Insurance Commissioner John W. Oxendine announced last week that he has ruled in favor of Athens-based Northeast Georgia Cancer Care (NEGACC) over Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia and Blue Cross Blue Shield Healthcare Plan of Georgia (BCBS) in a disagreement over the interpretation of Georgia law. BCBS has 30 days to appeal the ruling.
The ruling arises out of dispute filed in Oxendine’s office in late 2009 by NEGACC, a physician group that specializes in treatment of cancer and blood disorders.In the complaints, NEGACC claimed that BCBS was violating Georgia’s Any Willing Provider law by refusing to allow them to participate in the BCBS’s Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) and Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) networks.
Remain up-to-date on the laws, rules and regulations affecting the practice of chiropractic in Georgia.
9am-1pm
Risk Management - Robert Hayden, DC
Avoid risk by learning how to apply updated HIPAA regulations and scrutinize contracts, while also exploring the cascular implications of chiropractic care.
2:30pm-5:30pm
Whole Body Vibration and Rehabilitation - Christian Reichardt, DC (Clinical)
Discover how the new technology of Whole Body Vibration (WBV) can be iintegral, safe and effective part of rehabilitation protocols.
Saturday, June 5
8am-5:30pm Implementing Nutrition in Chiropractic Practice - Jerome Rerucha, DC (Clinical)
Understanding how kinesiology tape worksto relieve pain and practice the proper methods of applicaiton.
Chiropractic Assistant Program
8am-5:30pm
CA Excellence - Laurie Simpson, CCA
Chiropractic assistants play a vital rol in the office. With this program they will learn how to increase patient satisfaction through correct coding, insurance billing, collections and customer service procedures.
Conference Luncheon - Sponsored by ActivHealthCare
12pm-2:30pm
Sunday, June 6
8am-Noon
Whole Body Vibration and Rehabilitation - Christian Reichardt, DC
Continuation from Saturday program
Chiropractic Assistant Program
8am-Noon
CA Excellence - Laurie Simpson, CCA
On Saturday December 19, theFiscal Year 2010 Defense Appropriations Billwas passed which included a provision to delay the 21% decrease in Medicare reimbursement rates until March 2010. This provision regarding Medicare reimbursement rates was folded into the Defense Appropriations Bill because legislation relating to defense spending is considered urgent and must be passed before the new year. By including this provision in the defense bill, Congress is granted additional time to consider how to address issues with the Sustainable Growth Rate formula that is used to determine Medicare reimbursement rates.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has already begun preparing for changes to the fee schedule. CMS has implemented a policy to hold claims for the first 10 business days of January (January 1 through January 15) for 2010 dates of service.
Last week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) unveiled the long-awaited details of his proposed heath reform bill, which he titled “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” It moved forward for debate on Saturday, November 21 on a 60-39 party-line vote. Reid’s legislation, numbering more than 2,000 pages in length, was largely crafted by combining legislative provisions contained in two differing health reform bills, one of which had been previously approved by the Senate Finance Committee and the other by the Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor & Pensions) Committee. The process of combining the Senate Finance and HELP bills into one “merged” or amalgamated proposal has been underway behind closed doors for several weeks, as Reid has struggled, with help from the White House, to craft a combined proposal that would have a reasonable chance of successfully passing through the full Senate. Reid’s task has proved to be a difficult one, primarily because Democrats in the Senate have remained divided over reform issues and major legislative provisions that have been under consideration for inclusion in the amalgamated bill. Additionally, it remains a widely held view, that nearly all Republicans in the Senate will oppose passage of Reid’s bill as it is currently written. Controversial issues threatening unified support among Senate Democrats include: the legislation’s proposed cost; the extent to which mandates would be placed on individuals and employers; how the legislation would be paid for; the impact of the legislation on the federal budget deficit; and whether or not the proposal would include a public plan that some believe would unfairly compete with private health insurance plans. More recently, the extent to which the legislation might either further restrict or possibly expand access to abortions has surfaced as controversial issue that complicates advancement of the legislation.
ACA’s effort to construct and activate a national database of chiropractic patient e-mail addresses, a project known as ChiroVoice, continues to move forward with positive results. Over the course of this summer and into the fall, ChiroVoice and ACA’s Legislative Action Center to which the project is linked, has recorded over 50,000 messages in support of chiropractic priority issues that have been relayed to Congress. While this data clearly reflects significant growth of the project, and demonstrates that chiropractic patients can be effectively mobilized via electronic means, much additional support and work to expand the program remains to be done. Outgunned financially, by the insurance industry, organized medicine, and insurance interests, the ACA is firmly attempting to “level the playing field” and score a victory for the chiropractic profession by mobilizing patients, and ACA officials say ChiroVoice is the most effective tool available for that purpose. ACA officials warn, however, that the vast majority of DCs have not yet started to support the project and have failed to begin the process of collecting chiropractic patient e-mail address data and relay the information to ACA’s HQ, where the ChiroVoice database is maintained.
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