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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Measuring and Demonstrating Quality On Your To-Do List
May 4, 2009
The Announcement sent to our readers last week addressed the general question, “Where Does Your Anesthesia Practice Find the Data?” We discussed three different sources of practice management data and their relative usefulness: data generated by your practice; data from other anesthesia practices, particularly those collected in the MGMA-AAA Cost Survey of Anesthesia Practices (and if you are still thinking of completing the 2009 questionnaire, please contact Brenda Dorman, AAA President, dormanb@musc.edu today!), and lastly, national data.
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Where Does Your Anesthesia Practice Find the Data
April 27, 2009
We are all data-maniacs. Very few decisions in anesthesia practice are made without someone asking, “Where are the data?” In contract negotiations with hospitals or with health plans, anesthesiologists and their business representatives are used to arming themselves with cost, revenue and utilization numbers (at the top of a long list). In managing groups and planning for their future, information on demand for service and anesthesiologist/CRNA workforce come into play. In performance measurement, it’s all about what you evaluate and how you quantify processes or outcomes that show room for improvement and that can be measured credibly.
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Why One Anesthesiologist Likes His Computerized Anesthesia Record - In His Own Words
April 20, 2009
I am writing to you today to share my experience with implementing a computerized anesthesia record and my vision of the future use of these systems.
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Medicare's Online Provider Enrollment System is Up and Running
April 20, 2009
If you enjoy preparing and filing your income tax returns, you are going to have a field day enrolling in Medicare. Changes in the enrollment system over the last few years have made the process very complex. Transitions from carriers to Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) did nothing to simplify matters. Whether the introduction of the internet-based Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS), https://pecos.cms.hhs.gov on April 1st makes keeping one’s enrollment information up to date any easier remains to be seen.
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Medicare Conversion Factor Increase
December 21, 2007
Medicare legislation passed by Congress on December 19 will eliminate the anticipated 10.1 percent cut in physicians' fees and replace it with a 0.5 percent increase—at least until July 1st; Congress must act again in order for the correction to extend beyond that date.
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Latest Anesthesia Conversion Factors
January 9, 2008
We are pleased to announce the national average CF is $19.96, up $3.87 from $16.09 in 2007. The latest anesthesia conversionfactors (CFs) for all 91 Medicare localities are available below.
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MAC for Endoscopy
January 11, 2008
Aetna has announced that it will stop paying for anesthesia services for upper and lower GI endoscopies in healthy patients effective April 1, 2008.
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ASA to Aetna: Medical Necessity is a Medical Decision
January 15, 2008
Immediately after sending you our message about the new Aetna policy on anesthesia for endoscopy, we received a copy of a letter...
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PQRI 2008
January 24, 2008
Anesthesia Business Consultants (ABC) has reviewed the PQRI (Physician Quality Reporting Initiative) measures for 2008. Contained within is information we hope will help guide your decision as to what measures you might want to report.
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Aetna's Reversal
February 28, 2008
One month ago, it seemed certain that Aetna was going to implement its new “medical necessity” policy limiting the circumstances under which it would pay for anesthesia for screening upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopies. Aetna had sent out individual “Dear Physician” letters advising you all of the new restrictions that it planned to introduce effective April 1, 2008.
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Fospropofol, MAC, and Endoscopy
May 14, 2008
A new anesthetic agent that might inspire more gastroenterologists and other physicians to administer deep sedation themselves is soon going to be on the market. A panel of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended approval of Aquavan (fospropofol bisodium) on May 7, 2007. The panel is to be commended for voting 9-1 against the use of fospropofol by nonanesthesiologists, following testimony by the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA).
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Call Your Senators Now to Support the Legislation Preventing the 10.1 Percent Medicare Payment Cut
June 10, 2008
Congress must pass legislation quickly to stop the deferred 10.1 percent cut in the Medicare conversion factor from taking effect on July 1st, 2008. We urge you to call your two Senators today to ask them to support S. 3101, the bill that would fix this problem as well as the ongoing anesthesia teaching rule iniquity. ASA posted the notice below on its website yesterday and will be bringing the message to Capitol Hill today and tomorrow as part of its Legislative Conference activities.
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Ten Percent Medicare Cut Goes Forward - For Now
June 27, 2008
The U.S. Senate failed yesterday, June 26, to pass the Medicare bill that would have averted the July 1st automatic 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments to physicians.
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Medicare Will Hold Claims To Give Congress Time To Act
July 30, 2008
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will temporarily hold claims for services provided on or after July 1st in the hope that Congress will act quickly to stop the 10.6% payment cut.
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Reminder: Call Your Senator
July 8, 2008
The Medicare Improvement Act for Patients and Providers (H.R. 6331).
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The Medicare Bill Becomes Law: Payment Restored
July 16, 2008
The suspense is over. The Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act of 2008, H.R. 6331, has become law, and anesthesiologists and others will benefit from the following changes:
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PQRI Medicare Pays Out $36 Million To 2007 Participants
August 14, 2008
Anesthesiologists and other providers have begun to receive their bonus payments for successfully reporting the applicable Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) measures in 2007. As of July 12, 41 ABC clients representing 778 physicians and nurse anesthetists had received checks from Medicare. The maximum received by any one group was $12,124.31.
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One Anesthesiology Group's Success in Quality Tracking
August 28, 2008
If yours is among the many anesthesiology practices searching for good ways to document clinical quality improvement, you will be interested in the article below, which appeared in Health Leaders Magazine on August 11, 2008.
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Open Access to Financial Management
September 8, 2008
At Anesthesia Business Consultants, LLC (ABC) we don’t want to limit your access to Management Support Services because you are satisfied with your current billing solution. That is why we offer barrier-free access to our Management Support Services to all practices, regardless of your ability or desire to transition your billing to ABC.
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Medicare is Watching Facet Joint Injection Claims
September 29, 2008
Sixty-three percent (63%) of all the claims for facet joint injections submitted to Medicare in 2006 were coded incorrectly, according to a report issued by the HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) on September 17, 2008 (http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-05-07-00200.pdf). The report states that the miscoding resulted in Medicare’s overpaying approximately $96 million.
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2007 PQRI Online Participation
October 9, 2008
Did you or your group participate in Medicare’s Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) in 2007? If you have not yet seen the official report on your individual and/or group participation, you may want to do so now.
