Happy Thursday! Enjoy your NCMS Morning Rounds.

July 29, 2021

LEAD Conference: Call for Resident/Student Poster Abstracts

The North Carolina Medical Society invites residents, fellows and medical students, to submit posters detailing original clinical research or clinical vignettes to our 8th annual poster competition. Accepted posters will be judged by a panel of North Carolina health care professionals. The winners will be announced at the 2021 NCMS Virtual LEAD Conference and be given a cash prize.

Please coordinate your participation with your Training Program Director and submit a poster abstract to Megan Eberle at the NCMS via email to [email protected] no later than September 13.

Please note the following instructions:

  1. Abstract Eligibility: Original abstracts that either have or have not been presented at other meetings will be considered. They are eligible if they have been published; however, abstracts based upon full papers that have been published are not eligible.
  2. Abstract Format: Title should be brief and clearly state content of paper. List name and degree for each author. Organize body of abstract as follows: (a) Purpose for study, (b) Simple statement of methods, (c) Summary of results, (d) Statement of discussion, (e) Statement of conclusions, (f) List of references.
  3. Poster Presentation: Each accepted poster will be asked to provide an audio recording to walk attendees and judges through your presentation. Click here for instructions to audio record over a PowerPoint presentation.

For more instructions and information, please view the abstract submission form.

We hope you will attend the meeting regardless of whether you submit an abstract for the poster session. Registration brochures will be emailed this fall. Please contact the NCMS to be put on the mailing list. As always, meeting registration is free for residents, fellows and students.

Questions? Contact Megan Eberle, [email protected].

National Core Indicators™ (NCI) Staff Stability Survey for 2020 Available

You are encouraged to complete the National Core Indicators™ (NCI) Staff Stability Survey for IDD Clinicians. It is vitally important that issues affecting the IDD DSP workforce are known. Your agency should have already received an email with the survey; the email subject is “NC NCI Staff Stability Survey 2020.” Surveys are due July 31, 2021. If you are an I/DD health care professional and you have not received the survey link, or if you have any questions, please contact [email protected].

Temporary Provider Rate Increases and Clinical Policy Changes Extended

NC Medicaid is extending COVID-19 temporary clinician rate increases for all health care professionals except hospitals through Sept. 30, 2021. While the rate increases for clinicians authorized under SL 2020-4 were set to expire on June 30, 2021, NC Medicaid has discretion to continue these and other temporary rate increases assuming budget availability. NC Medicaid will continue to provide updates in September on the status of these increases. As previously communicated in Medicaid COVID-19 Special Bulletin #171, COVID-19 temporary clinician rate increases applicable in NC Medicaid Direct (formerly known as fee-for-service) will also apply in managed care (Standard Plan PHPs and LME-MCOs). Please see the bulletin above for additional details on how the rate increases apply.

Read the full Special Bulletin here.

In the News

It’s Not Your Imagination: Your Summer Cold Really Is Worse, Advisory Board, 7-27-21

Learning Opportunity

CMS Hospice Quality Reporting Program Forum – FY 2022 Rulemaking Update focused on the HQRP portions of the rule, Wednesday, August 4, 2021, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. ET

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will host a webinar to share updates on the HQRP portion of the fiscal year (FY) 2022 Hospice Wage Index and Payment Rate Update and Hospice Quality Reporting Requirements Final Rule.  By attending this webinar, you should be better prepared for the October 1st implementation of this final rule related to HQRP.

During this webinar, a CMS subject matter expert will provide information on the following topics:

  • FY 2022 Hospice Final Rule summary of the HQRP sections
  • Public display of quality measures and other hospice data updates

CMS will answer questions at the end of the webinar, as time permits.

Register here.

 

If you have policies you’d like your NCMS Board of Directors to consider, please complete the Board input form here. Thanks for reading!