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1. All Physicians Expected to Have Flu Vaccine by October
More than 100 million doses of flu vaccine will be available this season, with 75 million of those doses expected to be in physicians’ offices and clinics by the end of October, according to federal health officials. This year’s expected total is 17 million doses more than the previous high of 83 million doses in 2003 and 19 million more than the 81 million produced last season.
CMA has been working with major flu vaccine manufacturers and distributors to prevent a repeat of last year’s distribution problems. As a result, manufacturers and distributors are implementing new distribution policies and this year all physicians who ordered vaccine should receive at least some of their order in October so they can start vaccinating patients immediately. Health officials also say that there is no need to prioritize the vaccine, as has been required in previous years. Manufacturers have already begun to ship this season’s influenza vaccine and expect the rest of the supply to be shipped and distributed by Thanksgiving.
“As we’ve learned in the past few years, there is always some uncertainty regarding influenza vaccine supplies and distribution,” said Julie Gerberding, M.D., director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a written statement. “It’s often very difficult to predict how much vaccine will be distributed and when, or exactly when influenza vaccine will be available for those who provide it. However, if the manufacturers’ estimates hold, more people than ever before will be able to protect themselves and their loved ones from influenza this year.”
Health officials also expanded recommendations for who should receive flu vaccinations this year. In addition to individuals at high risk of influenza-related complications — including health care providers, children between 6 months and 5 years of age, and people with chronic diseases — health officials this year are recommending vaccination of all healthy adults 50 and older. In some previous years, the recommendation for vaccinating healthy adults was set at age 65 and older because of shortages.
Physicians can still order vaccine. Doses are available from all manufacturers except Sanofi.
Click here for more information.
Contact: Robin Flagg, 415/882-5110 or rflagg@cmanet.org.
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2. Governor Appoints CMA Leader to Health Education Committee
Anmol Singh Mahal, M.D., CMA president-elect, has been appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to the state Health Professions Education Foundation Board of Trustees, which oversees a variety of scholarship and loan repayment programs designed to improve health care in medically underserved areas.
Dr. Mahal, who takes office as CMA president next month at the annual House of Delegates meeting, joins CMA past president Robert Hertzka, M.D., on the foundation board.
“I am pleased to be able to serve on this board whose goal is to improve access to care by encouraging young medical school graduates to practice in underserved rural and urban areas,” says Dr. Mahal. “This program is vital in helping physicians decide to locate in areas where California’s medically underserved live.
Among other programs, the board has oversight over the Stephen M. Thompson Physician Corps Program. The program offers up to $105,000 in loan forgiveness to physicians who provide care in underserved communities for at least three years, enabling newly graduated physicians with heavy educational debt to return to their communities to practice medicine.
The physician corps program was created in 2002 under a CMA-sponsored law and was renamed in 2004 in honor of CMA’s longtime vice president of government relations, Steve Thompson, who died of cancer in August 2004. There are now more than 50 physicians serving in the program in communities throughout the state.
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Contact: CMA Media Relations, 916/444-5532 or pwarren@cmanet.org.
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3. Father of Variation Analysis to Speak at CMA-OMSS Assembly
CMA’s Organized Medical Staff Section will hold its Annual Assembly and Education Conference Friday, October 27, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Sacramento Convention Center. The conference immediately precedes the 2006 CMA House of Delegates, also at the Sacramento Convention Center.
Among the speakers is John E. Wennberg, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences at Dartmouth Medical School. Dr. Wennberg is a renowned health services researcher and former director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Known as the “father of variation analysis,” Dr. Wennberg will discuss unwarranted variations in the cost and quality of medical care—unwarranted because they can’t be explained by illness, patient preferences, or the dictates of evidence-based medicine—and what health care providers can do to deliver more efficient, more effective care.
All physicians, medical staff professionals, and interested parties are invited to attend, but seating is limited. Cost is $100 for physicians and staff of CMA-OMSS members, $250 for CMA members who are not also OMSS members, and $300 for all others.
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Contact: Kathleen DeFabrique, 415/882-5107 or kdefabrique@cmanet.org.
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4. CMA Payor Contracting Seminars: 9/21 in Santa Cruz and 9/22 in Monterey
CMA and county medical societies are cohosting a series of seminars to help physician practices assess payor contracts and prepare for contract negotiations. The next “Taking Charge” seminars are Thursday, September 21, at the Santa Cruz County Medical Society offices and Friday, September 22, at the Monterey Beach Hotel.
Attendees will learn how to:
- evaluate current and proposed payor contracts
- target payors for contract termination, negotiation, or renegotiation
- monitor payor compliance with contract terms
- determine a payor’s value to your practice
- and more!
Participants will also receive a copy of CMA’s payor contracting guide
“Taking Charge: Steps to Evaluating Relationships and Preparing for
Negotiations,” a $40 value.
Registration for the Monterey seminar is $125 for members (nonmembers $250). Registration for the Santa Cruz seminar is $50 for members ($200 nonmembers).
Click here for more information.
Contact: Jewel Thompson, 916/551-2061 or jthompson@cmanet.org.
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5. Member Benefit of the Week: athenahealth Helps Physicians
Get Paid Quickly, Correctly, and with Minimal Hassle
The complexity of the nonclinical work in a physician’s office is often under appreciated, even by the physician. Practice managers must pay meticulous attention to detail, while learning and applying new operational rules on the fly, dealing with the challenges of staff turnover, training and retraining, and gracefully managing constant telephone disruptions.
Nowhere is the detail more confounding than in the billing and collections process. That’s why CMA has partnered with athenahealth—a leading revenue management company—to help physicians get paid quickly, correctly, and with minimal hassle. athenahealth’s unique web-based practice management services include eligibility verification, claims submission, and insurance collection.
Good news for small practices: At CMA’s urging, athenahealth recently lowered its prices for practices with one or two physicians! And CMA members still receive and additional 6 percent off. Group practices are eligible for the member discount only if all of the physicians are CMA members.
Athenahealth is the only revenue management service for physicians that integrates work flow, billing, and collections into a single web-based service. This HIPAA-compliant system was developed by former medical practice managers who have a thorough understanding of the business problems faced by physicians in California. Athenahealth has the largest real-time database of payor rules and regulations in the country—a database that helps prevent billing problems before they result in denied claims and lost cash flow. Because it’s a web-based service, every time a new rule or feature is added, your practice benefits immediately.
CMA endorsed athenahealth’s award-winning solution after an extensive review of its software and services, lengthy discussions with California customers, and independent confirmation of the company’s unusually high user satisfaction rate. On average, practices that use athenahealth’s revenue cycle management service get paid 20 percent faster and see a 5 to 10 percent increase in collections.
Athenahealth’s services are available to most California physicians. There are, however, a few counties where athenahealth is not yet available.
Click here for more information.
Contact: Jodi Black, 916/551-2863 or jblack@cmanet.org.
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Understand Your Denial Trends and Drivers
Create categories of denials and classify each denial based on these definitions.
If you use a practice management information system, set up a library of payor denial codes and run regular reports to detect trends in denials by type.
Set aside time each month to analyze denial reports. Do so overall and by payor, as these trends are likely to be very different. This will help you identify your best opportunities to prevent denials.
Click here for more information.
Contact: CMA's Center for Economic Services, 916/551-2061 or jthompson@cmanet.org.
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No. 2062 
