Practice Management

"The Inflation Reduction Act was a major step in the right direction. The question now is going to be, are commercial insurers going to follow Medicare and enact the same cap that they have as well," says Benjamin Pockros, MD, MBA.

"If you determine you can invest in a volatile environment, the best approach is to do so over a period of time," writes Jeff Witz, CFP.

"For telephone-only (audio only) visits, Medicare has officially stated that such a visit would be considered the same as an in-person visit, with a few qualifications," write Jonathan Rubenstein, MD, and Mark Painter.

"With the requirements for an E/M code as noted above, we agree with you that the supporting documentation, if appropriately documented, would support a level 3 outpatient visit for a visit regarding counseling for contraception or family planning," write Jonathan Rubenstein, MD, and Mark Painter.

Arpeet Shah, MD, highlights the shift toward precision medicine, ongoing work force challenges, the integration of AI, and more.

Overall, 403 medical students and other applicants were matched across 148 urology residency programs nationwide.

"As we all know, Medicare rules do not always follow CPT directives. The same is true in this case," write Jonathan Rubenstein, MD, and Mark Painter.

"From a coding standpoint and from the work performed and valuation of the work and descriptors, it is appropriate to report the dilation (50436 without or 50437 with new access as appropriate) along with the nephrolithotomy codes (50080/50081) when both are performed at the same time by the same provider," write Jonathan Rubenstein, MD, and Mark Painter.

"Please note that although this starts out as a balloon rather than just the injection of a biodegradable product, this device is actually fully biodegradable and is absorbed within 6 months of insertion," write Jonathan Rubenstein, MD, and Mark Painter.

"There are far more people presenting to us for care than we have people able to provide it. The APPs are going to be a critical part of trying to solve that puzzle," says Mark T. Edney, MD.

“As long as APPs are properly supported, they will take off and they will change your practice,” says Mark T. Edney, MD.

“I think promoting women in leadership positions, promoting mentorship for women applicants and women already in this field, and working on policy changes are the top 3,” says Michelle S. Sheng, MD.

"You don't want to go into anything blind. You want to make sure that the numbers make sense," says Gia Ching.

"This idea that physicians and medical teams always feel that they need to be available at all hours of the day really starts to stress people." says Chad W. M. Ritenour, MD, FACS.

"I think that it's so important right now to really, really stand as your own brand and really, really have a cultivated patient population that you're after," says Gia Ching.

“There's state advocacy work groups and other public policy work groups where folks can remain involved and keep pushing to improve the delivery of health care,” says Juan J. Andino, MD, MBA.

"If a practice has determined in writing that there are insurers whose policies advised that they will not accept this code, it seems reasonable not to report that code to that insurer even when criteria are met," write Jonathan Rubenstein, MD, and Mark Painter.

“These types of technologies can really make office urology much more efficient, which I think is very, very promising and one of the most promising areas in artificial intelligence,” says Chad Ellimoottil, MD, MS.

"As a result of the changes and the programmed phase-in of the changes, the cystoscopy code total RVU for the office setting will be 8% lower in 2025 than the current value," write Jonathan Rubenstein, MD, and Mark Painter.

"I hope that [attendees] will be exposed to a community where they feel that they're able to freely ask questions, gain accurate information, and feel heard, validated, and connected," says Lauren E. Corona, MD.

“The other aspects of the waivers and the things that remain in flux and are not fully fleshed out are going to be things like interstate telehealth,” says Juan J. Andino, MD, MBA.

"What's unique about our conference is the focus is not on just showcasing what our institute has to offer; the real focus is on networking and collaborating with the top institutes in the nation," says Raveen Syan, MD, FPMRS.

Chad Ellimoottil, MD, MS, details specific concerns surrounding the future of telehealth as Congress weighs the decision to extend flexibilities.

“Without the ability to do new patient telehealth, by definition, it's really hard to impact access to care,” says Juan J. Andino, MD, MBA.

"I think that there's been a lot of positive momentum to continue coverage for telehealth without geographic restrictions, to continue coverage for phone calls, but there's still some uncertainty as to whether or not that's going to be passed, even though there is a lot of optimism for it," says Chad Ellimoottil, MD, MS.

“Physicians are spending, depending on how much they utilize it, 20% to 30% less time on nights and weekends,” says Ernest A. Morton, MD, MBA, MS.

"Saying 'no' is one of our biggest challenges in our careers as physicians," according to Phillip M. Pierorazio, MD.

"The final rule for 2025 poses several challenges to urology. Lobbying efforts to preserve telehealth access and the CF will continue, perhaps dragging into 2025," write Jonathan Rubenstein, MD, and Mark Painter.

Ernest A. Morton, MD, MBA, MS, spotlights projects looking at the use of AI scribes to assist in notetaking and an AI algorithm to analyze prostate biopsies.

"It's now become one of the more popular conversations I have with people is how to use mindfulness, or at least the principles of mindfulness, in a surgical practice," says Phillip M. Pierorazio, MD.