Anesthesia Industry eAlerts
Sent to subscribers every Monday morning, our eAlerts deliver timely updates on regulatory, legislative and practice management developments of interest to anesthesia professionals.
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eAlerts
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Counting the Minutes: A Fresh Look at Anesthesia Time
June 15, 2020
As lockdowns are easing and elective surgeries are expanding, it may be a good time for anesthesiologists and anesthetists to refamiliarize themselves with one of the foundational components of their claims for services: anesthesia time. While some of our readers are already masters at understanding and implementing such concepts as “start time” and “stop time,” many are not. In fact, it is often surprising to see that in a group of anesthesia providers, who have been working together for years, not all are on the same page as to when they should begin or end anesthesia time. Furthermore, the beginning and end of a case are not the only issues the anesthesia provider must consider when it comes to time.
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Evaluating the Anesthesia Employment Option
June 8, 2020
The majority of American anesthesia providers pride themselves on working for private groups. There is a strong tradition of independent practice in this country. Anesthesia providers believe they are most productive in a group setting where they have an incentive to work hard. This model has assumed that there was sufficient work and an adequate payer mix for the practice to collect enough professional fee income to cover the costs of the staff required. Unfortunately, hospital coverage requirements have long since outstripped the revenue potential of most hospitals, and this has created the need for financial support to the anesthesia practice. While 75% of all anesthesia practices get some form of financial support from the facilities they support, the need for such support has been increasing in most locations. Increasingly, negotiations for this support can become contentious. After a few rounds of negotiating with the existing group practice, some facility administrators have elected to explore other options, such as offering a request for proposal (RFP) to potential bidders or an employment model. Neither of these options will be viewed with much favor by the current anesthesia group.
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HHS Stimulus Attestation Reminder and Update on PPP Rules
June 2, 2020
Update on Stimulus Funds Timelines to Comply with Regulations
On May 22, 2020, the deadline established by the HHS for healthcare providers to attest to the receipt of payments from the Provider Relief Fund was increased from 45 days to 90 days from the date of payment. The original deadline was previously increased by HHS from 30 days to 45 days.
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Message to our Clients, our Partners and our Readership
June 1, 2020
When one of us can’t breathe, none of us can breathe. I can no longer sit silent while our communities continue to suffer. While I do not condone violence of any kind, there are members of our society who have been marginalized and have been suffering for far too long. At MiraMed, we stand with our black and brown brothers and sisters as they seek equality in every form and at all levels of our society.
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Adding to the Tool Chest: Virtual Visits for Chronic Pain
June 1, 2020
Many of our chronic pain clients have fully embraced telehealth and other virtual services as a means of augmenting their practice during the national health emergency (NHE). The advantage of adding these new implements to the clinical tool chest is that they allow providers to continue their diagnosis and treatment of patients without unduly risking the spread of viral agents. Many, however, are unsure about the rules for documenting and billing these services, as well as the scope of services that are actually available. This is certainly understandable as there has been a proliferation of new rules addressing virtual visits in recent weeks—with perhaps more changes to come.
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Assessing the Impact of Unemployment on Anesthesia Practices
May 26, 2020
Each week, we are all updated on the growing ranks of the nation’s unemployed. State lockdowns have resulted in some unimaginable unemployment numbers in every state. As of May 21, another 2.4 million workers were added to the jobless rolls, bringing the total to 38.6 million—and this number represents just the individuals who were actually able to file. Some states have reported such a volume of unemployment claims that many people were not even able to complete the process. As traumatic as it is to lose a job, typically this involves loss of insurance as well. COBRA may be an option for some, but it is usually prohibitively expensive, and so an ever-increasing number of Americans are simply going without.
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Elective Surgery Ramp-up Revelations: Anesthesiologists & CRNAs Respond to Survey
May 18, 2020
One of the things that never changes is that there will always be change. Nothing stays the same; and that remains true when it comes to the current national nightmare we have all been enduring. The new normal we have been living in these past few months, with its school closings and store shutdowns and unprecedented joblessness and increasing hopelessness, will change; and it will change for the better. We are already seeing signs of a return to normalcy, with governments easing lockdown rules and travel restrictions in many areas. But what about the healthcare sector—the industry most affected by the COVID crisis? To what extent are we seeing change there?
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ASA COVID-19 Town Hall Webinar - May 14, 2020 at 7PM CDT
May 13, 2020
As we continue to monitor developments surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the government's response to the viral outbreak, ABC will update our client-partners as appropriate. Accordingly, we wish to pass on to you the following information from the ASA and the APSF, which we hope you will find helpful during this time of uncertainty.
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Anesthesia Asks: Who Are COVID-19 Patients?
May 11, 2020
An eminent biology professor at Georgetown University, Father Bauer, was known for reminding his students that if they could agree on the problem, they would be able to agree on the solution. That maxim may prove useful in helping us to deal with the current crisis we're facing in healthcare. Providers confronted with a challenge that appears to defy categorization, especially for the anesthesia provider. As a respiratory virus, COVID-19 is not only insidious; it is protean. One never knows exactly how severe the virus will be or what systems will be affected. Most patients never show any symptoms while others suffer horribly.
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ABC Alerts to Special ASA/ACHE Joint Webinar – May 7, 2020 at 7PM CDT
May 6, 2020
As we continue to monitor developments surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the government's response to the viral outbreak, ABC will update our client-partners as appropriate. Accordingly, we wish to pass on to you the following information from the ASA and the ACHE, which we hope you will find helpful during this time of uncertainty.
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Virtual Visits: Anesthesia Meets Telemedicine
May 4, 2020
A pop diva from the 1980s once boldly declared that we are living in a material world. While that remains the case to be sure, we can add to that maxim that we are increasingly living in a virtual world, as well. This is especially true in the age of COVID. Over the last few years, many had already begun the practice of replacing face-to-face relationships with those that flourished online inside of chat rooms and remote work stations and interactive gaming parties. With the advent and spread of the coronavirus, the previous trend toward virtual interaction has now been accelerated and solidified. As we all know, the recent calls for social distancing and sheltering in place have been extended to the health delivery space, hence the new rules involving virtual medicine coming out of Washington.
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Anesthesia Business Consultants Leverages Artificial Intelligence to Predict Practice Performance Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic
April 28, 2020
Anesthesia Business Consultants has leveraged its artificial intelligence platform, F1RSTAI, to evaluate patient outcomes as it relates to COVID-19 infections and has built regional and practice specific projections on future financial trends and impacts of the COVID-19 disease.
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UPDATE: HHS Stimulus Round No. 2 - $20 Billion General Distribution Fund
April 27, 2020
As we continue to monitor developments surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the government's response to the viral outbreak, ABC will update our client-partners as appropriate. Accordingly, we wish to pass on to you the following information from HHS which we hope you will find helpful during this time of uncertainty.
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The Impact of Coronavirus on Anesthesia Practices
April 27, 2020
Over the course of its history as a specialty, anesthesia has been the subject of many legislative and financial challenges, including Medicare concurrency billing guidelines, capitation and managed care contracting. In each case, the advanced press ultimately turned out to be much more traumatic than the actual implementation. And now another next-level challenge threatens the specialty status quo: the coronavirus. While it is now clear that this virus will forever change the way medicine is provided and administered in this country the impact on anesthesia may not be so grim. A review of the actual impact of the virus on surgical case volumes is clearly eye-opening but may provide some useful insight into what a recovery could look like.
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CMS Reevaluates Accelerated Payment Program and Suspends Advance Payment Program
April 26, 2020
As we continue to monitor developments surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the government's response to the viral outbreak, ABC will update our client-partners as appropriate. Accordingly, we wish to pass on to you the following informtion from CMS which we hope you will find helpful during this time of uncertainty.
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Blue Shield of California Updates Details on Financial Support Options to Healthcare Providers in Response to COVID-19 Crisis
April 24, 2020
As we continue to monitor developments surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the government's response to the viral outbreak, ABC will update our client-partners as appropriate. Accordingly, we wish to pass on to you the following information from Blue Shield of California, which we hope you will find helpful during this time of uncertainty.
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HHS Stimulus Round No. 2 - $20 Billion
April 24, 2020
The HHS.gov website has posted the following information pertaining to the next round of the Provider Relief Fund. https://www.hhs.gov/provider-relief/index.html
Note: automatic payments will be received tomorrow April 24th for those facilities that cost report. All other eligible providers will be required to apply for additional stimulus funds via a portal that is scheduled to open shortly.
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COVID-19 Town Hall Webinar Thursday April 23 Hosted by the ASA
April 22, 2020
As we continue to monitor developments surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the government's response to the viral outbreak, ABC will update our client-partners as appropriate. Accordingly, we wish to pass on to you the following information from the ASA and their partners, which we hope you will find helpful during this time of uncertainty.
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Now It’s Your Turn: Anesthesia Groups Speak Out on COVID
April 20, 2020
The coronavirus (COVID) crisis currently assailing the citizens of the United States is not uniform in its coverage or consistent in its severity. While it is true that every state has reported residents with the ailment, some regions and cities are being hit harder than others. Only last Mondaydid Wyoming see its first fatality from the virus, while the disease has been ravaging cities like New York and New Orleans for weeks. It stands to reason then that anesthesia providers across the country are perhaps experiencing different repercussions in their practices that may result from varying levels of COVID cases in these locations.
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ASA Joint Statement: Roadmap for Resuming Elective Surgery after COVID-19 Pandemic
April 17, 2020
As we continue to monitor developments surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the government's response to the viral outbreak, ABC will update our client-partners as appropriate. Accordingly, we wish to pass on to you the following information for the ASA and their partners, which we hope you will find helpful during this time of uncertainty.
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SPECIAL ALERT: Federal Government Grants $30 Billion to Providers
April 16, 2020
The stimilus money in your account, is it really a "no-strings-attached"grant? In an effort to help financially struggling practices during the COVID-19 crisis, the government has begun sending funds directly into the bank accounts of solo practitioners and medical groups. Here are the highlights:
