Glen Stream, MD will be appearing tonight on Family Medicine Rocks Episode 248. Dr. Stream is the President of the American Academy of Family Physicians. One topic will be the recent announcement that the AAFP will be remaining in the RUC. Another topic will be the AAFP Primary Care Valuation Task Force.
On last night's show (Show 247), I shared some background information to help you get ready for tonight's show. This includes an article entitled, "What Every Physician Should Know About the RUC," which gives you a basic idea of what the RUC is and why it's important.
For a long time, the AAFP has stated that the RUC does not see the value of Family Physicians because Medicare payments are lower than subspecialists. Last summer, the AAFP sent an aggressive letter to the RUC asking for changes in the RUC's structure. RUC responded a couple of months ago and made only small changes.
In a post from Health Affairs blog, they encouraged AAFP to leave the RUC and many wondered if that would happen. On March 13, 2012, AAFP announced that it would remain in the RUC which made some people very upset (check out the comment section of their press release)
On March 16, Dr. Stream wrote "We're Changing Our Approach To The RUC." The Academy then reached out to me to see if I was interested to talking with Dr. Stream about the Board's decision. And, that's how this interview was set up. In the video segment above, I share some of the comments that people have communicated with me in the past week leading up to this show. (Download the entire audio podcast for Ep247 here and below)
So, I hope you can join us on Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 9pm Eastern Time/6pm Pacific Time for Family Medicine Rocks Episode 248 with my guest Glen Stream, MD who is President of the American Academy of Family Physicians. See you for the show!