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The latest in the liability fight: Update for practice leaders

Colorado physicians and practices are facing a once-in-a-generation fight to protect the liability environment and the practice and delivery of medicine. Five ballot initiatives proposed by the trial lawyers association are threatening to make health care more expensive, harder to access and less safe in Colorado. We can ward off this threat now at the State Capitol by urging passage of Senate Bill 130 Noneconomic Damages Cap Medical Malpractice Actions. We need your help.

• SB24-130 is the reasonable and responsible alternative to these ballot initiatives that will provide fair compensation to plaintiffs while still protecting patient safety, quality of care, affordability, and health care access for all Coloradans. It passed through Senate committee last week but faces a tough road in the House. Contact your legislators to urge their support of SB24-130, and encourage your colleagues to do the same.

• We are just one-quarter of the way to our fundraising goal for the CMS Liability Defense Fund by the end of April. Contribute online to these efforts, or for larger contributions from an individual or your practice, send a check made out to the Colorado Medical Society with Liability Defense Fund written in the memo section, to 7351 E. Lowry Blvd, Suite 110, Denver, CO 80230.  

• Patient stories have the ability to make a profound impact. Start reaching out to your patients whose lives have been positively affected by your care and connect them to our communications team, who will work with them to tell the story of how these ballot initiatives might hurt their ability to access quality health care in the future.



• Learn about this issue and become an advocate: Watch a CMS webinar, "Defend Against Threats to Peer-Review and Malpractice Liability," and distribute resources in your practice.

Follow-up on Change Healthcare cyber issue: Resources from the AMA

• The AMA released informal survey results that shows how the Change Healthcare Cyberattack has presented an ongoing, devastating impact on physician practices, threatening patient care and the viability of the practice.

• UnitedHealth Group (UHG) continues to emphasize the availability of advance/accelerated payments to providers in need. Optum’s CEO emphasized that the program has more flexibility than it did originally. For more information, please visit Temporary Funding Assistance for Providers. This program is designed to help bridge the gap in short-term cash flow needs for providers affected by the disruption of Change Healthcare's services. In particular, UHG encourages practices that find the amount pre-populated in the Optum Pay system insufficient to meet their financial needs to please contact UHG—either submit a request through the Temporary Funding Assistance Program Form or call 1-877-702-3253.

• UHG stressed that they have no plans or timetable yet to require repayment of these funds. Until all claims submission and payment systems are back up and running, UHG is not requesting repayment. UHG indicated that a practice-level, phased approach will be used to ensure that an individual organization’s functionality has been restored before repayment is requested.

• More information about the federal CMS Change Healthcare/Optum Payment Disruption (CHOPD) program is available online. Physicians and other Medicare providers experiencing disruption because of the Change Healthcare outage can apply for “amounts representative of up to 30 days of Medicare claims payments.”

• HHS also distributed these resources (37-page PDF) to assist physicians, pharmacists and hospitals.

Find more information from the AMA on their dedicated Change Healthcare cyber outage webpage. If you are a practice that is particularly struggling and needs help with UHG, please respond to this email and Colorado Medical Society will connect you with AMA staff. 

Events and resources from AMA Professional Satisfaction and Practice Sustainability

Event - Private Practice Simple Solutions: Revenue Cycle Management

Kick-off Webinar (Part 1): Tuesday, May 7 | 9:15 a.m. MT

Live Webinar (Part 2): Tuesday, June 4 | 9:15 a.m. MT

In this eight-week learning collaborative, Subject matter expert Marco Fernandez, MD, walks participants through the basics of revenue cycle functions, overall operational efficiency, compliance, practice management systems, and maximizing engagement with patients for payment. Learn more.

Article - The Future of Sustainable Value-Based Care and Payment: Voluntary Best Practices to Advance Payment Methodologies

Overcome payment methodology challenges for value-based care practices in this new AMA playbook developed in collaboration with AHIP and NAACOS. Learn more.

Article - Advancing the Appropriate Use of Telehealth Within Medical Specialties

Discover the diverse applications of telehealth and how medical specialties are optimizing virtual care to enhance patient outcomes in this new AMA Future of Health report. Learn more.

Article - Debunking Regulatory Myths: Adherence to Joint Commission Standards

Are health care organizations only held accountable to The Joint Commission standards? The latest entry in the AMA Debunking Regulatory Myths series aims to answer this question. Learn more.

Keep Colorado clean and safe: Dispose of meds, protect kids, pets and the environment

Empower your patients to make informed choices. Supporting Colorado's Medication Takeback Program is a prescription for a healthier, safer community. Find your nearest dropbox at TakeMedsSeriously.org/safe-disposal. 

More information here.

An easier way to protect the environment starts in your medicine cabinet

• Telluride Regional Medical Center seeks to hire an experienced Primary Care Physician. Telluride Regional Medical Center (TRMC) is seeking a full-time Family Medicine or Med-Peds Physician to be part of our primary care team serving our community of local residents and visitors and members of our neighboring communities. Read more here or apply at https://jobs.tellmed.org

Do you have a position open at your practice? Space to sub-let? Selling your practice? Place a job board or classified ad with CMS! CMS members receive the first month free. Contact debra_will@cms.org for more information!