Events, Conferences, and Announcements for September 30

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 Association of Sheriff and Chiefs of Police will host Ben Court, the Professional Relations Director for CeDar, a residential additional and co-occurring disorders treatment program in Denver. Cort has been in the midst of a statewide tour explaining how he has been impacted personally and professionally by marijuana use. Court will be in Laramie on Sept. 29; Rawlins on Oct. 6; :Pinedale on Nov. 2; Rock Springs on Nov. 16; Evanston on Nov. 17; Gillette on Dec. 7; and Douglas on Dec. 8.

The AMA announced newly enhanced version of the AMA Health Workforce Mapper. This interactive tool helps medical associations, legislators or regulators, researchers and others identify underserved patient care areas and understand trends and gaps in patient access to care essential to pursuing a proactive scope of practice advocacy agenda. The tool now includes all physician specialties and subspecialties included in the AMA Masterfile. The new “Population Health Explorer” feature offers data on a variety of population health factors, including health care access and quality, health behaviors such as smoking and alcohol use, demographics, and social environment factors

The Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) Program at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) will be developing a systematic review on Naloxone Guidelines for Emergency Medical Technicians. AHRQ is a government agency tasked with producing evidence to improve the quality of healthcare while working with partners to ensure that the evidence is understood and used. Click here to sign up for updates.

Publications

Mountain Pacific Quality Health offers a new Health Technology Blog for physicians to check out. The Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) blog is designed to provide timely and important PQRS Program information to clinics and hospitals. This blog will help clarify PQRS eligibility and requirements, the value-based modifier program as well as the quality and cost measure information contained in the confidential quality and resource use reports (QRURs).  In addition to giving you helpful tips and best practices, it will also give clinics and hospitals a great way to generate an online dialog with PQRS expert, Sarah Leake.

This month, the AMA released the this press statement that summarizes the key findings of new market analyses of the impact of the proposed Anthem-Cigna and Aetna-Humana health insurance mergers. These analyses coincide with the release of the 2016 Update to the AMA’s Competition in Health Insurance: A Comprehensive Study of U.S. Markets.  Notably, the combined impact of these proposed mergers would diminish competition in many individual insurance markets located in 24 states.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) today released the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, detailing the state of substance use and mental disorders in the nation. According to SAMSHA, an estimated 8.1 million adults (3.3 percent of all adults) had any mental illness and substance use disorder (SUD) in the past year, and 2.3 million adults (1 percent of all adults) had co-occurring serious mental illness and SUDs in the past year. In 2015, only 14 percent of people aged 12 or older (3.0 million people) who needed substance use treatment received treatment in the past year, and 10.8 percent of people aged 12 or older (2.3 million people) who needed substance use treatment received treatment at a specialty facility in the past year.

UnitedHealthcare released its monthly newsletter with stories about UHC On Air, and new and updated link applications.

MLN Connects Provider e-News time. The Sept. 1 edition has a number of posts including the PY 2015 Medicare ACO results; EHR Incentive Payments; and upcoming events. The Sept. 22 edition included posts on Revised CMS-855R Applications for Reassignment of Medicare Benefits; and Reporting Changes in Ownership.

Concierge Medicine Today released it’s October newsletter with posts including a case study on physicians leaving health systems for independent practices, and a list of upcoming events.

The American Academy of Family Practitioners offers its Sept/Oct. 2016 newsletter. It offers posts on using motivational interviewing to promote healthy weight, beating the prior authorization blues, and more.

RT Welter and Associates, a Denver-based physician practices services company, released a writing called, Overcharging, revealed by audits of Medicare Advantage Plans. The company’s newsletter also features a column called, “Fun with ICD-10,” and this week’s entry has to do with mental strain due to work.

Healthcare Supply Chain Association released a publication that is worth a read. It offers information on a JAMA/Harvard School of Medicine study on generic medicine pricing, and a policy position on the spike of generic medication.

SourceMed’s monthly newsletter features posts on how Surgical Centers overcome inventory management issues, as well as Four Cs of Tracking Revenue Cycle KPIs.

Webinars and Conferences

The American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network will host a Palliative Care Policy Forum on Wednesday, Oct. 5 from 2-3:30 p.m. in Cheyenne. The forum will be held in Auditorium B at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center and will focus on the theory that palliative care is more than just hospice. For more information contact Jason Mincer at 307-287-1401 or jason.mincer@cancer.org.

The University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Institute is pleased to announce the registration opening for its 20th anniversary program on Critical Issues Facing Children & Adolescents set for Nov. 3-4 in Salt Lake City. This program is specifically designed for pediatricians, family practitioners, psychiatrists and related professionals. The conference is focused on providing clinicians with the latest knowledge and greatest skills to deal with the youth and families with whom they work. For more information contact Tia D. Korologos at TIA_ESIMGT@msn.com.

The Regions’ VII and VIII Quarterly Stakeholder webinar scheduled for Tuesday, October 25, 2016 from 11:00AM to 12:00PM MT.  Follow the instructions here to register for the event.  Once your registration is accepted, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions for joining the session. Click here to register.

HITECH Answers offers a webinar called Become a PQRS/CQM/MIPS Project Manager in four days (one hour a day). The CPHP Certification provides comprehensive guidance for project managers, practice managers, consultants, eligible professionals (providers) and group practices to understand and participate in the Physician Quality Reporting System and Clinical Quality Measures Program. The course includes a PQRS/MIPS action plan.

Providers Clinical Support System for Opioid Therapies offers a module called The Role of Shame in Opioid Use Disorder. In this module, participants will learn to recognize and treat shame in patients with OUD. Participants will learn about particular subsets of people with OUD who have specific concerns regarding shame, including people who inject heroin, and opioid-addicted pregnant women and mothers.

PCSS-MAT Training offers a new module called Methadone:  Its Role In Opioid Addiction Treatment vs. Pain Management. This module focuses on the role of methadone in opioid use disorder treatment compared to when it is used for pain management. This continues to be an area of confusion among patients and healthcare providers. The module describes key pharmacological differences of methadone for the two indications, including methadone dosing and monitoring considerations.

HITECH Answers is part of the Health IT Answers Network, a company that publishes a series of topic-driven community hub sites dedicated to covering current issues and Federal initiatives driving change in healthcare delivery. On October 4, 2 pm EDT/11 am PDT the podcast will discuss transmission of electronic protected healthcare information (ePHI) in today’s BYOD healthcare environment. We’ll cover BYOD pitfalls and best practices, HIPAA standards for encryption, and common practices and applications used to securely transmit ePHI.

HITECH offers a Protection ePHI in a BYOD World webinar at noon on Oct. 4. Bring your ePHI related questions and join our webinar for another popular discussion and live Q&A event this month on the transmission of sensitive, electronic protected healthcare information (PHI and ePHI) in today’s BYOD healthcare environment. We will cover BYOD pitfalls and best practices, HIPAA standard on integrity and encryption, and common practices and applications used to securely transmit ePHI.