Today, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a trio of proposed payment rules including the annual Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) (regulation; fact sheet; press release), which adopts a long-time recommendation of the CME Coalition to align FDA’s REMS program with the MIPS Quality Improvement Program as it relates to CME. The MPFS traditionally includes regulations governing the Quality Payment Program (QPP) and Open Payments, both of which have been of keen interest to the Coalition.

On May 6, the New Jersey Attorney General, Gurbir S. Grewal, finalized and made effective amendments to the rules governing physician interactions with pharmaceutical companies(“Limitations on and Obligations Associated with Prescriber Acceptance of Compensation from Pharmaceutical Manufacturers”). Originally proposed in August 2018, the finalized amendments reflect the 69 comments the Attorney General received and address, among other things, the scope of the rules, meal limits, the $10,000 bona fide services cap, and changes to definitions such as “education event,” “prescriber,” and “research.”

The CME Coalition applauds U.S. Representatives Phil Roe (R-TN), Raul Ruiz (D-CA), Andy Harris (R-MD), and Ami Bera (D-CA) for their introduction of a congressional resolution expressing support for the need to expand training for physicians on opioid prescribing. These four key Members of Congress — all physicians in their own right — have recognized the role of CME in the professional development of America’s physician workforce. 

As featured in a video from myCME.com, "Tom Sullivan (left) and Andy Rosenberg of the CME Coalition labored tirelessly to get CME activities to be considered Improvement Activities under MIPS. Here's what it means."

​This post was originally published as a November 28, 2017 article on Medpage Today
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BALTIMORE, Md. -- Physicians should be required to take continuing education classes on opioid prescribing in order to maintain their Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) prescribing licenses, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) said Tuesday at a congressional field hearing here on the opioid crisis. ​"This drug epidemic didn't start on the street corners of Baltimore; it started in doctors' offices and hospitals across the nation," Christie, who led President Trump's commission on the opioid crisis, said at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing at Johns Hopkins Hospital. "And while some of it is done by folks who have bad intent, most is done by those with no intent. Why no intent? Because they're not educated on this issue."

​This post was originally published as a November 16, 2017 article on MeetingsNet. 

​The Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act of 2015, a congressional effort to solve the riddle of how to pay physicians under the Medicare program, does more than move what has traditionally been a fee-for-service model to a value-based model. It also just may offer some new areas of opportunities for continuing medical education.

Andy Rosenberg, senior advisor with the lobbying group the CME Coalition, laid out just what MACRA is—and why CME providers should be paying attention to it—in a recent MeetingsNet webinar.