Healthcare Roundup: Pay Parity for Physician Phone Calls, Physician Assistant Name Change & More

Debate over Pay Parity for Physician ‘Virtual Check-in’ Phone Calls:

A four-digit medical billing code added during the pandemic has allowed doctors to be reimbursed for 11- to 20-minute telephone calls with patients, $27 for those covered by Medicaid and a little more for those with private insurance.

The new code was merely an expansion of the “virtual check-in” code created in 2019, before the pandemic began, to cover five- to 10-minute phone calls with established patients, with a reimbursement rate of about $14. But it has touched off a debate over whether insurers should cover such “audio-only” visits and, if so, whether they should be covered at the same rate as in-office visits, not unlike what happened with the push for pay parity for video visits.

Some physician groups say cutting off or reducing payments for audio-only visits would discourage doctors from making follow-up calls they’re making now, reducing quality of care. Others, including employers, fear pay parity would lead to a flood of unnecessary and longer phone calls. (FORTUNE)

Physician Assistants Pushing for Statutory Name Change:

In an effort to dispel the perception that physician assistants require the direct supervision of a doctor, their national group formally changed its name from the American Academy of Physician Assistants to the American Academy of Physician Associates in May. The association is now seeking revision of state laws and regulations to replace references to “physician assistants” with “physician associates.” The group estimates the total cost of those changes at about $22 million.

But the PAs’ effort has drawn pushback from physician groups. The president of the American Medical Association said the name change would “undoubtedly confuse patients and is clearly an attempt to advance [PAs’] pursuit toward independent practice,” while the American Osteopathic Association accused the PAs of trying “to obfuscate their credentials through title misappropriation.” (NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO)

Fentanyl Driving National Drug Overdose Epidemic:

Nearly 1,500 mostly homeless people have died on the streets of Los Angeles during the coronavirus pandemic, with about 40 percent of those deaths caused by drug or alcohol overdose, according to a report released last week by the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy. That report comes about two weeks after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that over 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending April 2021, a 29-percent increase from the prior year. Nearly 64 percent of those overdoses involved the synthetic opioid fentanyl. (CALMATTERS, UCLA INSTITUTE ON INEQUALITY AND DEMOCRACY, US CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION)

FL Hospitals Earn over $6B in 2020:

Despite the pandemic and claims from Florida hospital executives that 2020 would be a tough year financially for hospitals, those located in the state made almost $6.3 billion last year. That performance could lead to a stronger push next year from House Republicans for Medicaid reimbursement rate cuts and other belt-tightening measures for hospitals. (MIAMI HERALD)

TX Strengthens Medicaid-by-Mail Abortion Ban:

Texas’ abortion laws - already the most restrictive in the nation, banning all abortions once cardiac activity is detectable, typically at about six weeks into pregnancy - got a little tougher last week. A new law (SB 4) went into effect adding the penalties of jail time and a fine of up to $10,000 for prescribing pills for medication abortions via telehealth or mail beyond the first seven weeks of pregnancy. (KAISER HEALTH NEWS)

-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK