The DJP Update

DJP Update 3-23-2011  CEO of SMA speaks out on PPACA

Ed Waldron, CEO of the Southern Medical Association (SMA), wrote the article.

Read the article at:

http://tinyurl.com/4rz4kjx

or

http://sma.org/2011/03/03/the-patient-protection-and-affordable-care-act-refine-rework-or-repeal.html?utm_source=Member&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=3-23-11&utm_campaign=ADMIN-J00712

I sent it out by tweet:

Tweet from DJPNEWS at:  www.twitter.com/DJPNEWS

Congress, Attention! Words of wisdom from CEO #SMA Ed Waldron re #PPACA http://tinyurl.com/4rz4kjx #hcr #Dems#tcot #teaparty

EXCERPT FROM BEGINNING:

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. . .Refine, Rework or Repeal?

In conversation between physicians and in weighing their reactions to The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as well as the published opinions of those organizations which are supposed to represent them, you will find a prevalence of certain specific negative or positive parts of the Act.  In many cases these references are valid and important considerations.  But in the case of the PPACA before you consider individual pieces of the Act, there are overwhelming considerations which are the sum of the specific positives or negatives and which are the most valid reasons for rejecting the Act, such as:    Get It Done! But Do It on Principles Which Appropriately Define These Deal Breakers.”

1. Unconstitutional applications of government power
2. Assault on individual rights of choice
3. Assailing free market principles
4. Insidious redistribution of wealth

Physicians or their associations do not seem able to elucidate the basic concerns as noted above.  For the so called “common good” these principles are being sacrificed by policy makers and wonks on either side of the aisle.  The Act, as passed, has the “earmarks” (no pun intended) of the “nose of the camel under the tent,” and is part of a slippery slope which assaults basic freedoms upon which this country was built.

etc…….

Read the entire article.

Stay well.

Donald

Go to:  http://www.youtube.com/user/IntrepidResources

Leave a comment and encourage others to visit!

P.S. Stop by http://twitter.com/DJPNEWS and sign up for DJPNEWS to get tweet alerts that may not make it into DJP Updates.  Twitter is free and takes minutes to join.  Put email in and pick password.  Great source of breaking news and you don’t flood your email with it.  You can get free app for BlackBerry or IPhone etc and you check on tweets when you want.

Also, recent selected DJP Updates can be found at:  http://donaldpalmisano.com/djp_update/

Donald J. Palmisano, MD, JD

Intrepid Resources® / The Medical Risk Manager Company

5000 West Esplanade Ave., #432

Metairie, LA 70006

USA

504-455-5895 office

504-455-9392 fax

DJP@donaldpalmisano.com

www.donaldpalmisano.com

www.onleadership.us

DJP Updates:  http://donaldpalmisano.com/djp_update/

Twitter:  www.twitter.com/DJPNEWS

YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/IntrepidResources

This DJP Update goes to 2334 leaders in Medicine representing all of the State Medical Associations and over 100 Specialty Societies plus some other friends.

You can share it with your members and it has the potential to reach 800,000 physicians.

To join the list, send me an  email stating “Join DJP Update”

To get off the list, state ” Remove DJP Update” in subject line.

 

 

 

 

 

DJP Update 3-10-2011 Important paper on practice of medicine

See tweets below.  Go to link and read paper prepared by The Physicians Foundation (20 medical associations comprise this foundation – see start of paper)

DJP Comment: Now is the time for leadership to prevent the destruction of ethical science-based medicine.  Let’s put the patient in charge and the physician as trusted advisor.  How many alerts do we need!

Excerpt from paper’s executive summary:

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and its potential effects on physician practice are wide ranging, fluid topics subject to a variety of interpretations and analyses.

Some of the conclusions (these are from the Executive Summary):

1) Health reform is comprised of two elements: “Informal reform,” (i.e., societal andeconomic trends exerting pressure on the current healthcare system independent of the

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act), and “formal reform,” (i.e., the provisions contained in the Act itself).

2) The current iteration of health reform, both formal and informal, will have a transformative effect on the healthcare system. This time, reform will not be a “false dawn” analogous to the health reform movement of the 1990s, but will usher in substantive and lasting changes.

3) The independent, private physician practice model will be largely, though not uniformly, replaced.

4) Most physicians will be compelled to consolidate with other practitioners, become hospital employees, or align with large hospitals and health systems for capital, administrative and technical resources.

5) Emerging practice models will vary by region—one size will not fit all. Large, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), private practice medical homes, large independent groups, large aligned groups, community health centers (CHCs), concierge practices, and small aligned groups will proliferate.

6) Reform will drastically increase physician legal compliance obligations and potential liability under federal fraud and abuse statutes. Enhanced funding for enforcement, additional latitude for “whistleblowers” and the suspension of the government’s need to prove “intent” will create a compliance environment many physicians will find problematic.

7) Reform will exacerbate physician shortages, creating access issues for many patients.  Primary care shortages and physician maldistribution will not be resolved. Physicians will need to redefine their roles and rethink delivery models in order to meet rising demand.

8) The imperative to care for more patients, to provide higher perceived quality, at less cost, with increased reporting and tracking demands, in an environment of high potential liability and problematic reimbursement, will put additional stress on physicians, particularly those in private practice. Some physicians will respond by opting out of private practice or by abandoning medicine altogether, contributing to the physician shortage.

9) The omission in reform of a “fix” to the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and of liability reform will further disengage doctors from medicine and limit patient access.  SGR is unlikely to be resolved by Congress and probably will be folded into new payment mechanisms sometime within the next five years.

10) Health reform was necessary and inevitable. The impetus of informal reform would likely have spurred many of the changes above, independent of formal reform. Net gains in coverage, quality and costs are to be hoped for, but the transition will be challenging to all physicians and onerous to many.

These and other conclusions are examined in more detail in this paper.

———–

THE IMPORTANCE OF TWITTER to learn of new happenings.  Don’t rely on the talking heads on TV or pundits on radio.

I learned about this paper from a tweet by my son, the Exec Director/EVP of Medical Association of Georgia (MAG).  His tweet is below and I retweeted.  Get a free twitter account and follow those you agree with and those you don’t to get the news ahead of those who rely on newspapers and TV and radio.

www.twitter.com/DJPNews

——

Impt! RT @DPalmisanoMAG: Great white paper.. #hcr & ..private practice physician prepared by.. Physicians’ Foundation http://bit.ly/fMYMFS

——-

www.twitter.com/DPalmisanoMAG

 

DPalmisanoMAG Donald Palmisano Jr.

Great white paper on health care reform and the private practice physician prepared by the Physicians’ Foundation. http://bit.ly/fMYMFS

——-

Here is another link to the white paper:  http://www.mag.org/pdfs/mha_foundation_whitepaper_1010.pdf

—–

Stay well,

Donald

P.S. Tomorrow is my trip to the operating room as a patient!  Another great adventure!  Glad this is national patient safety week.

Go to:  http://www.youtube.com/user/IntrepidResources

Leave a comment and encourage others to visit!

P.S. Stop by http://twitter.com/DJPNEWS and sign up for DJPNEWS to get tweet alerts that may not make it into DJP Updates.  Twitter is free and takes minutes to join.  Put email in and pick password.  Great source of breaking news and you don’t flood your email with it.  You can get free app for BlackBerry or IPhone etc and you check on tweets when you want.

Also, recent selected DJP Updates can be found at:  http://donaldpalmisano.com/djp_update/

Donald J. Palmisano, MD, JD

Intrepid Resources® / The Medical Risk Manager Company

5000 West Esplanade Ave., #432

Metairie, LA 70006

USA

504-455-5895 office

504-455-9392 fax

DJP@donaldpalmisano.com

www.donaldpalmisano.com

www.onleadership.us

DJP Updates:  http://donaldpalmisano.com/djp_update/

Twitter:  www.twitter.com/DJPNEWS

YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/IntrepidResources

This DJP Update goes to 2334 leaders in Medicine representing all of the State Medical Associations and over 100 Specialty Societies plus some other friends.

You can share it with your members and it has the potential to reach 800,000 physicians.

To join the list, send me an  email stating “Join DJP Update”

To get off the list, state ” Remove DJP Update” in subject line.

 

DJP Update 3-8-2011 Mardi Gras ends at midnight!  Check out photos &  Plan for 2012 Mardi Gras!  LAGNIAPPE

It is not too early to plan for Mardi Gras 2012: Tuesday, February 21, 2012.

You have to experience it at least once.

Robin and I go to the French Quarter for the morning and early afternoon on Mardi Gras Day.

Here are some of the sights we saw including the Rex Parade passing on Canal Street.  I posted 16 photos at:  http://twitpic.com/photos/DJPNEWS

Click on each picture to enlarge and see full scene.  Also if you click on “More Photos” at bottom of that page, you will get to 2010 images I posted after clicking through a few pages.

As many of you know, a Tulane Medical School classmate of mine, Dr. Ronnie French, was Rex, King of Carnival in 2007.  And previously, the lovely and kind Flora, his wife, was Queen.

LAGNIAPPE:  For the photographers among you, I used my Nikon D90 with 18-200 lens and the small Canon S95.  Both allow capturing the image in JPEG and RAW at the same time.  Digital Negative has the most detail and ideal for Photoshop etc.  Exposure errors and more can be corrected with RAW images.

I posted reduced pixel images at the TwitPic site above.

For those not yet photographers, photography is a wonderful hobby.  You don’t have to feed it every day and you can store the equipment for long periods.  Just remember to remove batteries for long storage. Wonderful to reflect back on family and friend images as the years go by.  Memories may fade but the images take us on a time machine journey of joy.

My nature photography is at:  http://www.naturesreflectionslimited.com/

Great relaxing hobby that clears the mind of daily stresses and the strange happenings in Congress!  Not unlike clearing out the RAM when doing aerobatics in a plane.

Click on the Sample Image Gallery to view some of the photos.  My latest adventure in photography is painting with light.  You can see a one of those images on the cover of The Journal of the Louisiana State Medical Society  Nov/Dec 2008 issue at:  http://www.naturesreflectionslimited.com/pdfs/cover.pdf

The cover of the March/April issue of The Journal of the Louisiana State Medical Society will have another one of my photos painted with light entitled “Aura 3 Women Fiddlers”.  It is  is my interpretation of the aura of three women fiddlers I saw in Australia when lecturing there on leadership.  Inside the same issue is another light motion image I did of a 50’s Jukebox.  Lots of fun.

Will alert you when posted.

Stay well,

Donald

Go to:  http://www.youtube.com/user/IntrepidResources

Leave a comment and encourage others to visit!

P.S. Stop by http://twitter.com/DJPNEWS and sign up for DJPNEWS to get tweet alerts that may not make it into DJP Updates.  Twitter is free and takes minutes to join.  Put email in and pick password.  Great source of breaking news and you don’t flood your email with it.  You can get free app for BlackBerry or IPhone etc and you check on tweets when you want.

Also, recent selected DJP Updates can be found at:  http://donaldpalmisano.com/djp_update/

Donald J. Palmisano, MD, JD

Intrepid Resources® / The Medical Risk Manager Company

5000 West Esplanade Ave., #432

Metairie, LA 70006

USA

504-455-5895 office

504-455-9392 fax

DJP@donaldpalmisano.com

www.donaldpalmisano.com

www.onleadership.us

DJP Updates:  http://donaldpalmisano.com/djp_update/

Twitter:  www.twitter.com/DJPNEWS

YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/IntrepidResources

This DJP Update goes to 2334 leaders in Medicine representing all of the State Medical Associations and over 100 Specialty Societies plus some other friends.

You can share it with your members and it has the potential to reach 800,000 physicians.

To join the list, send me an  email stating “Join DJP Update”

To get off the list, state ” Remove DJP Update” in subject line.

DJP Update 3-7-2011 Various tweets PPACA, a contest & Happy Lundi Gras!

Click on the links in the tweets to read the stories.  Check out the contest for one minute video about PPACA.  You might win $5000.00.  Past this link into your browser:  www.iwvoice.org

Don’t forget PCORI in PPACA!

DJPNEWS Donald Palmisano

@WSJOpinion http://tinyurl.com/48mrpl9 Turner Cortes Higgins “ObamaCare’s March Madness” #hcr #PPACA #teaparty #dems #TCOT

3 minutes ago

DJPNEWS Donald Palmisano

Letter to editor St Louis Post-Dispatch re #PCORI of #PPACA by Dr Palmisano & Dr Gale http://tinyurl.com/48kq9wh #hcr

10 minutes ago

DJPNEWS Donald Palmisano

Independent Women’s Voice #IWV offers $5000 1st prize for one-minute or less video regarding harm of #PPACA www.iwvoice.org #hcr

7 hours ago

DJPNEWS Donald Palmisano

Judge #Vinson “clarification” statement #PPACA decision#DJPUpdate 3-4-2011 http://tinyurl.com/328kxgg #law #hcr #tcot#teaparty

5 Mar

DJPNEWS Donald Palmisano

Week of my operation! RT @LAHospitals: Louisiana hospitals prepare to celebrate National Patient Safety Awareness Week http://cot.ag/h0R6ma

4 Mar

DJPNEWS Donald Palmisano

Now in Orlando to give #speech on #leadership & #hcr to Florida Chapter of American College of Surgeons #ACS #PPACA

———

Stay well,

Donald

Go to:  http://www.youtube.com/user/IntrepidResources

Leave a comment and encourage others to visit!

P.S. Stop by http://twitter.com/DJPNEWS and sign up for DJPNEWS to get tweet alerts that may not make it into DJP Updates.  Twitter is free and takes minutes to join.  Put email in and pick password.  Great source of breaking news and you don’t flood your email with it.  You can get free app for BlackBerry or IPhone etc and you check on tweets when you want.

Also, recent selected DJP Updates can be found at:  http://donaldpalmisano.com/djp_update/

Donald J. Palmisano, MD, JD

Intrepid Resources® / The Medical Risk Manager Company

5000 West Esplanade Ave., #432

Metairie, LA 70006

USA

504-455-5895 office

504-455-9392 fax

DJP@donaldpalmisano.com

www.donaldpalmisano.com

www.onleadership.us

DJP Updates:  http://donaldpalmisano.com/djp_update/

Twitter:  www.twitter.com/DJPNEWS

YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/IntrepidResources

This DJP Update goes to 2334 leaders in Medicine representing all of the State Medical Associations and over 100 Specialty Societies plus some other friends.

You can share it with your members and it has the potential to reach 800,000 physicians.

To join the list, send me an  email stating “Join DJP Update”

To get off the list, state ” Remove DJP Update” in subject line.

DJP Update 3-4-2011 In Orlando to give speech to ACS; Judge Vinson’s “clarification” statement on PPACA decision

ITEM ONE:  Now in Orlando to give speech in morning to Florida Chapter of American College of Surgeons.

Title of presentation for 8:00 a.m. Saturday, March 4, 2011:

Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Physician Leadership in Health System Reform

ITEM TWO:  Judge Vinson’s 20 page clarification of his decision in PPACA in response to Federal Government request to “clarify” ruling – issued March 3, 2011

State of Florida, by and through Attorney General Pam Bondi, et al.;

Plaintiffs,

v.

United States Department of Health and Human Services, et al.,

Defendants

Read the entire 20 pages at:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/49955429/Vinson-Clarification

or

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/030311vinsonruling.pdf

Interesting how the news reports put different headlines on this issue.  You make your own decision.

DJP COMMENT:  The judge repeats what he said in the first opinion: the entire “Act” must be declared void.  However, he grants stay “conditioned upon the defendants filing their notice of appeal within seven (7) calendar days of this order and seeking an expedited appellate review.”

In other words, you want a stay?  OK, you have it BUT you have 7 days to seek an expedited appellate review.  The clock is ticking!

I pasted a few excerpts from the decision below if you don’t have time to read the entire 20 pages. Thus you can read the judge’s words and not rely on my interpretation.

Page 14

So to “clarify” my order and judgment: The individual mandate was declared unconstitutional. Because that “essential” provision was unseverable from the rest of the Act, the entire legislation was void. This declaratory judgment was expected to be treated as the “practical” and “functional equivalent of an injunction” with respect to the parties to the litigation. This expectation was based on the “longstanding presumption” that the defendants themselves identified and agreed to be bound by, which provides that a declaratory judgment against federal officials is a de facto injunction. To the extent that the defendants were unable (or believed that they were unable) to comply, it was expected that they would immediately seek a stay of the ruling, and at that point in time present their arguments for why such a stay is necessary, which is the usual and standard procedure. It was not expected that they would effectively ignore the order and declaratory judgment for two and one-half weeks, continue to implement the Act, and only then file a belated motion to clarify (6).

Page 18

Finally, for the last factor, I must consider “where the public interest lies.”  Although the defendants’ pleadings present a reasonably persuasive argument for why the “public interest lies” in having my declaratory judgment and de facto injunction stayed pending appeal, almost every argument that the defendants have advanced speaks much more persuasively to why the case should be immediately appealed and pursued in the most expeditious and accelerated manner allowable.  As both sides have repeatedly emphasized throughout this case, the Act seeks to comprehensively reform and regulate more than one-sixth of the national economy.  It does so via several hundred statutory provisions and thousands of regulations that put myriad obligations and responsibilities on individuals, employers, and the states. It has generated considerable uncertainty while the Constitutionality of the Act is being litigated in the courts. The sooner this issue is finally decided by the Supreme Court, the better off the entire nation will be. And yet, it has been more than one month from the entry of my order and judgment and still the defendants have not filed their notice of appeal.

Page 19

After careful consideration of the factors noted above, and all the arguments set forth in the defendants’ motion to clarify, I find that the motion, construed as a motion for stay, should be GRANTED. However, the stay will be conditioned upon the defendants filing their anticipated appeal within seven (7) calendar days of this order and seeking an expedited appellate review, either in the Court of Appeals or with the Supreme Court under Rule 11 of that Court. See, e.g., NML Capital Ltd. v. Republic of Argentina, 2005 WL 743086, at *5 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 31, 2005) (district court granted motion to stay its own ruling, “conditioned on as prompt as possible appeal and a motion for an expedited appeal”).

Page 20

Therefore, the defendants’ motion to clarify (doc. 156) is GRANTED, as set forth above. To the extent that motion is construed as a motion to stay, it is also

GRANTED, and the summary declaratory judgment entered in this case is STAYED pending appeal, conditioned upon the defendants filing their notice of appeal within seven (7) calendar days of this order and seeking an expedited appellate review.

DONE and ORDERED this 3rd day of March, 2011.

/s/ Roger Vinson

ROGER VINSON

Senior United States District Judge

———

Stay well,

Donald

Go to:  http://www.youtube.com/user/IntrepidResources

Leave a comment and encourage others to visit!

P.S. Stop by http://twitter.com/DJPNEWS and sign up for DJPNEWS to get tweet alerts that may not make it into DJP Updates.  Twitter is free and takes minutes to join.  Put email in and pick password.  Great source of breaking news and you don’t flood your email with it.  You can get free app for BlackBerry or IPhone etc and you check on tweets when you want.

Also, recent selected DJP Updates can be found at:  http://donaldpalmisano.com/djp_update/

Donald J. Palmisano, MD, JD

Intrepid Resources® / The Medical Risk Manager Company

5000 West Esplanade Ave., #432

Metairie, LA 70006

USA

504-455-5895 office

504-455-9392 fax

DJP@donaldpalmisano.com

www.donaldpalmisano.com

www.onleadership.us

DJP Updates: http://donaldpalmisano.com/djp_update/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/DJPNEWS

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/IntrepidResources

This DJP Update goes to 2334 leaders in Medicine representing all of the State Medical Associations and over 100 Specialty Societies plus some other friends.

You can share it with your members and it has the potential to reach 800,000 physicians.

To join the list, send me an  email stating “Join DJP Update”

To get off the list, state ” Remove DJP Update” in subject line.

DJP Update 3-2-2011 Regulations for PPACA, the new health care law, are coming your way; Lagniappe: Host weekly radio show soon

With laws come regulations.  With a law that is more than 2400 pages long, there will be lots of regulations.  And subsequent laws passed sometimes add in other provisions that affect the PPACA law.  The average medical doctor is too busy to monitor the proposed regulations, offer comments in the comment period, or testify.  It is hoped that your medical association or specialty society is up to date on all of these proposed regulations and takes steps to preserve ethical science-based medicine.  You can bet the final regulations for PPACA will exceed the length of the law.  As I wrote in the editorial published in the Journal of the Louisiana State Medical Society, think Gulliver:

Imagine Gulliver tied down by the Lilliputians! Swift relates how Gulliver tried to break the stands that bound him to the ground, “But the harder he fought for freedom, the more the little men shot arrows into him, and some of them even tried to run their spears into his sides.”

Complete article at:  http://journal.lsms.org/images/stories/Editorial.pdf

If you were too busy to notice Federal Government announcement about PCORI (Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute), there is a public hearing in St. Louis on March 7-8.

Complete schedule and more about PCORI:  Go to: http://pcori.org/

Note:  This PCORI is NOT the IPAB (Independent Payment Advisory Board) IPAB is a new price-fixing group.  One summary of IPAB is at:  http://healthreformstat.com/2010/06/08/independent-payment-advisory-board/

Most medical organizations oppose IPAB.  As for PCORI, one has to monitor it carefully to make sure it doesn’t lose the educational purpose and turn into a rationing board.

PCORI:  Public Comments are allowed for 30 minutes on Monday March 7 and again for 30 minutes on Tuesday March 8.  Note that 30 minutes each day are for the entire universe of those who wish to comment.  Not 30 minutes per person.

PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Board of Governors Meeting

March 7-8, 2011 (starts at 1 p.m. on Monday and 8 a.m. on Tuesday; all times Central)

The Westin St. Louis Hotel

811 Spruce Street, St. Louis, MO  63102

Below you will find some activity in health system reform.  Here are a few excerpts taken  from the Louisiana Hospital Association mailing to its members (LHA Health Reform Resource Weekly Update – March 2, 2011).  You will note the links and you can visit the links to see the letters written or view the regulation.

For example, look at the comparative effectiveness.  Clicking on the link will take you deeper into the issues raised by the proposed regulations as well as the goal of the regulations.

Here is one excerpt from the Comparative Effectiveness Research and continuing education link below that takes you to this Web address:

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2011/pdf/2011-4130.pdf

“AHRQ is expanding its continuing education to include nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, medical assistants, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, and other allied health professionals, as well as physicians. In addition, AHRQ wants to assess the impact continuing education has on clinician behavior, its perceived value, and whether or not education on comparative effectiveness research made a difference in a clinician’s confidence in applying comparative effectiveness research in practice, understanding the application of such research, and improved ability to counsel patients on treatment and management alternatives.”

EXCERPTS FROM LOUISIANA HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER

LHA & AHA RESOURCES

·       Letter to Secretary Sebelius regarding Proposed Rule for Rate Increase Disclosure and Review under the PPACA: OCIIO -9999-P, American Hospital Association

·       Letter to Director Berwick regarding  Medicare Program; Solicitation of Comments Regarding Development of a RAC Program for the Medicare Part C and D Programs; File Code CMS-6041-NC, American Hospital Association

• LHA Letter to HHS/CMS regarding Medicare Program; Solicitation of Comments Regarding Development of a RAC Program for the Medicare Part C and D Programs; File Code CMS-6041-NC

• AHA Letter to Office of the National Coordinator HIT regarding HIT Policy Committee: Meaningful Use Workgroup Request for Comments Regarding Meaningful Use Stage 2

• America’s Hospitals and Health Systems Letter to Secretary Sebelius regarding Maintenance of Effort (MOE) provisions in ACA, AHA

·       AHA Comment Letter Regarding CMS-3239-P, Medicare Program; Hospital Inpatient Value-Based Purchasing Program; Proposed Rule (Vol. 76, No. 9), January 13, 2011

·       AHA Letter to Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality regarding  RE: CMS-2420-NC, Medicaid Program; Initial Core Set of Health Quality Measures for Medicaid-Eligible Adults; Notice (Vol. 75, No. 250), December 30, 2010

——

RULES & REGULATIONS

• Final Rule: Regulation for the Enforcement of Federal Health Care Provider Conscience Protection Laws, Effective March 25, 2011, HHS

• Announcement 2011-20: Delayed Filing Season for Certain Tax-Exempt Hospitals, IRS

• Schedule H (Hospital) filers: Do not file 2010 Form 990 before July 1, 2011, IRS

• Proposed Rule: Community First Choice Option, Comments due 5 pm EST April 26, 2011, HHS/CMS

• Comment Request regarding Comparative Effectiveness Research— Continuing Education; implements TeamSTEPPS, an evidence based framework to optimize team performance across the healthcare delivery system with the goal of improving patient safety, Comments due March 30, 2011, HHS

• Improving Patient Safety System Implementation for Patients with Limited English Proficiency, Comments due March 30, 2011, HHS

·       Guidance on the “maintenance of effort” (MOE) provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, P.L. 111-148, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010; P.L. 111-152 (together known as the ACA), HHS/CMS

• Comment Request regarding Rate Increase Disclosure and Review Reporting Requirements (45 CFR Part 154) Use: Under the Section 1003 of the ACA (Section 2794 of the Public Health Service Act), the Secretary, in conjunction with the States, is required to establish a process for the annual review, beginning with the 2010 plan year, of unreasonable increases in premiums for health insurance coverage; Comments due May 2, 2011, HHS/CMS

• Comment Request; ACA Internal Claims and Appeals and External Review Procedures for Non-Grandfathered Plans, Comments due March 31, 2011, DOL

————————

LAGNIAPPE: Later this month, I will start hosting a weekly one-hour radio show.  More details to come.

Stay well,

Donald

Go to:  http://www.youtube.com/user/IntrepidResources

Leave a comment and encourage others to visit!

P.S. Stop by http://twitter.com/DJPNEWS and sign up for DJPNEWS to get tweet alerts that may not make it into DJP Updates.  Twitter is free and takes minutes to join.  Put email in and pick password.  Great source of breaking news and you don’t flood your email with it.  You can get free app for BlackBerry or IPhone etc and you check on tweets when you want.

Also, recent selected DJP Updates can be found at:  http://donaldpalmisano.com/djp_update/

Donald J. Palmisano, MD, JD

Intrepid Resources® / The Medical Risk Manager Company

5000 West Esplanade Ave., #432

Metairie, LA 70006

USA

504-455-5895 office

504-455-9392 fax

312-560-0180 cell

DJP@donaldpalmisano.com

www.donaldpalmisano.com

www.onleadership.us

Twitter:  www.Twitter.com/DJPNEWS

DJP Updates:  http://donaldpalmisano.com/djp_update/

YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/IntrepidResources

This DJP Update goes to 2334 leaders in Medicine representing all of the State Medical Associations and over 100 Specialty Societies plus some other friends.

You can share it with your members and it has the potential to reach 800,000 physicians.

To join the list, send me an  email stating “Join DJP Update”

To get off the list, state ” Remove DJP Update” in subject line.