Each week the Wyoming Medical Society receives a number of emails and letters offering its physicians webinars, conferences, or other information. In this section we share that information without endorsement.
Announcements
On Monday May 8, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) mailed letters to Medicare-enrolled clinician practices identified by a taxpayer identification number (TIN) informing them of their Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) Participation status. The letter informed clinicians if they, or the individuals in their group are exempt from MIPS. The letter also called clinicians to review the information and determine whether they plan to participate as a group or if the clinicians within the group will participate individually. As a follow-up, CMS is releasing a provider look-up tool, a web-based system that allows providers to verify their status.
Providers’ Clinical Support System for Opioid Therapies has launched a comprehensive course, giving clinicians a solid base of opioid prescribing protocol for chronic pain. The curriculum was created in an effort to consolidate the vast amount of information available to clinicians into a course that provides information, resources, and knowledge clinicians need to treat patients who suffer from chronic pain, including non-pharmacological treatments. The result is the most comprehensive and up-to-date curriculum developed thus far for the treatment of chronic pain.
Publications
The National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners has released its spring 2017 publication with stories on the NCCDP’s Educator of The year, as well as new certifications available.
The American Academy of Family Physicians has sent its members its May/June publication of Family Practice Management. Click here for stories on Preparing for Value-Based Payments; A Simple Approach to Shared Decision Making and more.
MLNConnects, the Official CMS news from the Medicare Learning Network published its May 11 edition with posts on Open Payments Program; the 2018 Medicare Shared Savings Program, and tips on requesting appeal redeterminations. In its May 18 edition, MLNConnects features posts on Clinical Laboratories; National Health Awareness Month, and Reporting Changes in Ownership.
The American College of Physicians (ACP), a PCSS partner organization, has issued a position paper in which it describes substance use disorder as a treatable chronic medical condition.
DPC Journal’s monthly publication dropped this week with stories about Qliance’ closure, as well as clinics inside of Wal-Marts.
Webinars/Conferences
Mountain Pacific Quality Health continues its Adult Immunization NetConference Series May 24 and 31 at 10 a.m. Please join the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for a NetConference series on Vaccinating Adults. Experts will present on promoting, administering and securing reimbursement for adult immunizations. This collaborative effort between the CDC and Maryland Partnership for Prevention and the state immunization program, will address key issues related to protecting adults from vaccine-preventable diseases.
General Dynamics Information Technology, Inc offers its next webinar, called “Our Military Health System (MHS) Speaker Series” on 31 May 2017 from 7:00 a.m. – 1:55 p.m. The webinar will cover the DHA-Immunization Healthcare Branch’s Collaborative Adverse Events Reporting System.
Mountain Pacific Quality Health offers an introduction to building and governing your HIPAA Compliance Program via webinar from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 25. This webinar will help you to establish a foundation for your organizations HIPAA compliance efforts and increase your comfort level as a privacy and/or security officer.
HITECH Answers offers a live webinar with a Q&A session at 1:30 p.m. on May 24. The subject matter will be Practice Performance Benchmarks – What does it take to thrive? Learn the secrets behind high performance based on a comprehensive survey of over 2,000 medical groups across collections, provider satisfaction, patient volume, locations, and providers.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is holding several workshops on pain at the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) annual meeting, May 20 – 24 in San Diego, CA. Sessions include: The Role of the General Psychiatrist in the Management of Patients with Pain; In the Wake of the CDC Opioid Guidelines and the National Pain Strategy: Treating the Patient with Pain and Addiction; Pain and Psychiatry; and What is Pain to the Brain?
HITECH offers an upcoming webinar on Improving Revenue Integrity with Predictive Analytics at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, May 24. Attend this webinar to learn what predictive analytics is, how it works, and how it can be applied to hospital and health system RCM to uncover missing charges and millions in recoverable net revenue.
Providers’ Clinical Support System for Medication Assisted Treatment (PCSS-MAT) recently launched its free 24-hour coursespecifically developed for nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) to treat opioid use disorder (OUD). PCSS-MAT is jointly providing the course with continuing education by the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) and American Academy of PAs (AAPA).
HITECH features a 2017 Internet Security Threat Report and HIPAA Chat with Guest and Health IT Officer David Finn at 11 a.m. on May 25. Despite increased spending on IT, healthcare still lags behind other industries particularly other regulated industries like finance or government. In fact, Symantec’s newly released 2017 Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR) for Healthcare found the industry contributed to the second highest number of security incidents in the services sector in 2016.
Join your colleagues at the American Medical Association Organized Medical Staff Section (OMSS) Annual Meeting, June 8–10, in Chicago to discuss issues vital to medical staff physicians. Visit the AMA-OMSS Annual Meeting web page for complete meeting details. Members attend free. Register online before 3 a.m. Eastern time, Saturday, May 27 (AMA login required).