Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed a bill that would have granted advanced practice registered nurses the legal ability to practice independently. The governor’s action was supported by the AMA and the Wisconsin Medical Society.

Senate Bill 394 would have removed physician supervision or collaboration requirements for nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists and clinical nurse specialists after 3,840 clinical care hours in their respective APRN role with a physician or dentist. For nurse midwives, another type of APRN, the legislation would have removed the collaboration requirement altogether.

My latest for the AMA. The whole shebang.

In a positive sign in the long-term project of overhauling the Medicare physician payment system to make it more sustainable for doctors and the nation, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said he is “definitely interested” in examining the feasibility of such reform.

“I’m definitely interested, because I remember those ‘cliffs’ when I was in Congress,” Becerra said in a briefing with a group of health reporters, as quoted in MedPage Today, in reference to his days as a congressman and the annual ritual of voting to avert mandated Medicare physician pay cuts.

“We always had to deal with those, and you’d never want professionals … thinking that there’s another profession for them down the line because they’re just not making ends meet where they are,” Becerra said. “So we’d like to be supportive.”

My latest for the AMA. The whole shebang.

The AMA has assembled a toolkit to help physicians navigate the new independent-dispute resolution process under the No Surprises Act.

The new federal law, which took effect in January of this year, bars surprise billing for emergency care and some nonemergency care at in-network facilities. The law and implementing regulations have established a process to determine payment for physicians, health care organizations and others that includes the IDR process.

My latest for the AMA. The whole shebang.

Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, MD, PhD, MAS, still recalls the excitement she felt early in her career upon learning that her study had been accepted for publication in JAMA.

For the prospective cohort study about NT-proBNP testing and cardiovascular disease events, she remembers “the editor in charge of the paper at the time demanding quite a number of additional analyses and revisions, many more than the reviewers had actually asked for and—finally—saying to us, ‘It’s really important we get things right. Because when JAMA publishes something, it affects clinical practice.’”

Now Dr. Bibbins-Domingo, who has had dozens of articles published in JAMA Network journals and well over 300 altogether, will feel that special obligation on the other side of the desk in medical journalism. Starting July 1, the general internist, cardiovascular disease epidemiologist and national leader in the fields of disease prevention and health equity will become the editor-in-chief of JAMA and JAMA Network.

With each succeeding JAMA Network publication, Dr. Bibbins-Domingo has “seen firsthand how practice or policy has shifted as a result, not just because of the scientific finding, but because of its publication under the trusted name that JAMA represents,” she said during a news briefing this week. “It’s truly very special and I’m thrilled to now be part of it.”

My latest for the AMA. The whole shebang.

The vast majority of doctors—85%—are still using telehealth to deliver patient care and most, 70%, said their organization is motivated to continue using this form of virtual care in their practice, according to an AMA survey of more than 2,300 physicians.

My latest for the AMA. The whole shebang.