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| Today’s Top Story
CMS extends deadline for Physician Compare review, waives some screening requirements during California wildfire recovery
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is extending the deadline for physicians to preview their 2016 performance data as it will appear on the CMS Physician Compare website later this year to Dec. 1, 2017. The preview had been scheduled to end on Nov. 17, 2017, but a technical issue prevented data from properly displaying in the preview portal during the first week of preview. Physician Compare is an initiative that allows consumers to search for information on physicians and other healthcare professionals who provide Medicare services. Providers can access the secured measure preview site by logging into the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) information portal.
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Access the PQRS portal…
In addition, CMS suspended some Medicare enrollment screening requirements for certain healthcare providers and suppliers that are assisting with the wildfire recovery efforts in California. The agency is temporarily relaxing certain provider and supplier enrollment requirements in order to help make the services of skilled professionals more readily available to those in need.
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| Other News
Impact of BPCI on quality and cost remains unclear
An article in Modern Healthcare discusses a CMS-funded report that questions the ongoing value of the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) program. The report examined BPCI data from late 2013 to fall 2015 and found that Medicare payments for joint arthroplasty decreased an average of $1,273 (4.5 percent) per case, while congestive heart failure spending dropped by an average of $970 (3.6 percent) per case. However, the report notes that BPCI providers often participated in multiple value-based pay initiatives, so the impact of BPCI alone remains unclear. In addition, many of the participants surveyed engaged in BPCI for three quarters, which may not be enough time to identify meaningful impact on payment and quality.
Read more… (registration may be required) |
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| Study: Pharmacologic VTE prophylaxis may not reduce risk of VTE following spine surgery
Data from a study published online in The Spine Journal suggest that pharmacologic prophylaxis may not significantly reduce venous thromboembolism (VTE) following spine surgery, but may increase other risks. The authors conducted a retrospective, cohort study of elective spine surgery patients: 109,609 participants in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database and 2,855 patients treated at a single institution. They found that independent risk factors for VTE included increasing age, male sex, increasing body mass index, dependent functional status, lumbar spine surgery, longer operative time, perioperative blood transfusion, longer length of stay, and other postoperative complications. Among the institutional patients, 56.3 percent received pharmacologic VTE prophylaxis and of those, 97.1 percent received unfractionated heparin. The authors found no significant reduction in VTE across cohorts but noted a significant increase in postoperative hematoma requiring reoperation among patients receiving prophylaxis
Read the abstract… |
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| Study: What factors are linked to stress injuries in elite athletes
A study published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine looks at factors linked to stress injuries among Olympic athletes. The researchers reviewed information on all sports injuries at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Olympics reported by National Olympic Committee (NOC) medical teams and in the polyclinic and medical venues. Overall, 1,101 injuries were reported across 11,274 athletes from 207 NOCs. Digital radiography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed nine stress fractures and 16 stress reactions. The researchers note that stress injuries were most common in the lower extremities (84 percent), particularly tibia (44 percent) and metatarsals (12 percent), with two in the lumbar spine (8 percent). In addition, stress injuries were most common in track and field athletes (44 percent) followed by volleyball players (16 percent), and artistic gymnastics (12 percent). They write that the data demonstrate the importance of early imaging with MRI to detect stress reactions before they can progress to stress fractures.
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Read the abstract… |
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| The Leapfrog Group releases latest report on hospital safety ratings
The Leapfrog Group has released its Fall 2017 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, which assigns grade ratings to 2,632 general acute-care hospitals in the United States. The organization’s bi-annual state rankings analysis notes significant improvement in five states (Oregon, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Wisconsin, and Idaho) since the inception of the Safety Grades in 2012. Additional findings include:
- Overall, 832 hospitals earned an “A” rating, 662 earned a “B” rating, 964 earned a “C” rating, 159 earned a “D” rating, and 15 an “F” rating.
- Fifty-nine hospitals nationwide have achieved an “A” in every scoring update since the launch of the Safety Grade.
- The five states with the highest percentage of “A” hospitals in the current report are Rhode Island, Maine, Hawaii, Idaho, and Virginia.
- The five states with the lowest percentage of “A” hospitals are North Dakota, Washington D.C., Delaware, Maryland, and New York.
Read more…
View reports on individual hospitals… |
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| Call for volunteers: BCBSA expert panel
AAOS seeks to nominate two to three members to the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) expert panel. The organization plans to refresh the Blue Distinction Centers for Spine Surgery and Blue Distinction Centers for Knee and Hip Replacement program, with a designation launch in mid-2019. As an initial step, BCBSA will convene an expert panel to provide input into the development of quality selection criteria and provider survey questions. Applicants must be active fellows, candidate members, candidate members osteopathic, candidate member applicants for fellowship, or candidate member applicants for fellowship osteopathic. In addition, all applicants must provide the following: an online AAOS CAP application, a current curriculum vitae, and a 100-word biography. All supporting materials must be submitted to Kyle Trivedi by Nov. 5, 2017, at 11:59 p.m. CT, at:
trivedi@aaos.org
Learn more and submit your application… (member login required) |
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