Dear Colleagues, Below are a few noteworthy items. IL-ACC Practice Management Symposium Less than Two Weeks Away: Electronic Health Records: The Winners and Losers. Back to Top The Illinois chapter's Practice Management Symposium is less than two weeks away. Now is the time to register to be a part of this important educational event. Attendees will be presented with information from experts and experiences from other cardiovascular professionals that will help ease the transition and implementation of electronic health records (EHR). The IL-ACC recognizes the tough economic times and is now offering a special rate to help your practice leadership get the EHR information it needs by offering a discount to practice administrators who are not IL-ACC members. Sign up before May 1 and you can register at the practice administrator rate of $75. Topics of the event will include the use of EHR and quality reporting, understanding guidelines from the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT), workflow and staffing issues and solutions, government initiatives and funding, case studies dissecting different cardiology practice EHR adoption issues and successes, a look at Cardiology in 2010 and more! See more information on the program, invited speakers and register for this outstanding opportunity to learn about EHR. What Cardiologists Need to Know Back to Top RBMs Information: Radiology Benefit Managers For-profit companies hired by insurers Goal of RBM is to reduce costs to insurers by denying patient access to imaging services RBMs are a type of “prior authorization” system RBMs utilize proprietary guidelines that are not evidence-based and not the published ACC/AHA guidelines RBMs impose an administrative burden on physician practices that is unnecessary Use of accreditation, appropriateness guidelines, health IT, and registries, when in place, should obviate the need for RBMs Why would health reform invest in information technologies that are designed to make us more transparent and more efficient while at the same time making us less efficient by putting in place an additional layer of administration?  It doesn’t make sense. RACs: Are Reimbursement Audit Contractors. Paid on a contingency basis for inappropriate claims they identify and collect on. Their fees vary from about 10% to 12.5% of money collected, depending on which jurisdiction they cover, according to CMS documents. They had been focusing on site of service in the hospital setting. Now looking at consults and E&M. These so-called “bounty hunter” contractors perform two kinds of review: Automated – where you receive a demand letter for repayment with no request for additional documentation. These types of audits are reserved for “situations where there is a certainty of overpayment,” CMS says. Complex – where you receive a request for medical records. The RAC then audits your records to determine whether you made a coding or billing error. Prior to pursuing they will need CMS approval At the March meeting these guidelines were reviewed for chart requests Solo practitioner: 10 medical records requests per national provider identifier (NPI) Partnership of 2-5 individuals: 20 medical records request per NPI Group of 6-15 practitioners: 30 medical records requests per NPI Large group of 16 or more practitioners: 50 medical records requests per NPI. The physicians advisory committee (PPAC) recommended CMS not allow these types of review and in the very least at first, they should not be demanding repayment on services upcoded by just one level, CMS official said. Advocacy Alert Back to Top Earlier this month the Illinois chapter sent out an advocacy action alert regarding Medicare Administrative Contractors (MAC) reassigning Illinois in Jurisdiction 6 (J6) from Wisconsin Physicians Services (WPS), J6’s Medicare contractor for many years, to Noridian Administrative Services.  Your action is required to help reverse this decision. Click here for background information and more instructions on how you can help. Congratulations to Illinois’ New Fellows of the American College of Cardiology Back to Top The Illinois Chapter of the American College of Cardiology welcomes and congratulates the following people who have been elected to Fellowship in the American College of Cardiology. Congratulations to: Dr. Claudia Gidea Dr. Parag Jain Dr. Emmanuel Loutrianakis Dr. Christopher Pavlovic Dr. Breno Pessanha Dr. Rashmi Raghuvir Dr. Adhir Shroff Dr. William Spear Dr. Thomas Tamlyn Dr. Imran Virk Dr. Edwin Wu Dr. Helbert Acosta Dr. Abed Dehnee Dr. Samer Dibs STEMI Illinois Care Program: May 29 Back to Top The IL-ACC Chapter and American Heart Association Mission: Lifeline are hosting the second STEMI Illinois Care Program in conjunction with the ACC Emergency Cardiovascular Care 2009: Building STEMI Systems of Care.  Mission: Lifeline Illinois Advances in STEMI Systems of Care Join us for an informative dinner with your fellow Illinois partners in STEMI Care and learn how you will have the chance to advance Mission: Lifeline STEMI Systems in your community!  We will be providing a dinner program in conjunction with the ACC Educational Symposium, featuring local speakers discussing STEMI care in Illinois. Our Program will be located at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare on May 29, 2009. For more details and to register click here ACC Emergency Cardiovascular Care 2009: Building STEMI Systems of Care Back to Top To learn more about and register for this two day ACC educational symposium held in Chicago on May 29 – 30, 2009 at the  Hyatt Regency O’Hare, Chicago click here. Best regards,   Jerome Hines, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.C. Governor, Illinois Chapter of the ACC