CMS to publicly release Medicare physician payment data The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced yesterday that it would soon begin publishing individual Medicare physician billing data, despite objections from the American Medical Association (AMA) and other provider groups. CMS intends to publicly post the data as early as April 9. The release will cover some $77 billion worth of Medicare Part B payments made to physicians in 2012 and will include physicians’ provider IDs, their charges, their patient volumes and what they received in reimbursements from Medicare. Individual patient level data will not be released. ... April 9, 2014 Medicare CMS, Medicare, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 0 0 Comment Read More »
HHS releases security risk assessment tool to help providers with HIPAA compliance The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a new tool to help guide health care providers in small to medium sized practices conduct information security risk assessments of their organizations. The tool, available at www.HealthIT.gov, is the result of a collaborative effort by the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and Office for Civil Rights (OCR). It is designed to help practices conduct and document a risk assessment in a thorough, organized fashion at their own pace by allowing them to ... April 9, 2014 General HIPAA, HIT, Medical Records, Health Information Technology 0 0 Comment Read More »
Anthem Blue Cross to host webinars on its exchange products Anthem Blue Cross is inviting physicians to attend a series of special one-hour presentations about their products being offered under Covered California, the state's health benefit exchange. The webinars will be offered in late April and how to confirm participation status, overview of their exchange/mirror product provider networks, plan names, enrollment periods, covered benefits, sample ID cards, risk adjustment and provider resources. Dates and times for the webinars are Tuesday, April 22, from 2-3 p.m., and Tuesday, April 29, from 2-3 p.m. Participants do not need to register to attend, but ... April 4, 2014 General Webinars, Anthem Blue Cross, Covered California, Health Insurance Exchange 0 0 Comment Read More »
Congress passes California Medicare GPCI fix After 10 long years of lobbying efforts by the California Medical Association (CMA), Congress has finally passed a bill to update California's outdated Medicare localities. The long overdue fix will update California’s Medicare physician payment regions to the same Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) used to pay hospitals and raise payment levels for urban counties misclassified as rural, while holding remaining rural counties harmless from cuts. The MSAs used to determine payment rates for hospitals are continuously updated, so that reimbursement accurately reflects local costs to deliver care. The physician payment ... April 4, 2014 Medicare Rural Health, Geographic Practice Cost Index, GPCI, Medicare 0 0 Comment Read More »
Are you using Windows XP? You may need to upgrade Physician offices using Windows XP should be aware that Microsoft will no longer be providing support for Windows XP after April 8, 2014. This means that updates, bug fixes, security patches and troubleshooting will not be available for systems operating Windows XP, making such systems vulnerable to security risks. While the California Medical Association (CMA) has received concerns from physicians who are being told that they will be in "automatic violation of the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)" for using Windows XP after April 8, the HIPAA security ... April 4, 2014 General HIPAA Security Rule, Health Information Technology, HIPAA 0 0 Comment Read More »
SGR patched through for another year Today, the U.S. Senate passed a year-long patch to stop the 24 percent Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) cut that was to go into effect on April 1. The bill, which already passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week, provides a 0.5 percent physician payment update through December 31, 2014, and then a 0 percent update until April 1, 2015. The bill now goes to President Obama for his signature. Congress was again unable to come to an agreement on how to fund a permanent repeal of the badly ... April 4, 2014 Medicare Federal Legislative Advocacy, Medicare, SGR, Sustainable Growth Rate 0 0 Comment Read More »
April - National Donate Life Month In honor of Donate Life Month, the California Medical Association (CMA) and the CMA Foundation are encouraging physicians to talk to their patients about the importance of organ and tissue donation, particularly in underserved ethnic communities. More than 120,000 people are currently waiting for an organ transplant in the United States, more than half of these are multicultural patients. That’s because some diseases of the kidney, heart, lung, pancreas and liver that are best treated through transplantation are found more frequently in these populations. For example, African Americans and other ... April 4, 2014 General Public Health, Organs 0 0 Comment Read More »
Health Advisory - Measles Update - April 2, 2014 Maxwell Ohikhuare, M.D., Health Officer, County of San Bernardino Measles Update: 49 Measles Cases in the State of California in 2014 Look for Signs of this Highly Contagious Disease Measles activity continues to be high in California this year. As of March 27, 2014, 49 confirmed measles cases with onset in 2014 had been reported to California Department of Public Health. In 2013, four measles cases had been reported by this date. Among the 2014 cases, 11 patients had traveled outside of North and South America with travel to the Philippines (n=8), ... April 4, 2014 General Health Advisory, Public Health, Measles 0 0 Comment Read More »
Paid family leave coverage extended Beginning on July 1, California's paid family leave (PFL) program will be expanded to provide benefits to workers who take time off of work to care for a seriously ill parent-in-law, grandparent, grandchild or sibling. This change was prompted by the passage of Senate Bill 770, which was signed into law by Governor Brown on September 24, 2013. Currently, PFL is only available to workers who take time off of work to care for a seriously ill child, parent, spouse or registered domestic partner, or to bond with a minor ... March 28, 2014 General Paid Family Leave (PFL), Disabilities, State Disability Insurance (SDI) 0 0 Comment Read More »
House passes year-long SGR patch, includes California GPCI fix This morning the U.S. House of Representatives passed a year-long patch to stop the Medicare 24 percent sustainable growth rate (SGR) cut on an unusual 30-second voice vote. Unable to come to an agreement on how to fund a permanent repeal of the badly broken formula, despite a bill with bipartisan, bicameral support, Congress appears poised to kick the can down the road for the 17th time in just 10 years. The California Medical Association (CMA) is extremely disappointed that Congress has been unable to find bipartisan funding sources ... March 27, 2014 Medicare Advocacy, GPCI, Medicare, SGR, Federal Legislation 0 0 Comment Read More »
