SGR watch

Medicare pay cut averted

■ After a nearly weeklong standoff over a payroll tax cut package containing a temporary Medicare physician payment patch, Congress approved a bill that delays the scheduled pay cut from Jan. 1 to March 1. The pay patch means physicians will continue to receive 2011 pay rates for an additional two months while lawmakers seek a compromise on a package that could last through the remainder of 2012.

TOP NEWS

Doctors zero in on benefit gaps allowed under health reform

■ Physician organizations say some health plan benchmarks that states might choose would provide inadequate benefits. Others worry the proposal would not control costs. And at least one doctors' association is calling for a single national standard for essential health benefits, saying that's what the health system reform law requires.

• » How states will help set health benefit minimums

Hot-button issues drive state CME mandates

■ At least eight states in the past five years have approved rules governing what subjects doctors should study as part of their continuing medical education.

• » State-mandated physician CME subjects

Editor's pick

The growing reach of telemedicine

■ Because of physician shortages and improving technologies, some are looking into how care from a distance can be applied to more patients.

• » Rite Aid clinics place new twist on "doc-in-a-box"
• » Telemedicine boosting dermatology care
• » Men, chronically ill embrace virtual visits