VICTORY: Medicare bill becomes law!

H.R. 6331 includes SGR fix, Teaching Rule reform In a historic triumph for ASA, a law has been enacted that will reverse Medicare payment cuts for 2008, provide a 1.1% positive update for 2009, and permanently restore full Medicare payment to anesthesiology teaching programs beginning in 2010! Earlier today President Bush vetoed H.R. 6331.  This […]

What Every Physician Should Know About the RUC

Introduction To paraphrase Winston Churchill, never have so many physicians and other health care professionals owed so much to so few. The "few" in this case are the 29 members of the American Medical Association/Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee, or RUC (rhymes with "truck") for short. The RUC's recommendations to the Centers for […]

National Acupuncture Organizations Reunite

After three days of negotiations in Dallas, the AAOM and the AOM Alliance have entered into an historic agreement to reunite and form a new organization, the American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (AAAOM). By taking the name of the organization that split 14 years ago, the directors of the new organization hope to […]