CMA Capitol Insight With Anthony York: June 7, 2016 CMA Capitol Insight is a biweekly column by veteran journalist Anthony York, reporting on the inner workings of the state Legislature. All Eyes on California The nation’s eyes will be on California this week, as voters here go to the polls in the final major presidential contest of the long primary season. We’ve seen a massive swell in new voter registration this year. State voter rolls grew by more than 646,000 voters in April and May alone, with more than three-fourths of those voters signing up as Democrats. It will be important ... June 7, 2016 CMA Capitol Insight 0 0 Comment Read More »
Ensure You Receive Maximum Incentive Funds Champions for Health can assist primary care and specialty care physicians with new reporting to ensure you receive maximum incentive funds. Those physicians registered for Medi-Cal (30% of practice) are eligible to receive FREE technical assistance, with very low-cost technical assistance available for Medicare providers. SDCMS members qualify for a 40% discount. For further information, email Barbara.Mandel@SDCMS.org or call (858) 300-2779. May 26, 2016 Medi-Cal Incentive Funds, Quality Reporting 0 0 Comment Read More »
DHCS Begins Recouping Retroactive Medi-Cal Radiology Cuts May 11, 2016 In 2010, the California state budget included cuts to Medi-Cal radiology rates, stipulating that the maximum reimbursement rates for radiology services could not exceed 80 percent of the Medicare rate for the same or similar services. The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) did not, however, implement the rate reduction until July 20, 2015, with retroactive cuts going back to October 2012. To recoup the retroactive cuts, DHCS recently announced that it would be offsetting overpayments against amounts due. Physicians affected by this retroactive recoupment were notified by ... May 11, 2016 Medi-Cal DHCS, Medi-Cal, Radiology 0 0 Comment Read More »
Noridian Will Begin Deactivations on May 31 for Failure to Revalidate May 10, 2016 Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), all Medicare providers and suppliers have been required to revalidate their Medicare enrollment information under new enrollment screening criteria in an effort to prevent fraud within the Medicare system. Once a Medicare enrollment application is validated, the clock starts ticking on a five-year revalidation cycle. Now that five years have passed since the ACA's revalidation requirement took effect, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has initiated a second cycle of revalidation requests. According to CMS, Medicare Administrative ... May 11, 2016 Medicare Noridian 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMA Capitol Insight With Anthony York: May 10, 2016 CMA Capitol Insight is a biweekly column by veteran journalist Anthony York, reporting on the inner workings of the state Legislature. Budget Battles Begin For the last several years, the California budget has essentially been a non-story. Prop. 25, passed in 2010, changed the legislative vote requirement to pass a budget from two-thirds to a simple majority. In 2012, as the economy continued its incremental crawl out of the great recession, voters passed Prop. 30, which hiked the state’s upper-income tax brackets, providing state coffers with billions more in revenue to ... May 10, 2016 CMA Capitol Insight 0 0 Comment Read More »
Top Doctors 2016 Top Doctors 2016 Election: May 9 – June 20 SAN DIEGO COUNTY PHYSICIANS: The San Diego County Medical Society (SDCMS) invites you to participate in the selection process for “Physicians of Exceptional Excellence” — Top Doctors 2016. The SDCMS leadership wishes the selection process, while not perfect, to be fair, open, and honest for physician peers selecting the top 5% of active San Diego County physicians. Three years ago, we significantly improved the selection process to ensure a more proportionate representation between modes of practice, balancing the selectees between very large groups and ... May 6, 2016 Top Doctors Top Doctors 0 0 Comment Read More »
Reuben H. Fleet Science Center Special Membership Offer The Reuben H. Fleet Science Center is the largest membership museum in Balboa Park. Members enjoy unlimited admission to its exhibit galleries plus member-only previews of new exhibitions.* The Science Center's two most popular levels also receive the benefits listed below: Voyager $250 (regular price: $300) Unlimited IMAX admission for two 14 IMAX vouchers for other family members IMAX Dome Theater pre-seating Trailblazer: $500 (regular price: $600) All of the above, plus: Invitations to exclusive donor ... April 29, 2016 Benefits Science Center 0 0 Comment Read More »
Physicians: Review Your Data Before it Becomes Available to the Public Review and dispute for the June 30, 2016, Open Payments data publication opened on Friday, April 1, 2016, and will last for 45 days. CMS will publish the 2015 payment data and updates to the 2013 and 2014 data on June 30, 2016. In order for any disputes to be addressed before the June 30 publication, physicians and teaching hospitals must initiate their disputes during the 45-day review period, and industry must resolve the dispute before the publication deadline. Review and dispute is voluntary but strongly ... April 27, 2016 Sunshine Act Open Payments, Sunshine Act 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMA Capitol Insight With Anthony York: April 26, 2016 CMA Capitol Insight is a biweekly column by veteran journalist Anthony York, reporting on the inner workings of the state Legislature. The Legislative Scramble Last week was a frantic one inside the Capitol as lawmakers faced a key deadline to pass bills out of policy committee. Measures that did not receive committee approval last week were shelved for the year. A number of major proposals lived to fight another day, but many efforts were left on the prominent pile of abandoned bill ideas that accumulates each and every year. Among those bills ... April 26, 2016 CMA, Legislation Capitol Insight 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMA Capitol Insight With Anthony York: April 11, 2016 CMA Capitol Insight is a biweekly column by veteran journalist Anthony York, reporting on the inner workings of the state Legislature. A Higher Wage (and Higher Tobacco Tax?) Gov. Jerry Brown continued to make history when he signed a $15/hour minimum wage into law. The governor, whose administration had publicly opposed calls for a higher wage, couched the increase in moral terms at a Los Angeles signing ceremony. What’s notable is that the higher wage will take effect statewide. Others had thought that more economically depressed areas of the state might ... April 12, 2016 Legislation Capitol Insight 0 0 Comment Read More »