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Good morning. Yesterday’s game wasn’t the most exciting, but luckily the third place game on Saturday had all the drama I’d hoped for. Before replaying the highlights, catch up on a bunch of news below.
Some good news re: smoking cessation
Last week, Medicare released proposed changes to the physician fee schedules. A few paragraphs buried in the 1,592-page document indicate that doctors may soon get some financial encouragement to help patients who want to quit smoking, STAT’s Sarah Todd reports.
The proposal says that doctors who offer counseling on quitting cigarettes or other tobacco products during patient visits would get a 19% increase in reimbursement. “We have something to offer these patients,” said Ned Sharpless, a former director of the National Cancer Institute who has long advocated for this sort of change. “Nobody’s getting rich off this, but now it’ll be more on par with other activities.” Read more from Sarah, who was the first to report the news.
