MISSISSIPPI STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: Today the MSDH issued
a new alert to health care providers recommending a "time and symptom-based strategy" for the best practices of discontinuing isolation for patients with COVID-19. The policy states that as long as health care providers have been fever-free for 72 hours, they do not have to wait 14 full days from the onset of illness to return to work. It recommends allowing these individuals to return to work as long as 10 days have passed from the onset of illness, while wearing a mask, and with the approval of their employer. Following up on
Sunday's CDC isolation-discontinuation update, the MSDH order says, "MSDH does not recommend a test-based strategy to discontinue isolation, to discharge from a hospital, or to return to work for any infected individual."
CENTERS FOR MEDICAID AND MEDICARE SERVICES:
Last week we let you know that
CMS would retroactively pay for audio-only telephone visits going back to March 1. CMS has announced physicians need to
RESUBMIT claims
for these services to receive the retroactive payments.Claims will not be automatically reprocessed - they must be submitted by physicians. Here is the CMS
telehealth-eligible code list
.
CMS will host a
'Lessons From the Front Lines'
Webinar on Friday, May 8 from 11:30 - 1 pm Central. On these calls physicians and other clinicians are invited to share their experience, ideas, strategies, and insights related to COVID-19. You can join by
web link
or call 1-877-251-0301 code 9146779.
Other highlights from CMS in the past week:
CODING ASSISTANCE
: CMS made changes last week related to telephone codes and expanding the delivery options for Annual Wellness Visits to telephone as well. Dr. Nick Ulmer, a family physician and Certified Professional Coder from South Carolina, a past speaker for MAFP, has pulled together a 10-minute video about the changes, called
Provider Pause
and you can watch it for no charge.
- Introduction Video is first (3 minutes) then the other two videos are listed underneath the intro video
- Virtual Options of Care Delivery (25 minutes) - Codes relating to Telehealth and the broadened scope of virtual outreach
- Practical Applications of Telemedicine (10 minutes) - Dr. Ulmer shares some case discussions using the codes discussed in the first webinar
RELIEF FUNDS FOR EMPLOYED PHYSICIANS
: If you are an employed physician and you are not sure if your system received relief funds, you need to start the conversation to make sure those funds are reinvested in YOU and your clinic.
Here are some talking points
from our friends at the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians.
PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT
: MAFP is collecting resources for PPE to share with membership and is posting them on our
Coronavirus Page
under the heading "Personal Protective Equipment."
MAFP staff has also made contact with Julie McNeese at the Mississippi Hospital Association, who is coordinating bulk purchases of PPE and other supplies for small hospitals and independent practices. To discuss a bulk order, please contact Julie at 601-368-3311.
We encourage member family physicians to reach out to your local churches and other community groups to ask them to sew cloth masks for your clinic staff and patients.
