Tickets for the 2018 Tucson Medical Center Mega Raffle go on sale February 8, 2018. Now in its sixth year, participants will have one in 20 chances of winning more than 2,500 prizes, including an A.F Sterling home package valued…
On January 1, 2018 revisions to the Communicable Diseases and Infestation Reporting rules go into effect. It’s important you understand and the new directives. New rules state that failure to report may be a class III misdemeanor reportable to the…
Valley fever cases in November saw a 50-percent spike over the previous month, leading experts at the University of Arizona Valley Fever Center for Excellence to predict a significant increase in cases in 2018. Fortunately, the recent—and timely—approval of a new rapid…
Raymundo Esquivel, MD, anesthesiologist and 50-year PCMS member died November 18, 2017. He was 88. Esquivel was born on October 19, 1929 in Monterrey, Mexico where he graduated from medical school in 1953. He came to Tucson in 1951 for…
Esther Alcorn, MD, who practiced medicine in southern Arizona for 40 years, died in Tucson on November 27, 2017. She was 91. Born in Minot, North Dakota, Alcorn was the daughter of a nurse who took an interest in medicine as…
The Arizona Supreme Court in a unanimous decision rejected a bid from a group of 36 current and former Republican lawmakers to overturn the state's Medicaid expansion. The lawmakers argued that a hospital assessment used to pay the state's portion…
Providers are our eyes and ears in the community. Please report immediately unusual numbers of patients presenting with similar symptoms, unusual symptoms, or unexplained infectious diseases in healthy individuals. Do not wait until laboratory results become available. You are welcome to…
The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has been reauthorized by the U.S. House for five years while at the same time extending for two-years funding for community health centers. The bill now moves to the Senate, which has yet to…
On November 2, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final rule governing its Medicare Quality Payment Program in 2018. The program, enacted under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), will affect participating physicians’ payment in…
According to new research by the American Medical Association (AMA), Mayo Clinic, and Stanford University, the burden and bureaucracy of modern medicine, including technological frustrations, inflict a toll on U.S. physicians and appear to be major factors influencing their intentions…