Monthly Archives: May 2017

Today's Top Story FDA announces recall of Zimmer Biomet SpF PLUS-Mini and SpF XL IIB Implantable Spinal Fusion Stimulators. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a Class I recall of Zimmer Biomet SpF PLUS-Mini and SpF XL IIB Implantable Spinal Fusion Stimulators due to higher than allowed levels of potentially cytotoxic chemicals found during routine monitoring procedures. The stimulators are implanted into the patient's back during spinal fusion procedures, and provide constant electrical stimulation to [...]

Today's Top Story Senate Republicans signal more measured approach to ACA changes. As the Senate heads home for an extended holiday recess, Republicans in the upper chamber don’t yet have a final plan mapped out for overhauling the Affordable Care Act (ACA). After the Congressional Budget Office declared Wednesday that a House-passed plan would result in 23 million people losing coverage, Senate Republicans began maneuvering to take a more modest tack. Bloomberg reported that senators are mulling a [...]

Today's Top Story Study: Mortality rates lower overall for hospitalizations at teaching institutions, but not for hip fracture/replacement. A study of hospitalization of Medicare beneficiaries 65 years and older found that lower mortality rates were recorded at major teaching hospitals compared with nonteaching hospitals. The study, published in JAMA, looked at 21,451,824 total hospitalizations at 4,483 hospitals, of which 250 (5.6 percent) were major teaching, 894 (19.9 percent) were minor teaching, and 3,339 (74.3 percent) were nonteaching hospitals. [...]

Today's Top Story Trump budget to call for large cuts in Medicaid. President Trump will propose $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid in the budget his administration will unveil tomorrow, The Washington Post reports. The move to slash the state-federal program for low-income individuals mirrors a bill passed by the House earlier in the month. That bill specifies that states receiving federal funds for having expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act would no longer receive the [...]

Today's Top Story CMS delays SHFFT start to Jan. 1, 2018. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a final rule that, among other things, delays to Jan. 1, 2018, the start date for Episode Payment Models (EPMs), including the Surgical Hip/Femur Fracture Treatment Model (SHFFT) and Advanced APM requirements for the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model (CJR). Performance year 1 for SHFFT will run from Jan. 1, 2018 to Dec. 31, 2018. [...]

Today's Top Story Study: Intra-articular triamcinolone may be less effective than placebo for certain patients with knee OA. Findings from a study published in the May 16 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association suggest that triamcinolone injection may be less effective than placebo for treatment of symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (OA). The authors conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial of 119 patients with symptomatic knee OA with ultrasonic features of synovitis, who were treated with intra-articular [...]

Today's Top Story HHS issues warning on ransomware attacks. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued email guidance regarding a recent ransomware attack on healthcare organizations. Ransomware restricts user access to the computer until the user pays a fee to the attackers, and can be delivered via email by attachments or links within the email. In the recent series of attacks, malicious users have been directing attacks at Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) servers open [...]

Today's Top Story Fewer physicians than projected are required to participate in 2017 MIPS program. Modern Healthcare reports that 806,879 clinicians will not be evaluated under the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) during 2017. MIPS is part of the Quality Payment Program (QPP), which is designed to shift reimbursement from volume of services provided toward a payment system that rewards clinicians for quality of care. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had previously estimated that 642,000 [...]

Joshua Alan Tuck 30 of Daniels passed away on Monday, May 8, 2017, from injuries sustained in an accident on the West Virginia Turnpike.  He became vice president of the West Virginia Association of Orthopaedic Executives on January 1, 2017.   Born July 13, 1986 he is the son of Franklin Jr. and Leonora Cruz Tuck. Joshua attended Shady Spring First Baptist Church. He was a member of the Whitewater Chapter of the Antique Automobile Club of America. [...]