Today’s Top Story
Study: Preoperative web-based tutorial may improve patient understanding of risks, benefits of treatment.
Findings from a study published in the June 17 issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery suggest that patients who complete a preoperative tutorial may be better prepared for and more knowledgeable about the surgical procedures they undergo. The researchers conducted a prospective, randomized study of 55 patients undergoing knee arthroscopy for the first time for a primary diagnosis of meniscal tear. Overall, 29 patients received standard preoperative counseling, while 26 received standard counseling along with a 20-minute web-based multimedia tutorial. The researchers found that, preoperatively, the intervention group felt significantly more informed about the surgery and more clearly understood the risks, benefits of, and alternatives to the procedure. Postoperatively, the intervention group reported being significantly more satisfied with the perioperative education that they had received and felt more informed about their surgery and rehabilitation. In addition, patients in the intervention group were significantly more likely to correctly answer questions regarding their surgical details at the first postoperative visit. Read more…
Read the abstract…

Other News

HHS strike force announces charges against 243 individuals covering $712 million in false Medicare and Medicaid billing.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced charges against 243 individuals, including 46 doctors, nurses, and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $712 million in false billings. In addition, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) suspended a number of providers using the authority granted it under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). According to court documents, the defendants participated in alleged schemes to submit claims to Medicare and Medicaid for treatments that were medically unnecessary and often never provided. HHS states that, in many cases, patient recruiters, Medicare beneficiaries, and other co-conspirators were allegedly paid cash kickbacks in return for supplying beneficiary information to providers who then submitted the fraudulent bills. According to HHS, this is the largest coordinated take-down in the agency’s history, both in terms of number of defendants charged and loss amount. Read more…
Read the HHS statement…

Should aging physicians be evaluated?
An article published on the National Public Radio website looks at the issue of potentially diminished competency among aging physicians. The writer notes that airline pilots are required to retire at age 65 years, yet one of every four licensed physicians in the United States is older than that, with about two-fifths remaining in active practice. At its recent annual meeting, the American Medical Association approved a plan to develop preliminary assessment guidelines for older physicians that may include evaluations of a physician’s physical and mental health along with a review of that provider’s treatment of patients. The plan does not specify how or how often such assessments would take place. Read more…
Read more about the AMA initiative…

Report: Medical identity theft on the rise; consumers expect providers to protect their data.
A report on medical identity theft released by the Ponemon Institute and the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance finds that the number of medical identity theft incidents increased 21.7 percent over the previous year. Key findings in the report include:

  • Unlike credit card fraud, victims of medical identity theft can incur significant financial consequences. Overall, 65 percent of medical identity theft victims in the study had to pay an average of $13,500 to resolve the crime.
  • On average, victims of medical identity theft learn about theft of their credentials more than 3 months after the crime, and 30 percent do not know when they became a victim.
  • Only 10 percent of respondents report achieving a completely satisfactory conclusion of the incident, and those who resolved the crime spent, on average, more than 200 hours on such activities as working with their insurer or healthcare provider to make sure their personal medical credentials are secured and can no longer be used by an imposter and verifying their personal health information, medical invoices, claims, and electronic health records.

The writers note that consumers often expect healthcare providers to be proactive in preventing and detecting medical identity theft. “Although many respondents are not confident in the security practices of their healthcare provider,” the authors write, “79 percent of respondents say it is important for healthcare providers to ensure the privacy of their health records. Forty-eight percent say they would consider changing healthcare providers if their medical records were lost or stolen.” Read more…
Obtain a copy of the report…

Web tool allows users to compare Medicare payments by specialty.
A blog post on the Modern Healthcare website includes an interactive tool that uses CMS physician payment data to generate a graph that can be used to compare payments to different specialties. The chart is based on 2013 data, and displays the average total payment for every medical specialty along with the average payment for drugs—a subset of the total payment. Read more…
     A separate set of tools allows users to search what more than 3,000 hospitals billed Medicare for the 100 most-frequently billed diagnoses, along with what the government actually paid, and enables users to search individual physician payments by name, location, and specialty. Read more…(registration may be required)

CBO report projects ACA repeal would cost $137 billion over 10 years.
A report from the U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimates that repeal of the ACA would, over the next decade, “probably increase budget deficits with or without considering the effects of macroeconomic feedback.” The agencies project that repeal of the ACA would increase federal budget deficits by $137 billion over the period 2016–2025 through two channels: a direct increase in the federal deficit of $353 billion, and a reduction in federal deficits of $216 billion brought about through increased economic output associated with repeal. In addition, the agencies estimate that, should the ACA be repealed, “the number of nonelderly people who are uninsured would increase by about 19 million in 2016; by 22 million or 23 million in 2017, 2018, and 2019; and by about 24 million in all subsequent years through 2025, compared with the number who are projected to be uninsured under the ACA.” Read more…

AAOS updates privacy policy.
The AAOS privacy policy has been updated to clarify that the AAOS Membership Directory includes personal information about all AAOS fellows and members, including associate and affiliate members. The personal information includes name, postal mailing address, telephone and fax number, membership status, and year of admittance to the AAOS. Additionally, AAOS has updated its privacy policy to specify that AAOS may share end-user data with third-party vendors or service providers as necessary to provide AAOS products and services to users. Read more…

Call for volunteers: AJRR Board of Directors.
July 15 is the last day to submit your application for a position on the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR) Board of Directors (one member opening). The initial role of AJRR is to foster a national center for data collection and research on total hip and total knee arthroplasty. Applicants for this position must be active or emeritus fellows and be willing to complete the AAOS Mandatory Enhanced Disclosure information required of AAOS Board members. Learn more and submit your application…(member login required)