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Among urologists, prior authorization ranks as their second most pressing concern, according to Urology Times’ 2016 State of the Specialty survey. The same survey showed the problem is getting worse, with 86% of respondents reporting that prior authorization demands are increasing.

Phase III study results suggest that a hydrogel spacer developed to separate the rectum and prostate during radiotherapy for prostate cancer works to maintain bowel and urinary quality of life and reduces late rectal toxicity by 78% at 3 years post radiotherapy.

Since passage of the Affordable Care Act, the number of testicular cancer patients with insurance has dwindled, while rates of advanced testis cancer have climbed, according to a recent study.

"The nurse practitioner that I work with is not only very knowledgeable in office-based pediatric urology but also, for problems like voiding dysfunction, more available to spend extra time with patients and their families," writes Barry A. Kogan, MD.

As the United States faces a urologist shortage, physician assistants and nurse practitioners will likely play an increasingly important role in the field of urology. Now, a new survey-the first of its kind-suggests that many of those in these positions are performing advanced procedures despite lacking postgraduate urologic training.

Single-stage anterior urethroplasty is feasible and safe when performed as a same-day outpatient procedure, even for men requiring combined substitution repairs, said University of Pittsburgh Medical Center urologists at the 2016 AUA annual meeting in San Diego.

The provision of health care via technology and without direct eye-to-eye and skin-to-skin contact is an area of growing interest in the U.S. It is also an area of great concern. One of the key conundrums surrounding telemedicine is the when, how, and what to pay for the service.

Findings of a retrospective study investigating variability of semen parameters after repeat testing in adolescents with varicocele indicate that a second semen analysis is warranted only when the sperm concentration is initially abnormal.

Value-based payment models tend to fall into three general categories: shared savings programs, capitation models, and episode-of-care models. In this article, Robert A. Dowling, MD, reviews the current landscape of these payment models, including public and private-sector models that may serve as examples for urology.

Clinicians may soon be able to improve the risk stratification of men with prostate cancer with the help of a genomic classifier or a biopsy-based reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assay, according to the results of two studies presented at the Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in Orlando, FL.

A simple blood test that measures PSA structure rather than concentration may be more accurate than PSA in identifying men who need a prostate biopsy, according to the results of a study presented at the Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in Orlando, FL.

Hundreds of urologists visited Capitol Hill last month as part of the Joint Advocacy Conference, where they met with members of Congress on key issues affecting health care, urology, and urology practices. They did so at a historic time, as lawmakers sought to enact Republican legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

Abraham Morgentaler, MD, shares why the recent publication of five studies on testosterone therapy in JAMA and JAMA Internal Medicine "was arguably the most important week ever for the science of testosterone therapy and its impact on men's health."