Saturday, April 28, is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day Saturday, April 28, 2018, is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. On this day, hundreds of locations throughout California will be accepting and properly disposing of unused prescription drugs, including controlled substances. Proper disposal of unused prescription drugs helps prevent diversion and misuse associated with these medications. This one-day event will provide patients with free, anonymous collection of unwanted and expired medicines. The last National Take Back event collected 456 tons of unwanted prescription drugs at almost 5,500 collection sites nationwide. In addition to providing a safe, convenient and responsible means ... April 17, 2018 General Prescription Drugs 0 0 Comment Read More »
Commission studying continuing board certification is seeking physician input A new commission has been formed—Continuing Board Certification: Vision for the Future—to bring together multiple stakeholders to re-envision the future of continuing board certification. The commission members represent a broad cross-section of physicians from a wide variety of specialties and practice settings and a diverse group of stakeholder communities, including national specialty and state medical societies, hospitals and health systems, health care organizations, and the general public. Throughout the process, the commission will seek feedback from a diverse group of stakeholders using a variety of methods including an open survey ... April 17, 2018 General Board Certification 0 0 Comment Read More »
CA Physicians Overwhelmingly Oppose Radical Health Care Price Fixing Bill FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 9, 2018 SOURCE: California Medical Association CONTACT: Charlie Lawlor, clawlor@cmanet.org CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS TODAY - CLICK HERE! Sacramento, CALIF. – Today, Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) released new details on a radical new legislative proposal that would increase patient out-of-pocket costs and result in a dangerous government intrusion into the health care market by creating state-sanctioned rationing of health care for all Californians. Assembly Bill 3087 would establish an undemocratic, government-run commission with nine political appointees who would unilaterally set the price for all medical services that are not already ... April 9, 2018 CMA, General, Press Releases Rate Regulation, State Legislative Advocacy 0 0 Comment Read More »
California to begin receiving new Medicare cards in May The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began mailing new identification cards to Medicare beneficiaries this month, as required under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). The new cards contain a unique, randomly assigned Medicare Beneficiary Identification (MBI) number that will replace the current SSN-based Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN). The new MBI will also be used for Medicare transactions like billing, and eligibility and claim status checks. The first wave of cards mailed this month will be to newly-enrolled Medicare beneficiaries. Beginning in May ... April 9, 2018 Medicare Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Medicare 0 0 Comment Read More »
DOJ certifies CURES: Physicians must check database prior to prescribing effective October 2, 2018 The California Department of Justice (DOJ) has certified that as of April 2, 2018, the Controlled Substance Utilization and Evaluation System (CURES) – California’s prescription drug monitoring database – is ready for statewide use. The certification starts a six-month implementation period for the duty to consult requirements enacted by the Legislature in SB 482 (Lara, 2016). Effective October 2, 2018, physicians must consult CURES prior to prescribing Schedule II, III or IV controlled substances to a patient for the first time and at least once every four months thereafter if ... April 9, 2018 General Department of Justice, DOJ, Drug Prescribing, CURES 0 0 Comment Read More »
U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in challenge to California's Reproductive FACT Act A California law that requires specified facilities providing pregnancy-related services and counseling to disclose information about the availability of comprehensive reproductive health care services is currently being challenged before the United States Supreme Court. At issue in this case—NIFLA v. Becerra—are efforts by the State of California to ensure that patients receive accurate information about the availability and accessibility of free and low-cost comprehensive reproductive health services. Passed in 2015, the California’s Reproductive Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care and Transparency (FACT) Act requires licensed health-care centers to notify patients of the availability ... April 5, 2018 General Amicus Briefs, Legal Advocacy, United States Supreme Court, Women's Health 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMA survey finds rampant health plan payment abuses Despite a California law passed in 2000 to address widespread payment abuses by health care service plans, many payors continue to flout the law. A recent survey by the California Medical Association (CMA) confirms that health plans regularly engage in unfair payment practices, with two-thirds of physician practices reporting routine payment abuses in violation of state law. The Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) has been slow to address provider complaints and has taken few enforcement actions against health plans that unlawfully underpay providers. When DMHC has acted, the penalty ... April 5, 2018 CMA, General, Managed Care Department of Managed Health Care, DMHC, Payors, State Legislation, State Legislative Advocacy, Unfair Payment Practices 0 0 Comment Read More »
Payors report system changes to comply with AB 72 When California’s new out-of-network billing and payment law (AB 72) took effect on July 1, 2017, the California Medical Association (CMA) began receiving calls from physician offices concerned that Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of California were not correctly paying claims. In both cases the incorrect payments were linked to manual processing of AB 72 claims. CMA worked with Blue Shield to ensure affected claims through October of 2017 were automatically reprocessed. Blue Shield also committed to conducting weekly audits to catch any additional claims that were processed erroneously. ... April 5, 2018 General, Managed Care Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Economic Advocacy, AB 72, Out of Network Care 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMA comments on proposed protections for conscience rights and religious freedom In January, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a proposed rule that would expand protections for physicians and other health care providers who object to performing certain procedures. The proposal covers a wide array of existing federal laws that provide “conscience” protections, including those related to abortion, sterilization, assisted suicide and the performance of advance directives. While the California Medical Association (CMA) is a strong advocate for the conscience rights of physicians, we do not believe this proposed rule accomplishes its purported aims. We are concerned ... April 5, 2018 CMA Regulatory Advocacy 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMA physicians travel to D.C. to advocate on critical health care issues A California Medical Association (CMA) contingent of two dozen physician and medical student leaders recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to participate in the American Medical Association’s (AMA) National Advocacy Week. They met with 24 members of the California Congressional Delegation and top leadership of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to advocate for many health care issues critically important to California physicians. While in Washington, California physicians focused on promoting the bipartisan Affordable Care Act (ACA) market stabilization bill that would reinstate the cost-sharing reduction payments and ... April 5, 2018 CMA, General AMA, American Medical Association, Federal Legislative Advocacy 0 0 Comment Read More »
