Welcome to The ACP Advocate,
Our first article this issue looks at how The Affordable Care Act could face some stiff challenges in 2015. A Supreme Court legal challenge, legislative attacks, and the start of fines for noncompliance are among the factors that could change the law in the coming year.
Our second article looks at a new paper from ACP’s Medical Informatics Committee that lays out an extensive series of recommendations in addition to providing background about the evolving state of clinical documentation.
The paper, "Clinical Documentation in the 21st Century," is part of ACP's efforts to reform the clinical documentation system and help doctors get back to focusing on patient care. The position paper, published in the Jan. 13 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, offers ways to ensure that coding and compliance rules don't interfere with best patient care.
The final article in this issue explains that ACP has joined a coalition urging Congress to change current federal policy that allows medical facilities to tack on additional charges for health care services.
Other members of the Alliance for Site Neutral Payment Reform include the American Academy of Family Physicians, America's Health Insurance Plans, the American Health Care Association, the U.S. Oncology Network, and the Lung Cancer Alliance.
The Alliance sent letters to members of the House and Senate outlining their concerns on Jan. 16, 2015.
Until our next issue – when we’ll look forward to ACP legislative priorities for 2015 and back at our 2014 advocacy achievements – and for more coverage of what's happening in Washington, take a look at my award-winning blog, The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty. You can also follow me on Twitter @BobDohertyACP.
As always, please send your feedback and suggestions on this newsletter to: TheACPAdvocate@acponline.org.
Yours truly,
Bob Doherty
Senior Vice President
Governmental Affairs and Public Policy
American College of Physicians
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| In the news |
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2015 Could Present Bumps in the Road for the Affordable Care Act
Legal challenge, legislative attacks and start of fines for noncompliance are among factors that could change the law in the coming year
The Affordable Care Act could face some stiff challenges in 2015.
Already, for instance, the new Republican-controlled Congress has moved forward with legislation that would allow more employers ... (read more)
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ACP Steps In to Make Electronic Health Records Work Better for All
New position paper offers ways to ensure that coding and compliance rules don't interfere with best patient care
Electronic health records were supposed to revolutionize medical care. Instead, they're often aggravating physicians, office staff and patients across the nation.
That's because the technology is... (read more)
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| In focus |
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CCM Management Toolkit |
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This new tool kit provides what practices need to implement the new Chronic Care Management (CCM) codes, including background information for clinicians and staff, a step-by-step implementation guide, and a sample patient agreement. |
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PQRSwizard |
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There's still time to participate in 2014 PQRS to receive 0.5% incentive in 2015 and avoid the -2% penalty in 2016. ACP offers PQRSwizard - a fast and cost-effective online qualified registry tool to collect and report quality data. It requires as few as 20 patient records per provider, minimizes data entry time, and validates data automatically. The reporting deadline for using PQRSwizard is Feb. 26, 2015. |
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| About this newsletter |
| The ACP Advocate is an e-newsletter, edited by the College's Washington, DC governmental affairs division, created to provide you, our members, with succinct news about public policy issues affecting internal medicine and patient care. To learn more about ACP's Advocacy and to access the ACP Advocate archives, go to www.acponline.org/advocacy. |
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