New AMA STEPS Forward® Toolkits:

Preventing and Addressing Physician Suicide

National Physician Suicide Awareness Day is Sept. 17. Take steps to identify and support at-risk physicians with these AMA STEPS Forward® resources:

Collective Trauma Toolkit: Respond Effectively as an Organization

Gain actionable STEPS, practical tools, and supporting resources to help your organization respond effectively to collective trauma now and in the future. Learn More.

Telehealth Integration and Optimization Toolkit

Integrate and optimize telehealth in your practice in a sustainable way. Learn More.

Listening Campaign: Engage Physicians to Uncover Sources of Burnout

A new AMA STEPS Forward® toolkit outlines the 7 STEPS needed to successfully carry out a Listening Campaign, including 9 practical tools to help uncover and address sources of physician burnout. 

AMA STEPS Forward® Innovation Academy Virtual Events:

Supporting Private Practices: AMA & Medline University

Tuesday, March 7 | 10:15 a.m. CT

Learn how to use the AMA STEPS Forward® Private Practice Playbook to your advantage in this open access webinar designed to help physicians streamline employee training in their private practices. Register Now

Exploring Physician-led Innovation through Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship

Thursday, March 16 | 11 a.m. CT

Hear a live panel of physician entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs discuss their journey towards building the future of health. Presented by the Future of Health Immersion Program and AMA STEPS Forward® Innovation Academy. Register Now

Actionable Insights: Key Steps to Engaging Patients in Psychosocial Interventions

Thursday, March 23 | 10 a.m. CT

Experts will discuss the spectrum of brief psychosocial interventions along with how best to use them to help address behavioral health needs for both adult and pediatric patient populations. Presented by the BHI Collaborative and AMA STEPS Forward® Innovation Academy. Register now

AMA STEPS Forward® Podcast Episodes:

AMA STEPS Forward® Podcast

The AMA, in collaboration with Manatt Health, released virtual care case studies in 2021 as part of the Return on Health Framework. Two years later, we check in on the progress.

AMA STEPS Forward® Podcast Episode 43:

How a Telephone Consultation Model Eased Call Burden for Frontline Specialists
Dr. Alfred Atanda, Director of Clinician Well-Being at Nemours Children’s Health, shares his experience piloting a telephone consultation model aimed at reducing call burden for infectious disease specialists.

LISTEN NOW: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

AMA STEPS Forward® Podcast Episode 44:

The Importance of Screening for Social Determinants of Health

Margaret Bavis, DNP and Assistant Professor, Rush University College of Nursing, discusses how CommunityHealth, one of the largest volunteer-based health centers in the nation, assesses and optimizes social determinants of health to improve patient care.  

LISTEN NOW: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Episode 45:

No One Left Behind: Expanded Peer Support and Second Victim Syndrome  

Dr. Alicia Pilarski, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Associate Chief Medical Officer, and Medical Director of the Supporting Our Staff (SOS) Peer Support Program for Froedtert Hospital & Medical College of Wisconsin, shares her experience building an expanded peer support program for the entire health care team. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Episode 46:

Reframing Compassion Fatigue: Compassion as a Tool for Combating Burnout 

Dr. Rola Hallam, British-Syrian consultant anesthetist, humanitarian and founder of CanDo, a social enterprise that enables local, frontline health care workers to provide health care to their own war-affected communities, shares the story of her “valley of darkness” and how compassion can be a tool to combat burnout. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Mental Health Counseling for Physicians and APPs

Dr. Rob McGregor, Chief Medical Officer and Pediatric Hospitalist at Akron Children’s Hospital, shares his experience creating a strategic program that provides free and confidential mental health services for physicians and APPs.

LISTEN NOW: (Apple Podcasts | Spotify)

Annie’s Place: First-of-Its-Kind Free Childcare for Patients 

Dr. Kavita Bhavan, Chief Innovation Officer at Parkland Health and Hospital System, and Natalie Boyle, founder of Mommies in Need, discuss Annie’s Place: a center at Parkland Hospital that provides free and safe childcare for children of patients, as well as backup childcare for first responders and frontline health care workers. LISTEN NOW: (Apple Podcasts | Spotify)

AMA STEPS Forward® Private Practice Playbook

Private Practice Simple Solutions: Support Staff Recruitment

Private Practice Simple Solutions

The final two learning sessions of 2023 cover the use of behavioral health integration (BHI) and integrating psychopharmacological treatment into private practice.

 

Publications

High cost of broken relationships

This BMJ Quality & Safety editorial co-authored by Dr. Christine A. Sinsky, AMA Vice President of Professional Satisfaction, offers recommendations on how to decrease the high costs of physician turnover by prioritizing relationships and reducing burnout.

Funding Research on Health Workforce Well-being to Optimize the Work Environment

This JAMA Viewpoint article co-authored by Dr. Christine A. Sinsky, AMA Vice President of Professional Satisfaction, outlines the importance of federal funding to support research on system interventions that promote clinician well-being.

Reports

2022 Telehealth Impact Report (pdf)

This newly updated report offers a thorough overview of AMA’s efforts to aggressively expand digital medicine advocacy, research, and resources to better understand the specific needs around telehealth and digitally enabled care.

Events

IN-PERSON EVENT

AMA Physician Innovation Network (PIN) at HLTH 23

Oct. 10 | Las Vegas

Planning to attend HLTH 23? Join the AMA for a free PIN IRL (in real life) event! Space is limited, so RSVP today to secure your spot. If you can’t attend in person, tell us your success story of implementing solutions in your practice on the PIN platform.

Webinars

LIVE WEBINAR

How to Financially Sustain Behavioral Health Integration in Your Practice

Oct. 26 | 12 pm CT

Join us for this live discussion to hear national experts share real-world experiences about how to make BHI financially sustainable. Register now.

Additional Resources

How to Master Communicating with the Most Challenging Personalities in Your Life (Apple Podcasts | Spotify)

How to Handle Challenging Emotions—in Ourselves, Patients, and Those We Lead (Apple Podcasts | Spotify) 

April is National Stress Awareness Month, and Dr. Neha Sangwan, founder of Intuitive Intelligence, joins the AMA STEPS Forward® podcast for two episodes focused on how to navigate conflict and challenging emotions.

The Association of Work Overload with Burnout and Intent to Leave the Job Across the Healthcare Workforce During COVID-19

Newly published Journal of General Internal Medicine study finds that perceived work overload was associated with burnout and intent to leave across all health care roles, including physicians, nurses, and other clinical and non-clinical staff.

Taming the EHR Playbook: A system-level approach to EHR inbox reduction

Physicians from three organizations provide a 9-step process (PDF) and checklist (PDF) to reduce EHR inboxes at the system level based on their personal experiences eliminating unnecessary burdens and improving EHR workflows.

Digital Minimalism — An Rx for Clinician Burnout

This New England Journal of Medicine commentary weighs the cost-benefit balance for technology and advocates for the development of clear boundaries around the use of modes of communication to achieve greater periods of uninterrupted work and higher quality patient care.

Private Practice: Attending to Business

Claim free CME with this new podcast mini-series designed to help you navigate medical practice business operations and efficiency solutions to create and support a thriving business.

Can physicians openly discuss EHR issues?

The latest entry in the AMA Debunking Regulatory Myths series addresses EHR gag clauses. 

Miscellaneous:

Private Practice Simple Solutions: Support Staff Recruitment

Release Date: Feb. 14, 2023

This new eight-week session featuring Dr. Justin Holtzman, Medical Director of Holtzman Medical Group, focuses on recruiting and retaining support staff for your private practice. Register Here.

To access the complete collection of previously released Simple Solutions sessions, click here.

DEBUNKING REGULATORY MYTHS » MENTAL HEALTH

Does the Joint Commission and the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) require that medical licensing boards, credentialing bodies and professional liability insurance carriers ask applicants about any past history of mental illness or substance use disorder on licensure, credentialing and other applications? LEARN MORE.

Excess Mortality Among Physicians During The COVID-19 Pandemic

This newly published JAMA Internal Medicine research letter, co-authored by AMA Research and Policy Manager Lindsey Carlasare with a team from Stanford University School of Medicine, seeks to better understand the effects of the pandemic on physician mortality rates.

Debunking Regulatory Myths: Protected Health Information (PHI) Disclosures

Does HIPAA require that health care providers obtain patient authorization to disclose PHI for treatment purposes?

The American Conference on Physician Health (ACPH): Call for Abstracts

Oct. 11-13, 2023 | Palm Desert, CA

The ACPH theme this year is “Building the workplace of the future.” Contribute to the conversation by showcasing your work! Hurry – abstracts are only accepted until March 15. 

Additional AMA Resources

 

Available now: Summary of Panel Actions from February 2023 CPT® Editorial Panel Meeting

After each Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) Editorial Panel (the Panel) meeting, a document is prepared to summarize the actions that were taken by the Panel on each of the code applications. The Summary of Panel Actions from the February 2023 CPT Editorial Panel meeting is now available on the American Medical Association (AMA) website.

LEARN MORE >

 

These are the mental and behavioral health care CPT code changes to know in 2023

The trend toward breaking down health care silos to free physicians to practice in new and different ways is illustrated by the different classifications mental and behavioral health services fall under in the CPT 2023 code set. The CPT codes used to characterize mental and behavioral health services this year include brand new codes plus revisions that fall into categories such as digital health, and evaluation and management (E/M).

LEARN MORE >

 

How the CPT code set can be used to help advance health equity

The CPT code set provides a uniform nomenclature for coding medical procedures and services that are critical to the communication between stakeholders about the care patients receive. CPT codes can also be used to promote health equity.

LEARN MORE >

 

AMA announces virtual health equity series

The AMA recently announced the National Health Equity Grand Rounds, a quarterly virtual series designed to deepen understanding and shape discourse around health inequities and opportunities to improve the health of our nation. This series is led by the AMA in collaboration with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education (NCIPE) and RespectAbility. Topics will include racism in medicine; building equitable incentive models; diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging practices in medicine; and using data transparently to advance accountability to the communities we serve.

LEARN MORE >

 

Addressing the digital health disconnect

The Future of Health Report was prepared by the AMA and Manatt Health, and builds on the AMA’s Return on Health research. The report explores and defines the digital health disconnect between the pace of digital health progress in medicine, and technology's potential to meaningfully improve access, quality, outcomes, affordability and health equity; offers a blueprint to optimize digitally enabled care; and shares stakeholder opportunities to leverage digital care through case examples from various organizations.

LEARN MORE >

 

CPT errata & technical corrections are available for the CPT 2023 code set

The errata and technical corrections for the CPT 2023 code set and the CPT "E/M Companion 2023" are posted on the AMA website. An errata for the current edition of the CPT code set provides information that was approved by the CPT Editorial Panel and inadvertently excluded from the current code set. Technical corrections are clarifications of original CPT Editorial Panel intent for the current code set.

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Updated CPT Category I descriptors available for coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine codes

Updated long, medium and short descriptors for coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines were published on the AMA website on Feb. 2. CPT code descriptors are clinically focused and use common standards to enable mutual understanding for the diverse users across the clinical health care paradigm. In addition to the CPT codes, health plans and hospitals may use consumer-friendly CPT code descriptors to comply with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requirement for a plain-language description of services, outlined in the Final Rule on Price Transparency (CMS-1717-F2).

LEARN MORE >