Two huge deadlines are approaching that cardiovascular professionals and practices need to take note of:
- Blue Cross Blue Shield Settlement (May 31)
- E-Prescribing (June 30)
Take Advantage of the Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) Settlement: Your ACC and the American Medical Association (AMA) are working to ensure physicians and practices know about the Thomas/Love Blue Cross Blue Shield settlement deadline. The settlement resolves a series of issues between a majority of BCBS Plans and physicians concerning claims processing and physician contracts. Issues include adherence to prompt pay requirements, 90-day advance notification for material adverse contract changes and more. Physicians and practices that feel their local BCBS Plan has violated settlement terms must file compliance disputes by May 31 to ensure they receive protections under the settlement. For more information, visit AMA's Blue Cross Blue Shield Settlement Information website. You can also watch an Archived Webinar for more details.
Defend Yourself Against the E-prescribing Penalty: This week your ACC is kicking off a month-long campaign to help cardiovascular professionals avoid the 2012 e-prescribing penalty. Under the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2007 (MIPPA), qualified e-prescribers will be penalized if they do not successfully participate in the federal e-prescribing incentive program. Despite protests from your ACC, the AMA and other professional societies, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will use e-prescribing data from January 1, 2011 through June 30, 2011 to determine whose payments will be reduced in 2012.
Your ACC has developed several resources to help practices and providers understand the requirements and avoid the penalty. The Health IT section of CardioSource.org contains an entire section on e-prescribing that includes FAQ and slides focused on navigating the federal e-prescribing program and clarifying confusion around requirements. In addition, the ACC in Touch Blog will feature a series of guest posts on the e-prescribing requirements over the course of the month from the perspectives of private practitioners, practice administrators, cardiac care associates and others. ACC President David Holmes, MD, FACC, kicks off the blog series with his post, "E-Prescribe or Face the Consequences!" Additional questions regarding the e-prescribing program and the looming penalty deadline should be directed to advocacydiv@acc.org. To read the College's latest comments to CMS on the e-prescribing penalty, click here.
Questions/Comments contact
advocate@acc.org
.