FPD Public News & Updates

As you hear more and more about “health care reform,” from the news, from your doctors, from your employers, it can become confusing, and you want to be sure you’re making the right decisions for you and your family.

To help you stay informed, we now feature sections that contain a variety of information that you might be interested in.

With all the resources available, and limited time to devote to sifting through it all, we try to put together a good mix of information and resources that can help you move forward in our 21st century health care system.

If you have a topic you want to see posted, or would like to know more about, please contact lyndafpd@aol.com.

PALMER COLLEGE NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE

Bargaining continues for this first contract. The FPD has responded with and has forwarded a series of counter-proposals to Palmer’s last proposals. This was done in an effort to expedite negotiations.

FPD members are to meet with the Director of Clinics in the near future in order to express concern with the clinics overzealous Assistant Clinical Director. The alleged concern is the Assistant Directors bizarre behavior when speaking to subordinates in front of patients, students and member staff alike.

If the discussion with the Clinical Director does not remedy the above problem, alternative and stronger measures will be taken.

There’s Now Proof that Big Insurance Funded Chamber of Commerce Attack Ads

It has long been suspected that the major insurers who make up the America’s Health Insurance Plans have been quietly funneling money to the Chamber of Commerce to air third-party TV ads aimed at killing health care reform.

Well now there’s proof! According to a report in the National Journal, between $10 and $20 million came from Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Kaiser, United and Wellpoint to funds ads that perpetuate scary myths about health care reform, even while they publicly claim to support it.

HOW IT WILL AFFECT YOU

First of all, medical practices will not be able to bill consultation codes to Medicare (for now, that is - private payers almost always seem to follow what Medicare does) past December 31, 2009. Instead, they will have to report either a new patient visit code (99201-99205) or established patient visit code (99211-99215) for outpatient services; or an initial hospital care visit (99221)-99223) or subsequent hospital care visit (99231-99233) for inpatient services.

Second, inasmuch as this change will affect most medical practices, some specialists such as Gastroenterologists, Neurologists, Endocronologists, and Oncologists, who code almost all of their new outpatient and initial inpatient work as consultations, could see substantial reductions in reimbursement. Even with Medicare’s 6% adjustment to the outpatient E&M work RVUs and 0.3% adjustment to the remaining inpatient E&M work RVUs, some practices could face significant loss of income. This on top of the still possible 21.2% cut to Medicare rates that’s still looming on the horizon.

Not only will this change cause revenue loss for some specialties, some specialists will have to change the entire way they’ve built their practice and their relationships with physicians who refer patients to them. Many fear the change will cause more problems than it will solve. The problem this is supposed to be solving, of course, is the years of confusion and improper use of the consultation codes, most of which could be attributed to the discrepancies between CMS rules and the AMA’s CPT Manual. But it had been discovered that CMS had made an estimated billion in overpayments to physicians for services billed as consultations, but which did not meet all of the CMS requirements.

So, a paradigm shift and loss of revenue is what you may face for 2010. The Federation will continue to monitor and work on this issue and will make information available as it becomes available to us. We of course want to hear from you if you start seeing these changes take effect and if you receive similar changes among the private payers with which you may be participating.

Any questions may be directed to lyndafpd@aol.com.

The Federation Opposes CMS’ Decision to Eliminate
Billing for Consultation Codes

The many voices that speak on behalf of physicians specialty-wide that had expressed strong concerns about the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposal to eliminate billing for consultation codes went unheard, as CMS announced its final decision to stop paying for consultation services come January 1, 2010.

The Federation opposes all public AND private efforts to eliminate payments for inpatient and outpatient/office consultation codes and supports legislation to overturn CMS’ decision.

Dr. Marchiori

In the middle of February, the clinicians employed at Palmer Florida expressed their extreme concern through a “Vote of No Confidence” with respect to the professional leadership and supervisory skills of Dr. Cimino, Assistant Director of Clinics at Palmer Florida campus.

The text of the “No Confidence Vote” reads as follows:

“VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE” IN DR. JOSEPH A. CIMINO

As an Assistant Director of Clinics at Palmer Florida, Dr. Joseph A. Cimino has shown an inability to lead and administer in such role. He has consistently demonstrated not only poor judgment, but abusive, belligerent and unprofessional behavior. He becomes angry and unreasonable when disagreed with, even when the facts prove him to be wrong. His outbursts towards clinical personnel, doctors and staff alike, in the presence of students and patients, as well as behind closed doors, is intolerable and unacceptable. He has turned a pleasant and empowering work environment into a hostile one. In addition, such abusive public outbursts not only serve to discredit the college in the eyes of the students, but the community that the Palmer Outpatient Clinic serves as well.

Through these recurrent incidents, it has become evident that Dr. Cimino utilizes intimidation and rhetoric in order to cover up and divert attention from his underlying lack of clinical knowledge and managerial ability. He is therefore woefully ill-equipped to perform the duties his position requires, and incapable of directing his subordinates in an effective and professional manner.

It is for these aforementioned reasons, that we, the clinical providers employed by Palmer College of Chiropractic Florida put forth this “Vote of No Confidence Dr. Joseph A. Cimino”.

The vast majority of all Florida Palmer clinicians signed and dated the “Vote of No Confidence.” Certainly the gravity of the circumstances giving rise to this action should not be taken lightly by the College and it is respectfully requested that your office take immediate action in order remedy this unhealthy situation. As there may be a question to the authenticity of the “Vote of No Confidence,” if your office so desires we will present it to a third party for verification. Please feel free to call with any questions.

Jack Seddon
Executive Director/FPD
____________________________________________________________________

If you have any questions or comments, please call 1-800-373-5777 or email fpd1@prodigy.net.

CONCERNS RAISED ABOUT MARKET RATE OF PAY FOR DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS PHYSICIANS

On November 19th Jack Seddon had a follow-up meeting with Secretary McNeil to explain his grave concern with the DOC’s hiring of new physicians at the market rate, while leaving its current employed physicians at wage rates substantially below that rate.

At a previous meeting, Secretary McNeil agreed there was a problem, and created a wage recognition factor for those physicians who become Board Eligible or Board Certified.

A process was supposed to be put in place, but time went by to no avail, making it necessary for the November 19th meeting, at which Jack Seddon expressed his disappointment that the market rate problem continued and no process had been implemented to correct it.

Jack also explained how recruitment was not resolving retention as physicians were leaving for other institutions or agencies for greater wages and then simply reversing the process as other positions became available; certainly not a process that provides continuity of care.

The Secretary agreed with the concerns expressed by the Federation and indicated it would attempt to address the issue within its economic means. We will see.

We will continue to monitor this issue. We do not take this lightly.

The Health Summit Was

Essentially a Bust - So What Next?

As much as President Obama tried to make it seem like middle-ground could be reached in the theatrical production of the “Health Care Summit,” it turns out the gaps may be too far to bridge. The politically dramatized show, produced by the Obama administration, ended up only providing a stage for trading talking points that did nothing more than show that Democrats and Republicans just simply have different world views.

Most of the props were provided by the Republicans who sat surrounded by reams of paper to emphasize why they’d like to wipe out the entire past 13 months of congressional debate and rowdy town hall meetings and start over.

Although the Republicans want to scrap the bill, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md) said that Democrats would move ahead even without Republican support.

Stay tuned for the latest developments.

HHS Report Slams Insurers Premium Hikes While Pocketing Record Profits (Article taken from AFL-CIO NOW BLOG: Posted by Mike Hall on 2/19/10)

Profits for the nation’s 10 largest health insurance companies increased 250% between 2000 and 2009 - 10 times faster than inflation - but that hasn’t stopped the private insurance industry from trying to reach even deeper into consumers’ pocketbooks with huge premium increases.

According to a new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the nation’s five largest insurance companies took in combined profits of $12.2 billion last year, up 56% over 2008.