Medicare Update Extended to May 31

After returning from its break on April 15, the Senate passed and President Obama signed into law an extension of the current physician payment rate until May 31 preventing, once again, implementation of a 29.2 percent cut in Medicare payments.  AAFP and CAFP will keep up the pressure to enact a permanent extension.  Also on the Medicare front, CAFP is working with AAFP to identify additional codes that should be included among those used frequently by primary care physicians to care for Medicare patients to help FPs qualify for the 10 percent bonus payment enacted in health care reform legislation.  Members of CAFP's Medical Practice Affairs Committee are weighing in on this issue. 

Promotions at CAFP

Jane Cho, who's been with CAFP for the past four years as Senior Project Coordinator, has been promoted to Manager, Medical Practice Affairs.  Jane will have continuing responsibility for our Capacity Building Collaborative (C-4), which concludes in November, and will take on new duties in the coding and billing, privileging, practice management and scope of practice.  Congratulations, Jane!

Cody Mitcheltree, who's been with CAFP for the past two years as Membership Assistant, will serve as Medical Student and Resident Coordinator, taking over the position formerly held by Dasha Sakharova, who has left the Academy.  Cody will work with the student and resident organizations on the Fall Conference and National Conference, student and resident activities at the CAFP Annual Scientific Assembly, the CAFP Foundation Preceptorship Program, and the Family Medicine Interest Groups, among other duties.  Congratulations, Cody!

New Hires at CAFP

CAFP has hired to new staff members:  Leah Newkirk, JD, will assume the position vacated by Sandy Newman, MPH - Director of Health Policy - on May 4.  Her responsibilities will include health information technology issues, including meaningful use, implementation of the patient centered medical home, the impact of healthcare reform on family medicine, policy issues related to payment for primary care and more, much more.  We have also hired Callie Langton, MPA to take on the new position of Manager, Healthcare Workforce Policy.  Callie also begins work on May 4.  Callie will be handling all things education - graduate medical education funding, workforce diversity, residency training programs, new workforce provisions in healthcare reform legislation, and more, much, much more....  Please welcome our new staff members when they arrive and wish them luck!

Trouble on the CPPI Front

The California Physician Performance Initiative (CPPI), on which we've reported previously, experienced a dust-up this week when the California Medical Association announced its intention to withdraw from the CPPI advisory body upon learning Blue Shield of California would publish on June 1 information on physicians which CMA believes is based on faulty data.  CAFP, too, weighed in with its concerns about the data used to create physician profiles in this project, sending an extensive list of areas with which we took issue last November.  The CAFP Board of Directors will be considering our further participation in CPPI when it meets on May 14.

PCMH Weekend Approaching

April 24-25 will be "all PCMH all the time" as CAFP staff meets with eleven family physicians from around the state to nail down where we should begin on PCMH implementation for California family physicians.  Consultant Nileen Verbeten will serve as facilitator for this meeting. Stay tuned.

Annual Scientific Assembly

We're hoping family physicians are "last minute" types because registration for our upcoming Annual Scientific Assembly could use some help.  This extremely reasonably-priced meeting is not only packed with excellent, high quality continuing medical education on key topics for family medicine, it's also a great opportunity to share ideas and problem solve with your peers in a wonderful setting - the Grand Hyatt San Francisco.  Complete a couple of SAMS, go out to a great dinner, share your successes, or commiserate with fellow family physicians at this annual event.