 (click cover to view full brochure) Last Chance To: Receive a FREE Marketing Book (A $129.95 VALUE!) When You Register For The Conference By November 30, 2011 Book Title: Building A Successful Pain Management Practice: The Keys To Effective Strategy Formation And Marketing Books Will Be Provided At The Conference! 21st Century Edge 2012 Pain Practice Management Conference Registration: Click the "Register Now" link to register or call (816) 822-8800. Register by December 19, 2011 and receive the early bird registration rate of only $650 per attendee! After December 19, 2011 the registration cost will be $750 per attendee. Approved For 12 CEU'S From The AAPC! Conference Agenda Thursday, January 19, 2012 __________________________________________________________________ 7:00 am – 8:00 am Registration, Sign In, Breakfast 8:00 am – 9:00 am Health Care Reform Update Linda Van Horn, MBA 9:00 am – 10:00 am 2012 OIG Work Plan and Related Compliance Risks Ken Sandrock, MBA 10:00 am – 10:30 am Refreshment Break 10:30 am – 11:30 am 2012 Pain Coding and Reimbursement Update Linda Van Horn, MBA 11:30 am – 12:30 pm Pain Coding Exercises Using ICD-10 Debbie Nelson, CPC, CPMA 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm Lunch on Your Own 1:45 pm – 2:45 pm Meaningful Use of an EHR’s Linda Van Horn, MBA 2:45 pm – 3:45 pm Social Media Paul Stolecki, MBA 3:45 pm – 4:15 pm Refreshment Break 4:15 pm – 5:15 pm Ask the Experts 5:15 pm Adjourn Friday, January 20, 2012 __________________________________________________________________ 7:00 am – 8:00 am Registration, Sign In, Breakfast 8:00 am – 9:00 am Health Care Trends Linda Van Horn, MBA 9:00 am – 10:00 am 10 Ways to Increase Profit Paul Stolecki, MBA 10:00 am – 11:00 am How Evidence Based Medicine is Being Linda Van Horn, MBA 11:00 am – 12:30 pm Lunch on Your Own 12:30 am – 1:30 pm Pain Coding Tales: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly Debbie Nelson, CPC, CPMA 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm Accountable Care Organizations Ken Sandrock, MBA 2:30 pm Course Adjourn |
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
2012 Pain Practice Management Conference
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
FDA Posts Draft Guidelines for Continuing Education CME to be Offered to Prescribers of Long-Acting Opioids
Since May 11, 2011 the FDA has worked with developers and marketers of long-acting, extended-release opioid drugs to develop a prescriber education program assuring that the drugs will be prescribed appropriately and used safely.
The FDA cites public health estimates that more than 35 million Americans age 12 and older have reported non-medical use of opioid analgesics during 2010, up from 29 million in 20021. In 2009, nearly 342,000 emergency department visits were associated with non medical use of opioid analgesics. In 2007, nearly 28,000 Americans died from unintended consequences of drug use, and of these, nearly 12,000 involved prescription drug pain relievers.
On November 4, 2011, the FDA posted draft guidelines for the continuing education of professionals who prescribe the drugs. The draft provides the basic outline and central messages the FDA wants conveyed to prescribers in a 2 to 3-hour education module. The final guidelines will be posted on the FDA web site for use by continuing education providers and staffs.
The draft guidelines cover 7 basic areas of interest to prescribers:
- Why prescriber education is so important
- Assessing patients for treatment with long-acting opioids
- Initiating therapy, modifying dosage, and discontinuing use
- Therapy management
- Counseling patients and caregivers on safe use
- General opioid drug information
- Product-specific drug information
The FDA intends prescriber training to be conducted by accredited, independent continuing education providers. The instruction will be free to prescribers. Costs will be covered by unrestricted grants to accredited continuing education providers funded by the sponsors.
CMS Delegates Adopt a Policy to Block ICD-10 AMA Says Conversion from ICD-9 Poses Too Many Costs
CMS requires healthcare providers to start using ICD-10 by October 2013, but American Medical Association (AMA) delegates have embraced a resolution to block it.
Delegates to the AMA’s 65th House of Delegates Interim Meeting voted to work toward stopping implementation of diagnosis coding set ICD-10, which is scheduled to replace the current ICD-9 standard for billing medical services. AMA leaders expressed concern over the administrative time and costs associated with the conversion.
"The implementation of ICD-10 will create significant burdens on the practice of medicine with no direct benefit to individual patients' care," said AMA President Peter W. Carmel, MD. "At a time when we are working to get the best value possible for our health care dollar, this massive and expensive undertaking will add administrative expense and create unnecessary workflow disruptions. The timing could not be worse, as many physicians are working to implement electronic health records into their practices.”
The ICD-10 coding system provides much greater detail for describing illnesses and medical conditions, but is much more complex than ICD-9. ICD-10 would impose 69,000 new codes on healthcare providers and coders. In contrast, the current ICD-9 system has only 14,000 codes.
Supreme Court Agrees to Review the Affordable Care Act To Decide If Individual Insurance Mandate is Constitutional
U.S. Supreme Court justices agreed to review the constitutionality of the administration’s federal healthcare law, known as the Affordable Care Act. The justices plan to hear arguments in the case in March.
The central question is whether Congressional lawmakers exceeded their authority to regulate interstate commerce. Opponents of the law, including 26 states led by Florida, argue that they exceeded that authority by requiring people to buy health insurance even if they don’t want it or else pay a penalty.
“The act is without precedent both in its coercive impositions on the states and in its effort to force individuals to engage in commerce so that the federal government may regulate them,” the 26 states argued in a brief filed by former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement.
The question divided the federal appeals courts. Two upheld the law, a third declared it unconstitutional, and a fourth stated that a definitive ruling would be premature. The case is certain to influence the 2012 presidential campaign.
Given its importance, the Supreme Court justices have scheduled 5 1/2 hours of argument to the case instead of the Court’s usual one-hour argument sessions.
CMS Final Physician Rule Calls for 27.4% Pay Cut Budget Impasse Could Block a Legislative Fix This Year
On October 21, 2011, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius approved the Final Rule setting the SGR-based Medicare Part B Physician Fee Schedule for 2012.
Barring Congressional intervention, the Final Rule will cut physician reimbursement and other Medicare Part B payments based on the physician fee schedule by 27.4% effective January 1, 2012.
The cut results from a scheduled reduction in the conversion factor, from its current level of $33.9764 in 2011 to $24.6712, on January 1.
In recent years, Congress intervened legislatively to stop SGR cuts. This time may be different. With lawmakers at an impasse over balancing the budget, it is questionable whether Congress can reach an agreement over any payment fix. In that case, a substantial reduction in physician reimbursement will occur.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
2012 Pain Practice Management Conference
It's Official!
The 2012 Pain Practice Management Conference will be held January 19th & 20th, 2012 at the Sheraton Suite Hotel on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, MO.
21st Century Edge is excited to host this conference that will feature lectures on
Coding, Social Media, Health Care Reform and More!
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