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PHYSICIAN SUICIDE AWARENESS DAY
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National Physician Suicide Awareness Day (NPSA) is here to help everyone prevent physician suicide, including physicians, their colleagues and their loved ones.
We need to come together and break down the culture of silence around physician mental health. Physicians have one of the highest suicide rates of any profession. More than half of physicians know a physician who has either considered, attempted or died by suicide in their career. Physicians are experiencing practice environments like they never have before, early physician retirement, health care worker shortages and a growing inequality experienced by patients. Understandably, this has taken a toll on their mental health and contributes to burnout rates. Left untreated, burnout could cause more cases of depression, anxiety, PTSD, substance use and suicidal thoughts in physicians. It’s these physicians who are more likely to leave medicine, or worse, die by a preventable suicide death.
Six actions to help reduce physician burnout and ensure physicians’ struggles don’t become mental health emergencies.
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Bill Introduced in Congress to Stabilize Medicare for Physicians and Patients.
Due to a confluence of statutory and budget neutrality payment cuts, physicians face more than 8.42% in Medicare payment cuts in 2021. This bill would stop 4.42% of the cuts related to budget neutrality adjustments in the Medicare Fee Schedule. Physicians can no longer sustain their practices and access to care for patients on today’s Medicare payments. Congress must reverse these trends to help patients get the care they need. CMA urges Members of Congress to cosponsor the “Supporting Medicare Provider Act of 2022” and applauds the bipartisan introduction of the bill by physician Congressmen Ami Bera, MD (D-CA) and Larry Bucshon, MD (R-IN).
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Flooding in Pakistan: Consider Donating to Direct Relief
Catastrophic flooding in Pakistan has affected roughly 15% of the country’s population (33 million people), sparking widespread devastation, mass evacuations, and a dire need for basic resources, including medication and medical items. Direct Relief is preparing a shipment of insulin, in coordination with Life for a Child, for distribution to 10 hospitals and healthcare facilities in Pakistan. The shipment from Direct Relief contains enough long-acting insulin for 3,773 children and young adults under the age of 25 living with Type 1 Diabetes. Direct Relief is also helping to inform response efforts by working with the World Food Program to analyze population movements and assess where evacuations have taken place and where aid may be needed.
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Climate Change May Make Pandemics like COVID-19 Much More Common. The likelihood of an extreme epidemic, or one similar to COVID-19, will increase threefold in the coming decades, according to a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers used data from epidemics from the past 400 years, specifically death rates, length of previous epidemics and the rate of new infectious diseases. Their calculation is a prediction based on known risks and can be a useful guide for public health officials.
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CalAIM Arrives in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties. The California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal program, known as CalAIM, is the far-reaching, multi-year plan to transform Medi-Cal. The long-term mission of CalAIM is to offer 14+ million Californians a more equitable, coordinated, and person-centered approach to maximizing their health and life trajectory. In Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, CenCal Health is responsible for managing the implementation of CalAIM with its community partners.
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