New study @jama.com on Medicare's G2211 billing code. TLDR: The code was meant to support the longitudinal care typically provided by primary care physicians and in many cases by specialists. Actual use in the first year (2024) was a bit more complicated... jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Billing of Medicare’s G2211 Longitudinal Care Code Among Traditional Medicare Beneficiaries

This study examines patterns of Medicare’s G2211 billing code to understand its uptake and how often these payments went to primary care.

jamanetwork.com

📖 Our new study in @jamainternalmed.com examines the primary care workforce serving fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries using a pragmatic, patient-centered measure: clinicians available for new patient visits per beneficiary. 👉Article: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... (1/5)

Primary Care Clinicians Available for New Patient Visits

This cross-sectional study examines changes in the numbers of primary care physicians and primary care advanced practice practitioners available for new patient primary care visits.

jamanetwork.com

How you spend your days matters. Knowing the time impact from the treatments pursued (or not) can help patients and their families to be prepared for making informed decisions about cancer care. What an honor to be part of this work.

@ishaniganguli.bsky.social · 8mo ago

For older adults with metastatic cancer, each day spent on health care can take away from days that are often devastatingly limited. Our latest study led by Arjun Gupta and Shelley Jazowski with @dusetzinas.bsky.social and Avi Gupta is out now in @jamanetworkopen.com jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

I didn’t really get how much “health care contact days” is a meaningful patient outcome until I got sick thank you @ishaniganguli.bsky.social @dusetzinas.bsky.social @jamanetworkopen.com

@ishaniganguli.bsky.social · 8mo ago

For older adults with metastatic cancer, each day spent on health care can take away from days that are often devastatingly limited. Our latest study led by Arjun Gupta and Shelley Jazowski with @dusetzinas.bsky.social and Avi Gupta is out now in @jamanetworkopen.com jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

For older adults with metastatic cancer, each day spent on health care can take away from days that are often devastatingly limited. Our latest study led by Arjun Gupta and Shelley Jazowski with @dusetzinas.bsky.social and Avi Gupta is out now in @jamanetworkopen.com jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Health Care Contact Days in Older Adults With Metastatic Cancer

This cohort study examines patterns and changes in health care contact days over time among traditional Medicare beneficiaries diagnosed with metastatic breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers.

jamanetwork.com

🚨New Publication🚨 Risk-based provider payment is more common in Medicare Advantage than any other segment of US health care financing. What happens to broad categories of health care utilization, and low-value service use, when provider groups adopt these contracts? jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Health Care Utilization and Low-Value Service Use After Risk-Based Contract Adoption

This cohort study examined whether health care organizations’ transition to risk-based payment contracts in Medicare Advantage was associated with changes in health care utilization or use of low-valu...

jamanetwork.com

🚨 New paper: As a PCP, I often hear from patients that managing their health care feels like a full-time job. To understand this better, we analyzed the first nationally-representative US survey of older adults’ self-reported treatment burden: agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Treatment Burden Among Older Adults in the United States, 2022

Background Treatment burden refers to the patient-perceived effort of managing health and health care, which impacts quality of life and engagement in care. International studies of treatment burden...

agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Women physicians face a persistent gender wage gap, which we've found is due in part to volume-based (FFS, or $/visit) payment models. In a new #JAMAHealthForum study, we find that under Medicare Advantage value-based payment (VBP), the gap reverses (!). jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... @jama.com

Gender Differences in Physician Earnings and Outcomes Under Medicare Advantage Value-Based Payment

This cohort study assesses gender differences in reimbursed earnings and quality among primary care physicians participating in full risk-sharing arrangements with Medicare Advantage plans, which now ...

jamanetwork.com

⭐️future-doc @nickdaley.bsky.social presenting our work on RTBT tools and telemedicine contributions to primary care access in Medicare. Posters 53-4, come on by #SGIM25 cc @jefflinder.bsky.social

Inspiring plenary talk on tackling food insecurity by Seth Berkowitz at #SGIM25. I had the chance to chat with Seth about his study, listen here 👇🏽

JAMA Internal Medicine@jamainternalmed.com · last yr.

🎙️ In this podcast episode, Lisa Rotenstein, Seth Berkowitz, and Elizabeth Dzeng each discuss the work they are presenting at #SGIM25 with JAMA Internal Medicine Associate Editor @ishaniganguli.bsky.social. 🎧 Listen now: edhub.ama-assn.org/jn-learning/...

Dr. Stone has had incredible impact in her career. Proud to be one of many lucky enough to be mentored by her. #SGIM25

On my way to #SGIM25 @societygim.bsky.social and excited to share my chat with @lisarotenstein.bsky.social @sethberkowitz.bsky.social and @lizdzeng.bsky.social about studies they're about to present #SGIM25. Check out the @jamainternalmed.com episode below.

JAMA Internal Medicine@jamainternalmed.com · last yr.

🎙️ In this podcast episode, Lisa Rotenstein, Seth Berkowitz, and Elizabeth Dzeng each discuss the work they are presenting at #SGIM25 with JAMA Internal Medicine Associate Editor @ishaniganguli.bsky.social. 🎧 Listen now: edhub.ama-assn.org/jn-learning/...

👇🏽New study led by @nickdaley.bsky.social finds that for most older adults, every extra day getting health care costs them an extra $49 out-of-pocket. And above certain thresholds, these extra days offer diminishing marginal returns on care satisfaction. @jama.com

Nick Daley@nickdaley.bsky.social · last yr.

Health care contact days outside of the home, while often necessary, can place burdens on older adults and caregivers. In a new JAMA IM study, @ishaniganguli.bsky.social, John Orav, and I look at the relationship between contact days and other measures of patient experience. Key findings ⬇️

Docs & patients know the pain of chasing borderline/incidental findings w/ a string of visits, tests and treatments. Yet after that initial test, these cascades can feel unavoidable. In a new @journalgim.bsky.social, @ishaniganguli.bsky.social and I explore reasons why & potential solutions:

Safe, Then Sorry? — The Psychological Biases that Drive Care Cascades - Journal of General Internal Medicine

Journal of General Internal Medicine -

link.springer.com

"In an unprecedented move, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has begun mass terminations of research grants that fund active scientific projects because they no longer meet 'agency priorities'" www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Exclusive: NIH to terminate hundreds of active research grants

Studies that touch on LGBT+ health, gender identity and DEI in the biomedical workforce could be terminated, according to documents obtained by Nature.

nature.com

Yesterday, President Trump addressed members of Congress in the joint session, but he had little to say about health care. Here's what our team is reading to make sense of what's happening in health policy...

Glad to share our new @health.nationalacademies.org report on Medicare primary care valuation. We outline systemic challenges with the current approach that have cascading effects on the private sector and on patient outcomes, and we recommend a path forward. bit.ly/4bozVUz #primarycare

Improving Primary Care Valuation Processes to Inform the Physician Fee Schedule

Read online, download a free PDF, or order a copy in print.

bit.ly

Congress must decide if it will extend Medicare telehealth coverage beyond March 2025. Our new JAMA IM study shows how this may benefit Medicare patients + taxpayers. TLDR: Telemedicine ⬇️ some low-value test use + spending (eg,onsite EKGs,blood tests) + ⬇️ total visit spending. shorturl.at/w6l5l

Telemedicine Adoption and Low-Value Care Use and Spending Among Fee-for-Service Medicare Beneficiaries

This cohort study aims to quantify the association between telemedicine adoption and low-value testing among fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries.

shorturl.at

People who work or have worked at HHS, NIH, FDA, CMS, CDC, HRSA and other health agencies - we want to hear from you. Researchers who rely on federal funding from any of these entities, we also want to hear from you. Reach out to us: www.propublica.org/tips/ Or find me on Signal: 347-549-0332 🔎

How to Contact ProPublica Securely — ProPublica

ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.

propublica.org

Annie Waldman@anniewaldman.bsky.social · last yr.

In the federal worker purge so far, Trump + DOGE have terminated public health experts who were: * Protecting kids from harmful tobacco products. * Keeping mothers and babies from dying. * Upgrading the donor organ network that saves critically ill people. www.propublica.org/article/trum...

With RFK Jr saying he wants to stop NIH doing infectious disease research “for 8 years” and Trump now slashing the NIH and CDC workforce, what exactly is the plan for tackling the H5N1 bird flu outbreak?

Josh Marshall@joshtpm.bsky.social · last yr.

BREAKING: StatNews reports that more than 5,000 HHS employees across NIH, CDC and other public health and research agencies will be fired this afternoon. www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/f...

It's incredibly disheartening to hear about dedicated public health professionals getting mass-laid off from CDC. Including first year epidemic intelligence service officers. This program has been the backbone of outbreak investigations in US since 1951. Decimating this workforce makes us less safe.

A new Trump formula for NIH grants could have very broad effects. We dug into the numbers to show what it means for every university and hospital. www.nytimes.com/interactive/... @aatishb.bsky.social @emmbadger.bsky.social @ethansinger.bsky.social @irineoc.bsky.social @fparis.bsky.social

How Trump’s Medical Research Cuts Would Hit Colleges and Hospitals in Every State

Changes to a key funding formula will reduce research grants at hospitals and universities by billions — and may discourage future research.

nytimes.com

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

A wonderful, thought-provoking piece by Paula Span @thenewyorktimes.bsky.social featuring our work. Thank you for sharing @adambeckman.bsky.social!

Adam Beckman, MD@adambeckman.bsky.social · 2y ago

"So Many Days Lost at the Doctor’s Office" by Paula Span superbly describes the wearying hoops patients are asked to jump through, based on @ishaniganguli.bsky.social's thoughtful research www.nytimes.com/2024/11/23/h...

Hey #healthpolicy crew! Looking into RFK Jr.’s beliefs on chronic conditions. Hoping to interview a few chronic condition experts on best evidence to treat cc. All suggestions welcome. RT’s (or what they’re called here appreciated)

Tomorrow! Join @NASEM Health and Medicine Division’s Nov 14 public meeting to explore federal efforts to strengthen the primary care workforce and review recent consensus study reports on primary care payments. To register: secure-web.cisco.com/1gJCDDL9TQkk...

Standing Committee on Primary Care - November Open Meeting

Register for this event from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

secure-web.cisco.com

1/ I've been practicing #medicine, as a #primarycare doc and then a #hospitalist, for over a decade. Cross-cutting any #social or #partisan divides is an increasingly common feeling: people are feeling #stuck and #trapped. I think we are seeing the reverberations of that feeling everywhere.

New @ Annals Intern Med TLDR: We find the average older adult in traditional Medicare spends 3 weeks per year getting health care, mostly (17 days) ambulatory care like office visits, tests, and treatments. 11% of these adults spent 50+ days per year (!). www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/...

New in JAMA Network Open: Our RCT of a peer comparison/education intervention to improve PCP-patient medical test conversations during annual visits jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...