Minnesota Board of Pharmacy: Manufacturers Must Be Tracking 2014 Payments to PAs and Nurse Practitioners; Reports Due May 1, 2015
We recently reported that Minnesota had updated its statute to require manufacturers report their payments to physician assistants, nurse practitioners, veterinarians, and dental therapists. On July 9, the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy released a memo to clarify their position on manufacturers’ duties in light of the federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act.
“As you may know, during the 2013 Session of the Minnesota Legislature, the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy sought the repeal of a provision in Minnesota Statutes §151.47, subd. 1(f) that required pharmaceutical manufacturers to report certain payments made to p...
Source: Policy and Medicine - July 10, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Guest Article: What EHR buyers and health IT vendors can learn from the Nashville market
Zach Watson over at Technology Advice.com wrote a nice piece on EHR Trends in Nashville. I’m not a big fan of “trends” articles because trends aren’t that important, the implications of those trends and how to operationalize the implications are most important. I enjoyed Zach’s article so I asked him to tell us what those trends mean for EHR buyers and health IT vendors writ large. Here’s what Zach said:
Our study of office-based physicians across the city of Nashville to gain insight into which EHR systems they were using, as well as how pleased they were with their systems revealed...
Source: The Healthcare IT Guy - July 6, 2014 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Shahid N. Shah Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Physician Payment Sunshine: Minnesota Expands Reporting “Practitioner” Definition To Physician Assistants, APRNs, and Dental Therapists
At the urging of the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, the Minnesota legislature passed HF 2402, which one section requires drug manufacturers to report payments to physician assistants, APRNs, and dental therapists. These entities are excluded from the Federal Physician Payments Sunshine reporting obligations. This follows a trend we recently reported about in Connecticut of states broadening their reporting laws from the already burdensome requirements of the Sunshine Act.
Notably, the law only applies to payments from pharmaceutical and biologic manufacturers, medical device manufacturers—many of whic...
Source: Policy and Medicine - June 12, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Doubts Raised About Off-Label Use of Subsys, a Strong Painkiller - NYTimes.com
Almost overnight, a powerful new painkiller has become a $100 million business and a hot Wall Street story.But nearly as quickly, questions are emerging about how the drug is being sold, and to whom.The drug, Subsys, is a form of fentanyl, a narcotic that is often used when painkillers like morphine fail to provide relief. The product was approved in 2012 for a relatively small number of people — cancer patients — but has since become an outsize moneymaker for the obscure company that makes it, Insys Therapeutics. In the last year, the company's sales have soared and its share price has jumped nearly 270 percent.B...
Source: Psychology of Pain - May 14, 2014 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
SGR Fix The Final Deal?
On Thursday, February 6th, a bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers announced they had reached a deal on legislation to repeal Medicare's widely criticized sustainable growth rate formula, replacing volume-based payments with measures that reward care efficiency and quality. The legislation is described below, but stakeholders should be cautious about its prospects given the remaining political hurdles it faces.
SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act
The bill, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act, was jointly announced by the chairmen and ranking minority members of th...
Source: Policy and Medicine - March 3, 2014 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
New and Established Patient E/M Definitions (CMS vs. CPT ®)
I get lot of requests from readers of The Happy Hospitalist asking how to know if a patient is a new or established patient. Identifying the correct classification will prevent delays or denials of payment. Many evaluation and management (E/M) codes are by definition described as new or established. This lecture will attempt to explain various important clinical aspects related to this determination. Keep in mind while the Centers For Medicare& Medicaid Services (CMS) uses Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes, CMS definitions do not always agree with CPT ® definitions. This discre...
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - February 27, 2014 Category: Internal Medicine Authors: The Happy Hospitalist Source Type: blogs
New and Established Patient E/M Definitions (CMS vs. CPT®)
I get lot of requests from readers of The Happy Hospitalist asking how to know if a patient is a new or established patient. Identifying the correct classification will prevent delays or denials of payment. Many evaluation and management (E/M) codes are by definition described as new or established. This lecture will attempt to explain various important clinical aspects related to this determination. Keep in mind while the Centers For Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) uses Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes, CMS definitions do not always agree with CPT® definitions. This di...
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - February 27, 2014 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: Tamer Mahrous Source Type: blogs
Getting a Foot Up On Diabetes Care
By Jan Chait
"Check your feet."
How many times have we heard it? Many times, however, that's all we're told: Check your feet.
What am I looking for? What do I do if I find it?!
And, come to think of it, why am I checking my feet?
Furthermore, they tell us, put lotion on our feet, but not between our toes.
Huh? Why not?
It's a puzzlement. So I asked my podiatrist, Ken Krueger, DPM, to 'splain some of this stuff.
What we're looking for are things such as:
• A red spot
• A crack or opening in the skin
• A blister
• Any drainage (or odor)
• Any change in skin color
"All of these are signs of an in...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - February 25, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: Jan Chait Source Type: blogs
Prepare to See Your Diabetes Doctor
When we learn how to manage diabetes without drugs, we rarely need to see an endocrinologist, a doctor who specializes in diabetes and the rest of the endocrine system.
I haven’t had an appointment with an endocrinologist in more than 10 years. I do have regular checkups that we all need with an opthamologist, a dermatologist, a podiatrist, and a dentist. I also go to my primary care physician at least once a year to get an annual... (Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts)
Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts - February 11, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Mendosa Source Type: blogs
Alliance for CEHP Hosts Sunshine Act Webinar: Sunshine Effects on CME Left Open; Attendee Meals at CME Events Still Up for Interpretation
The Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions (CEHP) hosted a webinar to discuss federal perspectives on the implementation of the Sunshine Act. Dr. Shantanu Argawal, Medical Director at the Center for Program Integrity at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), outlined the objectives of the Sunshine Act, and addressed specific questions with respect to the Act's exemption for accredited continuing medical education (CME) activities.
Dr. Argawal described the Sunshine Act as essentially a balance between the beneficial aspects of industry-physician relationships, which encourage discovery...
Source: Policy and Medicine - December 9, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Physician Payment Sunshine Act: Open Payments 101 for Physicians
Conclusion
Policy and Medicine has created a convenient Open Payments: Quick Facts for Physicians one-pager that summarizes key Open Payments information for physician reference. If physicians are well-versed regarding the nature of Open Payments data, they will be in a position to educate patients and place physician-industry relationships in a positive light.
Although the recent QPharma Survey revealed that 41% of PCP's don't know whether informing patients about the meaning of the Open Payments data will give patients a positive understanding of the publicly reported information, another 16% of PCPs think it could ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - December 3, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Physician Payment Sunshine Act: Open Payments May Cause Physicians to Change Company Interactions – Concerns about Accuracy Persist
Conclusion
Although a vast majority of patients will likely not seek out the CMS website to investigate their doctor's financial relationships with drug and device companies, physicians may want to proactively educate patients about Open Payments. Physicians may also want to be prepared to explain their relationships to various companies and emphasize that the relationships do not influence their treatment decisions.
We recently posted links to resources that may help physicians and practice managers seeking to plan for Open Payments reporting. In the coming days, CMS will host regional webinars to provide an overview ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - November 19, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Lookin’ at Blue Skies. For Now.
By Jan Chait
Happy birthday to me! I now qualify for all senior citizen’s discounts. And Medicare. If I could figure out how to apply for it. Luckily, we still have insurance and my husband’s employer is self-funded so it doesn’t fall under the “Affordable” Care Act. Yet. But I still must get Medicare so it becomes my secondary insurance. That’s probably a good way to spend my birthday.
My Sweet Baboo and I spent the weekend in Cincinnati with friends from Virginia. They were about four hours away from there and we live around three hours away, so it was a good place to meet in the middl...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - November 12, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: Jan Chait Source Type: blogs
