By Allison Sit
Physician organizations including the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) are raising alarm about finalized cuts to the Medicare physician fee schedule for 2024. AAD President Terrence A. Cronin Jr., MD, FAAD, released a statement saying the cuts threaten dermatologists’ ability to care for their patients as the cuts could impact practices’ ability to cover expenses, including equipment, rent and salaries. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is cutting payment for physician services by nearly 3.4% while increasing payment for hospital services by 3.1%.
“These cuts to Medicare physician payments, which have occurred over the past 2 years, arise from a complex set of budgetary rules and systemic flaws in the requirements that, unless addressed, will continue to threaten physicians’ ability to provide care,” Dr. Cronin said. “While hospitals and other providers routinely receive inflation-adjusted rates, physicians are facing real payment cuts. The failure of Medicare physician payments to keep up with inflation is the greatest threat to maintaining seniors’ access to care.”
Dr. Cronin and the AAD are asking Congress to intervene.
A new research center seeks to define and map interactions between the nervous system and the immune system that take place away from the brain, including in the skin. The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group is launching the Allen Discovery Center (ADC) for Neuroimmune Interactions at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The research team, co-led by dermatologist Brian S. Kim, MD, MTR, FAAD, will analyze how these interactions relay a variety of sensations back to the brain and regulate organ physiology and tissue immune responses.
“The goal of the Allen Discovery Center for Neuroimmune Interactions is to exponentially accelerate the frontier of neuroimmunology by bringing together the pioneers who helped shape the emerging field,” said Dr. Kim, who is vice chair of research and professor of dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and director of the Mark Lebwohl Center for Neuroinflammation and Sensation at Mount Sinai.
The team will also look at interactions that take place in the lung and gut surfaces. Funding resulted from an open call for research proposals exploring fundamental paradigm-shifting questions at the intersection of neuroscience and immunology.
Patients with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) now have a new FDA-approved biologic treatment option, the first in nearly a decade. Cosentyx (secukinumab) is the only FDA-approved fully human biologic that directly inhibits interleukin-17A (IL-17A), a cytokine believed to be involved in the inflammation of HS. The FDA approved the drug based on Phase III data in which Cosentyx showed rapid relief from HS symptoms in as soon as the second week of treatment.
“This approval marks an important milestone for countless patients who have been faced with limited treatment possibilities and who now have a new option,” said Alexa B. Kimball, MD, MPH, professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School, and president and CEO of Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston.
Dr. Kimball was the lead investigator of the SUNSHINE and SUNRISE trials, which evaluated Cosentyx across 16-week (vs placebo) and 52-week treatment periods.
