May 31, 2007

The FMA E-News is emailed to all members of the Florida Medical Association semimonthly. The FMA, located in Tallahassee, Fla., serves as an advocate for physicians and their patients to promote the public health, to ensure high standards in medical education and ethics, and to enhance the quality and availability of health care.

Access Interactive Medicare Fee Schedules Online
First Coast Service Options, Inc. is now offering access to interactive fee schedules on their Web site. Providers can obtain current fee information for nearly all Medicare-covered procedure codes and customers can select from a set of code lists, press"query fee", and obtain the applicable fee(s).  The interactive fee schedules are located in the Fee Schedules section of the Web site, or you can go directly to them by selecting one of the following links:

FCSO Fee Schedule Lookup - Part A
http://www.floridamedicare.com/1common_resource_feesA_096240.asp

FCSO Fee Schedule Lookup - Part B
http://www.floridamedicare.com/common_resource_feesB_096241.asp

 
What Every Florida Physician Needs To Know About Medicare's Current and Future Environment
With the passage of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, Congress directed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to expand competition beyond traditional health insurers for the first time in the program's 40-year history.  The legislative changes include the following:
  • CMS will openly compete contracts for services related to claims payment by contracting services for Parts A & B that will be consolidated under a Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) to provide beneficiaries and providers with unified Medicare points of contact.
  • A modernized administrative information technology (IT) platform will be created that will result in higher quality care for beneficiaries.
  • Beneficiary and provider access to information will be improved through consolidated, standardized administrative services.
  • Contracts will integrate pay for performance incentives, allowing contractors to earn profits when they are more efficient, innovative and cost-effective.
  • CMS will compete contracts among a broader range of private-sector organization, allowing for increased competition and cost efficiencies and strengthening its ability to manage contractors based on performance.

MACs will assume the fee-for-service claims payment work that is now performed by Fiscal Intermediaries (FIs) and Carriers.  The new contracts will consist of 15 primary MACs jurisdiction servicing the majority of provider types.  The MACs will serve as the providers' primary point of contact for process and payment of claims for both Part A and Part B.  The full fee-for-service contracting workload will be transitioned to MACs by October 2011.  To read more on this issue, click here.

 

Access to Care Forum

The Duval County Medical Society, FMA, and the University of North Florida Center for Global Health and Medical Diplomacy presented an educational forum at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville on May 22. This forum, titled "Access to Care--The Critical Conundrum: Connecting Patients, Physicians, Professionals and Public Health to Quality Health and Medical Care," assembled local, state, and national leaders to examine and discuss how Florida and the community in the Duval County area are addressing the critical issues involved in access to care.

Participants were welcomed to the conference by Yank D. Coble, Jr., M.D., Director of the new University of North Florida Center for Global Health and Medical Diplomacy, and by John M. Montgomery, M.D., M.P.H., President of the Duval County Medical Society, who also served as Program Chair and Moderator. FMA President, Patrick M. J. Hutton, M.D., M.B.A., spoke about the state approach to access to care for the uninsured and underinsured and health system reform in Florida that is being addressed by the FMA. AMA President, William G. Plested III, M.D., spoke about the national approach and how the AMA is working with a diverse multi-organization coalition to respond to the healthcare coverage crisis for all underinsured and uninsured patients. Robert G. Brooks, M.D., M.B.A., Associate Dean for Health Affairs at the Florida State University College of Medicine, discussed the role of government and public health aspects of access to care.

The Immediate Past President of the Duval County Medical Society and Chair of the FMA Project Team on the Uninsured, Underinsured, and Disparities in Health Care, Floyd B. Willis, M.D., moderated a panel discussion on the impact on outpatient care with the Jacksonville area's "safety net institutions, " including the We Care program, Veterans Administration Clinic, Volunteers in Medicine, JaxCare, Duval County Medical Society, and the Duval County Health Department. The Dean of the University of North Florida College of Health, Pamela Chally, R.N., Ph.D., moderated a panel on the impact of uncompensated care on area hospitals and institutions, including, Memorial Health, Navy Hospital Jax, Mayo/St. Luke's, St. Vincent's Healthcare, and the University of Florida & Shands. The FMA provided continuing medical education credits for this outstanding program as a joint sponsor with the Duval County Medical Society.

 

To sign-up to receive ENews Weekly, please send your name and email address to communicaitons@medone.org