Catherine Hanson, former senior vice president at the American Medical Association and former California Medical Association general counsel, gives an overview of the recent release of Medicare payments to physicians by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and gives advice to physicians on what to do now.

Her top advice: Review your data. "This is not the time to put your head in the sand," she writes. "The 'transparency' genie is not going back in the bottle - ever. And of course, where Medicare goes, private payers usually are not far behind."

Click here to read the full article and receive answers to the questions about what the government has made public, how hard it is to figure out what an individual physician was paid, what physicians should do now, what a physician should do if he or she is not listed, what to do if you feel the information conveyed is misleading, and what to do if the numbers concern you.

Also, Colorado Medical Society President John L. Bender, MD, released a statement on the release of this data. He speaks optimistically, referencing Colorado's All Payer Claims Database and work by CIVHC to interpret complicated health care data for Coloradans. Click here to read Dr. Bender's statement.

Each physician in the United States supports 13.84 jobs on average and contributes $2.2 million in economic output, underscoring how physicians influence the health of both their patients and the economy, according to the AMA's new Economic Impact Study. In Colorado, 12,263 patient care physicians support an average of 10.8 jobs and generate $20.1 billion in economic activity.

The study, prepared by IMS Health and released this week, focuses on physicians who primarily engage in patient care activities, as opposed to those in research or teaching.

Click here to read more about this study.

Each day brings many stressors. The pace is set early in the day. Your schedule is filled with a long list of patients to treat. You may need to see patients who are in pain or crisis, with needs you may or may not be able to meet. And after each patient, of course, you are faced with seemingly endless documentation. Staff and colleagues look to you to make decisions, answer questions and give direction. Phone calls and e-mails require a response. As a physician, you have been trained to stretch and adjust yourself to accommodate these demands and more. Years of practice help to mitigate your reaction to these situations.

You may feel up to the tasks at hand. They may feel energizing and fulfilling. You may greet each new experience with confidence and enthusiasm. But this depends upon the resources you have available to you on any given day. When your needs are met, you are more likely to be able to access seemingly unlimited internal resources. However, when your needs are not met, it can be hard to keep up the pace without it taking its toll.

Maintaining well-being can be a challenge when the work culture and requirements of the job ask you to put your needs behind that of those you serve. So, balancing work and well-being requires making a choice. You need to make an intentional decision to seek out activities that support your well-being. What does this look like? Often, it's as simple as paying attention. Maintaining well-being is also about living in a way that is consistent with your values.

Ask yourself:

• What do your reactions to a specific situation tell you about what you need?
• Does your life reflect the values most important to you?
• What do you value the most?
• How high is your well-being on your list of values?

The Colorado Medical Society has taken on the goal of improving physician wellness and reducing burnout in 2014. We encourage you to comment on this and other wellness web features as the Behavioral Health and Wellness Program develops a toolkit specifically for physicians. Go to www.cms.org/resources/march-choosing-well-being to comment on this post.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will hold its next National Prescription Take-Back Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 26. The seven previous take-back days have removed more than 1,733 tons of unwanted prescription medications from circulation. Go to the DEA website to search for collection locations and view a dropbox location map.

Physicians are encouraged to display the Got Drugs? or Tienes Medicamentos? flyers in their offices to promote the event and help make it another successful take-back day.

Click here for more information.

Make plans to join the Colorado Medical Society for the 2014 CMS Spring Conference, Friday, May 16 - Sunday, May 18, at the Sonnenalp Hotel in Vail. Online registration is now open; click here to register today. Click here to go to the spring conference page of CMS.org.

Under this year's theme, "Narrative as Persuasion: The Proven Effectiveness of Storytelling," CMS has invited top state and national experts to address critical issues facing medicine in Colorado: Liability and patient safety, physician satisfaction and practice sustainability, prescription drug abuse, and access to health care.

Participants will also learn how to apply tangible storytelling skills and acumen from a professional communications consultant in order to more effectively express medicine's message on these and other issues.

We've also built in some extra social time this year to celebrate our profession together. We kick things off Friday night at 6 p.m. with a social in the Kings Club with heavy appetizers, live music, cocktails, dessert and a silent auction benefitting COMPAC.

Registration is free for CMS member physicians and component society staff. Non-CMS member physicians can register for a fee of $125 to cover events and meals. The deadline to reserve a hotel room under the CMS group rate of $155 per night for a junior suite has been extended to May 9, 2014. Reservations can be made by phone through the Sonnenalp reservations department at (800) 654-8312, or online at www.sonnenalp.com.

Click here to view the spring conference agenda.