Avicenna Medical Blog

DeAnn Dennis

Recent Posts

Care Management Weekly News Update - 5/22/18

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Tue, May 22, 2018 @ 02:20 PM

Longer Home Health Visits Tied to Lower Hospital Rates

Home health care visits that are longerby just one minutemay be tied to lower hospital readmission rates. That’s the keyfinding from a recent study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

Read More

Care Management Weekly News Update - 5/15/18

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Wed, May 16, 2018 @ 02:45 PM

CMS Unveils Strategy to Improve Rural Healthcare

On Tuesday the CMS announced its first Rural Health Strategy, which looks to improve access to and quality of care in rural areas. CMS Administrator Seema Verma said the effort looks to “apply a rural lens to the vision and work of the agency” and was the culmination of input from rural providers and beneficiaries.

Read More

Care Management Weekly News Update - 5/8/18

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Tue, May 08, 2018 @ 03:31 PM

The Role of Palliative Care in Pediatrics

Since the 1960s when the hospice movement really began, we have been slowly changing our approach to management of chronic illness. With the addition of palliative care, a defined medical specialty since 2006, we have been able to take the lessons learned in that nearly 60 years of hospice experience and apply them to not only the terminally ill, but also for chronic disease management.

Read More

Care Management Weekly News Update - 5/3/18

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Thu, May 03, 2018 @ 10:58 AM

AMA Calls for Reduced MIPS Reporting Period

Reducing the Merit-based Incentive Payment System reporting period to 90 consecutive days instead of one year would "reduce administrative burden and ensure physicians have sufficient time to report after receiving performance feedback from CMS," the American Medical Association argues in a letter sent to CMS Administrator Seema Verma.

Read More

Avicenna Medical Systems and GAP Healthcare Announce Solution for MARCQI

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Thu, Apr 26, 2018 @ 12:10 PM

Avicenna Medical Systems is pleased to announce its partnership with GAP Healthcare Solutions to provide outsourced MARCQI patient survey services for Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) for patients undergoing arthroplasty surgery.

Read More

Care Management Weekly News Update - 4/24/18

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Tue, Apr 24, 2018 @ 12:03 PM

ACA Plans Expanded Coverage for Chronic Conditions

As the Affordable Care Act increased the number of Americans with health coverage, 45% of adult ACA exchange enrollees had chronic conditions in 2014 and 2015. That’s a higher percentage than those with employer-based insurance and in nongroup plans not in the exchanges, according to a new study in Health Affairs.

Read More

2018 Updates to Medicare Care Management Programs

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Thu, Apr 19, 2018 @ 04:14 PM

Care Management Programs Overview:

Beginning in 2013, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services introduced transition of care management (TCM), reimbursing providers for helping their patients with the transition from hospital to home.  Following the introduction of TCM; in 2015 CMS introduced the original chronic care management code, CPT code 99490, to pay providers for delivering non-face-to-face care to Medicare patients with two or more chronic conditions.

In 2017 CMS enhanced the CCM...

Read More

Care Management Weekly News Update - 4/17/18

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Tue, Apr 17, 2018 @ 12:02 PM

MIPS: Find out If You Are in or out for 2018

Finally. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released an online tool that enables clinicians to determine whether they must participate in the Merit-Based Incentive Payment Program (MIPS) this year. CMS on Friday put out a notice that it has released an updated MIPS Participation Lookup Tool on its web site that will allow clinicians to check on their 2018 eligibility status.

Read More

Care Management Weekly News Update - 4/3/18

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Tue, Apr 03, 2018 @ 12:00 PM

New Payment Model Deserves Quick Approval

In a March 19 letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, the AAFP said the Advanced Primary Care Alternative Payment Model would help more than 200,000 primary care physicians promote coordinated care and provide incentives for practices to change the way patient care is delivered.

Read More

Care Management Weekly News Update - 3/29/18

Posted by DeAnn Dennis on Thu, Mar 29, 2018 @ 03:25 PM

Dementia Care Spending to Hit $277 Billion

In 2018, the total cost of care for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias is projected to reach $277 billion. That figure is expected to keep ballooning in coming years and decades, and a growing proportion of spending has been going toward in-home care.

Read More