1. Medical Board Changes CME Reporting Requirements
New CME reporting requirements recently passed by the medical board take effect in 2009. Physicians will now be required to complete 50 CME hours during every two-year licensure period. Previously, physicians were required to complete 100 hours every four years. CME will also be calculated based on the physician’s personal license renewal date (the last day of the month of your birthday), not the calendar year.
CMA’s Institute for Medical Quality’s CME Certification Program, now in its 32nd year, documents and verifies physician participation in approved postgraduate education and other CME activities. IMQ has modified its processes to adapt to the medical board’s new reporting requirements. Reporting forms will be automatically mailed quarterly to physicians with license expiration dates in the following quarter. (IMQ’s CME reporting form is also available online.)
Once a completed form has been received by IMQ, the physician’s self-reported CME will be verified for compliance with medical board requirements. Certification acknowledgements will be mailed to physicians within 4 weeks of receipt.
In addition to satisfying the medical board’s licensure requirements, IMQ’s CME certification when completed annually also satisfies eligibility requirements for IMQ’s Certificate in Continuing Medical Education and AMA’s Physician Recognition Award.
IMQ’s CME certification is $29 for members, $49 for nonmembers. Physicians also can request that their CME certification information be sent to hospitals, health plans, specialty societies, and others for credentialing or membership renewal purposes, without additional charge.
Click here for more information.
Contact: Paulette Richardson, 415/882-3387 or prichardson@imq.org.
2. Obama Administration Looks at Health Care Reform
Led by recently named Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Daschle, the incoming Obama Administration is already working on health care reform, urging Americans around the country to hold town hall meetings on health reform by December 31. These meetings are just the initial step in what will be a long debate on how to reform health care.
CMA is also organizing separate meetings with Daschle and President-Elect Obama’s health care transition team on behalf of California physicians. The Obama team is mainly interested in discussing coverage, access, quality improvement, and how to rein in the costs of health care.
Given the December 31 deadline for town hall meetings, CMA encourages physicians who are interested in sharing their thoughts on health care with the incoming Administration to do so online at http://www.change.gov.
CMA encourages you to share your thoughts with us as well. You can e-mail your thoughts to CMA’s Samara Geller at sgeller@cmanet.org.
Click here for more information.
Contact: Elizabeth McNeil, 415/882-3376 or emcneil@cmanet.org.
3. Physicians Can Earn 2% Medicare Bonus for e-Prescribing
Physicians who use qualified e-prescribing systems to transmit prescriptions to pharmacies can earn a bonus payment of 2 percent of their total Medicare allowed charges during 2009. This new incentive is in addition to the 2 percent bonus for participating in the quality reporting program and the 1.1 percent general payment update.
To be eligible for the e-prescribing bonus, the services linked to e-prescribing measures must make up at least 10 percent of your Medicare charges for the year. You must also use a qualified electronic prescribing system that can:
- Generate a complete medication list with available data from pharmacies and benefit managers.
- Select medications and transmit prescriptions electronically (not via fax) following applicable federal standards, after warning the prescriber of any possible safety issues associated with the drug orders.
- Provide information on lower-cost, therapeutically appropriate alternatives.
- Provide drug plan information, such as formularies, patient eligibility, and authorization requirements.
Click here for more information.
Contact:
Desiree Rice, 916/551-2865 or drice@cmanet.org.
4. Deadline to Make Medicare Participation
Decisions for 2009 Is 12/31
It is the time of year again when physicians must make decisions about their Medicare participation. Physicians who wish to change their participation status for 2009 must do so by December 31.
Physicians have three choices regarding Medicare: be a participating provider; be a nonparticipating provider; or opt out of Medicare entirely.
- A participating physician must accept Medicare allowed charges as
payment in full for all Medicare patients.
- A nonparticipating provider can choose to accept or not accept assignment on Medicare claims on a claim-by-claim basis. Nonparticipating physician fees are 95 percent of participating physician fees. If you choose not to accept assignment, you can charge the patient 9.25 percent more than the amounts allowed in the participating physician fee schedule.
- Physicians who opt out of Medicare are bound only by their private contracts with their patients. Medicare’s limiting charges do not apply to these contracts, but Medicare does specify that these contracts contain certain terms. When a physician enters into a private contract with a Medicare beneficiary, both the physician and patient agree not to bill Medicare for services provided under the contract. Once you opt out, you cannot opt back in for two years.
For more information on your participation options, see CMA ON-CALL document #0151, “Medicare Participation (and Nonparticipation) Options.” ON-CALL documents are free to members at the members-only website. Nonmembers can purchase ON-CALL documents for $2 per page in the CMA bookstore.
Contact:
Michele Kelly, 916/551-2862 or mkelly@cmanet.org
5. Order CMA’s 2009 Model Medical Staff Bylaws
CMA’s 2009 Annotated Model Medical Staff Bylaws are now available. These model medical staff bylaws are the definitive guide for medical staffs, providing details on professional and legal structures to support effective medical staff operations. The model bylaws are fully annotated to provide background information on critical provisions, including explanations of relevant state and federal laws, hospital accreditation standards, and other explanatory information.
New to this year’s bylaws are provisions that give medical staffs the flexibility to enable more physicians to have input into quality of care decisions, help manage judicial review committee conflicts of interest, and ensure fair peer review. The Model Medical Staff Bylaws have also been updated to reflect the Joint Commission’s new accreditation standards numbering system and Elements of Performance.
The bylaws are free to members of CMA’s Organized Medical Staff Section (OMSS). Nonmember medical staffs pay $1,000. Place your order online in the CMA Bookstore or by phone at 800/882-1262.
Contact: Valerie Satt, 916/551-2053 or medstaffhelp@cmanet.org.
6. CMA Foundation Publishes 2009 Antibiotic Awareness Tool Kit
The CMA Foundation’s Alliance Working for Antibiotic Resistance Education (AWARE) project has published its 2009 antibiotic awareness tool kit for physicians and other clinicians. The tool kit contains an array of clinical resources and patient education materials to help reduce inappropriate antibiotic use.
Visit http://www.aware.md for more information.
Contact: Shannon Eldridge, 916/779- 6629 or seldridge@thecmafoundation.org.
7. Save the Date: 2009 Leadership Academy
Mark your calendars for CMA’s 12th Annual California Health Care Leadership Academy, April 24-26 at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.
This year’s conference will feature presentations on health system reform in a new era of Washington politics, the “medical home” and other emerging models for the delivery of quality care, the promises and perils of hospital EHR initiatives, health disparities, and more.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to participate in breakout workshops on topics ranging from survival strategies for practicing in a turbulent economy, to mitigating malpractice risk, developing leadership skills, and more.
The California Medical Group Management Association is partnering with CMA on the 2009 conference and will sponsor an exhibit hall with more than 50 vendors. More information will be available in January.
Contact: Roger Purdy, 916/444-5532 or rpurdy@cmanet.org.
8. Member Benefit of the Week: 30-50% off Epocrates
CMA members receive 30 percent off one-year subscriptions and 35 percent off two-year subscriptions to any Epocrates product. Students and residents receive 50 percent off all Epocrates products. Group discounts are also available.
Epocrates provides physicians with point-of-care access (via PDA/smartphone, or online) to up-to-date information on drugs, diseases, and diagnostics. Epocrates allows physicians to make better clinical decisions, saving time and improving quality of care.
To receive your discount, log in to the members-only website and follow the links to the Epocrates website.
Click here for more information on your membership benefits.
Contact: CMA’s member help line, 800/786-4CMA or vsatt@cmanet.org.
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