On Tuesday, October 31, 2017, a free webinar was held to examine 'Risks and Opportunities in Today's Challenging World of CME.' The webinar featured representatives from the CME Coalition, including Senior Advisor Andrew Rosenber and Thomas Sullivan, President of Rockpointe Corp., as well as representatives from the American Academy of Family Physicians and ABTS Convention  Services. Key topics of discussion included MACRA and the new physician Quality Payment Program (QPP), AAFP's Blended Learning Format Option, and more. 

A total of 160 comments have been submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in support of their proposal to reward physicians for their participation in certain continuing medical education (CME) activities. Of the roughly 1,300 comments submitted on the proposed rule, 160 individuals and organizations sent comments that included support for the inclusion of quality improvement/practice improvement (QI-PI) CME in the final rule.

The CME Coalition has submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) applauding their proposal to reward physicians for their participation in certain continuing medical education (CME) activities. Under the proposal, quality improvement continuing medical education (CME) would be recognized as a Clinical Practice Improvement Activity (CPIA) under the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) — a physician reimbursement system created by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). As detailed in the proposed rule (pg. 1042), CMS recommends that “completion of an accredited performance improving medical education program” be included under the list of CPIAs under MIPS — one of the key policy changes proposed for the Quality Payment Program Year 2.

​Nearly 100 million people in the United States, or roughly one-third of the population, experience some form of chronic pain. Meanwhile, prescription opiate abuse and addiction have reached epidemic proportions in the United States, including the widespread illegal diversion of prescription opioids for street use, which in turn can increase the rates of abuse of illegal narcotics. Some clinicians have also prescribed opioids without adequate training surrounding their abuse potential. Many primary-care providers have recently become reluctant to prescribe opioid pain relievers in the context of current public health concerns surrounding addiction, which leads to some chronic pain patients now going without any appropriate treatment.