US physician Medicare program participation and exit, 2013-2023

JAMA

2025-10-20

(Press-News.org) About The Study: This study characterized trends in the number of physicians participating in the Medicare program from 2013 to 2023 and identified physician- and county-level characteristics associated with program exit. Consistent with previous work, this study found a 6.3% increase in participating physicians, but physicians located in nonmetropolitan counties and full-shortage Health Professional Shortage Area counties were more likely to exit the program. The increased likelihood of Medicare program exits will likely reduce access to care for already underserved communities.

Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Christopher M. Whaley, PhD, email christopher_whaley@brown.edu.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jama.2025.15343)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

# # #

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/10.1001/jama.2025.15343?guestAccessKey=9513334e-69db-4d16-985a-6d6331dd97f4&utm_source=for_the_media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=102025

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

A direct-to-patient digital health program for lung cancer screening

2025-10-20

About The Study: Compared with enhanced usual care, a direct-to-patient digital health intervention increased rates of lung cancer screening. Future research should assess the reach and effectiveness of digital lung cancer screening interventions across diverse populations and health care settings. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, David P. Miller, MD, MS, email dmiller@wakehealth.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2025.17281) Editor’s ...

Belgian scientists discover how cells protect our skin from inflammatory disease – paving the way for new treatments

2025-10-20

Ghent, 20 October 2025 – Researchers at VIB and Ghent University have uncovered a key mechanism that protects the skin from harmful inflammation. The findings, published in Immunity, could open new avenues for treating chronic skin diseases and other inflammatory disorders. Our skin is more than just a barrier; it is an active immune organ. When skin cells die in a controlled way, the body usually clears them without issues. But when too many cells die at once or in the wrong way, this process acts like an alarm signal that can trigger conditions such as psoriasis, lupus, or other inflammatory ...

Effectiveness of colchicine for the treatment of long COVID

2025-10-20

About The Study: In this randomized clinical trial, among adults with long COVID, colchicine did not improve functional capacity, respiratory function, or inflammatory markers. These findings underscore the need to explore alternative therapeutic approaches for long COVID. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Niveditha Devasenapathy, PhD, MBBS, MSc, email ndevasenapathy@georgeinstitute.org.in. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.5408) Editor’s Note: Please ...

Distance to care and telehealth abortion demand after Dobbs

2025-10-20

About The Study: Overall, this study observed a doubling in monthly telehealth medication abortion requests across 18 states post-Dobbs, with most requests occurring before 6 weeks of pregnancy and the highest rates among individuals living further from in-person abortion care. These results build upon the researcher’s findings pre-Dobbs, which also demonstrated increased telehealth medication abortion requests among individuals living further from brick-and-mortar facilities. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Amy K. Willerford, MPH, email amykw@uw.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit ...

Epidural electrical stimulation for functional recovery in incomplete spinal cord injury

2025-10-20

Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes paralysis in roughly one million people worldwide, with incident cases rising yearly. Beyond motor and sensory deficits, patients frequently experience muscle atrophy, spasticity, heterotopic ossification, and autonomic dysfunction, all of which severely impair quality of life. Current treatments are rehabilitation-centered; medications, physical therapies, and surgery rarely reverse neural damage. In recent years, epidural electrical stimulation (EES) has emerged as a neurorehabilitation approach. Prior animal and clinical studies suggest that EES, delivered via electrodes implanted ...

Transformative eye research expands donor pool for corneal transplant patients

2025-10-20

CLEVELAND—Many eye banks won’t accept corneas from donors with diabetes, concerned they might be harder to prepare for transplant surgery or are more likely to fail. But a new study led by researchers at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals suggests otherwise. The results, published Oct. 17 in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology, found no significant differences in patients who received corneas from donors with diabetes than from those without the disease one year after the surgery. The implication is that the number of corneas available for transplant worldwide could be ...

Retinal implant restores central vision in patients with advanced AMD, study co-led by Pitt investigator shows

2025-10-20

PITTSBURGH, October 20, 2025 – A wireless retinal implant can restore central vision in patients with advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD), according to clinical trial results published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Advanced atrophic AMD, also known as geographic atrophy (GA), is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in older adults, affecting more than 5 million people worldwide. The international, multi-center trial was co-led by José-Alain Sahel, M.D., director of the UPMC Vision ...

Eye prosthesis is the first to restore sight lost to macular degeneration

2025-10-20

A tiny wireless chip implanted in the back of the eye and a pair of high-tech glasses have partially restored vision to people with an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration. In a clinical trial led by Stanford Medicine researchers and international collaborators, 27 out of 32 participants had regained the ability to read a year after receiving the device. With digital enhancements enabled by the device, such as zoom and higher contrast, some participants could read with acuity equivalent to 20/42 vision. The results of the trial will be published Oct. 20 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The ...

Pioneering eye device restores reading vision to blind eyes

2025-10-20

After being treated with an electronic eye implant paired with augmented-reality glasses, people with sight loss have recovered reading vision, reports a trial involving a UCL (University College London) and Moorfields Eye Hospital clinical researcher. The results of the European clinical trial, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, showed 84% of participants were able to read letters, numbers and words using prosthetic vision through an eye that had previously lost its sight due to the untreatable ...

Subretinal implant partially restores vision in AMD patients

2025-10-20

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) causes progressive vision loss in many elderly people, and no treatment is available for the so-called atrophic form of the disease. A neurostimulation system called Prima, including a subretinal implant, could change all that. The results of a clinical trial involving Inserm, Sorbonne University and CNRS - via the Institut de la vision -, the Hôpital Fondation Adolphe de Rothschild and the Hôpital national des 15-20 show that it partially restored sight in over 80% of participants with AMD, who recovered their ability to read letters, numbers and words. The results are published in the New England journal of medicine. Age-related macular ...

US physician Medicare program participation and exit, 2013-2023

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: