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Cross-Post: Insurance Companies Use Stalling Tactics to Save Themselves Money

By Access to Care, Burnout, Prior AuthorizationNo Comments

From time to time on Neurosurgery Blog, you will see us cross-posting or linking to items from other places that we believe will be of interest to our readers. Today’s post originally appeared in The American Spectator on Jan. 3. In the op-ed, neurosurgeon Richard Menger, MD, MPA, FAANS and nurses Jessica Murfee, RN, BSN and Erin Roberts, RN, BSN, discuss health care provider burnout from the cumbersome prior authorization process required by insurance companies to perform surgery agreed upon by patient and surgeon. Read More

Brain Tumor Nonprofit StacheStrong Donates $110,000 for the Launch of the SNS Neurosurgeon-Scientist Training Program

By Brain Tumor, Career, TumorNo Comments

The Society of Neurological Surgeons (SNS) has established a Neurosurgeon-Scientist Training Program (NSTP) to increase the pool of neurosurgery residents conducting research and to enhance their success rate in becoming independent neurosurgeon-scientists. The NSTP will serve as a formal mentored research program for those neurosurgery residents who are beginning a protected research year or have already completed their protected research year. Read More

Surgically Based Clinical Trials for High-Grade Gliomas — Bringing the Laboratory to the Operating Room

By Tumor, Tumor SeriesNo Comments

For patients with aggressive, high-grade gliomas, clinical trials offer access to new experimental therapies studied for their effectiveness. Traditionally, clinical trials have been broken into three phases. Phase 1 clinical trials assess the safety of a new treatment. Phase 2 studies involve more patients and evaluate the efficacy of the treatment. Phase 3 studies are designed to compare the novel treatment to a proven treatment to validate its effectiveness further. Read More

Neurosurgeons Putting Patients First

By Access to Care, Faces of Neurosurgery, Health Reform, MedicareNo Comments

The Medicare physician payment system is on an unsustainable path that has failed to keep up with inflation over the years, threatening patient access to care. The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) are actively engaged in preventing steep Medicare payment cuts and preserving patient access to care through the Surgical Care Coalition. The coalition is in year three of its campaign to stop these cuts and implement lasting changes to the physician payment and quality improvement systems. Read More

Cross-Post: Why Is It Hard for Grandma To See Her Doctor?

By Cross Post, MedicareNo Comments

From time to time on Neurosurgery Blog, you will see us cross-posting or linking to items from other places that may be of interest to our readers. Today’s post originally appeared on AL.com on Nov. 1, titled “Why is it hard for grandma to see her doctor?” In the op-ed, Richard Menger, MD, MPA, assistant professor of neurosurgery and political science at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Ala., discusses how steep Medicare physician payment cuts scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2023, are not a good prescription for a healthy physician workforce. Read More

Cross-Post: It’s Never Too Late to Pivot From N.F.L. Safety to Neurosurgeon

By Career, Cross PostNo Comments

From time to time on Neurosurgery Blog, you will see us cross-posting or linking to items from other places that we believe will be of interest to our readers. Today’s post originally appeared in the New York Times on Oct. 11 as part of the “It’s Never Too Late” series. The article discusses how Myron Rolle, MD, a PGY-6 neurosurgery resident at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Mass., transitioned from playing in the NFL to neurosurgery. Read More

Increasing Patient Access to Stereotactic Radiosurgery through Innovation

By Brain Tumor, Tumor, Tumor SeriesNo Comments

Neurosurgery supports and welcomes transparent physician-industry interactions to foster healthy relations and spur innovative device development to benefit patients. Within the specialty of neurosurgery, there are numerous examples of just such benefits, including increased access to stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). SRS is a treatment that delivers radiation to precise targets in the brain, such as tumors, while minimizing injury to adjacent areas. Read More