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California Oncology Weekly
"Where California Oncologists Go For Answers!"
A collaborative publication of the
Medical Oncology Association of Southern California, Inc.
and the
Association of Northern California Oncologists, Inc.
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This Weekly's Hot Topics
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- Independent Physician Advisory Board repeal "Blitz Week" (MOASC News)
- Clinicians can now determine their MIPS participation status (CMS News)
- ASCO clinical practice guideline for Stages I-IIIA Resectable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. (Affiliate Association News)
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California News
- On July 1, a new law (AB72) takes effect that will change the billing practices of non-participating physicians providing non-emergent care at in-network facilities.
The law is designed to reduce unexpected medical bills when patients go to an in-network facility and receive care from an out-of-network doctor
.
The California Medical Association (CMA) is hosting a webinar to educate physicians about the new law on May 17 at 12:15PM. For more information and to register visit www.cmanet.org.events.
- As the big focus, last week, was in Washington DC with the passage of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), so much has been said about the impact of this move on California's health care system, we thought you would find the following interesting. Just prior to the vote Governor Jerry Brown released a press statement, which was a scathing rebuke of the bill and the process used to get the bill to a vote. He used the press release to call out specific California Congressmen, closing the memo with, "Our California congressional delegation should vote no on this abomination." What makes this even more interesting is that two of the congressmen, whom the governor called out, Valadao and Denham, responded to the Governor's message by saying that if he really cared about California's Medi-Cal population he would be working to improve Medi-Cal reimbursement rates and not worsening the problem by going "against the wish of California voters" when he "stole the $1.2 billion from [Proposition 56], the tobacco tax passed by voters last year." Gov. Brown is currently engaged in a budget battle with health care advocates who want that money to go toward increasing reimbursement rates for Medi-Cal providers, as opposed to the Governor who would like those funds to backfill other programmatic expenses.
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- Noridian/JEMAC has posted the following updates to its website
* MLN Connects Provider News
Announcements
--MIPS: Submit Measures for the Advancing Care Information Performance Category by June 30; EHR Incentive Programs: Review of 2017 Program Requirements.
The following draft Local Coverage Determinations (LCDs) will be published for review and comment effective May 18, 2017.
Read the complete update
Dl37295 MolDX: EndoPredict Breast Cancer Gene Expression Test;
DL37305 MolDX: Oncotype DX Genomic Prostate Score for Men with Favorable Intermediate Risk Prostate Cancer.
Claims, Pricers, and Codes
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Events
--MIPS Group Reporting 101 Webinar-May 11
Publications--
* Open Public Meeting Announcement-June 1, 2017
* Non-Covered Services LCD-R16
* EoD Extras Now Available
* Draft LCDs Published for Review and Comments
* Ask the Contractor Teleconference-May 18, 2017
* Office of Inspector General Report-Stem Cell Transplantation-Revised SE1624
* QMB Indicator in the Medicare Fee-For-Service Claims Processing System-Revised CR9911
* Payment for Moderate Sedation Services Furnished with Colorectal Cancer Screening Tests CR10075.
* Modifier 59 (May 10)
* Noridian Medicare Portal Registration and Functionality (May 17)
* Noridian Medicare Website Tour for Part B Provides (May 23)
* Mammography, Pap Test, Pelvic Exam, and Cervical Cancer with HPV Tests (May 31)
* Supplemental Medical Review Contractor (SMRC, May 31).
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This week is the first "Blitz Week" where the Healthcare Leadership Council will be
focusing on California, Pennsylvania and Texas to garner cosponsors for IPAB Independent Payment Advisory Board repeal legislation.
THIS WEEK ONLY! If you, or have patients who, live in the following districts please contact:
Rep. Susan Davis (D/CA-53)
Rep. Mimi Walters (R/CA-45)
Rep. Judy Chu (D/CA-27)
Rep. Jeff Denham (R/CA-10)
All others
are asked to communicate with their house representative asking them to please support H.R. 849 and H.J. Res. 51. Both stop IPAB but in different ways.
Communicate with Senator Feinstein and Senator Harris to please ask fellow DEMOCRATS to support S.251 and S.J. Res. 16.
If you have colleagues, institutions or work with organizations in the districts noted above, please ask them to sign-on to this letter as well by
clicking here
.
We only have a few months before IPAB is triggered, causing cuts that will hurt Medicare patients. Repeal IPAB today! THIS WEEK ONLY!
- MOASC's LunchTime Series presentation of,
The QOPI® Reporting Registry - 2017 MIPS and Beyond!
Is scheduled for next Wednesday, May 31st at 12:00pm. This webinar is a quick overview of the pieces of MACRA for 2017 and requirements for successful 2017 MIPS reporting. Tools for the QOPI Reporting Registry offers to help providers successfully complete their 2017 reporting. You will explore the various options practices have to participate in the 2017 MIPS reporting through the QOPI Reporting Registry. Presented by Whit Lloyd, ASCO's QOPI Practice Integration & Support Administrator. RSVP to
moasc@moasc.org
or call 909-985-9061x1.
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- ANCO's ASCO Highlights 2017 will not take place in 2017 in lieu of our encouragement of members to attend ASCO's Best of ASCO in San Francisco (
http://west-boa.asco.org
; June 16-17). However, ANCO will host an event on June 15 entitled The State of Cancer Care with Wes Kidder, M.D., and Margaret Tempero, M.D., University of California, San Francisco, at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis. Download the meeting announcement/registration form at
www.anco-online.org/ANCOatBOA2017.pdf
.
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- ASCO recently joined more than 180 patient and provider advocacy groups in signing a letter to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) urging the Congressional advisory group to reconsider proposed changes to Medicare Part B drug reimbursement. MedPAC's unanimously supported recommendations would fundamentally restructure reimbursement for Part B drugs; for example, instead of the current ASP plus 6% reimbursement formula, the MedPAC proposal wold have drug companies pay a rebate to medicare when the ASP of their products increases faster than an inflation benchmark. Read the full letter at
https://www.asco.org/sites/new-www.asco.org/files/content-files/4-2017-ASP-Coalition-Letter-MedPAC-Proposals.pdf
.
- The UnitedHealthcare Network Bulletin (May 2017) is now available online at
http://unitedhealthcareonline.com
> Tools & Resources > News & Network Bulletin and features articles entitled: New Prior Authorization and Notification App Launching on Link; Revisions of Evaluation and Management Policy.
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- The
Oncology Care Model (OCM)
team will be hosting the OCM Stakeholder Public Forum on Thursday, May 11, 2017 from 10:00am-1:00 p.m. PDT
. All interested OCM stakeholders are invited to attend this public forum, with the goal of hearing feedback about OCM. The forum will include a brief introduction from the OCM team followed by discussion. An agenda will be sent to registrants two weeks prior to the forum and will include gathered topics that may be submitted via the text field in the registration link below. Attendees may attend virtually or in-person at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Central Office.
Registration will close one week in advance of the forum. For questions or additional event information, please email
OCMSupport@cms.hhs.gov
.
- CMS Releases Lookup Tool to Help Clinicians Determine their MIPS Participation Status.
Unsure of your participation status in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)? Clinicians can now use an interactive tool on the CMS Quality Payment Program website to determine if they should participate in the MIPS track of the Quality Payment Program in 2017.
To determine your status, enter your national provider identifier (NPI) into the entry field on the tool which can be found on the Quality Payment Program website at https://qpp.cms.gov/. Information will then be provided on whether or not you should participate in MIPS this year and where to find resources.
- As part of CMS Open Payments, pharmaceutical and device manufacturers submitted data about their financial relationships with you - physicians and teaching hospitals. CMS encourages you to review that data before it is made available on a publicly accessible website. Learn more now!
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Affiliate Association News
- ASCO is releasing a series of webinars to guide oncology practices to successful quality reporting pursuant to MACRA/QPP. The webinars will take place on May 15 (Quality Payment Program: Scoring the Quality Measures), June 19 (Quality Payment Program: Scoring for Advancing Care Information and Improvement Activities), and July 10 (Quality Payment Program: Optimizing Your MIPS Score). All webinars are scheduled for 1PM PT. For more information and to register, visit
www.asco.org/macra
> MACRA Webinar Series.
- ACCC is hosting a series of webinars on Immuno-Oncology, as follows: Immuno-Oncology Management Best Practices 2.0 May 18 at 10AM PDT. Visit
www.accc-cancer.org/webinars
for more information.
-
2017 ASCO Annual Meeting
is June 2-6 at McCormick Place, Chicago.
Don't miss engaging education sessions, discussing practice-changing research, and connecting with global experts in oncology. View all session details, including faculty, presentation titles, and times in the
preliminary program.
Register and reserve your hotel
. Limited hotel rooms are available. Join ASCO today and save even more!
-National Cancer Survivors Day® is an annual, unforgettable Celebration of Life for anyone whose life has been touched by cancer. Sunday, June 4, will mark the Celebration's 30th anniversary, as thousands of people around the world will gather to celebrate life after cancer, to pay tribute to the cancer survivors living in their cities, and to bring attention to the ongoing challenges they still face. You can be a part of that by hosting a National Cancer Survivors Day® celebration. Even though NCSD is one month away, you still have time to plan an event to recognize the cancer survivors in your community. The National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation has everything you need to plan and promote your local National Cancer Survivors Day® celebration. And it's all available free of charge at ncsd.org.
- ASCO's Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee is conducting a survey to solicit topics for clinical practice guideline development and/or updates or endorsements. Please complete the survey at
www.surveymonkey.com/s/ascoguidelinesurvey
by June 30.
-As seen at the Community Oncology Conference, COA has developed a video cartoon short to explain PBMs in simple terms. Borrowing (and giving credit to) a recent article about PBMs in Forbes, COA used buying a cup of coffee to develop this video short. The COA Board just endorsed putting it up on YouTube and spreading it around. Although the Board received one or two comments about this possibly being too tough, the COA Board in some cases said it is not tough enough - especially considering the adverse impact PBMs have on patient care.
- ASCO has released a Strategic Plan for Increasing Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Oncology Workforce which his to promote the development of an oncology workforce that is culturally competent and equipped to care for a diverse population of patients with cancer. Read the Strategic Plan at
http://ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/JCO.2017.73.1372
.
- NCCN has published updates to the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®), et.al., for: breast cancer screening and diagnosis (V2.2016); esophageal and esophagogastric cancer (V1.2017); gastric cancer (V1.2017); myeloid growth factors (V1.2017); older adult oncology (V2.2017); pancreatic adenocarcinoma (V2.2017);
bladder cancer (V3.2017);head and neck cancers (V2.2017)
For the complete updated versions of the NCCN Guidelines, et.al., please visit
NCCN.org
.
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- AstraZeneca informs ANCO and MOASC that the United States Food and Drug Administration has approved Imfinzi for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma who have disease progression during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy or who have disease progression within 12 months of neo-adjuvant or adjuvant treatment with platinum-containing chemotherapy.
- Genentech informs MOASC and ANCO about an upcoming change to Herceptin (trastuzumab). Recently, the FDA approved a revised USPI for Herceptin (dated 04/2017) that lists a new 150mg singe-dose configuration, along with additional label changes to meet updated FDA guidance. The new 150mg single-dose vial configuration for Herceptin will be introduced on May 30, 2017. If you have any questions, please email Jennifer Fraga at
fraga.jennifer@gene.com or call the Genentech Customer Service Department at 1-800-551-2231.
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MOASC CALENDAR
ASCO National Meeting in Chicago
June 2-6, 2017
Spotlight on ASCO
July 29, 2017
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(San Francisco,
June 16-17)
(ANCO Member Discount Code IBW17ANCO, San Diego, July 14-15)
(ANCO Member Discount Code ILC17ANCO,
Huntington Beach, July 27-29)
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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
Association of Northern California Oncologists
(ANCO) is an association of hematologists/oncologists dedicated to promoting high professional standards of cancer care by providing a forum for the exchange of ideas, data, and knowledge.
The material contained in the
California Oncology Weekly
is intended as general information for ANCO and 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 or ANCO 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
ANCO: P.O. Box 151109, San Rafael, CA 94915 | P (415) 472-3960 | F (415) 472-3961 | www.anco-online.org
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