California Oncology Weekly
"Where California Oncologists Go For Answers!"
A publication of the
Medical Oncology Association of Southern California, Inc.
July 21, 2020
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This
Weekly
's Hot Topics
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- FREE PPE! Reserve TODAY, July 21, 2020, at cmadocs.org/PPE. California News
- MOASC Sponsors survey due Friday MOASC News
- House advances legislation to tighten FDA oversight of pharma. National News
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No later than TODAY, July 21, 2020, physicians MUST reserve their FREE PPE at
cmadocs.org/PPE. The State of California is making millions of pieces of medical-grade PPE - including N95 masks, surgical masks, shields, gowns, and gloves - available FREE to physician practices, with 50 or fewer health care providers, regardless of CMA membership. The California Office of Emergency Services is partnering with CMA to distribute this equipment to qualifying small and medium sized medical practices. PPE Relief kits include up to a two-month supply (exact amount may vary by practice size, specialty and location).
- The California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) has updated its website to reflect a new posting under Section 3
Pending and Newly Effective Regulations. Pursuant to Government Code section 11346.1(a)(3) the Director of the Department has determined the emergency situation addressed by this proposed emergency regulation clearly poses such an immediate and serious harm that delaying action to allow public comment would be inconsistent with the public interest. Accordingly, the Department did not provide a five-day public notice period prior to submitting the proposed regulation to the Office of Administrative Law. The Department requested the Office of Administrative Law similarly waive its typical five-day notice period. You will find the emergency regulation documents located at: https://wpso.dmhc.ca.gov/regulations/regs/?key=50.
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At the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state officials, approximately 740 Department of Defense medical and support professionals from the Army, Navy, and Air Force have been deployed to support COVID-19 operations in California and Texas. To learn more, read the article.
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Upcoming Educational Events - July 2020: Providers are encouraged to attend the many educational events offered by Noridian. Read the complete update. The schedules of region-specific events, webinars and training are JEA, JEB, JAF, and JFB
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Medicare Enrollment Application Fee Refunds
through EFT
Application fee refunds will only be done via EFT now. Read the complete update
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Influenza Vaccine Payment Allowances -
Annual Update for 2020-2021 Season
CR 11882 informs you of the availability of payment allowances for the seasonal influenza virus vaccines as updated on an annual basis, effective August 1 of each year. Read the complete update
MolDX: Predictive Classifiers for Early Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Final LCD - Effective August 24, 2020.
This Local Coverage Determination (LCD) has completed the Open Public Meeting and Contractor Advisory Committee (CAC) comment period and is now finalized under contractor numbers: 01112 (NCA), 01182 (SCA), 01212 (AS, GU, HI, NMI), and 01312 (NV). Responses to comments received may be found as a link at the bottom of the final LCD. Read the complete update
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Noridian Medicare Portal: Eligibility and MBI Lookup Inquiry Webinar - July 23, 2020
This event includes: Eligibility Inquiry Requirements, MBI Lookup Tool Requirements
Read the complete update
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Noridian Medicare Portal: Claim Status Webinar - July 28, 2020
This event includes: How to perform a Claim Status Inquiry, Additional features available on a Claim Status Inquiry
Read the complete update
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Advance Beneficiary Notice of Noncoverage (ABN) After Hours Webinar
- August 5, 2020.
This event includes: The New Advance Beneficiary Notice of Noncoverage (ABN) Form, ABN Basics, ABN Completion, ABN Tips, ABN Resources, and Noteworthy Information. Read the complete update
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- Dear MOASC Sponsors: MOASC has sent a survey to you with the deadline for your response
by this Friday, July 24. If you have not received the survey, please contact Wendy Alfaro at [email protected], to secure your voice is heard. Thank you.
- What can MOASC do to further support you? Your input is valuable. How can MOASC improve upon this publication and all communications to you? Please take a moment to respond to the following survey. It should take you less than 5 minutes to complete. Upon receipt of your completed survey, you will be automatically entered into a drawing to win a $50 Amazon gift card. TAKE THE SURVEY NOW! Thank you in advance for your time and feedback to participate in this survey. If you have any further comments, issues and concerns, please feel free to contact [email protected].
SAVE-THE-DATE - LunchTime Series Virtual
Program entitled, "
The 2021 Evaluation and Management Changes" scheduled for
Wednesday, August 26, 2020 at 12:30pm-PDT. Presented by:
Allison Hirschorn, Senior Coding and Reimbursement Specialist, ASCO.
As of
January 1, 2021
, there will be significant changes to the office and outpatient Evaluation and Management (E&M) services for both new and established patients.
Practices, physicians, and staff must be aware of the modifications to ensure a successful transition next year and avoid any disruption in reimbursement.
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Congratulations to Drs. Bridget Keenan, Nancy Nguyen, and Mohana Roy, recipients of ANCO's Travel Awards for 2020.
Dr. Keenan is a fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Nguyen is a fellow at University of California, Davis, and Dr. Roy is a fellow at Stanford University.
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The Association of Northern California Oncologists (ANCO) continues to monitor the novel coronavirus (COVID-19)
pandemic and is committed to providing the membership the best possible information with which to make clinical and personal well-being decisions.
https://anco.org/anco-covid-19-updates-resources/
We encourage member practices to let ANCO know of COVID-19 resources they are depending upon and found useful and how they are responding to COVID-19 and serving their patients and staff at [email protected] (Use Subject: COVID-19: RESPONSE). Thanks!
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ANCO physician members, their practice staff, and representatives from ANCO's corporate members must register to access password-protected content (e.g., The ANCO Directory, ANCO meeting materials) on the ANCO website
www.anco.org
.
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Use ANCO's
job board
to post or search for employment opportunities at ANCO member practices.
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Follow ANCO on Twitter at @ANCO News.
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National News
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"Between Life and Death, from despair to hope," is a book that should be in the patient library of every oncology practice. Written by Kashyap Patel, M.D., CEO of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates, COA Board Member, certified trainer for physicians with the Education in Palliative and End-of-Life Care (EPEC), and speaker at several CME events. Many know Dr. Patel by his presence at national conferences, board meetings and advisory boards. Beautifully written, Dr. Patel tells a story of the process of someone who comes to terms with their own mortality and living a meaning-full life through dying with grace. Pre-order Price Guarantee through Amazon Prime. Details.
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A House of Representatives panel last week advanced legislation that would tighten FDA oversight of orphan drugs, pharmaceutical manufacturing, generic drug labeling and imported medical devices.
Among the bills, the Making Objective Drug Evidence Revisions for New Labeling Act of 2020 would require pharmaceutical firms to revise the labeling of older generic drugs to reflect new data, while the Safeguarding Therapeutics Act would permit the FDA to destroy imported misbranded, adulterated or unapproved devices that it considers a public health threat.
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Patients with advanced pancreatic or colorectal cancer undergoing palliative chemotherapy who were given educational videos and booklets to help them realize their treatment
was unlikely to be curative didn't understand any better than those in a traditional care group, according to a study published online in JAMA Oncology. Researchers noted that patients may have been holding out hope for a cure rather than not understanding the information.
- UnitedHealthcare announces new service categories that are available for online prior authorization submissions. Prior Authorization and Notification helps you check requirements, submit requests, upload medical notes, check status and update cases, all without faxing or calling. When you submit a prior authorization request for select services and members through the Prior Authorization and Notification tool, you're prompted to provide clinical information that helps UHC evaluate your request and supports faster decisions. Regular enhancements are made by adding service categories, as: DME, Proton Beam Therapy, Radiation Therapy, Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy and more. For more information about enhancements and all the included service categories, refer to Interactive Guide for Prior Authorization and Notification. To access the Prior Authorization and Notification tool, go to New User to sign up or Sign In. Questions? Call the UnitedHealthcare Connectivity Help Desk at 866-842-3278, option 1, from 5am - 7pm Pacific Time, Monday - Friday.
- A federal appeals court overturned a lower court ruling and upheld HHS' site-neutral payment rule that cuts Medicare payments for evaluation and management services at off-campus hospital sites. According to the ruling, HHS has the authority to lower payments for off-campus facilities to bring them in line with rates for outpatient care at other facilities.
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CMS News
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As a second wave of states quarantine, CMS continues to host varied recurring stakeholder engagement sessions and share information related to the agency's response to COVID-19
. These sessions are open to members of the healthcare community and are intended to provide updates, share best practices among peers, and offer attendees an opportunity to ask questions of CMS and other subject matter experts. Calls recordings and transcripts are posted on the CMS podcast page at:
https://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Outreach/OpenDoorForums/PodcastAndTranscripts
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The CMS opened the
Physician Compare Preview Period on June 22, 2020. The 60-day Preview Period provides an opportunity for clinicians and groups to review their 2018 Quality Payment Program performance information before it is publicly reported on Physician Compare profile pages and in the Downloadable Database. You can access the secured measure preview through the Quality Payment Program website. Check out the resource below on how to preview your information: Physician Compare Preview Period User Guide
.
For additional assistance with accessing the Quality Payment Program website, or obtaining your EIDM user role, contact the Quality Payment Program service center at [email protected].
- CMS will resume healthcare provider audits on August 3, 2020. Healthcare providers may struggle to respond to CMS' audit requests given many business office employees are still furloughed.
- In February 2015, CMS invited oncology physician group practices to participate in the Oncology Care Model (OCM), an alternative payment model based on six-month episodes for cancer care. OCM tests whether financial incentives can improve quality and reduce Medicare spending. OCM applies to Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries with any type of cancer who are undergoing chemotherapy treatment. The July 2020 Final Evaluation of the Oncology Care Model: Performance Periods 1-3 addresses ongoing implementation of the Model, and impacts through the third performance period (including episodes that began between July 1, 2016 and January 1, 2018, all of which ended by June 30, 2018). At the end of the third performance period, there were 191 practices actively participating in the Model. https://innovation.cms.gov/data-and-reports/2020/ocm-evaluation-annual-report-2
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CMS Administrator Seema Verma says the agency is looking at how temporary telehealth changes affected health care access
, Medicare spending, health care delivery and health outcomes during the pandemic to determine which modifications should be made permanent.
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Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers once again attained some of the largest risk-adjustment payments
under an Affordable Care Act program meant to discourage insurers from cherry-picking healthy employees, CMS data show.
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Last week this publication provided the link to the
2021 ICD-10-CM webpage. Though it does not go into effect until October, the earlier practices become familiar with the Guidelines the better. One coding rule to be aware of is medical practices should use code Z20.828 instead of Z11.59 during the pandemic. An observation code may be assigned as a secondary diagnosis code when the patient is being observed for a condition that is ruled out and is unrelated to the principal/first-listed diagnosis.
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Affiliate Association News
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The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) is excited to announce the
ACCC 37th [Virtual] National Oncology Conference, September 14-18, a first-of-its-kind opportunity for multidisciplinary cancer care team members from across the country to come together and learn as a virtual community. Our digital format will allow you to easily attend, participate, and experience the exceptional how-to education that you expect from ACCC in the comfort of your home or office. From live Q&A, peer networking opportunities, and the 2020 ACCC Innovator Award presentations, you'll elevate your perspective and discover pioneering ideas that address the challenges of providing cancer care in our new reality. For questions with registration or ACCC membership, please email [email protected].
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The International Lung Cancer Congress will hold their 21st Annual meeting on July 23-25, 2020. The live webcast will provide current, practical information on the management of lung cancer, as well as a look at the novel agents and strategies with the potential to shape the future of lung cancer therapy. Leading international and national experts will provide perspectives on how to apply the latest data on targeted agents, immunotherapy, surgery, and radiation oncology in the clinic. Click
here to register.
- Building on the 2018-2019 NCCS survey findings highlighting top patient concerns, the National Coalition of Cancer Survivors worked with Edge Research to conduct a nationwide survey to better understand the cancer survivor journey from a range of perspectives. NCCS will present a virtual web briefing on the 2020 State of Survivorship Survey Results on Tuesday August 4, 2020 at 10:00am Pacific.
Register Today »
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The 3rd Annual Cedars-Sinai Gastrointestinal Tumor Conference that was set to take place LIVE on Saturday, September 12, 2020 unfortunately, has been CANCELLED, due to COIVD-19 restrictions.
There are plans to develop online enduring content as an alternative.
More information will be published here as soon as logistics are completed.
- MOASC Members are encouraged to register now as an ASH VIP for the 62nd ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition, December 5-8 in San Diego. ASH is planning to make a final decision no later than September 30, about whether to go forward with an in-person meeting. There will be an option to attend virtually, whether there is an in-person component or not. Register now for the meetings at
https://show.jspargo.com/asham20/ssologin.aspx
. Sign in using your ASH username (
[email protected]
) and password. If someone else is registering for you, please provide them with your credentials to avoid delays. If you have forgotten your password, you may reset it using the "
Forgot Password?
" link on the sign-in page. If you have questions about your username, please
contact us
.
View the up-to-date schedule and program
. The deadline to send your
Online Abstract Submission
is August 4. Due to fraud concerns, when registering and making lodging reservations,
make sure the website you are on is the one linked from this email or from the
ASH website
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For the complete updated versions of the NCCN Guidelines please visit
NCCN.org
.
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Industry News
- Immunomedics
cordially invites MOASC Members to their
multiple virtual programs to introduce
TRODELVYTM (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy)
for adult patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer who received at least two prior therapies for metastatic disease.
Thursday, July 30, 2020
at 4:30pm-PDT, presented by: Virginia G Kaklamani, MD, DSc, MSCI, Professor of Medicine UT Health San Antonio, MD Anderson Cancer Center. To attend, please use the Program ID 10492 and register at: www.pharmethodportal.com/Immunomedics/Register.
Friday, August 7, 2020
at 9:30am-PDT, presented by: Rebecca L Moroose, MD, Director of Cancer Research and Genetics, Orlando Health UF Health Cancer Center. To attend, please use the Program ID 10498 and register at: www.pharmethodportal.com/Immunomedics/Register
- Johnson and Johnson cordially invites MOASC Members to their upcoming webinars on Erleada (apalutimide) for the treatment of Patients with Metastatic Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer (mCSPC), on Wednesday, July 22, 2020 at 12:15pm-PDT. To register go to
https:inceptionmeetings.com/erleada
- Merck announced that the FDA has approved KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with unresectable or metastatic tumor mutational burden-high (TMB-H) [≥10 mutations/megabase (mut/Mb)] solid tumors, as determined by an FDA-approved test, that have progressed following prior treatment and who have no satisfactory alternative treatment options. The MUE for KEYTRUDA was modified effective July 1, 2020. A list of quarterly Procedure-to-Procedure and MUE version update changes from CMS can be found
here
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Payer coding and coverage requirements may vary or change over time, so it is important to regularly check with each payer as to payer-specific requirements. The use of this information does not guarantee payment or that any payment will cover your costs. You are solely responsible for determining the appropriate codes and for any action you take in billing. You can find useful resources at
merckaccessprogram.com
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Before prescribing KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab), please read the accompanying
Prescribing Information
.
The
Medication Guide
also is available.
- Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
and Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC
cordially invites MOASC Members
to their upcoming
virtual presentation on: The First FDA-Approved Therapy for Patients with Metastatic Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma (CSCC) or Locally Advanced CSCC Who Are Not Candidates for Curative Surgery or Curative Radiation. Presented by: Matthew Schwartz, MD, Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, on August 4, 2020 at 12:30pm-PDT. To register go to https://tallen.adobeconnect.com/rgn0013523/event/registration.html. Click here to view the invitation.
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Takeda invites MOASC Members to participate in their National Webcast on brigatibib (Alunbrig), product overview. Meetings begin on July 22nd and run through July 31st. Please use access code "schedule" to register.
More information
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Premier Alternate Site Programs have published NEW Products and Services available to MOASC Members!
Courier and Logistic Services: Effective June 1, 2020 through May 31, 2023
. This is a newPremier category. It includes medical and non-medical courier and logistic services and management, such as intra-hospital deliveries; on demand, expedited and same-day deliveries; routine and dedicated deliveries; routing optimization, barcoding and tracking; and online tracking/management technologies.
CLICK HERE
for detailed contract and category information. For more information about Premier ASP agreements, please contact your Innovatix or Essensa representative at (888) 258-3273.
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(Huntington Beach, July
23-25)
(August 22)
(Virtual, Various Dates)
(Davis, New Dates:
March 11-12, 2021)
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The
Medical Oncology Association of Southern California
(MOASC) is a leading oncology society that advances and protects the ability of cancer patients to obtain, and the ability of the oncology physicians to provide, optimal cancer care.
The material contained in the
California Oncology Weekly
is intended as general information for MOASC members. Because diagnostic, treatment, contracting, coding, and billing decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis, any such information contained in the
California Oncology Weekly
may not apply in any given situation. Members are encouraged to contact their own consultants or advisors to obtain specific advice on matters relating to contracting, coding, and billing. The information contained in
California Oncology Weekly
should not be used as a substitute for such advice.
This publication provides a summary of regulations affecting oncology and its business practices. Reading this newsletter does not substitute for understanding regulations and verifying the validity of every claim. This information is time-sensitive and is subject to change. MOASC accepts no liability for any statements or articles herein.
CPT codes are owned and trademarked by the American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.
MOASC: P.O. Box 161, Upland, CA 91785 | P (909) 985-9061 | F (909) 804-5006| www.moasc.org
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