On April 3, CMS Administrator Seema Verma, Deborah Birx, MD, White House Coronavirus Task Force, and officials from the FDA, CDC, and FEMA participated in a call on COVID-19 Flexibilities. Several physician guests on the front lines presented best practices from their COVID-19 experience(s). You can listen to the conversation here.
CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES (CMS) Special Edition – Tuesday, April 7, 2020 New Video Available on Medicare Coverage and Payment of Virtual Services Families First Coronavirus Response Act Waives Coinsurance and Deductibles for Additional COVID-19 Related Services Guidance for Processing Attestations from Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs) Temporarily Enrolling as Hospitals during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency COVID-19: Expanded Use of Ambulance Origin/Destination Modifiers Lessons from The Front Lines: COVID-19 CMS COVID-19 Update Call Today New [...]
Beginning Thursday, April 2, WVCTSI's WV Project ECHO will be hosting weekly sessions devoted to combating the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. These remote sessions will allow healthcare providers from across the state to ask patient questions and learn best practices from a panel of expert hub members. Sessions will take place from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. every Thursday in April. Interested participants can email Jay Mason , assistant director of WV Project ECHO, at jdmason@hsc.wvu.edu with any questions. Cases can be submitted [...]
CMS COVID-19 Updates: Video on telehealth; additional Medicaid waivers; and Ambulatory Surgical Center guidance. New Video Available on Medicare Coverage and Payment of Virtual Services CMS released a video providing answers to common questions about the Medicare telehealth services benefit. CMS is expanding this benefit on a temporary and emergency basis under the 1135 waiver authority and Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act. Video CMS Approves Additional State Medicaid Waivers and Amendments to Give States Flexibility to [...]
CHARLESTON, WV – Gov. Jim Justice announced tonight at 9:45 p.m. that he has signed an Executive Order for Monongalia, Harrison, and Kanawha counties as COVID-19 continues to spread. This Executive Order expands the order issued last evening for Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan counties. Click here to view the Executive Order. “Right now, 38% of the COVID-19 positive cases in West Virginia are in these three counties,” Gov. Justice said. “If you add in Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan [...]
COVID-19 Updates CMS Applies MIPS Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances Policy to Qualifying Physicians The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) extended the 2019 Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) data submission deadline to April 30 at 8 pm E.S.T. CMS also announced that the MIPS automatic extreme and uncontrollable circumstances policy will apply to eligible clinicians who are unable to submit their data by the April 30 deadline. Qualifying clinicians will be identified automatically, without having to [...]
CMS has been hosting regular calls with a variety of clinicians, hospitals, and other facilities in an effort to keep stakeholders updated on our COVID-19 efforts. As we know not everyone is available to attend the calls live, we are happy to share that you can access recordings of the calls along with transcripts on the following link: https://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Outreach/OpenDoorForums/PodcastAndTranscripts. We will continue to host calls and share information through our list serves and media. To keep up with [...]
COVID-19 will continue to impact the healthcare system, hospitals, practices, orthopaedic surgeons, and patients for the foreseeable future. To help disseminate the most relevant and current news, the Academy will publish bonus COVID-19-focused editions of Headline News Now each Tuesday and Thursday for at least the next six weeks. Your AAOS “COVID-19: The Orthopaedic Response” Virtual Summit Commences; AAOS Leadership to Take the Stage Tonight at 6:40 p.m. E.S.T. The two-day virtual summit presented by [...]
Today's Top Story Study: Hemiarthroplasty versus Internal Fixation in Nondisplaced Femoral Neck Fractures A retrospective study published online in Injury compared bipolar hemiarthroplasty (HA) versus internal fixation (IF) with cannulated screws in elderly patients with nondisplaced femoral neck fractures. Patients aged older than 75 years treated at a single institution between January 2010 and December 2015 were compared for outcomes including surgical complications, perioperative parameters, hip joint function, reoperation, and mortality. HA patients had greater blood loss [...]
COVID-19 will continue to impact the healthcare system, hospitals, practices, orthopaedic surgeons, and patients for the foreseeable future. To help disseminate the most relevant and current news, the Academy will publish bonus COVID-19-focused editions of Headline News Now each Tuesday and Thursday for at least the next six weeks. Your AAOS AAOS Leadership Will Present at the “COVID-19: The Orthopaedic Response” Virtual Summit, April 2–3 DOCSF–The Digital Orthopaedics Conference San Francisco, in partnership with the [...]