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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COVID-19 Town Hall Webinar Thursday Hosted by the ASA
April 15, 2020
As we continue to monitor developments surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, ABC is working with industry leaders and business partners to bring you the most relevant information during this time of uncertainty. The following is an announcement from the American Society of AnesthesiologistsTM (ASA) regarding a webinar they are hosting tomorrow, April 16, on the COVID-19 crisis. We hope you will find this information helpful, and we encourage your feedback.
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Preparation in the Era of COVID: How Anesthesia Will Need to Adapt
April 13, 2020
There are five phases of an anesthetic: preparation, induction, maintenance, emergence and recovery. It is the standard clinical model that has served as the basis for training today’s anesthesia providers. Over the course of their instruction, anesthesia providers are drilled in clinical decision trees, which is what makes them such effective clinicians in the operating room. With COVID-19 patients, we now see a paradigm shift. Whether patients are being anesthetized in the operating room or treated in the ICU, the coronavirus makes for a much more complicated and challenging clinical experience. One can argue about which of the five phases is the most critical to a successful outcome, but clearly the preparation phase is essential. It is the very unpredictability of COVID-19 complications that compels anesthesia providers to become assiduous students of this virus.
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SPECIAL ALERT: Federal Government Grants $30 Billion to Providers
April 10, 2020
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:
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ABC Asks: How Has COVID-19 Affected Your Anesthesia Practice?
April 7, 2020
As your business partner, ABC is exploring various dimensions of this national crisis.
Because of the unique nature of each of our clients’ practices, your input will be invaluable as we formulate strategies and options for the management of your practice. We ask you to complete the attached survey online and we will share the results in a forthcoming announcement.
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Change in the CRNA Supervision Rule: A New Ballgame for Anesthesia?
April 6, 2020
Among the many emergency rules and waivers the Trump administration has issued over the last few days is a short paragraph concerning physician supervision of CRNAs. Here is the text that was found on the CMS.gov “Newsroom” website:
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Sunday Evening UPDATE on Stimulus for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses
April 5, 2020
ABC is working with industry leaders and business partners to bring you the most relevant information during this coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The following announcement continues our discussions with principals at Grant Thornton, a leading accounting firm with global reach. We hope you will find this information helpful, and we encourage your feedback.
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URGENT UPDATE on Stimulus for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses
April 4, 2020
ABC has been advised by Grant Thornton that the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) updated the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) interim final rule last night. The updated rules now EXCLUDE compensation paid to an Independent Contractor in both the loan and forgiveness calculation. The rules do allow for Independent Contractors to file on their own.
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UPDATE on Stimulus for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses
April 2, 2020
ABC has been advised by Grant Thornton and Citibank (working directly with the U.S. Small Business Administration [SBA]) that the final guidelines for the Paycheck Protection Program will not be available until tomorrow, or even as late as the weekend. The portal to apply will not be open until Monday or Tuesday. The process remains very fluid, please check back for updates as we are closely monitoring.
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COVID-19 Town Hall Webinar Tonight Hosted by the ASA
April 2, 2020
As we continue to monitor developments surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, ABC is working with industry leaders and business partners to bring you the most relevant information during this time of uncertainty. The following is an announcement from the American Society of AnesthesiologistsTM (ASA) regarding a webinar they are hosting tonight on the COVID-19 crisis. We hope you will find this information helpful, and we encourage your feedback.
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Grant Thornton COVID-19 Stimulus for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses At A Glance
April 2, 2020
As we continue to monitor developments surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, ABC is working with industry leaders and business partners to bring you the most relevant information during this time of uncertainty. The following announcement is the result of our discussions with principals at Grant Thornton, a leading accounting firm with global reach. We hope you will find this information helpful, and we encourage your feedback.
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Medicare Fast-tracks Advance Payment to Providers
March 31, 2020
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a fact sheet explaining how it intends to put money directly into the hands of professional clinicians and hospitals whose surgical caseloads—and income—have plummeted due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. According to the fact sheet, “CMS is authorized to provide accelerated or advance payments during the period of the public health emergency to any Medicare provider/supplier who submits a request to the appropriate Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) and meets the required qualifications.“
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Critical Care: The New Normal for Anesthesia Providers
March 30, 2020
With the swift-moving changes we are all facing in this national emergency, the order of the day is “improvise, adapt and overcome,” to borrow a maxim of the U.S. Marines. This is not your mother’s flu, and we’re certainly not in Kansas anymore. We have never seen a time like this, and we are all scrambling to implement new solutions in a rapidly shifting healthcare paradigm.
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ABC Shares Breaking News from Capitol Hill From Grant Thornton’s Washington National Tax Office
March 26, 2020
As we continue to monitor developments surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19), ABC will update our client-partners as appropriate. Accordingly, we wish to pass on to you the following legislative update from Grant Thornton, which we hope you will find helpful during this time of uncertainty.
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Federal and Financial Agencies Issue New Rules on Loans
March 25, 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 news release, which we hope you will find helpful during this time of uncertainty.
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General versus MAC: What’s More Appropriate for GI?
March 23, 2020
A number of years ago, the ASA modified its definition of general anesthesia. Historically, if a patient was unconscious or could not respond purposefully for the preponderance of the case, it was considered a general anesthetic (GA). This language was later revised so that the current standard is that if a patient loses consciousness or is unable to respond purposefully for any portion of the case, the anesthesia type is automatically deemed to be GA.
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ABC is Investigating How the National Emergency Fund and Other Stimulus Packages Can Aid Anesthesia and Pain Management During the COVID-19 Crisis
March 19, 2020
As your business partner, ABC is exploring various dimensions of this national crisis. We have initiated a dialogue with the ASA and various governmental organizations.
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COVID-19: What is Your Action Plan?
March 18, 2020
As information regarding the COVID-19 Pandemic has become more available, we wanted to alert our clients to some of the measures that others in the industry are exploring and undertaking. We understand that there is a great deal of concern and that the information available is changing rapidly. To that end, we want to share a checklist of items that each practice should consider as they plan for the next few months.
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Anesthesia’s Nomads: A Look at Locum Tenens Providers
March 16, 2020
Lawd, I was born a ramblin’ man. Trying to make a living and doing the best I can. But when it’s time for leaving, I hope you understand that I was born a ramblin’ man. Those lyrics from the legendary Allman Brothers Band provide a wistful backdrop and pensive introduction to our subject for today. They closely capture the image the government intended us to have when it comes to the locum tenens doctor—a man or woman who goes from facility to facility and from town to town providing temporary services, and then moves on again.
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Anesthesia for Dental Cases: Considering All the Angles
March 9, 2020
Periodically, we are asked by our clients if they should be more aggressively pursuing dental opportunities. Is dental anesthesia an untapped opportunity? As in so many anesthesia practice management questions, the answer is it depends on three critical factors, which we refer to as logistical, financial and strategic.
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A Further Take on TEE: Going Beyond the Basics
March 2, 2020
A couple of weeks ago, we took a look at transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), focusing on the primary TEE services that an anesthesiologist might document on the anesthesia record: probe placement, interpretation, placement and interpretation and intraoperative monitoring. This week, we want to follow up with a discussion of other services involving TEE that the anesthesia provider may also perform. This will include a look at additional services that are sometimes billed in conjunction with the foundational TEE services mentioned above. These additional services are often described as “TEE modalities.” In addition, we will look at a rarely used TEE code that has generated some curiosity among some of our clients. Finally, we will address anesthesia for TEE procedures.
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Deliberate Hypothermia and Hypotension: Are Anesthesia Practices Missing Something?
February 24, 2020
There are two little-used codes in the ASA Relative Value Guide (RVG) that may warrant a bit more attention than they presently get. Specifically, we’re talking about 99116 for total body hypothermia and 99135 for controlled hypotension. Over the years, we have found that very few of our clients actually utilize, or at least document, these services. Is this because they don’t know when or how they apply, or because the anesthesia techniques they refer to are no longer applicable? Is it possible that the coding rules have changed so as to limit the unbundling of these services? Whatever the reason for the meager reporting of hypothermia and hypotension services by anesthesia providers, we thought it might be time to take a second look.
