July 25, 2020
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The LSMS understands that you're more than a physician. You're an individual with responsibilities outside of your practice. That's why we are proud to offer you more than a membership. Through advocacy, collaboration, communication, and education, we work to ensure that your desire and ability to care for the people of Louisiana is maintained and supported. Experience a membership that's focused on you. Click here to explore the full benefits of being a member and how to renew your membership.
It's renewal season! For the same price as six stops at the coffee shop each month, you have access to all the exclusive LSMS member benefits you love. The LSMS advocates, communicates, educates, and collaborates with the help of dedicated members like yourself. It is through membership that the LSMS has continued to thrive for more than 140 years. Please take a few minutes to make sure your membership continues and that your information is up to date. With your support, LSMS is able to advocate, communicate, educate, and collaborate, with the goal of protecting your profession.
We appreciate our dedicated LSMS members and their commitment to the Society. We urge you to remain an active member by taking action as soon as you receive your renewal invoice. The easiest way to renew is to sign up for our auto-pay membership. Monthly, quarterly, and annual installments are available. You can also renew through the secure payment link sent directly to your email inbox. For members and practices that prefer to pay via check, a paper invoice can be provided. As you submit your renewal, please verify and update your profile so that we can better communicate with you!
If you have any questions about your membership or want to get started with autopay today, click here to contact Terri Watson, Sr, Director of Administration and Member Services.
Learn More about HealthSYNC
HealthSYNC will host two short webinar demonstrations to provide more information and teach participants how HealthSYNC can help their practice improve coordination of care, increase quality scores, and save costs. Funding is available for a limited time to cover the costs of joining HealthSYNC. If you have any questions, please email Jeremy Lapeyrouse at jeremy@lsms.org
Upcoming Webinars:
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. |
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Lafayette Doctor, Engineer Get FDA Approval for Coronavirus Device to Protect Nurses
A Lafayette doctor and engineer recently received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a new medical device that protects health care workers treating coronavirus patients.
The device, which they've nicknamed "the nurse saver," offers the benefits of a negative pressure hospital room in a much smaller space and at a much lower cost.
Formally, it's the Negative-pressure Respiratory System with Advanced Ventilation Return1, abbreviated as NRSAVR-100.
Occupational Licensing Review Commission
On Thursday, July 23, 2020, LSMS Vice President of Legal Affairs, Lauren Bailey, monitored the meeting of the Occupational Licensing Review Commission (OLRC) during which the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners (LSBME) presented new and updated rules relative to more than a dozen procedures and requirements applicable to licensees. These proposed rules included:
- More equalized treatment of International Medical Graduates.
- Allowance of certain highly trained podiatrists to perform histories and physicals.
- Set a maximum fee relative to disciplinary actions of $75,000.00 for physicians, with an exception to allow an amount in addition to the maximum when appropriate in order to recover costs relative to appeals taken from disciplinary actions of the board.
- Allow temporary permits to be issued for retired physicians to practice under certain circumstances during a declared emergency.
All proposals presented by the LSBME were approved by the OLRC to proceed moving through the rulemaking process. |
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Medicare Site Neutral Payment Policy
The U.S. Court of Appeals - DC Circuit overturned the district court's decision and ruled that HHS had the authority to cut payments to off-campus provider-based departments for E/M services to make them equivalent to the rate paid to physician offices in 2019. The AHA, AAMC, and the other plaintiffs have not yet said whether they will appeal. Separately, they are suing CMS for the 2020 site neutral pay cuts.
In the American Medical Association's (AMA) comment letter on the 2020 OPPS proposed rule, we reiterated that "[w]hile the AMA generally supports site neutral payments, we do not believe that it is possible to sustain a high-quality health care system if site neutrality is defined as shrinking all payments to the lowest amount paid in any setting." The AMA "believes that payment differentials between independent physician practices and hospital outpatient departments stem in part from inadequate Medicare physician payment rates--after adjustment for inflation, Medicare physician pay has declined 20 percent since 2001--and that any savings from site neutrality proposals derived from OPPS should be reinvested in improvements elsewhere in Part B, including payments to physicians."
Click here a summary of Medicare's site neutral payment policy.
Medicaid Provider Relief Funding Applications Due August 3, 2020
HHS has extended the deadline for Medicaid and CHIP providers to apply for Provider Relief Funding to Monday, August 3, 2020.
We want to encourage all Medicaid and CHIP providers to apply, even if they think they may not qualify. They might still qualify or qualify later if the requirements change. Federal partners continue to report an extremely low application rate (no state has exceeded 6%).
The memo includes links to two fact sheets with more information regarding qualifications, application proces, and a provider support phone number to call for additional assistance. |
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Oxford COVID-19 vaccine shows real promise
Among the myriad of vaccine candidates that researchers across the globe are developing to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, the Oxford vaccine has already garnered significant attention.
The vaccine, which the researchers call ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 but many refer to as the Oxford vaccine, uses a weakened adenovirus from chimpanzees.
Together with colleagues across the United Kingdom and Europe, the researchers from the University of Oxford in the U.K. previously demonstrated that the vaccine could protect rhesus macaques on subsequent exposure to the new coronavirus. This research has not been through full peer review yet.
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