No more free CME dinners at the local steak house?

Check out the March 2007 Medical Meetings article "Stark II Update" authored by Sue Pelletier. Sue relates that the AMA wrote a letter to CMS asking that CMS make an exemption "'that permits physician compensation without financial limit in the form of continuing medical education that is offered for the purpose of ensuring quality patient care.'" And how did CMS respond?:

In a letter the AMA received in March of last year, Mark McClellan, administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said, “After careful review, we do not think that a broad exception is consistent with our statutory mandate to create by regulation only those exceptions that pose no risk of program or patient abuse. In our view, CME provided at no or reduced cost — particularly CME off-site from the hospital — may pose a risk of program abuse.” The good news, however, is that CMS did agree that traditional on-site hospital CME programs, such as grand rounds and tumor boards, don't constitute remuneration to physicians and so should not fall under Stark II rules, Aparicio said.

Click here to read the entire article. CMS should be out with a final rule sometime very soon.