (MBC) has begun a process to establish regulations for a program to support physicians facing mental health challenges and burnout, to encourage them to seek mental and behavioral health treatment without stigma.
