Association News
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Gen Z is hooked on vaping
Pulmonologist Evan Stepp, MD, FCCP, has a teenage daughter who doesn’t smoke or vape – as far as he knows, Stepp will admit – but the statistics on youth smoking are alarming enough to have him worried. On one hand, fewer Americans are smoking today than ever before. Since 1992, the percentage of people who…
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ILD: Time lost is lung lost
First launched in 2022 in partnership with Three Lakes Foundation, Bridging Specialties™: Timely Diagnosis for ILD is a collaborative initiative hinged on bringing together pulmonary and primary care experts. To shorten the time to diagnosis for interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) like pulmonary fibrosis, the initiative illustrates that there is a need for clinicians to work…
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CHEST Advocates raises awareness against tobacco use
“Ew, gross.” “Um, no way.” “Of course not.” Earlier this summer, I partnered with Dr. Melissa Keene, the medical director of a federally qualified health center in southwest Virginia, to talk about tobacco with middle school students. A few minutes after our arrival, it was clear to us that cigarettes weren’t cool anymore. We asked…
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CHEST launches sepsis resources in partnership with the CDC
Earlier this year, CHEST released new clinical resources on sepsis and antibiotic stewardship developed by the Sepsis Resources Steering Committee with grant support from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The resources – including infographics, videos, podcasts, and research commentaries – aim to help clinicians increase their knowledge of sepsis prevention and…
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CHEST philanthropy: Moving into the future
In an ideal world, change would be progressive, the direction would be clear, and adoption would be easy. We learned in these past few years that sometimes change cannot wait. The vulnerabilities of the health care system were laid bare by the pandemic, including vast disparities in treatment and the urgent need to grow our…
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Highlights of the 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule
The suggested Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for calendar year (CY) 2024 was announced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in July 2023. Physicians who specialize in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine will be impacted by a number of policy and payment changes. Additionally, keep in mind that this is the proposed…
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Increasing primary care doctors’ knowledge of IPF could speed up diagnoses, suggests white paper
Prompt diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is essential to reduce mortality, and improving education of primary care providers can help, suggests a new white paper. The nonspecific nature of the symptoms of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) especially in early stages, and the relative rarity of IPF compared with other conditions that have similar symptoms, may…
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ILD on the rise: Doctors offer tips for diagnosing deadly disease
Too often, when patients come to see Tejaswini Kulkarni, MD, with shortness of breath and cough and are diagnosed with interstitial lung disease (ILD), they are past the point when treatments would most benefit them. “There is definitely a delay from the time of symptom onset to the time that they are even evaluated for…
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Patients need Sep-1: Why don’t some doctors like it
Since its inception, the CMS Sep-1 Core Quality Measure has been unpopular in some circles. It is now under official attack by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), along with a handful of smaller professional societies. These societies appealed the National Quality Forum’s (NQF) 2021 recommendation…
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Nonphysician practitioner (NPP) billing for evaluation and management (E/M) and critical care services: A sea change now in effect!
In the 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) further refined E/M billing by addressing split/shared visits between nonphysician practitioners (such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants) (see https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2021-11-19/pdf/2021-23972.pdf, pp. 65150-9). A split/shared visit is “an E/M visit in the facility setting that is performed in part by both a…
