After helping state medical associations and national specialty societies defeat more than 100 bills to inappropriately expand nonphysicians’ scope of practice in 2023, the AMA is again relentlessly joining its allies in organized medicine to continue the fight for physician-led, team-based care in this year’s legislative session.

This intensive and effective advocacy effort has ranged across the country, as the AMA has helped battle scope creep in Alaska, Connecticut, Georgia, Oklahoma, New Hampshire and elsewhere.

My latest for the AMA. Read the whole shebang.

After a routine review of practice operations in mid-February, Omar Maniya, MD, opted to extend the line of credit for the 40-employee New Jersey primary care physician practice that he serves as CEO.

Little did he know the move would prove to be a just-in-time lifeline as within days the cyberattack-driven Change Healthcare cyber outage would have a devastating financial impact on physician practices across the country. At Dr. Maniya’s practice, called Maniya Health, “95% of our revenue vanished overnight,” forcing the practice to borrow nearly $200,000 to keep things going.

“We’ve never used our line of credit—ever—until this,” said Dr. Maniya, who trained as an emergency physician and provides urgent care three days a week for the practice in addition to his executive role. “Having that cushion is what allowed us to survive the storm without having to lay off or furlough employees.”

Maniya Health has had to reschedule iron-infusion appointments and reexamine its supply-ordering, and it is far from alone in feeling the effects of the cyber outage, as informal AMA survey findings (PDF) show. According to the survey, conducted March 26–April 3 with a convenience sample of 1,400 respondents, restricted claims-processing functionality since the cyberattack has resulted in:

• 36% of respondents reporting suspension in claim payment.
• 32% being unable to submit claims.
• 22% being unable to verify eligibility for benefits.

Practices of 10 physicians or fewer appear to be particularly hard hit. They represented 78% of all respondents.

The survey was conducted after UnitedHealth Group, which owns Change Healthcare, said that claims would be flowing by the weekend of March 23. Despite the company’s assurances, serious disruptions continue.

My latest. Read the whole shebang.