Although burnout plagues 50 percent of practicing physicians, they are not the only ones affected. Increasing responsibilities and stress often lead to burnout, which can significantly impact organizational productivity, morale, costs and quality of care.

The American Medical Association and the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) invite you to attend the MGMA/AMA Collaborate in Practice Conference, March 20-22, at the Broadmoor Hotel, Colorado Springs, Colo., where you can learn effective strategies to battle burnout.

This session will prepare you to:

• Formulate and integrate interventions with leaders and/or staff to address existing burnout
• Devise a wellness committee or champion and measure provider and staff wellness
• Establish wellness programs and administer an annual wellness survey to prevent future burnout

Burnout presentation by: Ronald Menaker, EdD, MBA, assistant professor, healthcare systems engineering, College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, and Stephen J. Swenson, MD, medical director, Office of Leadership and Organization Development, Mayo Clinic.

Register now and help your organization reduce burnout. And two people register for the price of one when using code AMA2FORTUE by tomorrow, Feb. 16.

Prior to adjourning for the holidays in December 2015, Congress passed the Patient Access and Medicare Protection Act (PAMPA), which directed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to make changes to the Medicare EHR Incentive Program hardship exception process that allows physicians to avoid a Meaningful Use (MU) penalty in 2017. The American Medical Association supported these changes.

The AMA is encouraging ALL physicians subject to the 2015 Medicare MU program to apply for the hardship.

The federal CMS has stated that it will broadly accept hardship exemptions because of the delayed publication of the program regulations. Applying for the hardship will not prevent a physician from earning an incentive, it simply protects a physician from receiving a MU penalty. Therefore, physicians who believe that they met the MU requirements for the 2015 reporting period should still apply for the hardship protection. Note that the program operates on a two-year look-back period, meaning that physicians who are granted an exception for the 2015 program will avoid a financial penalty for 2017.

View step-by-step instructions for completing the hardship exception application here.

The 2016 CMGMA (Colorado Medical Group Management Association) compensation survey for physicians, providers, managers and staff is now open. The survey will be conducted completely online through the MGMA website. CMGMA will use the resources of MGMA to make participation easier for practices, and those who participate will receive access to Colorado practice information.

As you wrap up your 2015 practice accounting be sure you have provider production and compensation information, and staff compensation and benefit information in a convenient place for easy access for the survey.

The survey will be available for 2016 participation until March 4, 2016. You do not need to be a member of CMGMA or MGMA to participate, though CMGMA members will be eligible for prizes after participation. Click here to fill out the survey. Questions? Contact Jan Krause at 303-691-5090 or [email protected].

NACHA, the federally recognized standards body for the health care EFT standard and the private-sector rule-making organization for the ACH Network, presents three case studies that demonstrate the benefits practices can achieve by converting claims reimbursements payments from paper checks to the health care EFT standard transaction and automating the reconciliation and posting process using the ERA.

Read more on CMS.org.

What's ahead for your next Medicare enrollment revalidation? Learn what you need to do and about the new resources available to help you stay on top of the process every step of the way. Join federal CMS experts for an MLN call on Tuesday, March 1, 12 - 1:15 p.m. MT as they discuss the timing, improvements, and updates for the second round of revalidations required by the Affordable Care Act and 42 CFR �424.515. A question-and-answer session will follow the presentation.

To register, visit MLN Connects event registration. Space may be limited; register early.

The target audience is all Medicare fee-for-service providers and suppliers. Note: Providers enrolled solely to order and refer items or services to Medicare beneficiaries and practitioners who have opted out of the Medicare program are not required to revalidate.

The Philadelphia Regional Office of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host a webinar titled "The Medicare Quality Reporting Programs: What Eligible Providers Need to Know in 2016" on Wednesday, Feb. 17, from 9:30 - 11 a.m. MST. Topics that will be discussed include:

• Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) Preview
• 2016 Incentive Payments and 2018 Payment Adjustments
• 2016 PQRS Updates
• 2018 Value-based Payment Modifier (VM) Policies
• Physician Compare Updates for 2016
• Meaningful Use of CEHRT in 2016

Click here to go to the registration page. (Click register, enter your information on the form and then click submit. The confirmation email will include instructions on how to join the event.)

Join Healthy Transitions Colorado for a free webinar titled "Patient Engagement in Quality Improvement" on Friday, Feb. 19, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. MT with speaker Kari Loken, program manager at HealthTeamWorks.

This webinar will introduce multiple methods with best practices, challenges and recommendations in how to incorporate the patient voice in your practice transformation work outside of the hospital. Register here.