SFMS Unveils New Website, Interactive Blog

SFMS now has a new presence on the Internet with the newly revamped www.sfms.org.

The new site features:

• Physician finder tool and customizable physician page for each SFMS member
• New Advocacy section that includes regional, state, and national updates on priority bills and key wins
• More robust Membership section with full integration with SFMS’ member database to enable online application, renewal, event registration, and member information updates
• Commenting capability on the newly integrated SFMS blog to promote two-way communication and better user engagement
• Integration with Issuu to read San Francisco Medicine journal in e-magazine format

SFMS will be phasing out our blog on WordPress and posting new and pertinent health care news and events at the SFMS blog on our website, http://www.sfms.org/NewsPublication/SFMSBlog.aspx. Subscribers can also sign up for an RSS feed by visiting sfms.org and clicking on the “Get Aggregated RSS” link at the bottom of the page.

April 2012 SFM now online!

Hot off the presses! The April 2012 issue of San Francisco Medicine is now available and making its way to mailboxes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. With the theme of “Pain Management,” this issue features articles about the neurological foundations of pain, psychiatric perspective on pain, cannabinoids and pain, and chronic pain and addiction.

Click here to view this issue online.

CMS e-Prescribing Backlog Reduces Fees to Physicians

California physicians are reporting that the Medicare payments they are receiving in 2012 have been reduced for a failure to prescribe enough electronically in 2011—despite the fact that these physicians have filed hardship applications to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS responded to CMA inquiries that it was not able to process all hardship applications prior to January 1, although the agency says it has since approved or denied all of those exemption requests. This means that CMS has levied a 1 percent penalty for what it considers “noncompliant physicians.”

CMA is working with CMS to build clarity over whether penalties will apply to physician reimbursement rates going forward, and to ease confusion over the process in the future. For now, there is no official appeals process for the e-prescribing penalty program. However, CMS has expressed a willingness to work with individual physicians on concerns with the payment adjustments.

CMS encourages physicians who think they are receiving the e-prescribing penalty in error to contact its help desk. The QualityNet Help Desk can be reached by phone Monday through Friday, 7 am to 7 pm  CST at (866) 288-8912 or by email at qnetsupport@sdps.org.

Avoid the 2013 penalty

On March 1, the agency reopened its hardship requests from physicians looking to avoid the 2013 e-prescribing penalty, which will grow to 1.5 percent. Physicians seeking waivers will have until June 30 to file exemption requests. A request for a feedback report, and an application for a hardship exemption, can be filed online by clicking on the Communications Support Page.

Essential Health Benefit Bill Clears Committee

Bill Monning, chair of the Assembly Committee on Health, knew the moment was a big one.

Monning introduced AB 1453, which laid out a plan for what essential benefits will be covered in California under the Affordable Care Act. The proposed set of benefits is modeled on the Kaiser small group HMO plan.

“This is one of the most important bills you will face this year,” Beth Capell of Health Access California told the committee.

The federal government requires states to choose essential benefits in 10 broad categories. In California, that process looked daunting because of the many health care mandates passed by the Legislature, including coverage of autism.

This package includes all current California mandates—including autism coverage—and everything in the package fits the federal profile as well, which means there would be no extra mandate costs to the state, Monning said.

The Kaiser small group plan covers reproductive services, acupuncture, prescription drugs and all of California’s current mandates, Monning said. “And best of all, it is affordable,” he said.

There was no stated opposition to the bill, but Nick Louizos of the California Association of Health Plans said his organization has some reservations about the bill. He was pleased, he said, to see the legislative discussion focus on selection of the benchmark plan.

The bill passed committee, and now heads to Appropriations.

Source: California Healthline, April 11, 2012.

HealthShare Bay Area Founding Members to Form Health Information Exchange

Eighteen Bay Area health care organizations will be founding members of the region’s first community health information exchange (HIE) program, HealthShare Bay Area (HSBA).

The founding 18:

• Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association
• Alameda County Community Health Center Network
• Alameda County Medical Center
• Brown & Toland Physicians
• California Pacific Medical Center
• Glide Health Services
• Haight Ashbury-Walden House
• Hill Physicians Medical Group
• John Muir Health
• John Muir Physician Network
• Lyon-Martin Health Services
• Mission Neighborhood Health Center
• North East Medical Services
• St. Anthony Medical Clinic
• San Francisco Department of Public Health
• San Francisco Medical Society
• South of Market Health Center
• Women’s Community Clinic

The HealthShare Bay Area HIE will provide a secure, safe, and interoperable method for exchanging patient health information among providers of care and patients in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In the coming weeks, the founding members will form a governing board for the HIE. The board will then contract with a vendor that will provide the technical infrastructure for the exchange. The chosen technology will operate according to robust data privacy and security standards.

The governing board will also be tasked with securing additional funding for HSBA. The HIE’s four-year, $11 million startup and operating cost will come primarily from the founding members’ participation fees. Additional federal and private grants will be sought to supplement expenses as HSBA develops. New members joining the exchange in the coming months will provide additional revenue.

HealthShare Bay Area began as a grass-roots community initiative. In August of 2009, the California eHealth Collaborative brought together various San Francisco parties interested in creating a HIE within the city. This meeting was precipitated in large part by the passing of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), which allocated $20 billion for the deployment of health information technology. The ARRA also calls for medical organizations to participate in HIEs.

In March of 2010, a governing committee was formed under the auspices of the San Francisco Medical Society Community Service Foundation. A similar movement was also underway in the East Bay – the Alameda-Contra Costa Health Information Organization, fostered by the Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association. That fall, the San Francisco and East Bay groups joined forces. In April of 2011, the effort officially became HealthShare Bay Area.