Eighty percent of primary care clinicians say they continue to limit well and chronic care visits at their practices for COVID-19-related reasons, according to a survey(www.pcpcc.org) conducted April 24-27 by the Primary Care Collaborative and The Larry A. Green Center. Many practices have shifted these “non-essential” visits to telehealth or telephone visits until they can safely resume […]

ACEs Aware hosted a webinar on April 29th – “Building Trauma-Informed Connections via Telehealth During COVID-19.” You can watch the webinar at ACEsAware.org. Pediatrician Dr. Dayna Long and family medicine physician Dr. Erika Roshanravan share the benefits of providing trauma-informed care via telehealth and practices that primary care and behavioral health providers can use to […]

In response to efforts by organized medicine, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that they will be increasing payments for audio-only telephone visits between Medicare beneficiaries and their physicians to match payments for similar office and outpatient visits. This would increase payments for these services from a range of about $14-$41 to […]

CAFP is calling on the Legislature and Governor to take immediate and long-term steps to bolster primary care practices and reform how we pay for primary care. In a letter to state leaders, CAFP detailed the financial threat faced by primary care practices throughout California and the need for private payers to emulate Medicare by […]

A key part of the work of Surgeon General Burke-Harris is the ACEs Aware initiative. Beginning January 1, 2020, DHCS will provide a $29/patient payment to Medi-Cal providers for screening their patients for ACEs. Eligible Medi-Cal providers who screen Medi-Cal patients for ACEs can receive payment as of January 1, 2020. Beginning on July 1, […]

The proponents of the initiative to weaken the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) have announced they will move their ballot initiative to the November 2022 ballot, rather than have a vote on it this year. It’s unfortunate that California’s frontline health care professionals had to even concern themselves with an initiative put forth by […]

Governor Newsom this week announced guidance for resumption of non-Covid medical services. In the guidance he outlined factors for consideration before resuming service including; availability of testing, availability of personal protective equipment, facility and office standards, care prioritization and scheduling that allow for social distancing, and workforce availability. The guidance emphasized that considerations for practices […]

On April 30, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released an interim final rule making additional policy changes in response to COVID-19. Among several changes, and reflecting AAFP advocacy, CMS is increasing reimbursement for the telephonic E/M visits (CPT codes 99441-99443) to the same rate as regular, in-office E/M visits (99212-99214). This would […]

Governor Newsom recently released guidelines for reopening some physician practices for non-Covid care. Read more: Resuming California’s Deferred and Preventive Health Care To learn more about best practices for physicians who are looking to reopen non-Covid services, join the California Medical Association (CMA) for a webinar on Thursday, April 30 at 12:15pm. CAFP member Dr. […]