California Oncology Weekly
"Where California Oncologists Go For Answers!"
A publication of the
Medical Oncology Association of Southern California, Inc.
July 14, 2020
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This
Weekly
's Hot Topics
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- Tomorrow & Thursday, Noridian's Open Meeting forum Noridian News
- Tomorrow, learn about individual coverage HRAsCMS News
- Tomorrow, COA Advocacy Summit for cancer patients & advocatesAffiliate Association News
- Tomorrow, Johnson and Johnson's Erleada webinar Industry News
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California, New Mexico and Oregon are, once again, imposing restrictions on indoor activities, and at least 27 states have paused efforts to reopen businesses as COVID-19 cases spike across the country. The US has recorded over 3.3 million COVID-19 infections and at least 135,582 deaths since the pandemic started.
- California is delaying plans to expand Medi-Cal programs, in an effort to cut health care spending to address budget shortfalls related to COVID-19.
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California will be among three other states to receive
remdesivir. HHS is distributing over 11,000 courses to four states hit hardest by COVID-19 surges, the other 3 states are, Arizona, Texas and Florida. The department said it expects to have over 94,000 courses for distribution this month.
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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
- Billing and Coding:
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Quarterly HCPCS Drug/Biological Code Changes - July 2020 Update CR11769
CR 11769 updates the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) code set for codes related to drugs and biologicals. Please alert your billing staffs of these updates. Read the complete update
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October 2020 Quarterly ASP Medicare Part B Drug Pricing Files and Revisions to Prior Quarterly Pricing Files CR11854
updates the Quarterly Average Sales Price (ASP) Medicare Part B Pricing Files and informs providers of revisions to prior quarterly pricing files. Please make sure your billing staffs are aware of these updates and revisions. Read the complete update
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Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) Response to the Public Health Emergency on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) - Revised SE20011.
The Secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services declared a public health emergency (PHE) in the entire United States on January 31, 2020. On March 13, 2020 Secretary Azar authorized waivers and modifications under Section 1135 of the Social Security Act (the Act), retroactive to March 1, 2020. Read the complete update
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Noridian's
COVID-19 page
has information and guidance related to COVID-19.
To support providers, a COVID-19 Hotline has been established to help with COVID-19 related inquiries. The hotline number is: 866-575-4067. Customer services representatives will be available Monday-Friday from 6am-4pm Pacific Time. This hotline will answer questions on provisional billing privileges and enrollment flexibility afforded by the COVID-19 waiver for health care facilities and providers, as well as accelerated payments related to COVID-19. The next webinar
Telehealth and Virtual Services - During COVID 19
is
08/04/20.
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Open Meeting Announcement - July 15, 2020
This article has been published for notice under contract numbers: 01111 (CA), 01211 (AS, GU, HI, NMI), 01311 (NV), and 01911 (CA, HI & Territories).
Read the complete update
Open Meeting Announcement - July 16, 2020
This article has been published for notice under contract numbers: 01111 (CA), 01211 (AS, GU, HI, NMI), 01311 (NV), and 01911 (CA, HI & Territories).
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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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
moasc@moasc.org
.
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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 director@anco.org (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.
- 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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The recent surge in COVID-19 cases is creating another health crisis in the US as more patients return to delaying medical care due to fear
, confusion or problems accessing the care they need. Oncologist Dr. Debra Patt said screening mammograms are down by 90% in Austin, Texas, while Dr. David Fleeger, a colorectal surgeon in Austin, said many patients are canceling colonoscopies, and both physicians expressed worry that missed cancer screenings could hurt outcomes.
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More than half the pharmacy-based health clinics Walgreens is planning to open will be in underserved areas
. Walgreens is partnering with VillageMD to open 500 to 700 clinics over the next five years.
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Draft guidelines from the US Preventive Services Task Force would lower the recommended age for lung cancer screening to 50
from 55 and reduce the pack-years recommendation to 20 from 30. NBC News
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Close to half of Americans have communicated remotely with a health care provider
since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, but just 21% have talked with their provider about using health IT, researchers reported in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. That lack of dialogue might negatively affect patient-provider communications and patient engagement, said Dr. David Haggstrom, senior study author.
HealthDay News
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In a live-streamed virtual Capitol Hill briefing Tuesday, experts warned that the absence of a unique patient identifier and a national strategy for improving patient identification is negatively affecting the US health care system's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lack of a national patient identification system has caused mismatched and duplicate records
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Having inconsistent or inaccurate data stored in EHRs, registration systems and ancillary systems can cause mail to be misdirected, resulting in HIPAA violations as well as billing and payment delays
, writes Sharon Taylor, Decant Data Solutions founder. Cleaning up dirty data starts with exporting a list of patients, addresses and demographic data from each registration system across the enterprise, then developing educational materials and checklists, and monitoring data entry to ensure procedures are being followed. Healthcare IT News
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An emerging form of phishing attack known as "consent phishing" is aimed at deceiving the target into granting the attacker permissions to an app that appears harmless
but is used to gain access to sensitive data. The tactic, which Microsoft describes in a
blog post, exploits the widely used authorization technology OAuth 2.0.
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CMS News
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There is a new healthcare coverage option available to employers of all sizes: the
individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement (HRA). Tomorrow, Wednesday, July 15th is your chance to learn more about this new way to provide your employees tax-preferred funds to pay for qualified medical expenses, including the cost of health insurance coverage purchased in the individual market. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) is hosting webinars on these HRAs. Tomorrow's webinar will focus on rules and requirements around implementing an individual coverage HRA, including its integration with Medicare, the rules around COBRA, and methods of reimbursing employees' expenses. If you previously attended an HRA 101 webinar, are familiar with the basics of individual coverage HRAs, or just want to learn more, join us for our HRA 201 session tomorrow at 10 a.m. Pacific.
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FY 2021 ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes are available on the
2021 ICD-10-CM webpage. Use these codes for discharges and patient encounters that occur from October 1, 2020, through September 30, 2021.
- CMS published Open Payments Program Year 2019 data, along with newly submitted and updated payment records for previous program years. This accounts for payments or transfers of value made between January 1 and December 31, 2019. Applicable manufacturers and group purchasing organizations collectively reported, as well. For more information, visit the Open Payments website. Visit Noridian's Frequently Asked Questions webpage to read announcements to reporting entities and covered recipients regarding the impact of COVID-19.
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CMS encourages providers to participate in an interoperability pilot to test specific medical documentation use cases.
The Electronic Medical Documentation Interoperability (EMDI) program is designed to reduce provider burden by assembling a robust network of stakeholders willing to: Pilot test use cases; Participate in gap analysis; Contribute to resource documentation for new adopters.
Participants will have an opportunity to test interoperable solutions by piloting one or more of three use cases: Ordering; Requesting additional medical documentation from another provider;
Requesting physician signatures.
If you are interested in partnering with us or learning more about our program, e-mail
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The American College of Physicians, co-signed by many medical associations, sent a
letter
to CMS urging them to move forward with finalizing documentation guidelines and increasing RVUs for office and outpatient E&M services
as part of the 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
- The AMA sent a letter
,
also co-signed by many medical associations, to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) requesting the implementation of E&M increases
, as planned, while waiving budget neutrality requirements for the new Medicare office visit payment policy.
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ASH submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on the April 30 Interim Final Rule outlining additional policy and regulatory revisions in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency.
ASH thanked CMS for the increased reimbursement for the audio-only telehealth CPT codes and urged the agency to take additional steps, including allowing physicians to bill office/outpatient evaluation and management codes 99201-99215 for telephone only services in the event that the physician and/or patient is unable to use video. ASH urged CMS to continue many of these policies beyond the COVID-19 crisis.
READ THE FULL LETTER
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Affiliate Association News
- 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. This is a week before general registration opens. The housing site is also open to VIPs who wish to make hotel reservations, in the hopes that an in-person meeting may still be possible. 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 meeting at https://show.jspargo.com/asham20/ssologin.aspx. Sign in using your ASH username (moasc@moasc.org) 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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Being informed keeps patients in charge of their journey. Ensure your patients gain knowledge about issues that matter to them. Invite your patients to join you on Wednesday, July 15, 2020 for the
Community Oncology Advocacy Summit: Cancer Care in a COVID-19 World
.
The Community Oncology Advocacy Summit is a free, virtual learning event for patients with cancer and patient advocates. COVID-19 has turned the health care world upside down. This event will empower patients and advocates to obtain the best treatment knowledge possible in an uncertain world.
Attendees will learn about the latest in cancer policy and legislation, what cancer care will look like in the future, issues that impact your treatment, and much more. I hope you'll join us and the thousands of other attendees for this exciting live event
.
Click Here to Register!
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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.
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For the complete updated versions of the NCCN Guidelines please visit
NCCN.org
.
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Industry News
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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
- 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), tomorrow, July 15 and on Wednesday, July 22, 2020 at 12:15pm-PDT. To register go to https:inceptionmeetings.com/erleada
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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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