Eyecare pharmaceutical company Harrow and anesthesia company Sintetica have developed an FDA-approved ocular surface anesthesia, Iheezo.

Without an extra incentive, provider groups won’t be able to change their practices, doctors and health policy experts said Thursday at a Capitol Hill briefing.

Here are eight key statistics on physician malpractice, pulled from Medical Economics’ “2022 Physician Report,” WalletHub’s “2022 Best & Worst States for Doctors” and Medscape’s “2021 Physician Malpractice Report.”

Here are seven anesthesia stories Becker’s has reported on since Sept. 1:

Moody’s Investors Service cut Envision Healthcare’s credit rating to C, the lowest notch on its scale, reflecting a high probability of bankruptcy or a major restructuring at the physician staffing firm and ambulatory surgery center operator, the rating agency said.

CommonSpirit Health on Friday said higher expenses, especially for labor, and revenue challenges including an unfavorable shift in payer mix and declining acuity contributed to an operating loss of $1.3 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30. Last year, operating income was $998 million.

Stay in the Know: Hospitals and health systems need to update their physician compensation plans after CMS’ recent changes to the Stark Law, according to an article in JDSupra from the law firm Foley and Lardner.

These arrangements should be “carefully reviewed” if the hospital seeks to meet the Stark Law employment or indirect compensation arrangement exceptions. Three things to note:

Stay in the Know: The Texas Medical Association is suing the HHS over the final rule implementing a federal surprise billing ban, alleging the mechanisms for arbitrating payments unfairly favor insurers.

Limited Medicare coverage poses barriers, but bipartisan legislation offers a solution.

Physician practices are preparing for an 8.42 percent drop in Medicare payment rates next year because of the proposed 4.42 percent reduction in the CMS conversion factor and the 4 percent statutory Pay-As-You-Go sequester, which was implemented to offset congressional spending outside of healthcare.

The American Society of Anesthesiologists and the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) recently updated their recommended guidance for perioperative screening for SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.

The most important change regarding protocols for patients involves testing: “If community transmission is low or moderate, the patient is asymptomatic and without exposure, is vaccinated, and is undergoing a lower-risk procedure, healthcare systems could consider a more permissive approach to testing.”

A physician looking to go into private practice has to think about several factors when settling on a location. Prominent among them are the area’s average pay, regulatory environment, amount of competition and individual insurance market.

Becker’s ASC Review has compiled data from the 2020 Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, state regulations on new practices and the Kaiser Family Foundation to create a ranking of all 50 states for private practice physicians.

This ranking exists nowhere else. 

Medscape’s 2022 “Employed Physicians Report” surveyed more than 1,350 physicians employed by healthcare organizations, hospitals, large group practices, clinics or other medical groups about their jobs. Here are 13 stats about employed physician salary:

A quick review of some of the more prominent features of the Act demonstrates why many providers and hospitals are concerned about serious consequences to the delicate contractual balance between insurers and healthcare providers.

Stay in the Know: About 63% of physicians surveyed experienced at least one manifestation of burnout in 2021, shooting up from 38% in 2020 and representing the highest amount in a decade of recurring survey findings, according to an article published this week in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Stay in the Know: St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, which has been caring for Cleveland’s sick since the Civil War era, announced Wednesday that in mid-November it will stop offering inpatient, surgical and emergency room care.

In possible violation of the No Surprises Act, health insurance company calculations of Qualified Payment Amounts (QPA) for anesthesiology, emergency medicine and radiology services (and possibly other specialty services) likely include rates from primary care provider (PCP) contracts. A new study conducted by Avalere Health and commissioned by three national physician organizations examined a subpopulation of PCPs and determined that contracting practices may directly impact the QPA.