- Email: [email protected]
Practice Notes from the AAAI
Practice Notes from the AAAAI New! The Practice Management Workshop Now Online You can still catch some of the key sessions that were presented at the recent 2017 Practice Management Workshop with the 2017 Practice Management Workshop Online. Now available for purchase, it provides access to select recordings from this unique weekend event that focuses exclusively on the business side of medicine, covering topics like billing, coding, insurance contracting, regulatory issues and more. The sessions cater to allergist/immunologists at any stage of their career. Recordings can also be shared with practice staff managers and other key staff members. Recorded sessions include: Major Moving Targets: MACRA, Quality Reporting, Compounding and More Coding 101 Coding 2017: Strategies for Success It’s All About ME: Managing Conflicts in Your Practice HR Legal Primer: Best Practices for Allergy Practice Dancing with the Devil: Negotiating Managed Care Contracts Practice Transformation: Reducing Burnout and Rediscovering the Joy in Practice Handling Biologics in Your Practice Building a Successful Patient-Centered Allergy Practice AAAAI members can buy the complete set of recorded sessions for $300 or purchase individual sessions for $50 at education.aaaai.org/PMW17Recordings. Save the date: The 2018 AAAAI Practice Management Workshop will take place July 20-22 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Read This Month’s Featured Coding Question from Practice Matters Question: In a practice that makes allergy vaccines and has multiple physicians and offices, is it okay to bill under the physician’s name if he is not in the physical location where the vaccine is prepared to “supervise” the vaccine on the day it is made? That is, can the allergist who is not in the office on the day the vaccine is prepared bill under his name if a different physician is present to supervise? Answer: The CMS guidelines for incident to which preparation of the solution falls under states the physician must be in the suite when the services are prepared. There may be payers who do not follow this guideline and the physician would not be required to be on site when the immunotherapy doses are manufactured.
J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract
If you have a coding question of your own, send it to coding@ aaaai.org. A coding question is featured every month in Practice Matters, your source for information important to the practicing allergist. If you are an AAAAI member and have not been receiving this newsletter, contact [email protected].
Is Your Practice Ready for New Medicare Cards? The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will issue new Medicare cards with a new unique, randomly-assigned number called a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) to replace the existing Social Security-based Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN) both on the cards and in various CMS systems. CMS will start mailing new cards to people with Medicare benefits in April 2018. All Medicare cards will be replaced by April 2019. To make this change easier, there is a 21-month transition period where all healthcare providers will be able to use either the MBI or the HICN for billing purposes. Therefore, even though your systems will need to be able to accept the new MBI format by April 2018 as Medicare patients will start coming to your office with new cards in hand, you can continue to bill and file healthcare claims using a patient’s HICN during the transition period. Visit cms.gov to learn more and for a list of steps you can take today to get ready. Once you are on the CMS homepage, select the yellow Medicare button on the far left and then select the New Medicare Card link under the Medicare e General Information heading. This alert about new Medicare cards was first included in the August issue of Practice Matters, your source for information important to the practicing allergist. If you are an AAAAI member and have not been receiving this newsletter, contact [email protected]. An archive of past issues is also available at the bottom of aaaai.org/practice-resources.
Introducing Keynote Speaker Linda S. Birnbaum, PhD The AAAAI is pleased to announce the keynote speaker for the 2018 AAAAI/WAO Joint Congress will be Linda S. Birnbaum, PhD. Birnbaum is the Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Toxicology Program (NTP). Birnbaum is the first toxicologist and the first woman to lead the NIEHS/NTP. She has spent most of her career as a federal
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 31A
Practice Notes from the AAAAI Abstracts selected for late breaking presentation will feature newsworthy and cutting-edge information which was not available at the time of the regular abstract submission. Authors will be required to explain why their abstract is considered important or late breaking. Members will receive emails from the AAAAI reminding them about late breaking abstract submission.
New! Learn from Colleagues’ Patient Care Experiences at the Case Report Poster Session
scientist and has received numerous awards and recognitions, including being elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in October 2010. Birnbaum’s own research and many of her publications focus on the pharmacokinetic behavior of environmental chemicals, mechanisms of actions of toxicants including endocrine disruption, and linking of real-world exposures to health effects. She also serves as an adjunct professor in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, the Curriculum in Toxicology, and the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as in the Integrated Toxicology Program at Duke University. Her keynote, Global Environmental Change and Our Health, will take place Saturday, March 3 at 3:30 pm.
There is Still Time to Submit Your Research Mark your calendars. The period to submit late breaking abstracts will begin October 30 and will close November 13. Abstracts can be submitted at annualmeeting.aaaai.org during that period. Acceptance of late breaking abstracts provides members with an opportunity to submit important research advances. Abstracts are competitively reviewed under the following criteria: The abstract contains work that is original and has not been previously submitted to, presented at, or is under consideration for any other scientific meeting, including the regular abstract submission. The work is significant to clinical, translational or basic science, novel, uses appropriate study design, analytical methods and experimental methods, and is clearly and logically written.
32A SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
The 2018 AAAAI/WAO Joint Congress will include a special, one-time Case Report Poster Session. This forum will provide the opportunity to share novel or challenging patient care experiences with attendees. Accepted case reports will not be published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology but will be made available after the meeting on the WAO’s website. Further details will be available in the fall when the Program & Planner goes live at annualmeeting.aaaai.org.
2018 AAAAI/WAO Joint Congress Dates to Remember September 27 October 11 October 25 October 30 November 13
Registration and housing opens for AAAAI Fellows and faculty Registration and housing opens for AAAAI members Registration and housing opens for all delegates (nonmembers) Late breaking abstract submission begins Late breaking abstract submission closes
Where to Find More Joint Congress Information Although the AAAAI and WAO are hosting a Joint Congress in 2018, the AAAAI will still be adding all Joint Congress information to the website we have used in past years. Watch for any updates at annualmeeting.aaaai.org.
Access Key Sessions You Missed at the 2017 Annual Meeting If you were not at the 2017 Annual Meeting or simply want to catch up on sessions you did not attend, you can still take
J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract
Practice Notes from the AAAAI advantage of the educational content with the 2017 Virtual Annual Meeting. Every year, the AAAAI records select sessions from the Annual Meeting so members can learn from anywhere in the world. These recordings can be accessed in two formats: streaming online and in MP4 format to download to your preferred device. As a Virtual Annual Meeting purchaser, you may: Claim CME or CE Credits online by viewing recorded sessions. Train medical students, fellows-in-training and new staff working in your office. Review sessions you attended or catch sessions you missed at the Annual Meeting. Prepare for certification/recertification exams and meet Maintenance of Certification requirements. Recordings from the 2017 Annual Meeting are now available. Visit education.aaaai.org/VAM17 today.
Recap of Recent AAAAI Advocacy Efforts The School-Based Respiratory Health Management Act, HR 2285, introduced by Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Representative Phil Roe (R-TN) on behalf of the AAAAI, currently has 17 co-sponsors and continues to attract bi-partisan support in the House of Representatives, and we anticipate bipartisan introduction of the Senate bill soon. The AAAAI recently submitted letters to Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and to Representatives Nita Lowey (D-NY) and Brett Guthrie (R-KY) supporting legislation regarding the increasing incidence of sesame allergy recently noted in a report by the National Academy of Sciences. Letters to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are currently in development regarding recent proposed rules on the 2018 Quality Payment Program and Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. As always, our comment letters will be available on the AAAAI website. Andrew W. Murphy, MD, FAAAAI, Chair of the Office of Practice Management, was recently invited by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) to represent the allergy/ immunology specialty on a small work group of physicians representing specialties impacted by the proposed update to Chapter 797. The work group provided feedback for the development of definitions of “administration” of compounded substances and “urgent use.” The AAAAI continues to actively advocate on compounding issues by working with other
J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract
Lay Organizations The AAAAI places a high value on its relationships with patient advocacy organizations in support of our mutual concern for the needs of people with allergy, asthma and immunologic disease and their families. In particular, the AAAAI has an ongoing relationship with a group of organizations with whom we partner on various projects as needs and opportunities arise. We encourage you to visit these organizations’ websites for more information on their initiatives and missions. Allergy & Asthma Network www.allergyasthmanetwork.org American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders (APFED) www.apfed.org Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) www.aafa.org Alaska Chapter: www.aafaalaska.com California Chapter: www.aafa-ca.com Greater Kansas City Chapter: www.aafakc.org Maryland/Washington DC Chapter: www.aafa-md.org Michigan Chapter: www.aafamich.org New England Chapter: www.asthmaandallergies.org Texas Chapter: www.aafatexas.org St. Louis Chapter: www.aafastl.org Campaign Urging Research for Eosinophilic Disease (CURED) www.curedfoundation.org Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Connection Team (FAACT) www.foodallergyawareness.org Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) www.foodallergy.org Immune Deficiency Foundation (IDF) www.primaryimmune.org International FPIES Association www.fpies.org The Mastocytosis Society (TMS) www.tmsforacure.org US Hereditary Angioedema Association (HAEA) www.haea.org
organizations within the specialty and beyond, and will keep you informed.
Join the Effort! As the AAAAI continues to build upon our efforts in Washington, DC, it is important to know where our grass roots resources lie. If you know or have previously communicated personally with your Senator or Member of Congress, and would be willing to be contacted by the AAAAI for possible targeted outreach, please send an email with this information to [email protected].
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 33A
Read This Month’s Featured Coding Question from Practice Matters Question: In a practice that makes allergy vaccines and has multiple physicians and offices, is it okay to bill under the physician’s name if he is not in the physical location where the vaccine is prepared to “supervise” the vaccine on the day it is made? That is, can the allergist who is not in the office on the day the vaccine is prepared bill under his name if a different physician is present to supervise? Answer: The CMS guidelines for incident to which preparation of the solution falls under states the physician must be in the suite when the services are prepared. There may be payers who do not follow this guideline and the physician would not be required to be on site when the immunotherapy doses are manufactured.
J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract
If you have a coding question of your own, send it to coding@ aaaai.org. A coding question is featured every month in Practice Matters, your source for information important to the practicing allergist. If you are an AAAAI member and have not been receiving this newsletter, contact [email protected].
Is Your Practice Ready for New Medicare Cards? The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will issue new Medicare cards with a new unique, randomly-assigned number called a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) to replace the existing Social Security-based Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN) both on the cards and in various CMS systems. CMS will start mailing new cards to people with Medicare benefits in April 2018. All Medicare cards will be replaced by April 2019. To make this change easier, there is a 21-month transition period where all healthcare providers will be able to use either the MBI or the HICN for billing purposes. Therefore, even though your systems will need to be able to accept the new MBI format by April 2018 as Medicare patients will start coming to your office with new cards in hand, you can continue to bill and file healthcare claims using a patient’s HICN during the transition period. Visit cms.gov to learn more and for a list of steps you can take today to get ready. Once you are on the CMS homepage, select the yellow Medicare button on the far left and then select the New Medicare Card link under the Medicare e General Information heading. This alert about new Medicare cards was first included in the August issue of Practice Matters, your source for information important to the practicing allergist. If you are an AAAAI member and have not been receiving this newsletter, contact [email protected]. An archive of past issues is also available at the bottom of aaaai.org/practice-resources.
Introducing Keynote Speaker Linda S. Birnbaum, PhD The AAAAI is pleased to announce the keynote speaker for the 2018 AAAAI/WAO Joint Congress will be Linda S. Birnbaum, PhD. Birnbaum is the Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Toxicology Program (NTP). Birnbaum is the first toxicologist and the first woman to lead the NIEHS/NTP. She has spent most of her career as a federal
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 31A
Practice Notes from the AAAAI Abstracts selected for late breaking presentation will feature newsworthy and cutting-edge information which was not available at the time of the regular abstract submission. Authors will be required to explain why their abstract is considered important or late breaking. Members will receive emails from the AAAAI reminding them about late breaking abstract submission.
New! Learn from Colleagues’ Patient Care Experiences at the Case Report Poster Session
scientist and has received numerous awards and recognitions, including being elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in October 2010. Birnbaum’s own research and many of her publications focus on the pharmacokinetic behavior of environmental chemicals, mechanisms of actions of toxicants including endocrine disruption, and linking of real-world exposures to health effects. She also serves as an adjunct professor in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, the Curriculum in Toxicology, and the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as in the Integrated Toxicology Program at Duke University. Her keynote, Global Environmental Change and Our Health, will take place Saturday, March 3 at 3:30 pm.
There is Still Time to Submit Your Research Mark your calendars. The period to submit late breaking abstracts will begin October 30 and will close November 13. Abstracts can be submitted at annualmeeting.aaaai.org during that period. Acceptance of late breaking abstracts provides members with an opportunity to submit important research advances. Abstracts are competitively reviewed under the following criteria: The abstract contains work that is original and has not been previously submitted to, presented at, or is under consideration for any other scientific meeting, including the regular abstract submission. The work is significant to clinical, translational or basic science, novel, uses appropriate study design, analytical methods and experimental methods, and is clearly and logically written.
32A SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
The 2018 AAAAI/WAO Joint Congress will include a special, one-time Case Report Poster Session. This forum will provide the opportunity to share novel or challenging patient care experiences with attendees. Accepted case reports will not be published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology but will be made available after the meeting on the WAO’s website. Further details will be available in the fall when the Program & Planner goes live at annualmeeting.aaaai.org.
2018 AAAAI/WAO Joint Congress Dates to Remember September 27 October 11 October 25 October 30 November 13
Registration and housing opens for AAAAI Fellows and faculty Registration and housing opens for AAAAI members Registration and housing opens for all delegates (nonmembers) Late breaking abstract submission begins Late breaking abstract submission closes
Where to Find More Joint Congress Information Although the AAAAI and WAO are hosting a Joint Congress in 2018, the AAAAI will still be adding all Joint Congress information to the website we have used in past years. Watch for any updates at annualmeeting.aaaai.org.
Access Key Sessions You Missed at the 2017 Annual Meeting If you were not at the 2017 Annual Meeting or simply want to catch up on sessions you did not attend, you can still take
J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract
Practice Notes from the AAAAI advantage of the educational content with the 2017 Virtual Annual Meeting. Every year, the AAAAI records select sessions from the Annual Meeting so members can learn from anywhere in the world. These recordings can be accessed in two formats: streaming online and in MP4 format to download to your preferred device. As a Virtual Annual Meeting purchaser, you may: Claim CME or CE Credits online by viewing recorded sessions. Train medical students, fellows-in-training and new staff working in your office. Review sessions you attended or catch sessions you missed at the Annual Meeting. Prepare for certification/recertification exams and meet Maintenance of Certification requirements. Recordings from the 2017 Annual Meeting are now available. Visit education.aaaai.org/VAM17 today.
Recap of Recent AAAAI Advocacy Efforts The School-Based Respiratory Health Management Act, HR 2285, introduced by Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Representative Phil Roe (R-TN) on behalf of the AAAAI, currently has 17 co-sponsors and continues to attract bi-partisan support in the House of Representatives, and we anticipate bipartisan introduction of the Senate bill soon. The AAAAI recently submitted letters to Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and to Representatives Nita Lowey (D-NY) and Brett Guthrie (R-KY) supporting legislation regarding the increasing incidence of sesame allergy recently noted in a report by the National Academy of Sciences. Letters to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are currently in development regarding recent proposed rules on the 2018 Quality Payment Program and Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. As always, our comment letters will be available on the AAAAI website. Andrew W. Murphy, MD, FAAAAI, Chair of the Office of Practice Management, was recently invited by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) to represent the allergy/ immunology specialty on a small work group of physicians representing specialties impacted by the proposed update to Chapter 797. The work group provided feedback for the development of definitions of “administration” of compounded substances and “urgent use.” The AAAAI continues to actively advocate on compounding issues by working with other
J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract
Lay Organizations The AAAAI places a high value on its relationships with patient advocacy organizations in support of our mutual concern for the needs of people with allergy, asthma and immunologic disease and their families. In particular, the AAAAI has an ongoing relationship with a group of organizations with whom we partner on various projects as needs and opportunities arise. We encourage you to visit these organizations’ websites for more information on their initiatives and missions. Allergy & Asthma Network www.allergyasthmanetwork.org American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders (APFED) www.apfed.org Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) www.aafa.org Alaska Chapter: www.aafaalaska.com California Chapter: www.aafa-ca.com Greater Kansas City Chapter: www.aafakc.org Maryland/Washington DC Chapter: www.aafa-md.org Michigan Chapter: www.aafamich.org New England Chapter: www.asthmaandallergies.org Texas Chapter: www.aafatexas.org St. Louis Chapter: www.aafastl.org Campaign Urging Research for Eosinophilic Disease (CURED) www.curedfoundation.org Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Connection Team (FAACT) www.foodallergyawareness.org Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) www.foodallergy.org Immune Deficiency Foundation (IDF) www.primaryimmune.org International FPIES Association www.fpies.org The Mastocytosis Society (TMS) www.tmsforacure.org US Hereditary Angioedema Association (HAEA) www.haea.org
organizations within the specialty and beyond, and will keep you informed.
Join the Effort! As the AAAAI continues to build upon our efforts in Washington, DC, it is important to know where our grass roots resources lie. If you know or have previously communicated personally with your Senator or Member of Congress, and would be willing to be contacted by the AAAAI for possible targeted outreach, please send an email with this information to [email protected].
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 33A