Physician delegates and leadership representing the Colorado Medical Society traveled to Washington DC to lobby the congressional delegation on Medicare physician payment and participated in the 2013 American Medical Association Interim Meeting, Nov. 16-19.

CMS leaders met with U.S. Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, and U.S. Reps. Mike Coffman, Ed Perlmutter and Doug Lamborn, and the staffs of U.S. Reps. Cory Gardner, Diana DeGette and Jared Polis on Nov. 19. CMS leaders urged the delegation to repeal the SGR this year or early in 2014 to make the Medicare program sustainable for patients and physicians.

There are currently bipartisan and bicameral Medicare payment transitions being debated in the closing weeks of the first session of this Congress. Colorado congressional delegation members all support the SGR repeal and several of the delegation members are actively working to make the transition a reality. Click here to read more about the Hill visits and click here to contact your congressman and the two U.S. senators to add your voice.

Members of the AMA House of Delegates adopted numerous policies on important topics that impact the stability of physician practices, the quality of care and the advancement of patient health. Colorado brought a resolution on Prepayment Review by Third Parties, AMA delegates voted to support the SGR repeal, Jan Kief, MD, presented on Connect for Health Colorado, and young physicians passed policies.

Click here to read the full report on CMS.org and watch for coverage in the January/February issue of Colorado Medicine.

J. Tashof Bernton, MD, chairman of the Workers' Compensation and Personal Injury Committee (WCPIC), testified before the Division of Workers' Compensation on behalf of CMS expressing the appreciation of the society and the physicians of the state for the division's work on the proposed medical treatment guidelines. The use of evidence-based treatment guidelines will help assure that injured workers have timely access to necessary medical treatment, he said. The guidelines outline specific care recognized as medically necessary (and therefore typically reimbursed by payers) and help shape physicians' understanding of optimal evidence-based practice.

Additionally, Bernton spoke about the problem of inappropriate utilization of procedures and concerns about treatment recommendations for the cervical or lumbar spine.

Click here to read the full testimony.

The Colorado Medical Society provided comments on the draft Colorado State Innovation Plan in a Nov. 15 letter to Lorez Meinhold, deputy executive director of the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. The plan is a 185-page document with a wide-ranging narrative, and a set of goals and strategies in each chapter. CMS President John Bender, MD, FAAFP, expressed support and appreciation for the opportunity to participate in its development.

"The Colorado Medical Society is committed to help align incentives and build systems that can achieve the aim of improving individual patient experiences, improving population health and reducing per capita costs. The Colorado Health Innovation Plan is firmly on the right track and we look forward to continuing our work together to finalize and then execute the plan," Bender said.

Reflecting the physicians' voice, CMS provided comments on nearly every chapter. In the section on delivery system design and payment reform, CMS expressed the need to foster coordinated systems of care and other value-based payment models.

In the section on health care workforce, CMS asked for an amendment to one of the five critical areas identified in the plan, that one goal should be to address policy and operational barriers related to workforce innovation and workplace satisfaction. This reflects the findings of the recent RAND Corporation study that detailed issues stakeholders must address to reverse the dangerous spiral of professional dissatisfaction.

Click here to read the full letter.

Over the course of the last few months, the FDA has sent notices to physicians across the country, including Colorado, warning them about the illegality of purchasing pharmaceuticals from foreign or unlicensed suppliers, some of whom even have detailers and all the collateral materials to create the illusion of legality and respectability.

Physicians who purchase from these unlicensed and foreign sources not only trigger an FDA investigation, they also draw the attention of the state medical and pharmacy boards since those purchases of illegally imported drugs also violate state statutes governing pharmaceuticals and medical practice.

Click here to read more on CMS.org.

New federal standards governing how health insurers conduct electronic transactions with physicians should help reduce administrative hassles, cut paperwork burdens and free up time to spend with patients. Free toolkits from the AMA can help physicians take advantage of the changes.

The rules, called for under the Affordable Care Act, require health insurers to standardize business practices for electronic funds transfers and electronic remittance advice. Set to take effect Jan. 1, the rules will make it possible for medical practices to automate the time-consuming process of manually matching payments from insurers with claims that have been submitted.

Click here to read more on CMS.org.