The Colorado Medical Society presents the 2015 CMS Spring Conference, "Breaking down barriers: Reunifying physicians and patients." The conference will be held May 1-3, 2015 at the luxurious Sonnenalp Hotel in the heart of Vail village. This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.

Physicians from around the state will experience hands-on interactive sessions on what we are doing, have been doing, and will be doing to hammer at barriers in health care that prevent progress in quality and safety, access, efficiencies, and patient experience.

CMS will kick off the conference with a social reception Friday evening hosted by the Intermountain Medical Society. Saturday and Sunday's programming will include a mock claims committee case presented by COPIC, a session on administrative simplification and workplace dissatisfaction, and a session on the patient experience - specifically when physicians find themselves or their loved ones as patients. Saturday evening's fireside chat will feature an open forum on CMS governance reform, giving attendees the opportunity to explore the composition and selection of the CMS House of Delegates and the Board of Directors and shape the process as it is happening.

Registration and hotel reservations are now available. Click here to go to the spring conference page of CMS.org to register and get more information on the conference.

The American Board of Internal Medicine announced substantial changes to its Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program and pledged to work more closely with the internal medicine community to improve MOC.

ABIM President and CEO Richard J. Baron, MD, MACP, acknowledged in a letter that they "got it wrong" and need to gather more input on the MOC program from practicing clinicians to ensure that it reflects what physicians are doing today in their practices. "We launched programs that weren't ready and we didn't deliver an MOC program that physicians found meaningful. We want to change that."

Click here to read more on CMS.org.

Beginning on Aug. 1, 2013, Colorado Medicaid began coverage of end-of-life counseling, or advanced directives, by primary care providers and other specialty providers caring for persons with serious, chronic, or terminal illness relating to the Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment. The Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment (MOST) is a medical order set defining patient choices for certain life-sustaining treatments. The MOST orders are portable across all health care settings and intended as a key device in maintaining continuity of care and communication.

The procedure code for this service is S0257; it is billed in addition to the appropriate Evaluation and Management service. The provider types eligible to render this service are physician, advanced practice nurse, physician assistant, or licensed mental health provider. The reimbursement for this service is available once a year for persons with serious, chronic, or terminal illness. The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing would like to encourage providers to provide and bill for this service for appropriate clients.

Click here to read more.

The Accountable Care Collaborative (ACC) invites physicians to participate in a new Chronic Pain Disease Management Program modeled after Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes). The Chronic Pain Management Program leverages cutting edge telehealth technologies to connect PCMPs to specialists. PCMPs consult directly with specialists regarding client cases and learn best practices for treating clients with a variety of chronic pain conditions.

The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) will sponsor approximately 40 PCMPs to serve as telehealth pioneers for Colorado. Participation in the program is easy and the benefits for providers and their clients are significant:

• Gain expertise for treating clients with a variety of chronic pain conditions. The program is designed to assist with your current clients and there is no expectation for you to take additional pain management clients.
• Keep your clients in your practice and in their communities.
• There is no cost for participation in the Chronic Disease Management Program.
• Easy attendance from anywhere through an online video conference system.
• Earn CME credit for attending the ECHO pain management sessions.
• Participation will not change your practice scope or alter your liability with clients you're treating.

Click here to learn more about this opportunity and view available webinar dates.

In 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will begin making separate payment under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) for Chronic Care Management (CCM) services under Current Procedure Terminology (CPT) code 99490. CCM services are non-face-to-face care management/coordination services for certain Medicare beneficiaries having multiple (two or more) chronic conditions.

During the Feb. 18 MLN Connects™ National Provider Call, the federal CMS will review the requirements for physicians and other practitioners to bill the new CPT code to the PFS. A question and answer session will follow the presentation.

Call participants are encouraged to review the following rules prior to the call: The 2014 PFS final rule (CMS-1600-FC) pages 74414-74427 and the 2015 PFS final rule (CMS-1612-FC) pages 67715-67730, which are available on the PFS webpage.

Click here to register.

COPIC has developed several in-person seminars for medical professionals responsible for human resources management. Seminars will cover an array of topics including managing employee performance issues, performance documentation, harassment prevention, employment case law, and fostering a professional work environment. Attendees will gain essential information to minimize the risks that accompany human resources management.

Managing Performance - The Good, Bad and the Ugly
Wednesday, March 18 at COPIC
8 - 8:30 a.m. Registration and Breakfast; 8:30 - 10:30 a.m. Program

Do you reinforce positive behavior when your employees do something well? Do you address performance issues as they occur? What if a problem continues to persist, do you know what to do next? Setting clear and specific performance expectations for each employee and providing periodic informal and formal feedback about the employee's performance is crucial to employee development and business results.

Click here to read more about this program and other educational opportunities.