Vol 47 No 12

Urology will make a modest gain overall in the 2020 final rule for the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, although the truly significant changes won’t be felt until 2021.

"The relevant professional associations in the field of medicine and/or urology must do their part to inform and educate their members about the appropriate use of finasteride and PSA to eliminate avoidable morbidity and mortality from prostate cancer," writes Badar M. Mian, MD.

Guideline-directed care often leads to better outcomes, but that’s not the case with the AUA’s antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines for diabetic patients undergoing primary penile prosthesis implantation. Authors of an ongoing study have found that adhering to the antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines results in a five-fold increased infection risk among diabetic penile prothesis patients, greatly increasing their risk for explantation.

It may be time to take a closer look at antibiotic prophylaxis prior to ureteral stent removal, according to new data reported at the AUA annual meeting in Chicago.

"Becoming a member of the larger group has given us more bargaining power in the health care marketplace, so we’ve been able to get better health care, not only for us but for our staff," says one urologist.

"Most people do not wish for their actions to be judged in hindsight; rather, if we are going to be judged, we want to be judged based on what we knew at the time," writes Acacia Brush Perko, Esq.

Researchers in Tennessee are finding success with the use of an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery pathway that provides standardization for the anesthetic care and postoperative management of patients undergoing ureteroscopy and stent placement with a novel approach that minimizes opioid exposure.

Selective bladder denervation, which targets the afferent nerves at the trigone only, appears to be an effective treatment for refractory overactive bladder patients, lasting up to 12 months regardless of whether the patient exhibits detrusor overactivity at baseline, according to a recent study from Canada.

"On Nov. 1, 2019, CMS published a final rule making important changes to the 2020 Quality Payment Program (Merit-based incentive Payment System [MIPS] and alternative payment models). Among the most significant are changes to the MIPS Cost Category: changes in the way patients are attributed to physicians, changes in the way the cost measures are calculated, and the addition of new episode-based cost measures," writes Robert A. Dowling, MD.

Avenues for taking distributions vary according to the decedent’s age.

Results from analyses of data collected in the randomized, placebo-controlled Reduction by Dutasteride of prostate Cancer Events (REDUCE) trial point to a potential role for statins in attenuating age-related prostate enlargement.