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"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 W
eekly's Hot Topics
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Whether it's you, a friend, family member, or stranger, someone is currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
While it can be difficult to help the people you care about during this difficult time, it is important to spread awareness about metastatic breast cancer and know the facts.
For more information go to http://www.mbcn.org/.
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California News
- The
California Medical Association
(CMA) Practice Resources (October 2017) is now available online at www.cmanet.org/cpr and features articles entitled Blue Shield to update fee schedule effective December 1, UnitedHealthcare delays consultation services payment policy change, CMS unveils new Medicare Beneficiary Identification cards, Physicians have until December 1 to dispute 2016 PQRS and QRUR findings, Anthem Blue Cross to implement restrictive outpatient advanced radiology policy, UnitedHealthcare to issue latest cycle of Peer Comparison Reports, The Coding Corner: Provider queries and addendum in the medical record.
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Physicians who hope to earn a small bonus for the 2017 Medicare reporting year must start their 90-day performance
period no later than October 2. While the actual reporting deadline is March 31, 2018, physicians need to identify and understand the measures that are relevant to their practice in order to successfully report on claims for the final 90 days of 2017. Free assistance is available to small practices through the California Health Information Partnership & Services Organization (CalHIPSO) via https://www.hsag.com/calhipso. CMA resources are available at www.cmanet.org/macra.
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- Noridian/JEMAC has posted more updates to its website:
* MLN Connects
Announcements--Extension of Medicare IVIG Demonstration through December 31, 2020; Hospice Election Statements Lack Required Information or Have Other Vulnerabilities-Reminder
Claims, Pricers & Codes
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Events--2016 Annual QRURs Webcast-October 19
Publications--Medicare Basics: Parts A and B Appeals Overview Video-New; Hospice Quality Reporting Program Call: Audio Recording and Transcript-New; Reading a Professional Remittance Advice Booklet-Reminder
* Noridian Medicare Portal Print Suppression Policy-Standard Paper Remittance
* Radiopharmaceutical Fee Schedule 2017 Updates for A9604 and A9552
* New Waived Tests-Revised CR10198
* Positron Emission Tomography Scans Coverage-R11
* Coding and Billing Date of Service on Professional Claims Guidance-Rescinded SE17023
- Forthcoming Noridian/JEMAC webinars:
* A/B MACs Team Up with DME MACs for External Breast Prostheses and Related Mastectomy Supplies (October 18)
* New Patient versus Established Patient Visit (October 19)
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- In MOASC's continued campaign to advocate for modernizing the 340B program and advance access to oncology care for all, please read MOASC President, Warren Fong, M.D.'s op-ed in Fox & Hounds. http://www.foxandhoundsdaily.com/2017/09/congress-must-fix-broken-340b-drug-pricing-program-benefits-hospitals-starves-poor/. Fox & Hounds is a publication for local, state and federal policy makers. The publication combines the news of business and politics and links them in such a way to inform politically-interested business-people and professionals. In a notice posted last Friday by HHS, there is, again, a delay of planned tweaks to the 340B program.
- The 2018 ICD-10-CM code changes went into effect Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017!
Going forward, you're required to master the hundreds of new, deleted, and revised diagnosis codes. With the implementation of MACRA this year, utilizing the right diagnosis code is more important to your revenue than ever before. If you don't correctly incorporate each of these new, modified and deleted ICD-10-CM 2018 diagnosis codes, get ready for denied claims, delayed payments and one huge headache. Not to mention future reductions in reimbursement due to poor MACRA quality reporting scores, and missing a bonus in the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) in 2019. You don't have to go through this changeover alone. ATTEND the 2017 Clinical Staff, Oncology Billing & Administrator Programs! Clinical Staff Program (Nurses, pharmacists, NPP's) AND Administrator's Program on Wednesday, November 8, and the Billers Program on November 9, in Anaheim from 8:30am to 12:30pm. Some of the topics to be presented and discussed are: MACRA/MIPS; Pharmacy Standards/USP Regulations; Immunotherapy and Targeted Therapy; Pain Management; A/R & Billing Updates, Change Management and more. For more information contact the MOASC office at moasc@moasc.org or 909-985-9061 x1.
ADMINISTRATOR'S!
Please note the change of date for your program is Wednesday, November 8th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
- Please join MOASC Member institution, City of Hope, for their Neoplastic Hematopathology Update on November 2nd - 4th in Huntington Beach. At the end of this continuing medical education activity, participants should be able to: Describe recent developments in the diagnosis, classification, and molecular biology of lymphoid and myeloid neoplasms and related disorders. Recognize the impact of new developments on targeted and precision therapy. Implement current best practices for diagnosis, classification, and detection of diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic markers. Early Bird Registration has been extended to October 5th.
JOB BOARD:
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Oncology Practice Administrator
- A multi-site medical group in West Ventura County is seeking an experienced practice administrator.
The ideal candidate must have work ethic, a proven effective leader, very strong in technology, revenue cycle, efficient operations, patient-centrist processes, interpersonal relations and overall business management.
Candidate must have a bachelor's degree in business, health administration or related field. Qualified candidates may send resume to employment@venturaoncology.com
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- Four seats on the ANCO Board of Directors are up for election in 2017. ANCO seeks nominations for candidates for these seats. This year's election will be conducted via mail ballot in December. Candidates with the top four vote totals will serve for three years (i.e., 2018-2020, inclusive). Nominate an ANCO member (including yourself) to stand for election to the Board via e-mail/FAX to the ANCO office at execdir@anco-online.org/(415) 472-3961.
- Stanford Cancer Center's MDS Center is co-sponsoring the MDS Foundation's Educational Patient-Caregiver Forum on Saturday, October 28. The Forum takes place at 875 Blake Wilbur Drive, Room 2103, Stanford CA 94305 from 9:30AM through 2PM.
- ANCO will host the 4Q2017 Hematologic Malignancies Update on November 4 at the San Francisco Hyatt Regency with Mehrdad Abedi, M.D., University of California, Davis, Sandy W. Wong, M.D., University of California, San Francisco, and Leena T. Rahman, M.D., University of California, San Francisco. The latest research on novel treatment modalities for hematologic malignancies, myeloma, and amyloidosis along with case studies for these diagnoses will be presented. This update is supported by Janssen Biotech, Merck, Pfizer Oncology, and Pharmacyclics. Download the meeting announcement and registration form at www.anco-online.org/4Q2017HemeMaligUpdate.pdf.
- ASCO member, David Gandara, MD, UC Davis, is chairing the one-day CME conference Best of WCLC 2017-San Francisco on November 11 following the 18th WCLC held in Yokohama Japan, October 15-18. The Eventbrite registration URL is https://www.eventbrite.com/e/best-of-the-18th-wclc-san-francisco-tickets-37865231928. ANCO members will receive complimentary registration when they register for an "Early Bird ANCO Member " ticket by October 20. For more information, please visit the Eventbrite website above.
- The 18th Multidisciplinary Management of Cancers: A Case-based Approach returns
to the Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa on March 16-18, 2018. The meeting is sponsored by the
Association of Northern California Oncologists, Stanford Cancer Institute, UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center
, and
UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
. Go to
www.multicancers.org
to register your interest in receiving registration and housing information when it becomes available in the Fall; download the meeting announcement/brochure at http://www.multicancers.org/documents/MMJ18026_FINALBROCHURE.pdf.
- UC San Francisco informs ANCO members that Benioff Children's Hospital San Francisco is one of the few centers in the country that is certified to provide CAR-T cell therapy
for pediatric and young adult patients (less than 25 years of age) who have B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that is refractor or in second or later relapse. To refer a patient to their pediatric or adult cancer programs, call UCSF Pediatric Immunotherapy Program at (415) 476-3831, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at (415) 353-2051, or UCSF HDFCCC Clinical Trials at (877) 827-3222.
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USP has announced that will postpone the official date of General Chapter 800 (i.e., USP800) to December 1, 2019. USP800 was originally schedule to become official on July 1, 2018. USP now plans to align the official date of USP800 with the release of a final version of USP797. However, some state and national enforcement agencies and other entities may require adherence to USP800 before its official implementation date.
- The
UnitedHealthcare Network Bulletin (October 2017) is now available online at
http://www.unitedhealthcareonline.com > Tools & Resources > News & Network Bulletin and features articles on delay in implementation of the revision to the consultation services reimbursement policy, updating demographic information, pharmacy update-notice of changes to prior authorization requirements, outpatient injectable chemotherapy prior authorization program, changes in advance notification and prior authorization requirements, notification/prior authorization requirement for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy, and enhancing the patient experience.
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Affiliate Association News
- Close to 100 ASCO volunteers from across the country (including ANCO President, Daniel Mirda, M.D.) went to Capitol Hill on September 27-28 for the 2nd Annual ASCO Advocacy Summit
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They asked Members of
Congress
to stop a proposal from CMS that would apply MIPS adjustments--a range of bonuses and
penalties for providers--to Part B drug cost, ensure patient access to necessary cancer treatment by supporting the Cancer Drug Parity Act, and pass a fiscal year (FY2018) funding bill that increases funds for the
National Institutes of Health by $2B.
- ASCO's CancerLinQ Discovery, a new platform that will allow the oncology community to translate big data from CancerLinQ's pool of aggregated, de-identified patient .
data into real world insights, is now accepting research proposals. For more information, visit
http://cancerlinq.org/research-database.
- Year In Review
, moderated by Neil Love, M.D.,
is a multi-tumor regional symposia series focused on the application of emerging research information to the care of patients with common cancers, is scheduled for Saturday, November 18, 2017 at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, CA. To register go to www.ResearchToPractice.com/Meetings/YIR2017/CA .
- For the complete updated versions of the NCCN Guidelines, NCCN Guidelines with NCCN Evidence Blocks™, the NCCN Compendium®, the NCCN Biomarkers Compendium®, the NCCN Chemotherapy Order Templates (NCCN Templates®), the NCCN Radiation Therapy Compendium™, and the NCCN Imaging Appropriate Use Criteria (NCCN Imaging AUC™), please visit NCCN.org. Recent updates include: central nervous system cancers (V1.2017), genetic/familial high-risk assessment: breast and ovarian (V1.2018), kidney cancer (V1.2018), multiple myeloma (V2.2018),
non-small cell lung cancer (V9.2017).
- NCCN has announced that it has instituted Categories of Preference for recommendations within the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology. Initially, Categories of Preference will be published for drugs and biologics within the NCCN Guidelines for Multiple Myeloma. Additional cancer types are forthcoming. The Categories of Preference are preferred intervention, other recommended intervention, and useful in certain circumstances. Learn more about Categories of Preference at
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- AstraZeneca informs ANCO and MOASC that CMS has assigned a unique HCPCS code (C9492, 10mg) to Imfinzi effective for dates of service on or after October 1.
- Seattle Genetics
informs ANCO and MOASC that the
United States Food and Drug Administration has granted breakthrough therapy designation for Adcentris in combination with chemotherapy for the frontline treatment of patients with advanced classicalHodgkin lymphoma.
- Takeda Oncology
informs ANCO and MOASC that the United States Food and Drug Administration has approved a new dosage for Alunbrig to treat patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive (ALK+) metastatic non-small cell lung cancer who have progressed on or are intolerant to crizotinib. Patients can now opt to ingest a 180mg tablet, as opposed to taking multiple 30mg tablets.
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MOASC CALENDAR
Professional Educational Series
November 8-9
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(San Francisco, Nov. 4)
(San Francisco, February 8-10)
(San Francisco, January 25-27)
(San Francisco, February 8-10)
(Napa, March 16-18)
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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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