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PRACTICE NEWS AND RESOURCES
Free to SJMS/CMA Members!
The Office Managers Forum empowers physicians and their medical staff with valuable tools via expert led educations sessions from industry professionals who are committed to delivering quality healthcare.
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For the time being, we will be offering Zoom Meetings until we can get back to meeting in person. This monthly forum is normally held on the second Wednesday of each month. Registration is required!
If you don’t receive a monthly invitation via E-Mail, please email Jessica@sjcms.org for the Zoom call info!
March 9th, 2022: 12:00PM to 1:00PM “New 2022 Laws that are affecting physicians and their practices”
The California legislature experienced another unconventional legislative year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the reduction in the number of new laws continued for a second year, there was a notable emphasis on issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic and future public health emergencies, allied health professionals, health care plans, coverage and insurance, and mental health.
Please join us for a one-hour webinar to hear California Medical Association (CMA) Senior Counsel and Director of Legal Advocacy Joey Cachuela and Legal Counsel Lance Martin discuss the new 2022 laws that are affecting physicians and their practices, highlight pending health legislation and explain CMA’s legal resources available to members.
Joey Cachuela is Senior Legal Counsel for
the California Medical Association where he focuses on CMA’s legal and legislative advocacy. Prior to joining CMA, he was a senior associate at a boutique law firm specializing in health care litigation. Cachuela also served for seven years as a Judge Advocate in the United States Air Force, as regional counsel to the Air Force’s west coast medical centers, a federal prosecutor, and a deployed legal advisor to US ForcesAfghanistan.
Cachuela is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and UC Berkeley School of Law, where he served as submissions editor on the Asian American Law Journal at Berkeley Law and co-chair of the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association.
Lance Martin is Legal Counsel for the
California Medical Association where he focuses on CMA’s legal and legislative advocacy. Prior to joining the CMA, he was a senior associate at a boutique law firm specializing in healthcare litigation and regulatory compliance matters, as well as a seconded attorney at Blue Shield of California. Lance is a graduate of the University of the Pacific and UC Davis School of Law.
April 13th, 2022: 12:00PM to 1:00PM “Top 5 Ways to Reduce Legal
Exposure in 2022”
In this presentation, attorney Jamie Bossuat will address five ways to reduce legal exposure in 2022. Topics will include: (1) common issues in business contracts, (2) independent contractor misclassification, (3) employee leaves of absence, (4) employee wage and hour pitfalls, and (5) reviewing employment policies.
Jamie M. Bossuat is a Shareholder with Kroloff, Belcher, Smart, Perry &
Christopherson. Her practice consists of business and employment litigation and counseling.
May 11, 2022: 11:00AM to 1:00PM Topic to Be Determined
CMA PRACTICE RESOURCES
In 2021, the California Medical Association (CMA) recovered nearly $3.2 million from payors on behalf of physician members. This is money that would have likely gone unrecouped if not for CMA’s direct intervention.
That’s because California physicians have a powerful ally when it comes to dealing with problematic payors—CMA’s Center for Economic Services (CES). Staffed by practice management experts with a combined experience of more than 125 years in medical practice operations, the CES team has recovered over $33 million from payors on behalf of its physician members during the past 13 years.
CMA members can call on CMA’s practice management experts
CMA recoups $33 million on behalf of physician members
for free one-on-one help with contracting, billing and payment problems by contacting reimbursement helpline at (888) 401-5911 or economicservices@cmadocs.org.
Learn more about how CMA’s practice management experts can help you at cmadocs. org/ces.
Anthem Blue Cross has clarified that for California providers, it will continue to reimburse telehealth services billed with either POS 02 or POS 10 at the in-office place of service rate, as currently required by the California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC).
In its December 2021 Anthem Provider News, Anthem Blue Cross announced a reimbursement policy update, “Virtual Visits – professional and facility,” which indicated that telehealth services billed with place of service (POS) 02 (telehealth provided other than in patient’s home) or new POS 10 (telehealth provided in patient’s home) would be reimbursed at the non-office place of service rate. Because this new policy does not align with California’s telehealth parity requirements, the California Medical Association (CMA) asked Anthem to clarify whether the new policy applies to California physicians. Anthem agreed that this was an error and has issued a clarification notice.
The clarification issued by Anthem aligns with the DMHC all plan letter (APL) issued on September 4, 2020, which reminded DMHCregulated health plans of the continued requirement to reimburse providers at the same rate for telehealth services, including telephonic visits, as they would for services provided in person. This APL confirmed that the prior APLs (20-009 and 20-013) remain in effect for the duration of California’s declared state of emergency or until further notice from DMHC, whichever is earlier.
For specific details about Anthem’s reimbursement policies, visit the anthem.com/ca website.
2021 YEAR IN REVIEW
The California Medical Association (CMA) was once again at the center of key state health care policy decisions and action. With CMA’s help, California helped set an example for the nation in vaccinating residents, even as we coped with the rise of the delta variant. In addition to our work on COVID-19, CMA won key victories for physicians in the state budget, helped increase funding for public health and continues to build our physician workforce to help deal with chronic shortages across the state.
COVID-19 Vaccines: CMA worked closely with the Newsom Administration to ensure all Californians had access to vaccines, providing mapping data and physician feedback to help the state build a distribution network that allowed community-based physicians to obtain vaccines for their patients.
CalVaxGrant: CMA helped establish and administer the CalVaxGrant program, which provided $40 million to physician practices to help offset the costs of obtaining, storing and administering COVID vaccines.
Justice, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: CMA created new Standards for Cultural Linguistic Competency and Implicit Bias in continuing medical education. Billing Disputes: CMA’s Center for Economic Services recouped more than $1 million from payors on behalf of physician members.
Telehealth: CMA sponsored AB 457 (Santiago), which ensures patients can access telehealth services from their selected health care providers, rather than a third-party corporate telehealth provider. COVID-19 Payments: CMA sponsored SB 510 (Pan), which requires health insurers to cover the cost of COVID-19 tests and vaccine administration.
Vaping Tax: CMA helped pass an increase in the tax on e-cigarettes and vaping products to more closely mirror the taxes on other tobacco products. The bill also ensures future funding for physician workforce programs, such as the physician loan repayment program.
Physician Workforce: CMA successfully advocated to make permanent a portion of Prop. 56 tobacco funds to pay for physician loan repayment and graduate medical education. State Budget: In the budget process, CMA helped ensure state policy conformed to federal tax law with regard to Paycheck Protection Program loans for physician practices and made permanent the Prop. 56 supplemental payments for Medi-Cal providers.
