Each week the Wyoming Medical Society receives a number of webinar, CME, and other conference opportunities which we share with our members without endorsement. This week’s list includes:
Announcements
Why do death certificates matter? Death certificates are arguably the most important legal documents in the United States. The reporting of death began in the 1900s. Since then, information gleaned from death certificates has helped fund and manage healthcare programs and affected numerous public policies. Knowing who is dying, as well as how, when and where people die allows us to monitor how our society is changing. To learn more about death certificates in Wyoming, visit Vital Statistics Services, part of the Wyoming Department of Health, online here. For more information, contact Guy Beaudoin at 777-6042.
The Physicians Foundation conducts biennially one of the largest and most widely referenced physician surveys undertaken in the United States. The survey is intended to provide a “state of the union” of the medical profession and to give physicians a voice with policy makers and the public.
The press release may be useful in this effort. Please note The Physicians Foundation is collecting responses from March-May 2016. We appreciate you sharing the survey with your members after March 1.
Click here to participate in the survey.
The Medicare Learning Network’s MLN Connects E-Newsletter is available here. Among the subjects the newsletter touches on include: Provider Enrollment Revalidation Call; A Medicare Acronyms Education Tool; and an updated FAQ Sheet regarding HR Incentive Programs. Their Feb. 25 issues of the eNews contains stories about new educational web guides, as well as a fact sheet about ambulatory surgical centers and their fee schedule.
CMS is proposing new regulations that implement additional provider enrollment provisions of the Affordable Care Act to help make certain that entities and individuals who pose risks to the Medicare program and beneficiaries are kept out of or removed from Medicare for extended periods. These enhancements, if finalized, would allow CMS to take action to remove or prevent the enrollment of health care providers and suppliers that attempt to circumvent Medicare’s enrollment requirements through name and identity changes as well as through elaborate, inter-provider relationships. For more information, click here.
CMS also released a reminder for physicians and teaching hospitals to complete open payments system registration. the Open Payments system is available for Physician and Teaching Hospital registration. The review and dispute period for physicians and teaching hospitals is targeted to start in April 2016. Just a reminder, only information that has been submitted in the current program year is eligible for review and dispute.For more information, click here.
On Thursday, February 25, 2016 at 2:00 pm Mountain Time, the CMS Denver Regional Office will be holding a webinar for stakeholders to discuss the recently announced Accountable Health Communities (AHC) Model. The AHC Model is intended to address the critical gap between clinical care and community services in the current healthcare delivery system. To participate in the call, click here, or call 1-877-267-1577; WebEx Meeting Number: 997 923 634.
Last week, in the Federal Register, FDA is announced two upcoming meetings of the Pediatric Advisory Committee (PAC) that relate to the use of prescription opioid analgesics in pediatric patients. The FDA is calling on a broad range of independent experts with real-world experience to provide recommendations on how to address the unique needs of children in pain. The joint meeting in September will include experts from the FDA’s Pediatric Advisory Committee, Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee, and Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee. For more information, click here.
CDC has updated its interim guidelines for healthcare providers who care for infants and children with possible Zika virus infection. Click here for more information. Big changes in policy include:
- A new recommendation that infants with typical head size, normal ultrasounds, and a normal physical exam born to mothers who traveled to or lived in areas with Zika do not require any special care beyond what is routinely provided to newborns.
- A new recommendation to suspect Zika virus disease in children, in addition to infants, who have traveled to or lived in an area with Zika within the past 2 weeks and have at least two of these symptoms: fever, rash, red eyes, or joint pain. Because transmission of Zika virus from mother to infant during delivery is possible, this recommendation also applies to infants during the first 2 weeks of life whose mother traveled to or resided in an affected area within 2 weeks of delivery.
Doctors without Borders has a recruitment webinar scheduled for 5 p.m. on Feb. 25. Space is limited and Doctors without Borders is requesting those interested register for a spot at the webinar here.
Attached is the winter edition of Case Review Connections from KEPRO, a quarterly e-newsletter from your Beneficiary and Family Centered Care Quality Improvement Organization (BFCC-QIO). The links below provide success stories, frequently asked questions, information about appeals, and more. We hope you find Case Review Connections informative and welcome new topics you would like to see featured.Ther are two subjects in this edition, this one for acute care physicians, and this from post-acute care physicians.
Denver-based healthcare service company RT Welter, distributed its monthly newsletter, which included stories on Reporting and Returning of Self-Identified Overpayments; Value-Based Contracting; and new coding tools.
Conferences
Lifestyle Medicine 2016 Conference. Sponsored by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine October 23-26, 2016 at the Naples Grande Resort in Naples, Florida. The nation’s premier medical education event exclusively focused on lifestyle in medicine and lifestyle as medicine. Please visit http://www.lifestylemedicine.org/Lifestyle-Medicine-Conference for more information.
Webinars
On Friday, Feb. 26 at 10 a.m., PCSS-O offers a webinar called “Opioid Use in Acute and Chronic Headache Medicine. There is little or no evidence pointing to the efficacy of long-term use of opioids to treat chronic pain. Considering alternatives to opioid treatment such as injection therapies, adjunctive nontraditional procedures and medicines, and even surgical interventions can improve quality of care.