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
The Wyoming Medicare Medical Director from Noridian Healthcare Solutions, Dr. Charles Haley, would like to meet with any physician to answer any Medicare related questions from 10-11:30 A.M. prior to our closed Contractor Advisory Committee meeting on Wednesday June 8, 2016. Interested physicians may came to the Wyoming Medical Society located at 122 E 17th St, Cheyenne. For more information, contact Maggie Abraham, RN at: maggie.Abraham@noridian.com or 701-433-3408.
CMS will be in Casper August 18 for its Medicare Train the Trainer event. The audience for the training is Medicare advocates (State Health Insurance Program, Area Agency on Aging, and not necessarily a provider training). That same week, CMS wants to build a Provider Rural Road Show to meet small rural providers and hear their concerns with Medicare and Medicaid programs, and to offer its help with their CMS issues. CMS would like to speak to to physicians along I-25 in mid-August. If interested, contact Dennis DelPizzo at dennis.delpizzo@cms.hhs.gov or 303-844-1994.
Better Health = Better You, a Chronic Disease Self Management Program (CDSMP) offers a lay leader training June 13-16 at the Laramie County Senior Activity Center in Cheyenne. The program will also extend the program in coming months to Natrona County in the coming months. CDSMP is a self-management education intervention for adults with chronic health conditions like arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, and lung disease. People with more than one chronic condition may find the program especially helpful. The evidence-based program is presented through a grant to the Southern Wyoming Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP). Click here for more information.
On May 11, OSHA released a final rule to modernize injury data collection to better inform workers, employers, the public, and OSHA about workplace hazards. With this new rule, OSHA is applying the insights of behavioral economics to improve workplace safety and prevent injuries and illnesses. OSHA requires many employers to keep a record of injuries and illnesses to help these employers and their employees identify hazards, fix problems and prevent additional injuries and illnesses. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports more than three million workers suffer a workplace injury or illness every year. Currently, little or no information about worker injuries and illnesses at individual employers is made public or available to OSHA. Under the new rule, employers in high-hazard industries will send OSHA injury and illness data that the employers are already required to collect, for posting on the agency’s website. The new requirements take effect August 10, 2016, with phased in data submissions beginning in 2017. These requirements do not add to or change an employer’s obligation to complete and retain injury and illness records under the Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses regulation. For more information see the news release and blog post by Deputy Secretary of Labor Chris Lu, and visit OSHA’s webpage on the final rule, which includes links to a fact sheet and frequently asked questions.
The California Academy of Family Physicians announced its new podcast series focused on the end of life conversations: The Talk. The Talk features family physicians, palliative care specialists, an ethicist and others describing their experiences with patients at the end-of-life. The Talk is one of many new resources available in CAFP’s End-of-Life Conversations initiative including an ABFM Part IV Maintenance of Certification Module, a guide to weaving palliative care into your practice.
Review and dispute for the June 30, 2016 Open Payments data publication opened on Friday, April 1, 2016, and will last for 45 days. CMS will publish the 2015 payment data and updates to the 2013 and 2014 data on June 30, 2016. In order for any disputes to be addressed before the June 30th publication, physicians and teaching hospitals must initiate their disputes during the 45-day review period, and industry must resolve the dispute before the publication deadline. Review and dispute is voluntary, but strongly encouraged. For more information about the registration process, visit the physician and teaching hospital registration page on the Open Payments website. Click here to enter the CMS Enterprise Portal.
Conferences
The American Medical Association Organized Medical Staff Section (OMSS) invites you to join them for an opportunity to connect with other medical staff leaders from across the country and take action on issues vital to organized medical staffs and their members. The 2016 AMA-OMSS Annual Meeting is slated for June 9-11 at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago. Register here, or click here for more information.
SGH Department of Otolaryngology is organizing the annual ENT Instructional Course Week, a back-to-back series of ENT cadaveric dissection workshops helmed by renowned International and Local Faculty. This year’s program will be held from July 2-11. Participants will have the opportunity to have hands on dissection on cadavers under the supervision of numerous faculty. Visit www.entfortnight2016.com or email entcourses@sgh.com.sg for more information.
Publications
The United Healthcare Bulletin for May was released earlier this month. In this issue, you will find articles about: Quality Improvement Programs; UnitedHealthcare Contracts with Fixed-Wing Air Ambulance Services; Participation Status in Harken Health Benefit Plans, and much more.
RTWelter, a Denver-based healthcare services company released its May newsletter, featuring a lead story about The CMS Cycle 2 of the provider and supplier revalidation process as required under the Affordable Care Act. Providers and suppliers will receive a revalidation notice 2-3 months prior to the revalidation date, either by mail or email.
The Doctors Company released its new report, Managing Challenging Patient Relationships, which offers practical techniques for improving or terminating physician’s most difficult patient relationships—and the critical steps you should take to reduce your malpractice risk.
It’s been a while since we have sent out a newsletter which means we have several CMS Provider eNews editions. The May 5 edition offers MACRA information as well as Medicare Coverage of Substance Abuse Services MLN Matters. The May 12 edition has updates on data initiatives to increase transparency of Medicare; and the HHS award of over $260 million to Healthcenters nationwide to build and renovate facilities to serve more patients.
The American Association of Family Physicians released its May publication with posts on coding and encouraging literacy in your practice.
The AMA released its May edition of the AMA Organized Medical Staff Section with posts on the OMSS Annual Meeting; the future of medicine; and a free webinar on Medical staff assessment of competency in aging physicians.
Webinars
WMS has an InReach catalog of online CME opportunities here, complete with some featured CMEs which are rotated monthly.
HITECH offers a few upcoming webinars including: ABCs of MIPS to learn the implementation of MACRA/MIPS – May 19, 2 pm EDT and a HIPAA Chat to discuss the HIPPA Compliance – May 23, 2 pm EDT.
Becker’s Hospital Review offers a webinar called, “From the Front Lines, Navigating the Out-of-Network Landscape,” on May 17 from noon-1 p.m. Join John Bartos, Chief Executive Officer of Collect Rx, as he helps you navigate the complexities of the out-of-network landscape. The webinar will cover the future of out-of-network, the tactics used by insurance companies’ outsourced vendors to reduct payment, common mistakes that can cost you money, and the truth of the benefit process.
If you find yourself in Baltimore on May 24, CMS, American College of Physicians, and other groups will put on an educational event and webinar surrounding Medicare Reimbursement. The event takes place from 10 a.m.-3:45 p.m. Eastern Time on May 24 at the CMS Central Office, 7500 Security Blvd, Baltimore MD. If you aren’t eating stone crab that day and still want in on the event, you can see the educational event on youtube here in the morning or here in the afternoon.
PSS-O has released an archived webinar called, “Putting Naloxone Into Action, sponsored by the College pf Psychiatric and Neurological Pharmacists. Prescription drug and opioid overdoses continue to rise in the United States Communities with Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution (OEND) programs have demonstrated how effective this practice can be in the number of lives reported to have been saved. Legislation to allow access to naloxone for non-medical people has also been passed by many states.
CareVitality, Inc. has reached out to WMS to offer their services for seminars/webinars to organizations interested in educating physicians on value-based case incentive programs, such as Medicare’s Chronic Care Management Program. She can discuss ways that these programs improve quality, and physician burnout. CareVitality seminars are available for CME credit. For more information check out: www.carevitality.com.
PSS-O also offers a module online called, Opioid Use Disorders: The Female Experience. Estimates show women are more likely to abuse prescription opioids than men, and the percentage of women who abuse heroin has increased by 100 percent from 2002 – 2013. Important biopsychosocial gender differences exist which are important for risk factors for developing the disease, trajectory of the disease, and treatment planning, retention, and continued recovery.
On May 24 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. PSS-O will sponsor a webinar called Co-occurring Psychiatric Illness and Substance Abuse in Youth. Children and adolescents with mental health symptoms are highly vulnerable to initiating substance use, including non-medical use of prescription opioids. During this webinar aimed at general pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists, we will review relevant clinical epidemiology on co-occurring psychiatric illness and substance use disorder; provide tools to aid in recognizing symptoms of common psychiatric illness; and demonstrate sample approaches to substance use screening with focus on detecting risk in settings where opioids may be prescribed.