Weekly Roundup: In Case You Missed It | |
Reminder: Make Evusheld Available to Eligible Patients
Alameda County Health Care Services released a health advisory reminding physicians about the availability of Evusheld as pre-exposure prophylaxis for eligible patients, including immunocompromised patients and those on immunosuppressive medications. Click here for more information and treatment guidelines.
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Monkeypox Updates
On August 1, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a State of Emergency to bolster the state’s vaccination efforts against monkeypox. Contra Costa and Alameda County Public Health have released health advisory detailing actions for providers and Jynneos vaccine prioritization.
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Give Feedback to Improve Behavioral Health Services for Alameda County Residents
Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services requests your feedback as part of a Strategic Planning Initiative to develop a long-term plan to better serve the needs of the community. As a physician, your perspective is valuable in improving services for underserved and underrepresented communities in Alameda County. Click here to complete the 11-question survey by August 26.
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August Recess Call to Action
Members of Congress will soon be heading home for their August district work period where they will be meeting with—and listening to—their constituents. Take action to remind them that there is still unfinished work on important health care issues, including looming cuts to physician Medicare payments and fixing the cumbersome prior authorization process. Physician Grassroots Network makes it easy for you to have your voice heard on important issues: send a message to Congress today.
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KidsVaxGrant 2.0 for Providers Serving Pediatric Populations: Application Open
KidsVaxGrant 2.0 will help medical practices with 200 physicians or fewer serving pediatric populations administer COVID vaccines to their infant and toddler pediatric patients. Administered by Physicians for a Healthy California (PHC), CDPH is investing approximately $10 million to fund the KidsVaxGrant 2.0. Individual practices may be eligible for up to two grant opportunities – awards between $10K-25K. Providers serving pediatric populations that were previously awarded a KidsVaxGrant are eligible to apply for KidsVaxGrant 2.0. Click here to learn more and apply today. If you have any questions, attend PHC’s webinar on Tuesday, August 9 at 5 pm.
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Send a Letter to U.S. Dept. Of Education Regarding Loan Forgiveness
CMA urgently needs all physicians, residents and medical students to send a letter to the U.S. Department of Education before August 12, urging them to allow qualified California and Texas physicians who provide care in private non-profit hospitals/clinics to receive federal student loan forgiveness. It will only take 3 minutes to submit a letter and helps send a strong message to the Dept. of Education to ensure that physicians in all 50 states can equally participate in this important program. Use CMA’s sample letter, and click here for further instructions.
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Medi-Cal Now Ready to Accept Vaccine Administration Claims for Small Children
DHCS announced that they are now ready to accept Medi-Cal vaccine administration claims for individuals 6 months and older, a recent update after urging physicians to hold claims due to DHCS having not yet completed the system and changes required to correctly pay the claims. DHCS is reimbursing under the fee-for-service delivery system for both medical and pharmacy claims.
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Monkeypox Testing and Vaccine CPT Coding
In late July, the American Medical Association Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) Editorial Panel created and released CPT codes to streamline the reporting of orthopoxvirus and monkeypox testing and immunizations currently available in the United States. The code for laboratory testing is currently not programmed for billing in FFS Medi-Cal. Testing is available through several large commercial labs, including Labcorp and Quest. Both the CDPH and the CDC websites provide further guidance on monkeypox symptoms, testing, treatment, and vaccination.
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DHCS Announces New Name for Dual Eligible Health Plans
DHCS recently announced a California-specific program name, Medicare Medi-Cal Plans (MMPs or Medi-Medi plans), for Exclusively Aligned Enrollment (EAE) D-SNPs. These are health plans that provide integrated Medicare and Medi-Cal benefits to dual eligible beneficiaries. Members of Cal MediConnect plans will automatically transition to MMPs on January 1, 2023, as part of the CalAIM initiative to continue providing integrated and coordinated care to dual eligible beneficiaries.
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Medi-Cal Rx Updates
Effective September 11, Medi-Cal Rx prescribers will be required to submit prior authorizations for new start medications in 11 drug classes. Click here for more information. As a reminder, DUR Reject Code 88 edits have been turned on as of July 22. Activation of Reject Code 80 has been postponed due to provider feedback. Revised provider alerts and other informing materials have been issued and posted to the Medi-Cal Rx website.
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ACEs Aware Report
The ACEs Aware initiative released a new quarterly data report detailing the number of Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) screenings conducted for children and adults in California between January 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021. The data show that Medi-Cal clinicians – primarily pediatric, family medicine, and behavioral health professionals – conducted about 987,500 ACE screenings of more than 793,000 unique Medi-Cal beneficiaries. The report also shows that between December 4, 2019 and May 31, 2022, more than 23,400 individuals have taken the ACEs Aware training, 11,900 of whom are Medi-Cal clinicians who are ACEs Aware-certified and eligible to receive Medi-Cal payment for conducting ACE screenings.
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Social Determinants of Health
Tuesday, August 9 | 10:00 to 11:30 am
Hosted by AMA
Panelists from Rush University Health System will present on how to engage your practice in addressing Social Determinants of Health.
Register here.
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Virtual Grand Rounds: Pediatric Vaccines and New Vaccine Technology
Tuesday, August 9 | 12:00 to 1:00 pm
Hosted by CMA
As summer wanes and school is about to begin, we now have new opportunities to vaccinate our youngest patients. At the same time, new vaccines made with old vaccine technology are becoming available. In this session, we will hear from California State Epidemiologist Erica Pan, M.D., about the state of COVID-19 in California, including variants, treatments and vaccine epidemiology. We will also hear from one of the country’s most articulate and experienced vaccine expert, Paul Offit, M.D.
Register here.
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Long Covid & Fatiguing Illness Recovery Program
Thursday, August 11 | 12:00 pm
This monthly webinar series aims to rapidly disseminate post-acute Sequelae of COVID-19 and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis findings and emerging best practices. This series is put on by Family Centers of San Diego, Project ECHO, University of Washington, University of Colorado, and funded by the CDC.
Join on August 11, or register for one of the upcoming monthly webinars.
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Therapeutics Webinar Series for Providers
Monday, August 29 | 12:00 to 1:00 pm
Hosted by CDPH
This bi-weekly webinar series features CDPH subject matter experts who will provide updates, resources, and answers to providers’ questions. The webinar series will continue through at least the end of the year.
Register for the whole series here.
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Leadership Reading and Discussion Group
Wednesday, September 7 | 6:00 to 7:30 pm
FREE | CME Available | Online
Physicians are free to join any meeting of the Leadership Reading and Discussion Group; reading the book is not required. Doctor Hilary Worthen, course director of the Physician Leadership Program, facilitates the discussion group that is held on Zoom. The book selection for September 7 is “An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back” by Elisabeth Rosenthal, MD. This book describes how the flawed system of health insurance and delivery has failed patients in the US, and proposes solutions for far-reaching reform.
Register here.
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Bay Area Physician Wellness Collaborative
Tuesday, September 13 | 6:00 to 8:00 pm
FREE | CME Available | Online
The Bay Area Physician Wellness Collaborative aims to bring together medical group leaders, chief wellness officers, wellness committee chairs, and others who have been charged with “fixing the physician burnout problem” from across the East Bay. Participants will:
- Receive a highly structured road map to make substantive changes over a three-year period that can fundamentally change the practice environment in your organization
- Learn from wellness experts who will provide curated information and implementation tools that they can bring back to their organizations
- Become part of an online community to share information and experiences
- Create a network of peers to support each other in this work
The guest speaker for the September 13 session is Gaurava Agarwal, MD, CWO at Northwestern Medicine and a leader in CWO development nationwide. This collaborative is by invitation only; please click here to indicate your interest in joining the collaborative.
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Drug Testing 2022
Thursday, September 22 | 12:00 to 1:30 pm
Hosted by CPPPH and CSAM
This 90-minute session will be the first of two videoconferences based on the new CPPPH/CSAM guideline, “Drug Testing of Health Care Professionals: What to Test For, When, Why and How.” Participants will be able to: explain the reason why a medical staff may request or require the drug and/or alcohol testing of the members of the medical staff, describe the difference between a screening test and a confirmatory test, list 5 analytes included in a health care professionals panel, and describe the role of a Medical Review Officer (MRO) and explain why review by an MRO is required.
Register here. Registration fee is $145 for the first person and a reduced fee for up to two additional persons from the same hospital/institution registering at the same time on this form.
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NEPO Summit: Beyond Unconscious Bias to Health Care Equity
Thursday, October 6 | 9:30 am to 4:00 pm
Hosted by PHC and NEPO | $50 for members & non-members
The Network of Ethnic Physician Organizations (NEPO) is a network of diverse physicians and patients that convene annually to advocate for community health, encourage physician leadership development, and promote cultural and linguistic competency in patient care. The summit will be virtual and cover topics critical to diverse physicians and patients including reproductive and maternal health outcome disparities, women physician well-being, and practice transformation. The NEPO Summit will also include the presentation of the Physicians for a Healthy California 2022 Leadership Awards. These awards are a wonderful opportunity to celebrate individuals or organizations who are champions of health equity. Nominations are open through July 18.
Register here.
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Please contact ACCMA at 510-654-5383 or accma@accma.org with any questions or concerns you have.
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